It wasn’t the prone-to-angry-outbursts, double-Captain-and-Coke customer who reappeared after a 30-day stint “away at college.”
It wasn’t the open-shirted, barefoot customer who dug in his pocket for all the change he had and asked, “Is this enough for a drink?”
It wasn’t the who-knows-when-he-last-showered customer who has a propensity for sharing his oral sex escapades [...]
When you are one of seven children in a blended family, everyone is cast in a role repeatedly played out, despite all efforts to break free and re-create oneself. One sister, for example, was the clumsy one, something of which she was reminded every day, which resulted in continual mishaps that ranged from minor–a bruised [...]
“Hi,” he said, way too awake and far too jovial for my morning crowd. “Let me introduce myself.”
My regulars grudgingly looked up and silently acknowledged his presence, then immediately turned back to their styrofoam cups of dark coffee.
“Can I get you something from the bar?” I asked.
“No, no. I’m here to introduce myself,” he [...]
He was small, but tough. Very tough. And very small.
When they needed someone to crawl through unimaginably tight spaces and fix, find or forage for what might keep them all alive another hour, he was their man.
He was small and tough and very intelligent. He spoke with authority, certainty and complexity. He didn’t have [...]
“You look so familiar,” he said to RG Daughter as she poured his drink.
“Really? I grew up here, and I live and work here now that I’m out of school,” RG Daughter said, well into the second hour of a freelance bartending shift.
“No, no. Not here. Did you ever live in the Keys? Recently?” he [...]
Add a third place of employment to your daily life, and you soon find that you live in an multi-layered netherworld of “almost” realities–almost feel like I live here; almost wish I could work more shifts there; almost wonder how the more things change, the more things remain the same everywhere.
A very short list of [...]
It was his 75th birthday. His 75th birthday dinner date had cancelled on him three weeks ago. My great guy and I finally had one full day off together on his 75th birthday. We had an opportunity to go fishing on our one day off together on his 75th birthday.
“Is there a birthday boy in [...]
If only I had known the secret sooner, who knows what might have been these past few work weeks.
Had I had known that leaving my house at 26 minutes after the hour meant that I would reach the draw bridge just as the gates went up and the lights turned green, I never would have [...]
The bar was sticky with splashed beer and spilled booze. Ashtrays were washed and stacked, except the ones that weren’t. Limes and lemons rotted in the hand-washing sink. Dirty beer mugs lay on their sides in the “wash” compartment. Straws and peanut shells and bev naps and a dime or two were trapped at awkward [...]
I told both RG Daughter and RG Son that they didn’t have to worry about calling me today, since I had to work. They called anyway, one after the other, as soon as my shift began early this morning. God love them.
Thus, I have a measure of hope that they will never have a [...]