Читать книгу Life at DrTom's: Mostly Humorous Anecdotes by a Mostly Retired Cornell Professor - Thomas A. Gavin - Страница 24

On Saturday, Management, Mark and I went to our new favorite bar/club in Candor, NY--Punk's Place. Mark had gotten there before us and reported that the 2-7 crowd had just left. You know what I'm talkin bout--the guys who sit in a bar all afternoon on a Saturday and drink. A few scary characters, but nothing we haven't seen in bars from Korea to Costa Rica. I will join them some Saturday for a while; has to be some good material for a book there.

But by 8, an entirely different crowd appeared. I was completely surprised that the average age of this clientelle was about 45. Maybe I was wrong about all the senior citizens being locked up in abandoned buildings in Syracuse by younger people. Maybe it was the other way around. Or, the older group made the younger ones stay home and babysit. Or, there are no longer any young people left in Candor; they all moved to Ithaca. Maybe Candor is comprised of people under 18 and over 40. I will explore the demographics of Candor further when we attend the Fall Festival there next weekend. I should have pumped the lady who cut my hair last week for this information.

Almost everyone there came as a couple. Where are all the swinging singles you are supposed to find in a place like this? What if I had been single and I wanted to dance with someone? Mark came stag. What in the world was he supposed to do? We ate our reubens, drank some beer, and listened to one set of the band, which was excellent, by the way. I hate about 90% of the bands I hear these days, but these guys (Giant Steps) were really good musicians. I barely had to break dance at all, but I understand why the word "break" is included in the name of that dance form.

Management and I left about 10:30, so maybe the youngsters came after that. Baby boomers, the custom these days is not to even go out until 11 or so. If you come before that, you look desperate. You have to walk into these places like you don't really care if you are there or not. Then, order a beer like you were asking to borrow a pencil. No big deal. You don't really care if you drink or not. Look around like you don't really see anyone but, in actuality, you are scoping EVERYONE out. Very kewl. You might leave at any minute, and they would hate to see you go. Your leaving would be a big loss. Everyone would follow you out the door, bar revenues would collapse for the night, and the band would take an extra long break. In the old days, you could smoke a cigarette during this initial phase of your night and you would look very James Dean-like. Now, you have to chew gum and you look very Goldie Hawn-like. But these are the times in which we live.