A curious blast from the past

RedLipsBar, originally uploaded by tgolamb.

I don't know why, but the memory of this particular experience came to me as Sue and I sat at a spaghetti place having lunch. As I looked across the street and saw the signs, the image of one particular evening came rushing back, as vivid as if it happened only a short time ago. I took the picture and told the whole story to Sue. Now let me tell it to you.

As a young sailor of about 21 or so in the Navy, one of our ports we visited for liberty in 1972 was Hong Kong. It was an exciting time for someone so inexperienced.

One evening, another friend in our squadron and I decided to roam around Kowloon and sample from as many bars as we could manage (silly us). As we made our way down the narrow streets and dropping in to one nightclub or another having a beer and then leaving, we happened down one tiny alley to a place called the "Red Lips Bar".

It was a curious arched entrance with one of those beaded curtains you had to pass through. The bar was dimly lit in a deep red glow, giving it sort of an exotic feel. Business was apparently slow for them, because my friend Dave and I were the only two in the bar. There weren't even any of the requisite female hostesses we had come to expect, waiting to surround you as you entered a place, hoping to get you to buy them a drink, and maybe more. We didn't know or care why by that time in the evening, mostly because by then we were well on our way to having a pleasant glow ourselves, and just wanted to see how long we could continue our undertaking.

Anyway, it seemed like an interesting place, so we ordered a beer and sat down at a table in the middle of the room. Only a brief time has passed when we heard some commotion from behind another beaded curtain at the other end of the bar. The curtain spread and out from behind it came our hostesses.

For a split second I was excited and hopeful. We were the only guys in the bar and would get their undivided attention. In the next split second, I understood why. The three or four women that glided through the parted curtain were older than my mother. They weren't especially attractive, and the lipstick they were wearing looked like it was applied with a caulking gun.

Dave and I looked at them, looked at each other, and with nothing said further between us, turned our beer glasses up and downed our drinks in Olympic record time. We got up, said a very polite good night, and got the hell out of there. We chuckled about it later, and chided each other about who picked the bar in the first place, but it was a great story to tell the rest of the guys later on.

After our lunch and with a memory so alive, I couldn't resist my own curiosity and convinced Sue to accompany me down the alley to have a look inside the place. The alley now was full of hawkers, selling their merchandise, and nothing like it was all those years ago. As we got to the spot where I knew it would be, a darkened neon sign was above the entrance, and a metal curtain was pulled down in front of the door, covered heavy with dirt and dust. A display of cheap luggage was piled in front of the metal curtain and had been for some time. The Red Lips Bar was no more.

I had to admit I was a little disappointed to find it closed. I don't know what I expected to see, but I will always remember the look of distress (and relief) on Dave's face as we passed through that beaded curtain for the last time more than 30 years ago.