![\"charliebar21.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/bluehighways.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/charliebar21.jpg\" "\\"charliebar21.jpg\\"")
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Where\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d that come from? I knew after ordering the beer that the guy behind the bar was one piece short of a puzzle. Drugs, too many for too long\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Just order a beer, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t confuse him with a mixed drink, and don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ask him what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on tap. Just say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a beer\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, and point to the spigot that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s standing nearest to – everything should be just fine. Even the simplest thought or idea went in through one or both ears, but where it traveled once insiside his head was unknown. <\/font>Check Point Charlie<\/strong> was not far from the Lamothe House where we were staying. Out to the street turning right would take us to Bourbon Street, or make a left turn towards Jackson Square, past Charlie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, the Abbey, and <\/font>Coop\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Place<\/font><\/a>. Usually it was more of a circle\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 head down Bourbon Street and rest in the Blacksmith Shoppe<\/strong>, then follow the arc to Coop\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s for food, and then on to the <\/font>Abbey<\/font><\/span><\/a>. Later in the evening the process is just reversed.<\/font><\/p>\n At any rate we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d done our laundry, sat at the bar and talked to the bartender for a couple hours one morning. We stopped in the next afternoon for a couple drinks and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s when his world stopped for a brief moment. He was cleaning up bottles and glasses when he just froze in the middle of a sentence. He was staring at the floor, standing frozen with a dish towel in one hand and a glass in the other. I looked left a couple barstools down to another patron who was looking back at me, both of us wondering what the hell was wrong with our bartender. Although time has a way of appearing to move slower than it actually is – this time warp did allow for me to look left at my neighbor, raise my hands to indicate I had no idea what had struck the barman, and then actually lean over to look at the floor to see just what he was staring at\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 nothing unusual I could see. A glance back down to my neighbor and a shake of my head indicating I hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t discovered anything, the mystery freeze was still just that – a mystery. Then barman came back to life – just like that. He just started talking and going about his business as if nothing had occured. Again another glance down to my left and this time my neighbor was shaking his head. I think we just had to reassure ourselves that our world was intact – wherever barman had just gone for that moment in time was not a part of the world as we knew it. Yes, his body stayed behind, so did the dishtowel and glass, but his mind had timed out, his thoughts were elsewhere, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure he had no idea this had happened. I was about to axe him if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d found Spock, but on second thought didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want him to short circuit.<\/font><\/p>\n A couple days passed without having setting foot in Check Point Charlie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. It is a far better place to visit if you really do need to do laundry, or at night when a local blues band is playing. Genesha [Smiley] our batendress at the Blacksmith Shoppe and Genevieve matching shots with us at the Abbey were our hosts of choice. But this day, on the way to Coop\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s for some lunch, we decided to rest our feet after having walked two blocks. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d introduced ourselves once, three days and 300 drinks earlier, when we first shot-the-shit at the bar. I can say I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a clue, NFI, what his name was, and after witnessing his brain call a timeout, I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t positive he even knew. Most people realize after hearing Wayne\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Aussie accent, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a local, and maybe you might remember alittle something more about a patron, maybe. But on this day\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6Barman greeted us by our first names as we took our first step in the door. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hey, Wayne, Dave!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6Where\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d <\/strong>that <\/strong>come from? Where\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d he pull that piece of memory from? After what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d seen a couple days earlier, it was like watching the lotto – spin the basket and see what ping pong ball of a thought will pop out. This spin drew our lucky numbers. Well, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t try to analyze it, just order up\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Two beers, and stick around in our world for awhile\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153huh?, two beers?, stick around where?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Damn it!, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve confused him!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/font><\/p>\n Check Point Charlie Where\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d that come from? I knew after ordering the beer that the guy behind the bar was one piece short of a puzzle. Drugs, too many for too long\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Just order a beer, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t confuse him with a mixed drink, and don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ask him what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on tap. Just say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a beer\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, and point to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluehighways.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluehighways.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluehighways.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluehighways.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluehighways.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluehighways.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluehighways.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluehighways.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluehighways.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>[open 24 hours] is the place to do your laundry in the back, sit at the bar while the clothes spin round, play pool, get a bite to eat, and in the evening listen to local blues bands. It ranks second to the Abbey in patrons with body art and holes in both jeans and tongues, but patrons of one often frequent the other, so because of Genevieve, I rate the Abbey #1.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"