The Bar

Zulegoona · Post by **Zulegoona** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:25 am

Hwy 63

Rain talked about it a little on the
Page 40 of the Idle Chat thread.

geekster · Post by **geekster** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:27 am

oh! I know where that is! You take the Mt. Pilot cutoff, go on through Hooterville and make a left when you get to Pixley!

buckethead alien · Post by **buckethead alien** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:29 am

Sandwichman wrote: I think we are in line for a few shots of Jaeger.

Yeah bo', that's the spirit.

how 'bout them Y*nk**s?

Zulegoona · Post by **Zulegoona** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:30 am

Geekster wasn't it you bemoaning the loss of the shared back yards of your childhood out east?

GuinivereElise · Post by **GuinivereElise** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:43 am

16 turns into 63...

or is it the other way around?

Oh well. Enough reminscing...

GuinivereElise · Post by **GuinivereElise** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:47 am

Ug. I need a drink. How about a jager and red bull?

Who's behind the bar?

geekster · Post by **geekster** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:47 am

Yeah. Actually I grew up in an area even more rural than THAT. A mile outside of a town of 300 people in a county of maybe 5,000. I could go into town and hear about crap my Grandfather did when he was a kid. If a stranger came to visit ... everyone would not only know it, but wonder whose car that was.

I had the same second grade teacher that my Mom and Uncles had. There is something to be said about living in a place that has no woodwork to hide in, though. I was actually surprised at how tolerant the people are there. The town commissioner was gay and open about it. There were a couple of swingers, and a town drunk that shot the bell off the train at 2am one morning but it was all part of the show. Made life interesting. People were nosey but not judgemental on the whole. There just weren't any secrets, really.

But what I probably miss most of all is not being able to expose my kids to walking down the road picking wild asparagus and not seeing a car for hours, or picking wild raspberries and blackberries in the woods, or stopping at an unattended roadside produce stand, taking some stuff and putting the money in the jar, going to the fire company fund raiser chicken BBQ ... crap like that. Just being able to get out on your bike and ride all day or ride up to the bridge and fish ... my kids will never know that. It built a sense of independance and freedom in me that will be different with my kids. It'll be interesting to watch.

GuinivereElise · Post by **GuinivereElise** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:54 am

Sounds like my childhood...

-if there's an unknown car in my mom's driveway, the sherrif calls her up to make sure everything's okay.

-the town festival is Ag Days.

-you can fish from the bridge. It's the Spring Valley Creek. The bridge is on broadway.

-the local watering hole is the VFW, who also host Cheeseburger Night on Wednesdays. The whole town is there.

unfortunately, everyone there IS really judgemental.

-there is NO ethnic diversity. Just a bunch of norwegians and swedes.

-Homosexuals are regularly run out of town.

-we received hate mail because I have a brother with Down Syndrome, and we don't hide him away.

not a very nice place, all in all. Very backward. Ingrown. They are scared of progress, so instead, they regress...

buckethead alien · Post by **buckethead alien** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:57 am

GuinivereElise wrote:Sounds like my childhood...

-Homosexuals are regularly run out of town.

-we received hate mail because I have a brother with Down Syndrome, and we don't hide him away.

I propose a toast to GETTING THE HELL OUT.

*clink*

GuinivereElise · Post by **GuinivereElise** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 10:58 am

thanks BHA!

*clinkie*

I'm glad I did.

Zulegoona · Post by **Zulegoona** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:01 am

to get the hell out, hey my cups empty.

when a small town is bad it can be really bad.

GuinivereElise · Post by **GuinivereElise** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:02 am

it's true.

Here, let me get you a drink. I AM the cocktail around here.

Anyone else want something while I'm making the rounds? (for drinks...!!! ...get yer minds outta the gutter!!)

Zulegoona · Post by **Zulegoona** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:13 am

I was still drinking black coffee, Thanks.

Cedar Falls was cosmopolitan compared to that. The city proper was pretty much, white but there was the state university that added a more exotic and intellectual flavor to things.

I had a creek right across the street from me in " the woods" it ran into the river on the other side of the railroad bridge and in the warm haze of memory it seems like I spent endless summer days in the wild.

geekster · Post by **geekster** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:16 am

We had quite a bit of ethnic diversity really. The area was settled in the late 1600's and the church I went to was built as a "chapel of ease" in the 1700's and had been in continuous use since then. There was a fairly large black population in the next town over ... well, not really a town, more like a crossroads, that kind of dated from the old racial segregation days so the population was more separate when I was a kid but is starting to mingle now. There were a lot of migrant spanish speakers, mostly from Puerto Rico that settled there if they found year-round work. They mostly came to pick truck crops for processing at the canneries (Green Giant, Libby's, etc.) but some found work at dairy farms or at one of the tree nurseries.

Yeah, I never could understand that about the midwest ... always seeming so socialist on the outside ... as long as everyone was just like them. We had a different attitude ... everyone was allowed to be different but we valued self-reliance and people, sadly, wouldn't take charity even if they badly needed it. If anyone ever came asking for help, you could be pretty sure that most of the time they were in really dire straits to come asking. I had a girlfriend in Wisconsin once and it seemed half the town was on welfare. That was in the late 80's/early 90's.

geekster · Post by **geekster** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:17 am

I wll have something without too much alcohol ... how about one of those peach smoothies with a shot of rum?

GuinivereElise · Post by **GuinivereElise** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:17 am

here's your coffee Z.

