The Boys Discover a New Social Scene: Bluegrass Night at...Papa Kenos?!

Long-time readers may recall a simpler time when the Chronicles only appeared once or twice a week to relate the tales of Richard and Chip's attempt to visit every bar in town, one or two bars per Thursday. Last night, those adventures continued:

The brief closure of Papa Keno's earlier this year was a traumatic event in the history of Larryville, perhaps rivalled only by Quantrill's Raid and the time a few years back when the Replay almost lost its liquor license. During this no-Keno's period, poor, confused souls wandered Mass. Street for several weeks looking for pizza, with some of them reportedly becoming desperate enough to actually visit the Mass. Street Pizza Hut. But that time is simply a bad memory now, and Keno's is up and running again with their extra-large slices cooked by the kind of hippies you'd normally go out of your way to avoid on the street for fear they might want to discuss their love of String Cheese Incident with you. Most of the staff of Keno's, naturally, plays in local jamgrass bands, so it's no great surprise that the patio might institute a twice-weekly bluegrass jam in the summer on the back patio, and it's here that the boys found themselves last night, strangers in the company of a dozen or so musicians. Neither Richard nor Chip had their washboards on hand last night, so they remained spectators as a rotating cast of players sang songs about long Kansas winters and the damage that long-term skateboarding does to one's body ("Skateboard Hips"). The patio beer specials were limited to 3 dollar Bud bottles and 2 dollar Natty Lite cans ("Natty Lite uses the original recipe for Bud Lite," a local explained to a largely uninterested Richard at the bar), and between each song Chip proclaimed that he was "frightened" by these unfamiliar surroundings. As the boys took their leave, Chip wondered why anyone would attend this event on a Thursday when all the town's sweetest ass was down at the Eldridge for martini-night. And, as much as he loves bluegrass, Richard had to allow that Chip had a good point.