My first hash with TVH3

Now there's probably going to be feedback flak from this post..... I've just been looking at the TVH3 Hash History on the www.TVH3.com website. Fascinating and extremely well put together by Pottsie and Buzby. Buzby said (a long, long time ago) that the Hash must record some sort of continuity of our history or else it would be lost forever.

I can vividly recall my first hash with TVH3 in 1988 (same year as McWot). Oh shock! Horror! Outrage! Sorry lads, here's the proof.......It was at The Penn Inn at Newton Abbot and I hadn't a clue what a 'hash' was. Turned up with my best friend Mike Dagg (Desperate Daggy) and Barry Knight (Boris) and I thought it was some sort of race! It was Barry Knight's fault really; he told me that everyone went round a pre-laid course but there was a slight problem. Apparently, the hare would occasionally put down 'circles' or 'checks' to slow everyone down. However, Barry said: "Don't worry, just follow me and we'll get a good training run in!" The trail went across fields and we ended up crossing the railway line to get back to the Penn Inn. Every time we got to one of these highly inconvenient 'circles', Barry seemed to know exactly the right way to go and the three of us screamed round the trail in 22 minutes! "Yeh, baby, yeh!" The 'fast' longs got in after about 45 minutes (and they had been following kicked out circles!).

I went on about another half dozen runs with TVH3 before getting named. That was a real mystery, I had no idea what they were all on about. To my eternal gratitude, it was Pottsie who decided my hash name, Bluebird. When I turned up (after missing about 8 years - on the run, but that's another story), Teapot peered through the car window, and on hearing my hash name, said:"HOW did you get a hash name like that?"

Boris taught me another trick one night at the Chelston Court. He had got a down down and after slowly drinking half of it, appeared to pour the rest of the beer over his head as hash convention demands. Getting back to the bar, I noticed his head was completely dry! "How did you manage that?" "Simple, pour it just behind your head onto the floor, no one can see what you're doing, especially if the light's bad!" And you wonder where I got all my bad habits from?
Now can you remember your very first hash with TVH3 (or any other hash before) because we would be interested to hear from you.