Father’s Day at the Bar

I’ve had this can since I was in college.

Always best in bar bottles.

In honor of Father’s Day (In the US) we’re going back in time today. Cheryl isn’t behind the bar, but you can catch her over at her place. I’m also trying to work with Linda’s Saturday Stream of Consciousness prompt:

“Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is ‘reservation.’ Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!”

It’s 1975, and we’re at Dempsher’s Bar and Grill.

“Your reservation for that stool wasn’t until one.”

“Linda’s father wanted her home ‘right after the concert’ – that guy hates me.”

“I know her father, he’s an a-hole – he hates everybody. You want a beer?”

“I do.”

“Here ya go.”

“Thanks Dad.”

“Is that your son, John?”

“It is. Dan, do you remember Mr. Hanley?”

“I do, from the bowling alley – Friday night men’s league?”

“Yes, you must have been in the pits.”

“Yeah, and this guy didn’t let us come out of the pits during league play.”

“It was a distraction. These guys were paying to bowl and I was paying you to set pins, not run up every five minutes to pee.”

“Trying to keep the customer satisfied, eh John.”

“Exactly – whatever it takes.”

“So, your dad tells me you’re going to WVU. How do you like that?”

“It’s good. Much better than the year I spent in Georgia.”

“I tried to tell you before you went there that you weren’t going to like it. The only good reason to go to Georgia is to golf, and I only do that in February.”

“There were lots of times I should have listened to you, Dad. Maybe some lessons are better when learned the hard way.”

“Remember that when you have kids.”

“So, what brings you to this place on a Friday night?’

“Well, Mr. Hanley…”

“Paul, it was Mr. Hanley when you were twelve.”

“Well, Paul. I had a date, but her father didn’t want us going anywhere after the concert.”

“That stinks. What concert?”

“Led Zeppelin.”

“At the Civic Arena?”

“Yep.”

“Good concert?”

“Excellent!”

“Then you need to find a different girl.”

“I tried…”

“He tried to tell me that, too.”

“I see a theme developing here, Dan.”

“Here, try these. Mrs. D. makes the best fried mushrooms.”

“Those look amazing.”

“None for me, John. I’m watching my weight.”

“You’re watching it climb to new heights, Paul. Pretty soon, I’m gonna have to walk around the bar and serve you from behind.”

“OK, I’ll have some mushrooms, they do look good, and another beer, and another for your son.”

“I’ll bring them, but these beers are on me.”

“Thanks. What are you doing with the coasters? I don’t need a new one.”

“That’s his private stash.”

“Huh?”

“The kid’s right. I don’t drink, so whenever someone buys me a beer, I put a coaster on that pile. Then, when I buy someone a drink, I take a coaster off the pile.”

“Holy crap, John – there must be over a hundred coasters on that pile.”

“I’ve been here a few years.”

“Did you ever drink?”

“Nope, never.”

“Not even in the Army?”

“Nope. I traded beer for cigarettes.”

“That’s crazy. So, Dan, I guess you got your drinking genes from you mother?”

“She has been known to have a few drinks, but not beer.”

“Well, that’s your last one for tonight, you’re driving me home.”

“You know, you could drive.”

“Uh uh! You borrow my car, you’re my driver. Besides, you have to be at work for six tomorrow.”

“Three.”

“You have the three am shift?”

“Yeah, I traded with Tom – he wanted the day off, and it’s overtime for me.”

“Wait, you’ve been out all night, you’re going home at two and you’re going to work at three?”

“I am, Paul. I finish the first half of my shift at six am. I’ll go home and sleep then.”

“Not too long, you have to cut the front tomorrow.”

“I’ll cut it, dad. I don’t go back to work until three-thirty.”

“OK. Make sure you …”

“…use the red mower, I know dad, the red mower is for the front yard.”

“I was going to say, cut it diagonally, from the front door to the weeping willow.”

“Geeze, John. It’s not a ball field.”

“I like to vary the way it’s cut.”

“But ‘cut it diagonally, with the red mower’ sounds a little too prescriptive for me.”

“The other mower is for the side and the back yard. Lots of sticks and stuff from the woods, and this one just runs over all that crap.”

“The price you pay for free room and board Dan?”

“It’s not bad, he gives me one job a day.”

“On top of working more than 40 hours a week, you said tomorrow was overtime.”

“Otherwise, he’d sleep the day away. Hard work builds character.”

“That’s what you’ve said about every difficult thing I’ve ever had to do – ‘it builds character’ – you’d think I’d have enough by now.”

“Well, you certainly are a character. Here, have another beer – I’ll drive home.”

“Thanks Dad – for everything.”

Today’s gallery has a few throw-backs to scenes my dad would have been familiar with and a few more that I collected this week sitting with the pooch. And, if you have a song stuck in your head, it’s below the gallery.

This used to be an 8-lane bowling alley.

On one of our visits to Pittsburgh, the door to the old bowling alley was open. We went in for a few pics.

Dance floor. If you look close, you can see one of the old alleys.

This is the view from where the counter/stool used to be,

Return to the bowling alley

Have a Duke!

This is the house we moved into so my brother and I could attend better schools. My father would give this guy a D- in landscaping.

Bridgeville Post Office

Looking out over the graves at Melrose Cemetary

I was feeding the boys again this past week. That’s Moncton.

We’ve had some very good sitting weather.

“Hi. I was just checking to see if you have any peanuts.”

Sometimes, when we tell Maddie we’re not going to sit, she overrides that decision.

I was taking outside when we were stopped by this little ball of fluff.