I just got word that one of my old friends from the days in Alaska just went off to the Great Halibut Grounds in the Sky. He was in his 60s, about 9 years younger than me.
He was being himself at the time although he had a snootful of beer under his belt and was being what he was at the time, a big, tall muscular dopey cheerful kid horsing around.
A couple of people in the bar that didn't know him I don't remember exactly what he did to alarm a group of them. They were immigrants and probably didn't understand local custom but I saw them looking at him worried and they were obviously ready to defend themselves.
It was a potentially ugly situation.
I knew a lot of these guys. They were mostly immigrants but were not troublemakers in general by any means but they did have a reputation of defending themselves with sharp knives. Frankly I didn't blame them at the time. I would have.
I sucked in a breath and let it out and looked at one of the older guys there, Poncho, caught his eye and said to him quietly, "Tell the guys to stand down." He nodded and in their language softly told a couple of them to put their knives away. I knew he would because I had been over his place for supper a couple of times. I had teased his pretty wife one night when I was there for dinner the first time and she had playfully thrown a wet dishrag at me, much to everyone's amusement.
I walked over to Bob and said to him softly, "Leave. Don't argue, just leave. Just quietly walk out the door with your hands in sight."
In an alcohol induced fog his eyes grew wide and he asked me, "Am I f***ing up?"
"Yes," I said. "Big time. Talk to me tomorrow."
And he did. He quietly left.
I went in and had a word with Poncho. Poncho said the littlest one of the lot, a very slight man had been intimidated by Bob's size and that he was a physical person. I told Poncho, "That big, dopey kid wouldn have hurt anyone and you know it. Then again, I suppose if he tripped and fell on that kid he'd have squashed him like a pancake." and we chuckled.
The next day I ran into him and we discussed how he could mend fences and he started to about a week later when he ran into the guys.
He befriended the little man that he had terrified a week earlier via the buy him a beer and just shooting the $hit a while. The little guy came out of his shell and the two of them became bar room buddies.
I looked over at Poncho and grinned. "Generally takes about 20 minutes," I said and Poncho nodded.
Everything was fine and the world was turning on its axis and even the weather was pretty good which was rare in that part of Alaska.
What cinched things a few weeks later was when the guys were all in the bar and some huge Scandanavian fisherman came in with a snootful, saw the Asians and something about looking to beat the while push of them up.
My friend looked at the Asians and said simply, "I got this. You guys are my friends." He turned to the big fisherman and told him to beat it.
Later he mentioned to me that he was astonished that the entire Asian community had flung their doors open to him.
I grinned at him and said, "I'm not."
Later I went halibut fishing with the guy. During the trip after a brutal 3 days I was in the engine room and climbing up the ladder to get out. Suddenly my leg locked up. "My damned leg locked up," I said.
"Right or left?"
"Left. inside upper thigh. It'll probably be OK in a few minutes."
A spring steel hand reached up to my inside thigh and started massaging for a second. I went into excruciating pain followed by a loud crunch and immediate relief. As I started up the ladder he laughed and saaid, "That one let go with a good pop!"
I could go on about this guy but my regret is I didn't manage to stay in touch with him after I left the island. We were both still moving around.
I got the news third hand. A month or two after he was gone.
My Condolences for your lost friend. I got some similar gnus at in February.
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