Or, like some people I know, you might have considered it "bad" or "sketchy." You might have avoided it; you might not have wanted others to see you going in there.
Thing is, it was a fixture in this town for the longest time. When I pass by it I remember things that happened there, or people associated with it. I'll then find myself wanting to write about events that unfolded in that place, or even tell its overall story.
But just as quickly I'll get stuck on a couple points, these being: a) writing a complete account of this place would "implicate" people, and b) some of the people associated with this place are still part of my life, and I wouldn't want to either hurt their feelings or put them in a bad light.
Long story short, nothing that bad - at least not to my knowledge - ever happened in this place while it was still open, though the events which led to the owner/operator's incarceration were bad enough. Some of these events, in a very vague form, have been in the papers already, so I'm not airing anyone's dirty laundry by mentioning them here.
For my part I had a couple weird/crazy nights there, and a couple other nights where I wasn't feeling the vibe. The crazy stuff I'm not going to talk about, for the reasons outlined above, and if I wasn't feeling the vibe, well, in that place it wasn't all that unusual. People from several walks of life frequented this establishment, and after a few beers some of these people could be unpleasant to be around.
I do have some good memories of it though. If you got there late enough, and if it was full, and if you had a couple friends in the room it wasn't bad. It was never my favorite night spot, but I can remember some interesting conversations that took place there. Up until its closure it was the biggest bar in town, and for that reason alone it often brought people together.
But yeah, some of the owner's personal struggles (no blame from me, I don't know all the details) led to its closing down many, many years ago. Toward the end of its run I was avoiding it entirely. I was put off by some of the people that lurked there, and what they got up to. My very last night there is a story unto itself, but it will remain a story I can't talk about here.
After it shut its doors the owner continued to live upstairs, and I visited him in the company of mutual friends on several occasions. What was formerly a single bar was split in two, and the left half of the building became a hot pot restaurant run by other people. The right half became the owner's home. He seemed to spend most of his time on the second floor, watching the price of cryptocurrency rise and fall for hours at a time.
He was/is an alright guy. He could be racist at times, and he was a little too in love with his own notoriety, but he was alright as far as I knew. He was definitely mixed up in some things he shouldn't have been mixed up in, but I suppose that by now he's paid for his involvement in those things with interest.
And he may yet pay even more, if he's released and the government deports him back to the States. I won't speculate on whether he does or does not deserve such a fate, but after time served, and at his age, that would be a rough transition. He's been in Taiwan for decades, and a lot of the America he remembers is likely gone.
Methamphetamines. Not a good thing to be associated with. And they probably had some drug task force circling that place for years, accumulating evidence and lining up witnesses. The funny part is that it wasn't some of his foreign friends that led to his misfortune - at least not to my knowledge - but rather a couple of local guys who were cooking the meth in another part of his building. He claimed to have been unaware of what they were doing. Whether he was or wasn't remains a matter of conjecture.
I still remember him when I go by his old place, sitting there empty after so many years. He was always kind to me, and I always enjoyed talks with him when we met up there or in other nearby places. Yes, I called him the devil once over a few beers, but I was only joking.
Related Entries:
沒有留言:
張貼留言