Story 87: This diner stinks, literally, and other stories

Growing up in suburban long island there wasn’t a lot to do on the weekends. Unfortunately few of my friends had girlfriends so we spent a lot of time at the local diner. In this case The Scobee diner which I’ve talked about before. I don’t know if former CIA director Tenet was working there at the time, but I suppose not. 

My friends and I loved to play practical jokes.  the latest was stink bombs. It was new years eve 1986, and as we were leaving I bent down to tie my shoe, and surreptitiously broke a small stink bomb in the lobby. The stink bomb smelled like rotten eggs times ten. I think if I had done it in the main dining area it would have been much worse.  We ran out, and laughed about the ensuing chaos.  We never got caught but the following year we would be experiencing a bit of our own chaos.  Bad karma I suppose.

We were now freshman in college doing all the dumb things that first years do including drinking, etc.  My friends and I were gathered in the back of the Scobee having who remembers what.

Near us was a table of young girls. For some reason we started to joke around with them, and I remember asking if they were interested in a subscription to Horse Illustrated ( A running joke) A few minutes later things would change quickly.

What we didn’t know was that the boyfriends of the girls we were joking around with were at the next table and weren’t especially happy over the perceived insults.

One of the boyfriends who looked like someone from our high school grabbed my friend T. who was tall and Japanese.

“Apologize.” The boyfriend yelled at T.

“I didn’t say anything.” T responded.

“APOLOGIZE.” The boyfriend screamed.

“I didn’t say anything.” my friend persisted.

And with that comment the guy started to punch my friend in the face. I was shocked, but after a few blows I pulled him off of my friend, and found myself staring up at someone with a cocked fist.

“Don’t hit me.” I yelled as I put my hands up, and fortunately he didn’t.

The group of guys left the diner and we waited until we were sure they were gone.  My friend T. had skin missing from his chin, had to incur plastic surgery, and for many years after that we never returned, and only visited a different diner when we were hungry.

Life Lesson 87: : Actions sometimes speak louder than words, and other times, words are pretty loud so be cautious what you say and to whom.  Also, be a good friend to others,  but don’t have such a big ego that you can’t walk away from some situations when practical or apologize, because you can be right and still end up lying on the ground, or sometimes six feet underground.