Onalaska 1972

Cravens and me would pile into his green ‘56

Case of Pabst between us on the seat

Long dry trip to Onalaska and beyond.

I was Timberwolf then, yet another persona

Another life with failure in the wind

Long hair drinking too much

A rabid howling beast

All too ready to cut loose

Making a stop in some no name town for more beer, empties rattling in the back,

Keeping time wihth the staticy AM radio

First stop was Bev and Bill’s

Clapboard corner bar

Plastic Pabst Blue Ribbbon sign sa becon

To thristyt ravelerws

Blue collar crowd of men

Wives wondering where they were

Or knowing qall to well

Country on the juke box

Not the crap they play to day but the good stuff

Charcoal Charlie and the bunch

Crystal Chandeliers

Keys in the mail box

Thank God and Greyhound She’s Gone

ARednecks, White Socks, and Blue Ribbon Beer

A piture on the house

Off into the wild night for dinner

Then the Macumba club, formally the Surf

The Office, the Oxford club

Come across the Lacrosse bunch

Won’t drink a beer with any old man

Unless he is a Sig Pi Man

Invited to a to do at the Chapter House Saturday night

Crashing in Craven’s basement

Waking late lunch with his folks, big plans for the night

Off to the Sig Pi House at WSU-L

The twins dad worked at Hielmans so they got beer for free

A Keg of the Green Death already tapped

A blur of names and secret handshakes

Blow through the keg BSing over the Beach Boys

Then off to hit the strip downtown.

On the stage at the Blue Tiger someone’s grandma peeling down to a G-string

The Grainbelt taste slike panther piss

The next girl scrawny an dout of step with the music,

On to the next bar and the next

Oen hidden away in the back of some rundown hotel

Barry mixes the best Bloody Mary’s in the world

Must be the Tabasco

Crashing on the Chapter Hosue floor

Wake early to find breakfastsmell of fryng bacon

Stomach revolts \

And I run to be alone

Defile a cannon made from the plates

Of The Old Maine

But feel myself again

Hook back up with Cravens, a trip to the Bluff

The scenic overlook

Scattered with empty beer cans and used prophylactics testifying to lost virginities

But a gorgeous view of the valley

Hit some dive at the bottom of the hill

Dog bites, beer tastes good

Hair of the dog that bit

Back on the road, stopping for another case of beer for the trip

Screaming down the road on back to Platteville.