I was about 15 when the first Hooters came to the Albany, NY area. It opened in the local Mall, it was exciting to a teenage boy going to Hooters seemed like a dream come true. When I did eventually go with my older brother and my friends I found out that it was not what I expected.
I appreciated the atmosphere, the hardwood floors and tables, the T.V.s broadcasting sport’s everywhere you looked almost made you forget the beautiful waitresses wearing tight uniforms.
Looking at the Hooter Girls from a distance was one thing but when they came up to you to take your order and started talking to you up close you realize that they are not just there for your viewing pleasure, but that they are there to do their job.
For some reason I found comfort in the chaos of sports streaming constantly and hardwood floors and tables, I loved the food too.
Hooters wings are a delicacy that must be enjoyed with some caution or you else you can end up with the “Hooters Blues.”
The Hooters Blues
Is when you eat Hooters Chicken Wings, breaded usually and you have to run to the bathroom to evacuate them some short time afterward.
My Favorite Hooters foods
I like the Chicken Wings and I love the Curly Fries but what I loved most was the Grilled Cheese. It came with Curly Fries and a Pickle! I customized my order though, I would order a Grilled Cheese with mushrooms and bacon and it was amazing.
My Hooters Addiction
At some point in my late teens and 20’s in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s I became addicted to Hooters.
I went as often as I could, it made me feel like I could be myself as long as there were hardwood floors and tables with sports on every T.V. And waitresses wearing tight uniforms.
I went with friends, for sporting events and on my own when I was bored. Eventually I did not even care about the Hooter Girls, I was just going for the atmosphere.
My favorite waitresses name was Amy, a blonde with a unique “care free” attitude, she never seemed to care what others thought of her, she never flirted or put up a front with me and I respected that. She always went out of her way to be real with me and she kept being real with me no matter how weird she may of realized that I am.
Between the Atmosphere and Amy I felt at home at Hooters, that was in the corner of a mall in Albany, NY.
When I went with friends I would often bring my Othello/Reversi board and play it at Hooters, sometimes Amy would come over and observe the game. She even played when it was a slow night.
I would bring a notebook and pen to Hooters and write as I enjoyed my Bacon Mushroom Grilled Cheese and watch Sports.
I did not just talk to the Hooter Girls I also talked to the cooks. One of the cooks was Nate.
Nate was a fiery Italian, who liked Professional Wrestling and so did I. We talked here and there but we would not become friends until years later when I started attending “open mics.”
I worked for Hooters
I took a job as a Dishwasher at the very same Hooters where I became a Regular.
I hated that job.
It did not matter how many dishes I washed, the dish load just kept on coming and some dirtier than the next. I lost a bit of mind washing dishes at Hooters and started talking to myself and yelling at the dishes and probably scared some Hooters Girls and Cooks when I would start talking and yelling at the dishes.
I obviously did not triumph in my job as a Dishwasher at Hooters, but I had one moment that I am proud of.
One day there was a flood in the kitchen and all of the cooks stopped cooking. I went in and noticed that all of the water was pooling around a drain in the middle of the floor. I reached deep down into the drain and pulled a chicken bone out of it, a big black streak of grease on my arm. The water went down and the cooks went back to work.
Eventually I was fired from
Hooters over a misunderstanding of my schedule, apparently the schedule that was posted letting me know when I was supposed to work was changed and no one informed me but it was my responsibility to call and see if the schedule had changed.
I was never informed that it was my responsibility to check if the schedule had changed.
I never went back after that.
Years later that Hooters closed.
That Hooters in that Mall was a major part of my late teens and my early 20’s.
I still keep in touch with Nate but not Amy.
Eventually a new Hooters opened up in the Albany area but it was not the same.
I have been there a handful of times, I went there for my bachelor party and I took my son there for his 13th birthday, I thought it would be funny. But it is not the same…
My favorite Restaurant was Hooters of Albany in Crossgates Mall.
Whenever I was there things just seemed to make sense. I don’t know if it was the atmosphere, the food, or Amy…?
Maybe it was the nostalgia?
I have so many memories of that place, I was even invited to a “Regulars Appreciation Night” at one point.
One thing that I can be sure of is that it was my favorite Restaurant.
It will always be, thank you Hooters of Albany in Crossgates Mall. Thank You for the memories, I can still taste the Dr. Pepper…
What are 5 everyday things that bring you happiness?
I started writing this but I felt it was too much of a cliche because I said “my family.”
It’s who I am, although some memories remind me that my family did not always make me happy.
I love my family and I cherish the memories of my family, but I decided to take a more honest approach.
The 5 things that make me happy…
Long days where you spend most of the day outside so that when day turns to night it feels like a reward and the night is as illuminated as the day.
A good cup of coffee and a cigarette, when the coffee makes the cigarette taste better and the cigarette makes the coffee taste better.
Writing, putting my thoughts down into words, telling stories for others to enjoy, finding out that someone felt something when they read what I wrote.
Making people laugh, some people can some people cannot, I have always tried to make people laugh, I’ve failed a lot but when I have not it always makes me happy.
Never giving up. My father always said to me that I made him proud because “I always stuck to my guns” and that I never give up. I have wanted to be a writer, performer, entertainer all of my life. Despite my flaws, mistakes and lack of money I keep pushing and moving forward toward something.
I call myself the “Dog Fight Scrapper” the “Rat Pack Slacker.” And I will never give up because it makes me happy that I am still fighting.
One day I was walking through the halls, I was late to class as usual but I enjoyed how empty the halls were at that time.
