Beer and a Bite

I've been chippin' in my two cents worth of advice on the student TV weekly news show this year. There are some really bright, talented, funny young people putting the Met Report together. Funny is always big with me. Every once in a while they invite me to lunch after taping, and that was the case today. I know most of them are old enough to buy a beverage with some punch in it. But there is this game old and young people play when they are together at a place where they serve beer. They are watching to see if I order one, and it would never dawn on them that I might be waiting for them to take the lead. I think a lot of beer doesn't get imbibed for that reason. Well I saw massive relief when the waiter asked me first, and I replied, "watcha got on tap." All of sudden iced teas turned into coors light, and margaritas. By the way we were all walking. I was amused to watch the slight of hand of each orderer producing ID like it was a magician's card trick. There is a sad moment at this juncture when the older person, (i.e. me) doesn't get asked to produce any proof of his digital maturity. While I didn't employ it this time, I do have a trick that gets me into the game. In addition to the beer, I ask for the senior meal discount. On two occasions I've been asked to prove it.

With barricades shattered, souls and tongues loosen up. Alex asks if I think they're being a little stupid or something like that. Ah, contrare. I was amazed at how little has changed since 1964 when I sat with friends at a table at the 49'er bar across from the veteran's hospital. There we occasionally worked our way through a few pitchers of beer solving the world's ills with intensity mixed with humor. Or we'd pop down to Joe Jost's in Downtown Long Beach, shoot some 9 ball, hang out with the real people, and enhance our beers with pickled eggs and beef jerkey. I look back on those days fondly. It was tough to give up.

 I remember what most of these students about to graduate must be feeling. Unless they work at it, they won't have jobs or duties that will allow them to just let their minds and hearts roam. That's a shame. I think we'd have a lot less strife in the world if  conflicts could be resolved in an atmosphere where nobody was really trying to prove anything.

Having the old and the young together, I've discovered, has one effect that is clearly positive. No one thinks it's a good idea to have two. I think that's a barrier we can live with.

Anyway, thanks for the memories Alex, Michelle, Geoff, Walter, Steve and Andy.