Hot Wings

Bubbie had a craving for a treat today and thought he'd go have some hot wings. He went to Chilli's of all places cause he had them there before and they were good. Yep, they were good today too. As he bit into the crispy, tasty, deep fried morsels the peppery aroma and taste reminded him of a time some 25 years ago. He was a young man and worked as a tree climber. He had worked with a 4 to 6 man crew depending on who showed up for work that day (mostly due to hangover recovery) and they normally could do two jobs a day; climbing trees and sawing them down, loading the chunks on the trucks, chipping the brush, grinding the stumps, and raking up the area. In a part of town known as West Endicott was a bar called Stu's Place that they would often try to arrange to eat lunch at because of the hot wings. According to the big boss man, they had to be reasonably located in the area to justify taking the time to drive to that area of town. They could usually finagle a reason to drive through there around noon. Tears well in his eyes and he sniffs his nose a little from the pyretic heat of his hot wings as he reminisces smiling, he’d get a dozen for three bucks! Now you get half as many for twice as much.

Sharon, the woman that cooked them delicious hot chicken axillaries gave him the recipe which consisted of varying amounts of hot sauce, butter and ketchup, but Bubbie could never replicate Stu's flavor; probably because of the atmosphere, the barroom fryer oil, and the fact that they were ravished from working hard all morning. In Bubbie’s view, those Chilli's wings tasted that much better because of those great memories.

By the way, Stu was a bit of a goober; bald-headed and a little arrogant. The crew used to call him Mr. Pid as a joke (git it? Stu Pid) and that still makes Bubbie laugh. They'd never say it to his face cause he'd bar ‘em and they'd have to wait weeks before he'd let ‘em back in. Good times.