It’s funny how far we go and how close we stay.
In 1973, I accidentally graduated from the University Of Iowa with a business degree in Marketing.
My senior year, I mainly studied how beer was marketed.
Anyway, I got home for the summer, since I didn’t get hired right out of college, since I also didn’t attend any interviews (I had a philosophical objection), and there I was, growing hair too long to work in the family company where Dad had been good enough to employ me part-time for years.
So, I got a job as a laborer working for a carpenter who was working for a contractor from Minneapolis or someplace who was building condominiums at Wahpeton, which is actually where Floyd & Gladys’ Miller’s Bay Lounge was.
We were right next door to Spud’s Resort, which was handy, because we could buy pop and stuff there, but Floyd & Gladys had beer, and great French fries, and a jukebox, so sometimes we went down there for lunch and listened to Smoke On The Water (both parts) and got buzzed on top of our noontime buzzes which we caught over at Dick’s cottage (I don’t remember where Dick was from).
Over the years, I did find my way back into the family business, and accumulated a number of stories about my doings with the Miller’s Bay Lounge, including the fresh cilantro story, and the other story where I sued a guy for some milk I delivered to somebody else but won the suit anyway, over his loud protestations.
This ashtray is not your typical “steal me” type, weighing in at a pound and a quarter, and I’m pretty sure there aren’t a lot of them out there even though Floyd & Gladys ran the place for quite a while.
It’s funny, years later, to run into the Thing, sitting here where I’m working, only several miles from where I was born.
Sometimes the journey really seems to take a long time, but you can turn around and see it all right behind you just like it only took since yesterday to get here….
Realized $9.99 7/11/06
This post was originally posted at Elsewhere, and included beachweasel’s reply:
That’s a neat story and a very cool item, being heavy with thick glass the color it is and all. It seems to be one of those items that when touched you’d see a dark, smoke laden bar room with a couple people at the bar and maybe someone shootin pool on their own with little light. I like that feeling.
