First Key West Hash - Oy

You remember how I said I thought they did things differently here. Um, yep. I'd say this hash group probably did it the more "correct" way and could get away with a lot of the raunchier aspects of the ceremonies because it's a pretty young crowd - no kids. These guys were hardcore - with necklaces made with their hash names and socks bought from the Haberdashery. Interestingly, because many times people like to see pics of themselves during the hashes but don't necessarily want their bosses or certain friends or family to see them, there's a website just for them. The site is called HashSpace and you must be invited by another hasher.  I'll try to be careful about what I post on the blog, but I definitely want to get an invite to the other site.

Anyway, first up - the hash. This was a pick-up hash, or a live hash, that just gives these guys another excuse to get together. Many work on the weekends so can't make the Saturday hashes, so this is for them. It's also free. We started at Higgins Beach, which was just 4 blocks from where we live.

I'm glad they're bringing in white sand from the Bahamas, it sticks less and is cooler on the feet. Hey what's this?  Portuguese Man-o-Wars! Hrmph. Glad the hash is on land.

Then we started meeting the various hashers. They're not too hard to miss.

Time for instructions (you'll note that some were distracted by the action going on at the showers).

The hare runs with a piece of chalk (so do the hounds). Some of the markings were certainly new to us. BN means beer near. B✓ means beer here. The hare is trying to keep you off his tail, so will distract you with this kind of thing. The hare takes off with a backpack full of beer. If at anytime, the hare wants to buy some time, he can drop the pack, put a B✓ next to it and keep running. This forces all the hounds to drink all of the beer in the pack before they can restart their pursuit. A BN and B✓ can appear near/in a bar as well, and all hounds must stop and drink a beer before continuing. If a hound catches up to a hare, the hound becomes the hare. There are many other markings that can throw off the hounds too (like whichy-way arrows directing you in 2 directions). Of course, for these Monday pickups, a hare has to be chosen. This was done via rock, paper, scissors, which I was happy not to get selected to play because I have no idea how this game works. The unlucky hare was selected and off he went.

While we gave him time to get a decent lead and put some markings down, we had to bide our time somehow. This hasher recently found out he was allergic to gluten, so that means no beer. No problem, although supposedly there were 6 servings of wine in that container - I don't think so.

We finally all took off and had to deal with various markings as we searched for our hare. We also had a number of people in the neighborhoods screaming On! On! at us, so some of them knew what we were doing.


Eventually the hare dropped the bag and we all had to drink up. Michael got pooped on.

At this point, the hare started circling around and we couldn't tell his old markings from his new and got all lost. We wondered if he was in this pool, or whether we should be, but carried on. In the end, we just selected a new hare who brought us straight back to the beginning point. I think coming back ahead of the hare was a first for us. Where is he?

I thought we moved our party to this location for the sunset, but it seems it was for more nefarious purposes. We needed privacy. The words that went to this song that prompted the twirling..........



About 20 minutes later, here came a tired hare. He was not a hash virgin, but he was a hash hare. I give him credit for doing it.

This, of course, meant that it was time for the after-hash festivities. There was a visiting hasher - which means that she could suggest a new guideline (there are no rules in hashing). A yes vote, brought in a custom that if someone didn't want to do their down-down, they could flash someone and have them drink it for them. I'll drink mine thanks. We did not know that it was customary to bring a hashmaster of a new hash a present (we haven't had to do that for the past 4 countries), so had to come up with one. If not a physical gift, it can be a joke, a new hash song, showing a forbidden body part...Neither Michael nor I could come up with anything and I wasn't about to flash myself quite yet so just suffered through the down-down. Had we known about any of this (I am so calling Popcorn later), I would have learned one of the jigs...and blushed through the whole thing.



And then some more singing and dancing ensued. You can not be a prude in this bunch.



I'm not sure you can be old either (like us). After the hash, many went for $5 martinis at Virgilios. I'll have a shower and an Advil for my sore body, thanks.

This Saturday's hash will be a bit different (and cost $10 if you drink, $5 if you don't), because it'll actually be set. It also requires us to make or buy the most offensive t-shirt we can find (this one is definitely up Popcorn's alley). Any thoughts?