I bumped into my history/psychology teacher.
My history/psychology teacher Mr. Hart. Everyone thought that he was crazy because he went off the rails at times and spoke his mind in the middle of a lesson. He was one of my favorite teachers because when he taught the class it did not seem like he cared what the students thought of him. He often had two wet spots from sweating around his armpits on his shirt, he would trail off into personal stories in the middle of lessons. When he taught it always felt like he was talking to himself rather than the class.
As I passed him in the hall that day I said “Hey Mr. Hart.”
“Hey Dan.” He said.
He looked distressed like he did not want to talk but he was making the time to talk to me.
“How are you?” I asked.
“Fine Dan, Thank You.” He said.
As I began to walk away from him he turned to me and said.
“Dan.”
I stopped and turned to face him.
“I am not really fine Dan, I am not ok. Sometimes when people tell you that they’re ok, they are really not.”
I nodded awkwardly and we went on our respective ways.
I always wondered what happened to Mr. Hart…
I will always remember that day, because Mr. Hart actually turned to me to let me know that he was not ok.
All of the other students used to laugh at him, make fun of him in class or talk about how crazy he was and it never seemed to effect him but it did and of all people he let me know and he knew my name.
If you could be a character from a book or film, who would you be? Why?
In National Lampoons Animal House, the character Bluto lives his best life no matter what and does not care about what anyone thinks of him and in the end he becomes a Senator.
If you could have something named after you, what would it be?
My name is Daniel R Bruce also known as Dan America and I don’t need anything to be named after me.
My name is my name and I have seen it many times on things. Brown paper bags for lunch on Felid Trips when I was a child, my name on the Chalk Board, my name on files.
I think about our names and about how when we were younger, just children in school they wrote our full names on everything. But a Patrick turned into a Pat, a Michael into a Mike, a Jennifer into a Jen.
It makes me sad… That as we grow older we don’t wish to be called the same name as we did when we were a child.
If I could have something named after me it would be one last lunch or name tag from my childhood.
Because those are the things bearing your name that mean something.
What are your morning rituals? What does the first hour of your day look like?
I am not a very good morning person.
A night person, yes. Morning no.
When I get up I just jump right into it, I get up and get dressed because I took care of all of important things the night before.
The rest of my day is a lot like Fortnite I get wheat I can as I go.
For example here is me playing Fortnite, I am Cosplaying Hank Hill from King of the Hill, but it is a good metaphoric display of what my morning is like.
My first Dog was Daisy she was a mutt and all that I can remember about her was that she was medium size and had dark curly fur. I don’t remember much about Daisy because I was a toddler pretty much.
Later on there was Tobey.
When I was about 10 my friend down the street down the street had a Cocker Spaniel named Bridgette who just had a litter, I picked one of the Pups without asking my parents and brought the dog home.
Turned out Tobey had an aggressive disposition and growled at everyone and showed his teeth. Everyone but me…
Tobey did not last long, my parents sent him away to the proper authorities after he tried to bite my uncle.
Then there was Penny.
An adorable Mutt that gave me a love bite my mom said when we went to visit her before she was ready to take home.
She was a great dog who got too excited around people and would pee all over the place when she got excited.
My parents decided to let Penny have puppies so that me and my older brother and sister could experience.
My Grandparents on my Mothers side took in one of the Puppies so we could watch it grow up.
Penny ran away one day, we had always kept her on a leash. One day she got away and just ran…
Her puppy named Tobey as well lived a long life that every Dog would want to live.
Then there was Sammy…
In my late teen years my older sister went off to college and rented an apartment where they accepted dogs, she adopted a Golden Retriever and named it Sammy.
She and her roommate could not handle the dog but my family had already fallen in love with Sammy.
My father took Sammy in and became my father’s dog. Sammy was amazing, needy, but amazing.
He could catch anything in his mouth that you tossed to him. He loved every member of my family. If you sat down on the couch he would lay down next to you and lay his head near you and look at you and wag his tail. The way he looked at you, you could feel his love for you and have to pet him because you could not help it.
I was with Sammy when he had to be put down, I told him that I Loved him.
When I was in my late 20’s my girlfriend that would become my wife and I got Lucky.
Lucky was a pure bread miniature schnauzer, we named him because he was the only one to survive his litter.
I held him as we brought him home from the breeders. I brought him everywhere with me but work when he was a puppy. He slept in my bed.
My wife and I had to move in with my parents and bring Lucky with us where he met Sally, a rescue dog, a medium sized golden lab/hound mutt. They fell in love and when it came time for my wife and I to move out of my parents we could not separate Sally and Lucky.
Lucky passed away first and shortly after a heartbroken Sally followed him.
I had never experienced love from a dog like I did from Lucky. Although we did not live together for all of his life, whenever that little runt saw me he would go crazy. He loved me and I loved him. He was my Pupples, my Lucky Puppy, my Pups.
The last thing I had ever said to him is that “he will always be my pups.”
My current dog is BB8. A rescue, a Pit bull, American Boxer, Beagle mix.
He is needy, he farts and he takes advantage of how willing I am to give him treats.
Dogs are the best/worst pets to have because of the unconditional love that they have for you and that you have for them. They may be a pain at times, but they trust you because you are their world and they will express that to you.
Dogs are the best/worst pets to have because you fall in love with them so hard and they do with you.
It makes it so you can’t bare without them, even though you know that you will live longer then them.
I loved all of my dogs because I know that they really loved me.
American A.I. 