My shift at Rogers Walla Walla Canning Company started at 7:00 p.m. and ended at 7:00 a.m. We didnt sprint to the tavern across the street from the cannery in Milton-Freewater, Ore. But we did walk fast. It was a couple of cold beers and on the days soon after payday, wed actually have a little breakfast, sausage, eggs, biscuits and a can of tomato juice to make the drafts more breakfasty. Then, off to the Blue Moon Tavern in Walla Walla, where we would tote twenty plastic gallon milk jugs inside to be filled with beer. We were the forerunners of todays growlers. Cap Em, put them back in the trunk, drive to our rental house and sit around listening to Ray Charles two albums, Modern Sounds in Country Western Music, getting faced. Twenty gallons would be gone by noon. Go to bed, get up around 5:30 p.m. and head to work. Back in Milton-Freewater, at the tavern across the street from the cannery, sitting at a large table for nine, when available, or in two booths when our table wasnt available. While we sipped our early a.m. beers, each morning a huge man in his early fifties, came in for breakfast. Now we were in our late teens and early twenties, in decent shape -- all college football players and/or wrestlers. Nonetheless, this guy scared everyone. Each day, when he came in, I would say, Dont let me get out of here this summer without kicking his ass. Big laugh at the table and back to the bull shitting. The canneries shut down in phases, but when it starts, at most you got a couple of weeks. We were speculating on how much work we had left, the morning after the first layoffs were announced, as we sucked down a few early morning Olys, when the man mountain entered the tavern for breakfast. Except, in lieu of his usual seat at the counter, he headed straight for our booths, more specifically, my booth. I made my usual little joke. No one laughed. Our conversation: Man Mountain: (looking directly at me). Youve been sleeping with my wife. Me: (With the supreme confidence of the innocent) You got the wrong guy. MM: You Chris Koehler? Me: (Pucker factor up 500%). Yeah, but somebody told you wrong. MM: My wife told me you SOB. You coming out to the parking lot or am I dragging you out? To be continued.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 21:48:08 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015