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While this experience with Bert was somewhat on the sordid side and left a poor taste in the mouth, the one with Charlie Williams was just plain hilarious and certainly one of the funniest of my entire experience. Bob Wade and I invited Charlie out to do a little drinking one evening and we wound up presently in a small, rather plain, Italian joint which Charlie had recommended. Like many such spots at the time, it was completely divided up into small cubicles by a series of partitions around six-feet high. Each cubicle was big enough to contain a small table and four chairs and the entrance was normally covered by sliding curtain. Our waitress was a handsome, hard-faced Italian girl with black eyes, beautiful pale-olive skin, and a strong, exciting-looking body. But she was very businesslike, waited on us well, but was taking no guff from anybody. Charlie knew her but that didn't seem to make any difference. We were having a good time chewing things over and discussing old times and in the process had several drinks, to the point where no one was feeling any pain or apprehension over anything. For Bob Wade's benefit, I encouraged Charlie to talk about his strongman and gymnastic abilities and Charlie was only too glad to oblige by removing his jacket and showing Bob his fantastic biceps. In fact, he got so carried away by the whole matter that he wanted to give Bob a gymnastic demonstration right then and there by walking on his hands. The problem was, where to walk? The cubicle was too small and cluttered by furniture, the tabletop might have done but the table was too fragile, and the corridor outside the booth hardly seemed an appropriate place. Suddenly Charlie had an inspiration. He would walk on his hands on the top of the partitions enclosing the booths. In this way he could walk all over the room. We thought he was joking and we laughed. But he was serious. When we realized this, we tried to dissuade him, picturing the three of us getting thrown out of the place, but Charlie was not to be thus influenced. The first thing we knew, he'd almost miraculously swung upward in a vertical arc and was standing on his hands on top of the partition separating our booth from the next. It was rather dark in the place so he was not outstandingly visible unless at a fairly close range but we heard a gasp of astonishment from the couple in the adjacent booth. And then Charlie began a leisurely walk on his hands all over the many partitions, startling some out of their wits, embarrassing others whom he happened to catch in acts of intimacy, and infuriating others who strongly resented this intrusion into their privacy and saw nothing funny about it. But on the whole it was well received, Charlie talking politely to the various customers upon whom he looked down. I think Charlie finally tired and returned to us although the manager may have finally dissuaded him from his exercise. It was a big evening and even though it happened nearly forty years ago, I can still see Charlie walking upside down around the partitions.