Friday the Thirteenth,...And: A Full Moon

Friday the Thirteenth: A Day that is universally acknowledged to be Bad Luck !
I've never been one to fear that day, and I didn't find the endless movies by that name very scary either. BUT......., I've spent a lifetime working in, and hanging around Bars,Taverns,Pubs, Roadhouses,Watering Holes,Gin Joints, Hell Holes,...well, You know what I mean !
In all that time of assisting other people get their drink on, I have come to believe the Oldest of Barroom Myths. Yep, I'm talking about the one about the Dreaded Full Moon. It is true about the old European stories, where some people become "Lunatics" when the moon is Full.
Back here in the sticks of Indiana, the old Waitresses, Barmaids,Servers, Nurses,cocktail whores,...get my drift here? Anyway, they used to tell me when it was a full moon, and tell me stuff like,"Mark my Words, There will be a fight tonight, and it won't be About anything". I would tell them that it was a safe bet that there would be a fight that night, because we were working in the roughest dive in town!.,(My stepfather's place). Weekend nights, we could be assured of several fights, hell, half of them might involve some of my crew !, and not just the Bouncer !.
As time wore On, I came to dread a full moon Friday. Even in Country Club Lounges, and Upscale Martini Bars, something about the Lunar Fecundity would bring out the worst in people, both Men and Women !. I have even gone so far as to wear old shirts to work on those occasions, with a spare in the car, for when the other one got ripped up in a fight.
In all those years of working the mostly redneck bars, only once did I ever have to go to the emergency room after a fight. That time was on a full moon friday, when I must have been crazy, because I broke the Number One rule of Bouncers and Bartenders World Wide,....wait for It,....Yes, I jumped into the middle of a "Cat Fight", three other women had called out my pretty young bartending partner, and tough as she was, they had gotten her down. I cleared the bar, unarmed with my blackjack, billy club, or anything, and waded into on of those fights like you see in cartoons. You know the kind, where there's a cloud of cussing and dust surrounding this ball of humans, and you can tell it's humans, because every once-in-a-while an elbow, fist or knee will emerge from the pile, and it's usually still connected to a body !
As I waded in, I punched the biggest one, right on the end of her chin, as hard as if she had been a man. She went down like I'd shot her, the crowd roared with applause, then all three of the remaining fighters turned on me !
Yikes!
Even my bar mate!. A few elbows thrown, and a few well-placed kicks, and I drug the barkeeps free of the stack, and drug her by her collar back behind the bar. The crowd got the rest out the door, the debris got cleaned up, the band went back to the stage, (Couldn't see the fight for the stack of amps, they told me?).

While I was in the walk-in cooler cleaning up and cooling down,a waitress came in to assess the damage. I already knew I had lost some hair, my pony tail was undone, and blood was trickling down behind one ear. I had major scratches on the arms and chest, and a bite-mark on my thigh that was bleeding through some uneven dents above my knee. (The snaggle-toothed bitch did It).

I put a waitress behind the bar with the barely-damaged Bar Maid, and drove myself to the emergency room. The Doctor, who knew me, laughed his ass off when I told him it was women that did it, and he said,"Even I know better than to try and break-up a catfight!", Very funny! Not,
A few stitches in my scalp, some scrubbing of the scratches,like with a nail brush !!, and a tetnus shot, and I drug my wounded pride back to work.

That's just one of many occasions that made me a believer in The Full Moon Myth. It ain't no myth ! But, there is a corollary phenomenon, and this stems from the last part of the myth. Most of the Old Bar Folk say it this way; " Full Moon tonight, and they'll all be either Lovers or Fighters".
That part of the deal got me lucky many times, when I wasn't even looking!, Ah, who am I foolin'? In those days I was Always Lookin'! (For some strange?) Beleive me, many of those chicks were strange !
Happy Friday the Thirteenth !

BTW: Image credit unknown, I found it somewhere, and it has no copyright or watermark