The Flame was a gentleman's club of some renowned during the 1970s and early 1980s. Located in In't. Falls, on the Rainey River just south of the working class city of Thunder Bay, Canada, I am of the belief that the Flame ultimately burned to the ground on a particularly cold winter night.
On occasion gentlemen, from Tower-Soudan, would frequent the Flame in pursuit of good drink and scenery. It was a place where men could, simply, be and behave like men. A 'sausage party,' if you will.
Once, the Governor, (who was not yet known as the Governor-after all-that is the point of this missive), was holding court in the Flame with friends from across the Range. Ron, Sr., (the Governor's true identity), is and always was a flamboyant character. He was always quick to steady himself with a belt of fine liquor, smoke fine cigars, gamble and toss money in the direction of the fairer gender. He was also well known amongst the citizenry as being a bit of a wheeler-dealer, and ne'er-do-well. *
On this particular night the party was going strong, vast amounts of liquor was consumed and the cigar smoke hung in the air over the tables. All libations were quickly paid for by Ron, Sr. out of his cache of Benjamin Franklin's.
The gregarious festivities soon caught the attentions of the other patrons at the Flame. A gentleman, a few tables away from Ron, asked a cocktail waitress, "who is that man over there? Is he somebody famous?" Answering, the waitress replied, "He is the Governor of Minnesota."
Those of us who practiced, and perhaps will practice again, the art of the deal appreciated, and still appreciate, the flair with which Ron has always operated, and thus, everafter always refered to him as The Governor.
* [NOTE: ne'er-do-well
–noun
–adjective
| 1. | an idle, worthless person; a person who is ineffectual, unsuccessful, or completely lacking in merit; good-for-nothing. |
| 2. | worthless; ineffectual; good-for-nothing. |
[Origin: 1730–40
]
] —Synonyms 1. idler, loafer, wastrel.
Not exactly the right word...difference between lightning and the lightning bug. Must seek another, better description, after all the Gov. is anything but ineffectual, unsuccessful, or lacking in merit. All suggestions welcome. ]
3 comments:
Perhaps "scoundrel" would be a better choice?
This is going really well.
Critical Commentary:
If Doris' story is all meat,
the Gov story seems to have alot of potatoes.
i.e. some details that are not pointing in the direction of the outcome.
Maybe you need that for color. You tell me.
Yeah..yeah...see what you mean.
Perhaps the Gov's story is more potatoes because I'm trying to place it in context, where Doris' story is straight up dialogue, action, and reaction.
Also the dentures is almost, minus 20 years, verbatim witnessing and reporting. The Gov. is as reported to me and I'm in a position to try to recreate while missing some details. There's also more to the story...in that Liz questions Ron about why he's suddenly being called the Gov. and a white lie is told. Am hoping to run into the Gov. sometime and see if I can get the story retold.
Somebody, Poe?, would write stories and then subtract each extra word that was unnecessary, etc. until the piece was absolutely lean and thus crisp.
I'll work on Gentry to see where it goes prior to re-looking at the Gov. It will be interesting as this story is also similar in that it is a tale told to me by Gent. and I did not witness it first hand...that would have been impossible as I wasn't even born yet.
Miigwich!!!
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