We're also currently reading David Ohle's Cows Are Freaky When They Look At You to gain a better understanding of Larryville's drug-soaked counterculture past. From this source, we discovered "the Big Eat," whose members "assembled annually, most often at Jerry Cantrell's farm, for the drug n' drink n' fuck picnic...where they smoked, dropped, drank, shot up, and competed for most stoned honors in the Kansas Death Match."
We're sad to have missed such things.
But we're hoping this week inaugurates a new tradition in Larryville: the re-enactment of famous local crimes. Yes, if you're downtown on Friday night, you can witness Clyde Barrow's 1932 robbery of the First National Bank (now Teller's). Here's the scoop from the Final Fridays Wordpress site :
"Events begin with a cocktail party at The Eldridge at 7th & Mass St. beginning at 5:45pm complete with various 1930’s cocktails including a Sidecar, Whiskey Sour, Gibson, Mint Julep and Manhattan. Guests will be able to meet “Clyde Barrows”, “Bonnie Parker”, “Ralph Fults” and various other members of the staged re-enactment robbery. Teller’s will be taking dinner reservations for the evening. Guests at Teller’s will be able to watch the robbery happening from the inside of the restaurant. Dinner will be served during this event giving guests an eye-witness advantage to the robbery. At 6:30pm those people on the street will be able to see the event unfold on downtown Massachusetts Street which will include “Clyde”, “Ralph” and “Ray” walking south on Mass St. from The Eldridge at 7th St. to Teller’s at 8th St. Action will also take place in front of Teller’s as the gang shuffles the “bank president” played by Lawrence’s Mayor Aron Cromwell and two actors playing the “tellers” into Teller’s Restaurant."
Sadly, we were not asked to portray any of the characters in this drama, but we still plan to dress in full gangster attire and drink Sidecars at the Eldridge, then hang out in front of Teller's for the action. And look for LC columnist and local history-nerd Courtneybelle dining at Teller's during the robbery (hopefully she'll cover the inside story for us).
Let's hope that this event is so successful that Larryville begins to host other re-enactments, such as the recent crime in which Horse Shit attacked Free State Brewery with a railroad spike (see our old story here ). Or maybe the time that dude wreaked havoc with a cue ball in a Crown Royal bag at Henry's. Or the time a poor guy got his pants set on fire at the Replay.
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Readers, don't think we've forgotten about Brownback's anti-art crusade, because we haven't (and won't). Our buddy Leo Hayden has some new bumper stickers available for $4 bucks each at this week's Final Fridays Lawrence Art Party in the Hobbs building. Go to Leo's site for the full scoop.
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