by Lemoan
Mercury Rising #6 , April 1992
Walking Gun DC, May 31 - I wasn’t across The Potomac before I spotted one. Some ten yards from DC on The Key Bridge, I pulled over an out of breath mess. He was also soon out of English but I managed to gather from him that getting a job in this town could be done in an upcoming REM cycle of my choosing. Relief for me since I blew tons of my money getting here and needed cash to make it back. So I rolled on down M Street passing literally dozens of messengers ( scuse me, couriers) on my way downtown. Call it luck or a sixth sense but it wasn’t more than 20 minutes before I spied a pow wow in a place called Church Park. I broke the ice with something like "I'm an SF mess and I just rode across this mofo country." They were diggin’ it because they had all done some touring recently and welcomed me with some attitude adjustment. Soon after that it was quitting time and time for the nightly conclave of couriers to meet in Dupont Circle -The Jackson Park of DC- and plot the demise of the system. Beers flowed like no tomorrow, my bike got pegged for an SF bike almost im mediately "cut of the cut down basket, and for just a moment I felt I was back in Merlin Alley (’cept Mange wasn’t there.)
10 - 9?
A few days after getting here I met Thomas; yeah you’re brother, Lynn, who hooked me up with Pronto Messenger Service. So I gotta job, sorta. I could be making more in a Popeye’s uniform but I prefer to take the pay cut and wear The Derelict uniform, swathing through town with no higher priority than to annoy the anal retentives. Riding in DC is a trip (by definition.) The roads are wide, the cabs and buses are wimpy, there’s hella potholes which sucks for the mostpart but there's some bumps that are great for catching air, especially around Capitol Hill. The place is basically flat, the main rise being a stretched out Rincon. As I said, overall I’m not making much dough but the riders here are using gravy for chain lube, know what I'm saying? Eric, who worked at PMS and Lightning in SF, pulled in 46 g last year. Business is slow right now and the prevailing theory is that the lobbyists, who do the majority of the paper pushing around here, are domg some lip biting because The Representatives they usually poke may or may not be here in November. This doesn’t seem to bother the crew who are just off on the same weather you’re get ting in SF right now.
FIVE - O
Twenty eight brands of cop in this city, and I've had the displeasure of meeting most of them. Similar to the occasional roundup in SF we’ve come accustomed to Dupont Circle being frequented daily by Officer Mosher, U.S. Park Police (The majority of parks here are national parks.) Mosher greets everyone on his route 66 Twinky motorcycle with Welcome to my park." Around noon one day we were all inhal ing lunch on a perfect day under the shade of a generous tree when" officer friendly busted us cold, my pipe resting firmly against my friend’s lips. He got my stash, didn't write us up and was later seen firmly shaded by those pig sunglasses...hmm. The Capitol Hill police kicked me off The Hill like the first week here for insobordination and the thought police are always just a block away. I could go an like this forever but y’all have lives too, One thing though, for any of you entrepreneur types, there’s a budding scene in New Orleans that’s in desperate need on instant, reform. (apparently, $5 an hour in the norm.) So if you’re looking to start Break Neck Messenger Co. or Zippee Dee Doo Dah Delivery try N.O. or check out AUSTIN WHICH HAS NO SCENE BUT COULD DEFINITELY SUP PORT a small trippy crew.
Yours in retrospect,
Lemoan
Addendum: 9 DC residents gunned down the weekend I wrote this.
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