My hazy childhood memory often falls on the endless days and nights I spent at the ice rink a block from my house. I would go there after school, and skate until my feet were so numb from the cold they hurt. Then I would have to warm them up when I got home, and the warming hurt too. But it was worth it.

I used to want to be a figure skater when I grew up.

Tee hee!

GuinivereElise · Post by **GuinivereElise** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:21 am

Geekster, your peach smoothie will take a little bit.

its funny... when I got my nose pierced, the whole town acted as if I had taken an icepick and driven it through my face and left it there. all they could do was stare. and when I cut my hair short (it used to be waist-length in high school) they all wanted to know if I was gay...

makes me giggle...

geekster · Post by **geekster** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:23 am

GuinivereElise wrote:they all wanted to know if I was gay...

Being the smartass I am, I would have said something like ... no, but my cat is!

Make that two shots of rum. Then I gotta actually get some work done.

stuart · Post by **stuart** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:27 am

the cult of personality

Millions of Americans take personality tests each year: to get a job, to pursue an education, to settle a legal dispute, to better understand themselves and others. But where did these tests come from, and what are they saying about us? In The Cult of Personality, award-winning psychology writer Annie Murphy Paul reveals the surprising and disturbing story behind the tests that claim to capture human nature.

Combining cutting-edge research, engaging reporting, and absorbing history, Paul uncovers the way these allegedly neutral instruments are in fact shaped by the agendas of industry and government. She documents the dangers of their intrusive questions, biased assumptions, and limiting labels. And she exposes the flawed theories and faulty methods that render their results unreliable and invalid. Personality tests, she contends, produce descriptions of people that are nothing like human beings as they actually are: complicated, contradictory, changeable across time and place.

GuinivereElise · Post by **GuinivereElise** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:30 am

a double shot peach smoothie is on it's way...

I, being the type of person who likes to have a bit of fun with others' prejudices, would usually say something to leave them thinking. something along the lines of:

"hmmm, well...Girls ARE awfully pretty"
or
"well I can't say that I've ever DATED another girl..."
or
"oh. well. college.... you know... everyone experiments... didn't you?"

Simply Joel · Post by **Simply Joel** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:30 am

regarding small hometowns...

left mine in '68... looked back a couple of times... never went back.

moved to the "city" Springfield, IL surrounded by little communities...

lived in small communities since... now live in a village of 1500... and that is plenty big enough for me.

i like BRC when it is less than 100 people around...

geekster · Post by **geekster** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:31 am

GuinivereElise wrote:"oh. well. college.... you know... everyone experiments... didn't you?"

I like that one the best

Zulegoona · Post by **Zulegoona** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:32 am

Thanks for the coffee, // raises it in he air to finish the toast //
To New friends and renewed lives.

Oh hey, I really need to get some things done, so I'll have to wish you all a good day and get going. I stop back later.

GuinivereElise · Post by **GuinivereElise** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:34 am

Thanks Z! Have a good day!

GuinivereElise · Post by **GuinivereElise** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:38 am

geekster wrote:
GuinivereElise wrote:"oh. well. college.... you know... everyone experiments... didn't you?"
I like that one the best

it's a good one, because it's a double-edged sword... damned if you do, damned if you don't...

tisha2 · Post by **tisha2** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:39 am

i am trying so hard to catch up on the 5 f*ing bar pages since i left yesterday....damn!!

i'm in a lil village after growing up in an L.A. suburb of a suburb and i *love* it. everyone knows everyone and we all look out for each other... a lot like BRC actually...

always knew i was a small-town girl at heart.

nice to see the pic of yer ankle-biter geek!! anyone know how i can post a shot of mine?

GuinivereElise · Post by **GuinivereElise** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:44 am

here's MY ankle-biter...

a little different than yours... but he's still my baby....

http://guinivereelise.tripod.com/sitebu ... rcutio.jpg

tisha2 · Post by **tisha2** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 11:45 am

geekster wrote: But what I probably miss most of all is not being able to expose my kids to walking down the road picking wild asparagus and not seeing a car for hours, or picking wild raspberries and blackberries in the woods, or stopping at an unattended roadside produce stand, taking some stuff and putting the money in the jar, going to the fire company fund raiser chicken BBQ ... crap like that. Just being able to get out on your bike and ride all day or ride up to the bridge and fish ... my kids will never know that. It built a sense of independance and freedom in me that will be different with my kids. It'll be interesting to watch.

and *that*, Geekster, is reason #1 that I live here.
That and the undeniable fact that it and the the people here call to me. oh - and the local herbs are fantastic.

geekster · Post by **geekster** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 12:05 pm

tisha2 wrote: and *that*, Geekster, is reason #1 that I live here.
That and the undeniable fact that it and the the people here call to me. oh - and the local herbs are fantastic.

Yeah, I have a friend or two up there. I wish I could work from there. If this company goes public (we came close this year but have delayed it pending a new product rollout) I will be headed a bit North, I think. The trouble is ... the schools where I live right now are so good. The public highscool a couple of blocks from me is in the top 100 in the country so I am torn.

buckethead alien · Post by **buckethead alien** » Wed Oct 13, 2004 12:07 pm

I now plan to commence drinking Tecate from a can and not to decommence until much later this evening. You may keep your Jaegermaster and Commander and whatnot to yourselves. Barkeep please line them up and keep them coming.

Beer. The other white meat.