Tales from a Tiki Bar        1, 2, 3, 4, 5
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4     "The Original"

Usually, you assume agedness with such a term. After all, something recognizable enough to have it's original version santified with someone's memory must have been around for some time.

However, at Tiwaka's Bar & Grill, our "The Original" appeared a bit shy of elderly. Maybe even a decade shy of old. That gave him power, according to Sand Tiki. She said he was at his sweet spot: old enough to know plenty, but not too old that he didn't buy ripe bananas anymore. Well, if that was a good friend's exaggeration it wasn't far off, considering the show he could orchestrate behind the 30 foot incredibly polished brilliance of an ancient jungle log. Now, he wasn't some Manhattan 'Show-Tender', but his almost unexplainable mixing ability, as well as liquid knowledge only a chemist might have, was enough to entertain anyone paying attention.

His Signature concoction was something called the Coco Loco Moco. Naturally, there was a secret ingredient or two, but it was obviously some kind of coconut drink. If you were 'right off the boat' new to the tropics, you might assume coconut mixer might be a little, well, overwhelming. Not to worry, The Original would smilingly assert, fresh, green coconut juice was not milky at all, but rather a slightly sweetened water. In fact, he would continue, looking around, as if to spy the Health Inspector lurking close by, "the water is actually medically sterile, until you expose it to the air". He would go on to tell one story about his uncle using green coconut juice to wash a wound when that was all he and his downed airmen had access to.

But, you could tell, he never had such an uncle. He was just going with the flow. And, what a flow it was at the Hotel Coral Reef when the crew was installed at Tiwaka's.

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