Loyal Patron

I have a loyal patron who comes in every week without fail, ever since he moved locally for work. He is very kind, and seems a bit ostentatious to the untrained eye.

He and I have shared many stories and have quipped about many ideas.

One day, he looked at me in a very serious way, "I don't have much time left. I have to make it count." He paused, "I don't know why it's so damn important, but it just is."

I was so moved by this, I was speechless. He walked out of the bar, back to work.



Another day, when I made mention of an abnormally annoying table. He said, "It's physiological," as if that explained everything. He got angrier and angrier and explained how upset it made him to see cognitively impaired people treated differently. Besides, "They're people."

He told me how when he was young he beat a kid and pushed him over the stair railing for tormenting a cognitively impaired child in his class. He says to this day, he doesn't recall doing it. He totally blacked out, but he never regretted it.



He told me recently, "I told a young man, who is soon to be married, 'As soon as the ceremony is over, you might as well write her a check for half of everything you have and call it done. It will never get any better than that day. You'll work your whole life trying to get back to it.'"

I was surprised he had such a perspective, being a married man, but I suppose there is some truth to it. In his mind, he is chasing a memory. A good one, but a memory.



He's an older man who wears glasses, hats, and big coats. He talks in a manner that is charming, and rarely heard from my generation.

Not actual person in blog

A true southern gentleman.




He still comes into the bar when I'm not there. Life is "the usual" for him right now.