The Casino

I may as well do one more Cape story before heading back to Pittsford.This one also involves the vega wagon.One fine August afternoon in 1977 Larry and myself pulled into the yard of my buddy Tom G'S parents house in Wellfleet.I actually creased the front passenger side panel of the vega brushing one of those quaint split rail fences.At this point we had a cooler full of 16oz Pickwick Ales and the three of us were headed all the way down Cape to Falmouth to pick up Joe K. and Stool and bring them back to North Truro.We were meeting them at The Casino a big old bar in Falmouth right on the water.S. Schuler was waitressing there that summer and Joe and Scott had stayed with her for a night.We got to The Casino and soon many many rounds of drinks were drunk with the motto"It's On Butch".Butch was the owner of the campground Larry and I had worked at but that I had left by this time to work at Babes.The employees had a"sort of profit sharing plan".Suzie wanted to know what we were doing up in North Truro as the money and tips were flowing.By the time we left at closing the world was our Oyster or at least Cape Cod was.The ride home showed what teamwork can do.It's a good 50-60 miles back up the Cape and I was behind the wheel as we left The Casino lot.Somehow I made it from the paved parking lot onto a packed sand beach without knowing it.As I cruised along the beach about thirty yards from the road and considered when I wanted to rejoin pavement someone had to take a leak already.So we stopped all got out of the car and as we stood there laughing and peeing a police car pulled up on the nearby road and the officer asked"Is this the Accident?''We all looked at each other and said no there was no accident and the cops gave us a longing look but had an accident to find and off they went.Joe K. who had swallowed a doob when the cops pulled up told me I was in no condition to drive and he took over with larry riding shotgun Stool behind Joe in the backseat me in the middle and Tom G. behind Larry.We made our way out of Falmouth onto the main route 6 and headed north up the Cape.Joe did well for awhile but somewhere along the way I awoke to hear Larry yelling at him what are you doing.It seems Joe was in the left lane of route 6 on what he thought was a four lane stretch but was in reality a two lane stretch.As he swerved to avoid a southbound car he wandered off our side of the road up a slight embankment at which point large tree branches were smacking Tom G. now awake and myself in the face.We managed to avoid the trunks of the trees and as Joe stopped Larry took over driving while Joe moved to shotgun and began one of his constant spitting routines.Somewhere along the way Stool had rolfed sort of out the window.From there we made it back to the room in North Truro in the wee hours and when the alarm went off at 6:15 the next morning for Tom G. and I. He came awake stumbled to his feet and walked smack into the fridge.I grabbed him by the arm took him out to the vega wagon and off we went to work our breakfast shift at Babes.About an hour later Tom G. was really pasty white manning the toast machine so we sent him out to the hammock where he lay in his apron and large white chefs hat while patio diners ate a few feet away unaware of the mighty effort we had made to return.I have no idea how I made it through that morning standing in front of a steaming dishwasher but we were young and PRO.