About 23 years ago I met a group of friends who changed my life forever. To this day, we are still friends, we're still there for each other and nothing makes me happier.
According to Urban Dictionary, a "hoople" is defined as either a lazy character who prefers to work as little as possible, earning money on the side by running every scam going; he's also a gambler, but not a very good one or a person who drinks alcohol to excess to the point where it becomes his or her defining characteristic.
This was so us. Well maybe not the scam part, but we did drink often (we were in college) and we were pretty lazy (we skipped class a lot to play fooseball) and we sort of gambled back in the day on Rummy 500 and I don't think we were very good (some of the boys still play the cards, but they've graduated to poker and I'm pretty sure they still suck).
I'm not sure what brought us all together. Most of the boys went to high school together, so they already knew each other. A love of fooseball, music and desire not to go to class probably cemented our relationship.
I was the one of only two girls who could hang with the boys. Celeste was the other one. Other girls came and went, but Celeste and I have been able to hang for almost 25 years. These are the people that taught me how to play fooseball, pool, and quarters. Of course before they taught me how to play quarters, they had to get me to drink beer - which they did - at Rack 'Em - the scariest pool hall you could ever imagine (but the most fun ever).
Some of the guys were in a band. Every Saturday night, we'd go to the "Warehouse" where Midnight Liar would practice. After they finished, the rest of us would sing whatever songs were popular at the time (Bon Jovi, Warrant, Winger, Whitesnake). Sadly, the poor man at the convenience store was riddled on these Saturday nights with lines from "Raising Arizona" as we made our beer run. A favorite was "I'll be taking these Huggies and whatever cash you got." I'm sure he appreciated it. It was like something you might see in a movie. No one believes that you do these things in real life, but we did.
We each had a nickname or more than one. There was Fishbait, Murky, Mule, Factor, Berg, and Cackman (and some others that I can't say here). We still call each other by those names today. All names were given out of love and I don't think any of us ever had hurt feelings because of them.
23 years later, most of us are still friends. Some of us have had fallings out, but we usually end up back together, eventually. We have celebrated weddings and babies and mourned the deaths of parents together. We don't drink as much as we used to (we are getting older). I can't imagine any of us letting our kids go to a place like Rack 'Em. But those were some of the best times of my life, and I wouldn't trade them for anything.
