Here’s my Columbus Day post from 2020. I must have thought there was some relevance, but it’s now lost in “the foggy ruins of time.”
I’ve been in dives before – that comes with the job – but never one as divey at La Pulqueria. Dark and smoky with walls stained brown and a floor that stuck to my paws with every step, plus a smell of human urine that was off the charts, if off the charts means the most powerful I’ve ever come across, except for that one time on the freeway when a truck carrying a load of portable toilets wrecked right in front of us.
There was one customer at the bar, slumped over it and motionless, his hand around a glass, drool coming from the corner of his mouth. We stood as far from him as possible. The bartender approached. She was hefty, wore a low-cut top and gold hoop earrings that touched her shoulders, looked kind of puffy and tired.
“Pulque?” she said.
“Cerveza, por favor,” said Bernie.
She opened a bottle, took a glass off a shelf and set them on the bar, said something in that Mexican way I didn’t understand. Bernie laid a greenback on the bar. The bartender seemed to perk up. She said something else. Bernie said something that made her laugh. Did it also make her lean forward, giving Bernie an even lower-cut view? Bernie tried and failed not to look; I’d seen that happen many times. He raised the bottle as though to fill the glass, then paused.
“Salud,” he said.
“Salud,” said the bartender.
Bernie drank, but right from the bottle. I couldn’t help noticing the fly at the bottom of the glass. Bernie was fussy about things like that. That was one difference between us. There may be others, but none came to mind at that moment.
5 Comments on “Happy Columbus Day (or not)”
Greetings!
Such a vivid description of a dive bar…I can’t help but laugh at this excerpt every time I read it. :^)
Good Columbus Day to all!
LOL!
Good day to all.
Yeah, I don’t see any resemblance or connections to either Columbus day or Indigenous Peoples’ day, of which this is.
It is also National Dessert day, which I will be making. Creamy cheese pie, not to be confused with cheesecake, which it isn’t. It’s pie. Think of cheesecake only much creamier in a graham cracker crust. I’ll make one recipe but two smaller pies. One of me and one for my Dad because tomorrow is his birthday. He will be 95. He has outlived all of his siblings by several years.
The weather is low 70s all week so I will be doing a LOT of gardening maintenance in the form of pruning and bagging as the green bin is already mostly full and I have piles of greens that still need to be chopped up smaller to send to city compost.
But first, I have a Covid shot in 45 min. I hope everyone is keeping up with their boosters. Also their flu shots and any other vaccinations they may have been remiss with; Shingles, Pneumonia, Tetanus, ask your doctor to check on you.
Made it all the way to the top of Mt Tom today (the lookout over Woodstock), which is close to six miles up and back. Someone was in dog heaven. Also, there are both a quilters quest and a bookstore quest going on in Vermont and a lot of places have both a participating bookstore and quilt store in the same place. I have hit independent bookstores so far in Bellows Falls, Middlebury, Brandon, Norwich, Essex Junction and Waterbury, and bought sometime in each. And tomorrow is another day!
Be sure to bring back a bushel of Macoun apples for pies, bread, sauce and butter.
I would be hitting all of the quilt shops and maxing out my credit cards.
I would also send Diana pawPrints and Freyja Grey with you for that six mile hike. It’s six miles too much for me but I bet they would love the hike with their best bud, Franklin.
Isn’t his favorite drinking fountain in that vicinity?