Here in Kentucky, there is a magnificent pop (soda) called Ale 8. It was created and is bottled in Winchester Kentucky and is sold mostly throughout the state. It tastes mostly like ginger ale, but with more citrus and caffeine added. It is all-together delectable and the perfect cure to a bad day. It is also, unofficially, the official drink of CAP.
Anyways, today I was reminded why I love Ale 8. We were at the gas station, and the Ale 8 truck pulled up to deliver some goods. There were 2 employees who were unloading the truck. Both had camo hats, overalls, flannel shirts, and most importantly, huge red beards! The truck was a faded orange and most likely a 1980's model. "Ale 8" was drawn on the side by hand, somewhat sloppily, and there was also a faded logo on the back gate. After a minute or two of assessing the scene, the duo caught on that they were being watched by a portly bearded fellow near the CAP truck. One of them gave me "the nod", a single movement of the head to acknowledge an other's presence in an affirming manner. It was a welcome banner of acceptance from a fellow red beard. The other, possibly seeing me as one of his own, gave me a huge and dramatic fist pump in the air. My fellow bearded brethren felt a certain zeal to greet me, something that could not be expressed in words but only by hurling a fist into the air, almost as to say, "Beards!"
Cheers.
"What puzzles the world, and its wise philosophers and fanciful pagan poets, about the priests and people of the Catholic Church is that they still behave as if they were messengers. A messenger does not dream about what his message might be, or argue about what it probably would be; he delivers it as it is. It is not a theory or a fancy but a fact. It is not relevant to this intentionally rudimentary outline to prove in detail that it is a fact; but merely to point out that these messengers do deal with it as men deal with a fact. All that is condemned in Catholic tradition, authority, and dogmatism and the refusal to retract and modify, are but the natural human attributes of a man with a message relating to a fact."
G. K. Chesterton
3 comments:
You are not portly, however, if the CAP thing does not work out, sounds to me like you can always work delivering Ale 8!
Any chance some Ale 8 might make its way up to Chicago?
I have spent the afternoon reading the blog. You always amaze me with your insight and your "wordsmithing". Hope all is well and hope to see you around the holidays. Take care of yourself and don't let those southerners affect you too much. They are wiley!
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