Blue Line Special

On my first single Friday with no plans I met some friends for a few pints at Dargan's Irish Pub after work. I had no plans for the weekend and let J talk me into driving down to Long Beach on Saturday for the third annual Blue Line Hash with the Los Angeles chapter of the Hash House Harriers.

The premise of the run was to start at 1:00 pm at a MetroLink (LA's public transport rail system) station in Long Beach and do a trail that consisted of riding the train to various locations in and around LA and Long Beach, where we would get off the train, run around a few miles, hit a few of the more surly drinking establishments, then hop on the train again and repeat for appriximately seven hours. Eventually we all would end up at a bar where there would be food and beer.

So imagine that you are a rail passenger heading home to the projects after having worked at a gas station all day when about 100 mostly caucasian runners, all wearing either red or blue shirts, carrying beer mugs, hop onto the normally quiet train with you. Now imagine you are in Watts, waiting for the train, when those same 100 folks pour out of the railcars and start running and blowing whistles. People were a bit dismayed but mostly amused and thought we were crazy.

Now imagine you lived in an all-white town and a group of African Americans or Hispanics did the same thing - would you be amused or frightened?

Politics and injustice aside, it was great fun to run around Compton and Watts and talk with the locals. We had one beer stop at the park in front of Watts Towers, an architectural monument built by a crazy Italian back in the 1920's. Our group had parked a truck with a keg and various blue-colored mixed drinks at the park. A group of locals were at the park and, being the benevolent folks we are, we offered them beer. In exchange, one of the elders at the park who bore an uncanny resemblance to Sammy Davis, Jr. in his later years, stood in the bed of the truck next to the keg and gave us all a brief lecture on the history and significance of the towers. Although I'm certain he'd never heard of a docent, he would have been a great one. This is what I love about hashing - you go to places you wouldn't normally visit and meet interesting people. It's kind of like being in the military except people are usually laughing at you and you share a beer rather than shoot at one another.

Along the way we also stopped in a very Hispanic part of town where people had little flea markets set up in the residential areas. Several of the women in the group actually purchased lingerie at yard sales and donned it over their running gear. I stopped for a couple of tacos at a local stand and later regretted not waiting for the bacon-wrapped hot dog stand - that looked interesting. We also stopped off at a VFW hall and hung out with some of the old-timers who got a kick out of this crazy crew and probably even got flashed by one or two of the ladies in our group (no, not me), and several other fine drinking establishments. Several of the folks who ran into us during the day ended up finding us at the end and we had quite an eclectic mix of folks in time for the finish.

We ended up back in Long Beach at a bar with a nice patio area and a great couple cooking up some of the best BBQ pork I've ever had. Unfortunately, the end bar did not offer hard liquor so a group of us headed across the street where they had a full bar, billiards and dancing. That bar turned out to be the local watering hole for Pacific Islanders and by 9 pm I thought I was in little Samoa when they burst out the karaoke machine. It's great fun to be half-sober watching a large Samoan man sing country western songs while a bunch of crazy white folks in running shoes attempt to swing dance.

By 1:00 am J, T and I were sitting on a curb outside Carl's Jr. eating burgers and fries after having asked two teenagers to purchase food at the drive-thru for us. T ended up sleeping in his car (at least I hope he did) and J and I headed back up to Ventura.

All in all it was a great day and I think we helped spread racial harmony throughout the LA basin. Either that, or people just thought a group of crazies had been given day passes for the Metrolink...