Originally Posted by
Highstrung
I think I was 22 maybe when I went up to visit some friends and family in Clemson. We ended up at a bar/wing place called Explorers I believe. They had this hot wing challenge and no one had finished an entire wing. Some how a bet had taken place, money and such, and a friend turned it down. I didn't know much about the wings other than I was hearing they kept the sauce locked up, something of that matter. I watched guys just touching them and acting silly. So I told them to bring them to me. Four were on the plate, the Mark McGwire homeruns were happening on the TV, and I had a pretty big crowd. It was American as f***. I bit into the first one, and I knew I was in trouble. I didn't stop for beer, I wasn't stopping for shit. I ate all four with the crowd cheering, then the wait staff brought me all the beer I could drink. I shined. A guy came over to hand me the money, and I told him no. I did it for the principle. No shit, true story. It was kinda silly because I was working hard for every penny back then. But I didn't want to cheapen the moment. The cook, manager, owner came out, and told me they'd be naming the wings after me. They never did. A year or so later I heard somebody break my record, but after I ate them a waiver had to take place.
Afterwards I was in pretty bad trouble. I mean I was in my own personal hell. It was all I could do to get back to my sister's place. Then she wanted me to go help her roommate untie her fiance from a big tree at the AGR house. I had to stop and get a large Frosty from Wendy's.. it didn't do any good, it just smeared the pain. I never let on how much it hurt. It's not right for a man to do. The next afternoon riding back to Camden I was burping chicken wings and Fire, everything in my body was wrong for 3 or 4 days.
I was going to type Explorers in Clemson back in 98-00. The wing was called Insanity I think. If you ate 5 wings they put your name on the wall and got dinner for free. Very few finished 5. I could only take 2 and begged for milk and a pitcher of beer. A toothpick tip of the sauce would light your mouth on fire.
As a side note, was that Josh Reed that was untied from the tree at the AGR House? That was a nasty tradition for the fools that got engaged in college.
"I do not hunt turkeys because I want to, I hunt them because I have to. I would really rather not do it, but I am helpless in the grip of my compulsion"
- Tom Kelly, Tenth Legion, 1973
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