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| "Vignettes" by Mekhong Kurt Vignette 1: George Pipas George Pipas, currently proprietor of the Texas Lone Staar Bar & Grill in Washington Square here in Bangkok (Sukhumvit Road and Sukhumvit Soi 22), is the most likely first candidate for this series of vignettes I plan to write over the coming months and years. Unfortunately, I don't have a photograph of George anymore; he's one huge guy who fills even a big room all by himself. George is one of those guys who has made an extremely rare double achievement: Not only is he A Legend in His Own Mind, but he genuinely is A Legend in His Own Time. George's experience abroad began in World War II. As a young second lieutenant he was on board an LST (a troop-landing craft) during the Invasion of Normandy of D-Day + 2. I have long joked with George he that grabbed the sides of the door with screaming desperation -- until his commander said, "George, think of the black market opportunities there'll be in Europe!" That was enough for the illustrious subject of this particular vignette; had he been in on D-Day itself, General George S. Patton would have been eating George's smoke, so swiftly did he assume the command of the assault of Europe. (Gold-bar lieutenants sometimes do strange things.) Hey, business is business, and there were fortunes to be made. After an inglorious war career paying French farmers for American bombs killing their cows, George retreated into a chapter that remains rather murky, no doubt by design. But with the coming of the Vietnam War in the 1960's, George rose to his true potential. (Actually, he didn't do badly during the interval peddling meat in North Africa and the like.) George found himself a representative of a liquor firm supplying American military clubs as well as peddling cigarettes, meat, nylons, anything else he could push. He proved a brilliant entrepreneur. With those earnings he was able to go into the bar business. George was one of the early pioneers in Patpong Road during the 1960's, a venue of sin and inequity pandering to the weaknesses of American (and other) young troops on R&R -- "Rest and Recreation" -- leave from the horrors of combat in what we now regard as a senseless, fruitless war. One may fault him for this, but on this point one is wrong: men facing death on a second-by-second basis deserve every break they can get, and George, along with others, provided such breaks. Of course they did it for a profit, partly, but George and the others also did it out of some sort of compassion. Now let me get more personal about the George I have known for the best part of a decade. He is obstinate, opinionated, loud, often obnoxious, invariably vulgar -- and generous to a fault. Some of his staff couldn't get a job in any entertainment venue if they were willing to work for a quarter of the going rate -- but George, being the soft-hearted, kind, decent, caring man he is, won't let them go. Don't get me wrong: over the course of the the years, we've had our moments. But in the main, George has always been good to me. If the Buddhist concept of karma is correct, he will leave this world with a great, big, fat book full of black ink -- and maybe 1/5th of a page of red ink. I'm not even going to trace all the bars he has owned or otherwise been involved in, not here. For the past 15-16 years, or some such, he has been a fixture on Washington Square. George himself is the chief attraction at his restaurant-bar, the Texas Lone Staar; night business has never equaled that of the daytime, when George is holding court. Similarly, when he goes to the Florida panhandle to spend a few months with his wife, his beloved Mary Ann, things just aren't the same. He screams at his customers and otherwise abuses them -- but you know what? -- they LOVE it. And he can provide hours of entertainment in other ways. I remember one time sitting at his booth with him -- to be allowed to sit in His Royal Throne Booth -- *and* in His august presence! -- is something to which every regular aspires, and that day I had succeeded. An American football match was on, and the team George favored were making a mess of things, about which George was offering non-stop commentary (loudly and profanely, you can be sure). He snatched up the remote channel changer and started punching the buttons wildly to change to any channel, just so long as it wasn't that channel. But the television refused to cooperate, so George got even louder and more profane as he turned his fury upon the blankety-blank-blank remote and television. When he finally paused for breath, I mildly pointed out he might have better luck were he to put down his wireless extension telephone -- as I handed him the remote, which had been on the table directly beside the phone. Along the way during his wanderings the world over, George found time to have 3 marriages. True, 2 of them were and are to the same lady, his wife of many years (counting both times!), Mary Ann. Previous to their first marriage, George was married to a German fraulein with whom not only he, but also Mary Ann, are friends to this day. His children are by his first wife. I'm writing this December 27, 2003 -- just 4 days before George's 82nd birthday. He looks at least 20 years younger, maybe 30. (A lot of us credit Grecian Formula Hair Dye for that, but never mind. After all, how may of *us* will ever even *get* to 82 so others can question our youthful appearance???) George is the kind of guy Nat King Cole had in mind when he sang that wonderful song, "Unforgettable." Mekhong Kurt December 27, 2003. Bangkok, Thailand
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Copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 by Kurt T. Francis, except as noted otherwise. Materials by Christopher G. Moore, Dean Barrett, Richard K. Diran, Sonia Pressman Fuentes, and Hardy Stockmann are copyrighted © by those respective authors. All rights reserved. Please see the Copyright Notice for further information. Click here for our Privacy Statement Please direct all inquiries to mekhongkurt@bangkokatoz.com |
