Ah -- Wellington, Kansas. I haven't thought about that town in years but it holds a special spot in my life story. It was the first place I was ever served in a bar, almost 40 years ago.
I was 16 years old and on a cross-country trip with my 17-year-old high school buddy and his parents. The parents had friends in Wellington and we stayed with them a night or two. One evening while the old folks were gabbing, my pal and I went to check out the town.
We went into a bar where there wasn't much happening and started playing pool. There was a sign on the wall that said something like: 'In order to play pool you must show your draft card" -- the draft card, of course, being required in those days when a male turned 18.
Well, we shot pool for a while and nobody seemed bothered -- nobody asked to see the cards, anyway -- so we started to wonder: If they think we're 18, maybe we can get a beer? I still had some growing to do at that point; I was about 5'3" and I wrestled in the 112-pound class. My friend was taller, heavier and shaving every day, so he went up to the bar while I sat at the table. By golly, a minute later there he was, coming back with two bottles of Coors.
Cheers,
Henry
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Smile ... thanks for sharing that. Kansas, like Chicago, IL, was a different place forty years ago, but to a large extent, Kansas has been able to stay the way it was 'back then' ... I think what I like best about small town, Kansas is that although almost everyone knows everyone else, we all tend to mind our own business and expect others to do the same. The courtesy and 'laid back' attitudes around here are hard to find in larger cities. PAT]