ICE ICE BABY!

ICE ICE BABY

 by 
Vicki Bishop

The year was 1992, or maybe 1991 or 1993 somewhere in there.  My friend and I had settled into an evening at Annie Roo's, a favorite locals dive.  She had an argument with her boyfriend earlier that evening, and even though we weren't bar flies, we were determined to sit in this dive until her boyfriend got mad about it.  

After I drank one beer, it happened.  I threw ice.  Yes, I know it was a bad thing but I am coming out now to clear my conscious. 

You see my friend had ordered a mixed drink, and I was enjoying my favorite Michelob Light.  When our first drinks were near empty, the waitress brought over another mixed drink for my friend and told her that it was compliment from a gentlemen from across the room.  I really hadn't thought much about it, but my friend brought to my attention how rude it was to buy one girl a drink and not both girls.  I told her that even though I don't go to bars very often, when I did almost all my drinks were complimentary so I wasn't worried about it.  However, she convinced me that this gentlemen and his friend needed punished for what they had done.  

That is when it happened.  We dug out the ice from her first mixed drink, and we threw it at them.  Yes, I threw ice.  Wow, we really showed them!  Then the waitress walks over to the table.  I was sure that we were going to be thrown out for what we had done.  She calmly sets another beer in front of me and says...."from the other gentlemen from across the room".  Then she continued by saying "I am so sorry, I should have brought these both at the same time".  We had been wrong, both of the gentlemen HAD sent over drinks for both of us. Apparently, there were worse things on the floor at Annie Roo's than ice--or the waitress was used to ice throwing because she never said a word about it.

I am coming out with this story in support of all who have thrown ice.  I don't remember the date, I don't remember how many people were there, I don't remember the band--and no, we never did chat with our ice soaked drink donors.  I only remember the bar because, well if you have ever been to Annie Roo's you don't forget it. 

Now this has continued to be a repressed memory for many years.  However, recent allegations of ice throwing on the national scene has churned this from the depths of my soul.  Could Judge K have been one of the gentlemen across the room?  Was he throwing the ice back at me?  Could his ivy league college friends really have been on a field trip to Annie Roo's?  I never received proper therapy for throwing ice.  Had this happened other times that I can't remember?  Was I a chronic ice thrower?  I check my fingers for signs of frost bite....none here.  I don't remember seeing Alyssa Milano, but maybe she was the waitress--not sure.  

I find comfort in the fact that there are others who have thrown ice.  Despite the revelation of such a repressed memory, I don't seem to feel very sorry about it.  Will this event haunt me?  Should I have disclosed it to employers?  Why didn't it show up on the multiple background checks I have done over the years?   I wonder if this has affected my friend "Dr J"?  It is funny how we have never once recounted this memory in all these years.  She is still my good friend, and a functional, healthy, hard-working person.  I wonder if she still throws ice......

This is why I am coming out with complete and total disclosure here and now.  I did not tell my husband about this before we got married.  Most of my friend have no idea.  I pray that my party friends will not release to the press other tales of me throwing ice. 

As for me and my friends...what happened in the 80s and 90s STAYS in the 80s and 90s.  There is a reason for it.

Good Day.

V