Help Me Make It Through the Night
by Joe Fay
A Kris Kristofferson show at Stubb’s with my dad and my brother.
My dad cries out loud during several songs.
And laughs, too, especially when Kris forgets the lyrics.
My dad meets all my Kingdom friends, to whom he proceeds to tell wildly funny, painfully politically-incorrect jokes for the rest of the night.
We conduct The Chowder Society, which is our regular night of reading stories, poetry, song lyrics, articles, or whatever, out loud to each other.
I drink an entire case of Coors, with some help.
My brother becomes desperate for a condom so he can fuck my roommate’s good friend, Summer. In my room. In my bed. I don’t have any condoms, and it takes Romano an hour to find one in his room.
All of the above happens in about six hours, Sunday evening, October 17, 1999 at the Kingdom.
My dad never stops telling those crazy off-color jokes to my roommates every time he calls after that.
My dad dies a year later.
And I still laugh and cry, especially when I remember how he helped us through the night.
Beautiful, Joe. I cry too when I remember.
Stephen here. Sorry to say that my rather extensive Kingdom photo archive does not include any pics from that awesome night. But here’s an old one of you and Angus Scrimm, stranding in front of the “poster case” wall you created when you first moved in. (There were two cases bolted to the wall, heisted from a movie theater that was going out of business; Joe took both of them with him when he left, and still has one in his house to this day!) For those who may be wondering, Joe and Angus became very good friends after his visit to our home. That was a pretty epic night, too. In this photo below is Joe as Tony Clifton, and his brother Casey, to the right, talking about chrome. On the left is Robert Jacques, who’s good friend Summer was ravaged that night. (And, by the way, the reason it took me an hour to find the condom? It was THE KINGDOM, man!) I have a picture of Summer also, but am withholding that one (as well as her real name) because I think she has kids now. Anyway, thanks, Joe. Your father was important to all of us. He tells jokes with Bill and Sam now. No bullshit.
–Stephen
S