Finally! Dumpster Day on Avenue A. It’s been one month since the fire and progress is finally starting to happen. Harold, Ria, Paul and Jim along with three workers from the landlord spent the day hauling rubble. It was back breaking work but little by little we were finally able to clear what was once on the ceiling from the floor.

 

With no light except what filtered through the opened gates and the clouds of dust to work by The Raven slowly came back to life. Some old guy actually slipped past us in our cleaning frenzy and took a piss in one of the toilets. Just like old times.

 

With Harold off to Queens to rent a van and Ria salvaging what she could from behind the bar, Paul and I descended into the water filled basement. I really don’t want to know what the liquid was that we waded around in but it sure did smell swampy. Hundreds of beer bottles had to be drained of the mysterious fluid. They seemed to be never ending but load after load went into the dumpster. Working in the dark with nothing more than a flashlight Paul eventually found the clogged drain. With the help an easily bendable piece of copper tubing and a lot of coxing the drained finally cleared and amazingly the floor reappeared.

 

Right on cue Harold returned with the van. Time to load up all that was salvageable for the trip to the basement of the Boulevard Tavern in Brooklyn for temporary storage. Devin came from around the corner to help with the heavy lifting at The Raven. Bill was waiting at the Boulevard to help with the unloading. Two trips and everything was nearly moved. Much thanks to both Devin and Bill for lending a hand. You guys rock!

 

The end of the day was capped off as it should be with a nice cool bottle of beer. The coolers behind the bar were all stocked and the beer was surprisingly cool. Drinking in the glow of the one 60 watt bulb we could get working felt good.