Green Lane, Woulda Been Funny

This is a re-post from my old, four-post blog called "the basement smells like chemicals":

Andy and I are out riding last night on our bikes, doing the 20 mile loop from South Philly to Green Lane and back. We're having a really strong ride, so strong that while charging up the hill in Main Street Manayunk, we were flying at an 18-mph clip. I'm in the lead, with Andy drafting me, mere inches from my back wheel. I look up and about 100 yards ahead a guy starts walking backward from between two parked cars and he's holding something up, kind of like a big, wide ladder. As he walks out further, and as we get closer, it becomes apparent that whatever he's holding is being held up on the other end by someone else who'd yet to enter the street from between the parked cars.

The first guy keeps walking out, slowly, and this scaffolding/ladder-like object keeps coming. And for a split second, before I think about slowing down, before i think of notifying Andy whirring along right behind me, I think, "Man, I kind of wish that were a pane of glass. That would be really funny. That would be like some movie. Three Stooges? Marx Brothers?" And then I'm all, "Shit. We gotta stop. Now!"

I slow up, and forget to signal to Andy, who luckily has looked up and seen this as well. In all, the guys were toting a 10- or 15-foot-long contraption across Main Street. Once we pass, I tell Andy, "Man, that woulda been like in a movie." I can't remember what movie Andy said it woulda been like, but it wasn't Duck Soup. I guess maybe it wouldn't have been all that funny. But really, it would have.