NAS2H3 Run no. 2 11th May 1997

New Amsterdam Summer Sunday Hash Writeup, May 11, 1997

NAS2H3 Run no. 2 11th May 1997

Hare: Alice Harrison

Start: Kew Gardens, Queens
On In: O’Hanlons, 118-12 Queens Blvd, Queens

Scribe: Roy Gilbert


Well there we were at 3.10, eleven of us with nothing better to do on a warm Sunday afternoon than traipse out to Queens for a hash. Quite a cosmopolitan gathering, with the foreigners outnumbering the locals. Representatives from Ireland, Germany, Holland, Poland and England. Quite a polyglot lot too. Amongst other languages heard were English in a variety of accents, German, Russian and Ewaspeak.

3.15, still eleven of us and mounting concern as there was no sign of Alice, our hare for the afternoon. 3.20 we put our bags in Paul¢s car , still no Alice. And then in the distance the unmistakable hair of our hare. She hadn¢t forgotten us. Just stayed too late at Lesley¢s party the night before and had got out to Kew Gardens a bit late. She continued the well established NASS HASH tradition of supplying cookies (future hares please note).

¡I put plenty of marks at the beginning but they¢re a bit spaced out towards the end¢ Alice explained. ¡And I only had time to recce half of the trail¢ she continued. No worry we thought, we¢re all experienced hashers and off we went in a southerly direction. And true to her word the first part of the trail was well marked. The first three marks were reasonably easy to see and they were no more than 30 yards apart. It was after this that marks became very few and far between. They also become increasingly smaller and the chalk ones invariably lightly written so we ran straight past them. Thus the tone for the run was set. Every few hundred yards we would stop, shout ¡are you?¢, split up in different directions until somebody found something that might be a mark, regroup and continue. It was the first run I recall where there were almost as many marks as checks (and there weren¢t many of them either).

The checks, fortunately, were quite good and, as Alice had told us, all falses were marked. What she didn¢t tell us is what they were marked with. We had assumed, naively, that they would be marked with an F. No such luck. In most cases it was a big splodge of flour. Whether, when she marked them, they really were Fs and had since been scattered by birds, ridden over by bikers or peed on by dogs I guess we will never know. But it all added to the fun.

The first part of the run was in Forest Park, which was most enjoyable. We even met a woman walking her dog who told us that her son was a hasher in Texas. But then the trail came out of the park and we realized that when it came to gaps in the trail we hadn¢t seen nothing yet. The trail, if it deserves that name, basically went round the outside of the park. Why take us through a nice wooded park when you can run along a nice boulevard with traffic spewing forth fumes? Alice explained this to us later. This was the bit she didn¢t have time to recce. She was planning to go back in the park but she couldn¢t find a way in. I guess the ten entrances we passed weren¢t good enough.

We were so busy moaning and groaning about the lack of marks that we didn¢t actually notice there were no checks on the second half of the run. Although to be fair to Alice most of the run was one big check. At one unmarked crossroads we ran for a few hundred yards, Basil out in front, not a mark to be seen anywhere. ¡On on¢ Basil cried and indeed there was a trail. There were also some pack marks. This stretch of forest looked familiar, hadn¢t we run along here an hour ago? Oh well back to the crossroads and fan out. We eventually found our way back. We decided to take a chance and just keep running in the direction of the last mark and half a mile along the road we found another mark. And then another, and another. The last few hundred yards were marked exceedingly well. Apparently Alice had felt guilty and having time on her hands while waiting for us at the on in went back out on the trail to help. We always know she was a sweetie.

All was forgiven at the on in. Forgiven, not forgotten. When it comes to nomination time for worst run of the year I¢m sure we may recall this run in sunny Queens. O¢Hanlons was a good choice. Bars in Queens are not usually noted for favoring decent beers but O¢Hanlons had Sam Adams, Bass as well as the more ubiquitous swills. It is also two yards from the subway, an express stop to boot.

Down downs were given to three virgins (Alice, Klaus and Ed) to four ornithologists (Basil, Pierre, Little John and Ewa) – apparently while some of us were busy finding the trail these four were seen observing the local wildlife (quote from Basil ¡it was easier to spot the spotted woodpecker than to spot the trail¢) to Vince for peeing in public, to Ewa for starting a new job and not changing her hair style for a week and to Pierre who disappierred at some stage and came in last.

Alice proved that $10 hash cash is not necessarily a thing of the past and later proved that it probably is by collecting a $3 supplement. Great fun was had by all and we hope to see you all at the next NASS HASH when the eminence grise of NY hashing, Keith Kanaga, will set the run in Manhattan.


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