“Gents’ Night” with my two musician buddies was a Thursday night affair last week. It was Chipper’s turn to buy, so he produced a fifth of Dalmore’s single malt, which I found very nice. I don’t usually drink this stuff, you understand. However, these gents-only gatherings are educational in more ways than one. After we’d emptied the bottle, Roger declared us to be “enlightened beings,” and danged if he wasn’t right.
While I’m no stranger to intoxication, this was actually a new experience. For the record, I can report that sipping single malt whiskey and water over the course of an evening produced a state of being I found exceptionally pleasant that rendered me perfectlty fit for driving in New Mexico. The first time I noticed the hour, it was almost 1:00 a.m., whereupon I declared my earnest intention to leave the restored mid-19th century Missouri log cabin we were meeting in — yes, a log cabin with a huge stone fireplace — and indeed I did, about 90 minutes later. I could have managed it sooner, but the hilarity of things like my companions’ impeccably rendered Scotch/Irish accents in the telling of famous jokes like “The Regimental Condom” made it hard to pull myself away.
[Yes, of course it's famous. It has to be. It was the funniest thing I'd heard in years, almost as good as the story of the dyslexic Irishman who kissed his wife and smashed the Pope's ring with a shovel...]
Jesus on the wall
The next morning, however, my wife was ready to send my testicles to Argentina. We’d made plans to go out for an early breakfast at the Taos Diner, and for some reason I couldn’t manage it before 10:00 a.m. That’s plenty early in rock & roll time, but not if you’re from Iowa. There was also the matter of expecting to find me next to her in bed when she awakened scared and lonely a couple of hours after midnight. I handled this rather badly, but I just couldn’t help it, because the whole affair was rather amusing to me. I told her I was sorry, naturally, adding unwisely that there was a humorous angle to the episode, it being as out of character for me as it would have been for her to have gotten arrested for being in a knife fight. Hahaha! Ha? Oops. Ha??
There’s never been any need of a curfew in our relationship, you see, and I’m just not the sort of guy who stays out late drinking with the guys. In 25 years of marriage, it just hasn’t come up. I also haven’t had so much fun in years, which makes it harder to feel guilty. To tell the truth, I’m still smiling to myself because after 61 years, I finally got to do the manly thing and come home late and plastered. It brings to mind an old friend of ours from North Carolina, who used to say, “You know you’ve had a good time when the men are all drunk and the women are crying.” Hell, I didn’t even make any noise.
It wouldn’t have mattered at all, in fact, except that we had a date. I won’t make that mistake again — so easy to defuse, if I preserve a modicum of wit about me.
A good thing, too, because Thursday is another gent’s night…
No related posts.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
A Man’s gotta have his buddies AND his outlets….and Laughter is ALWAYS the best medicine…..seems to be the only true thing that can “Fix” me these days…..HA! Have fun…and drive careful……friendly advice from your favorite campus cop! : ) Steve
Sounds Great John,
i’ve been involved with the Newark Gentlemans Soicety for years now and Scotch and water (scotch lite) has been a regular at our thursday night gatherings. It’s mostly for myslef as not everyone has a taste for it.
And the getting home in one piece and in a timely fashion didn’t become an issue untill i began to work for the corporate aliens again. Now ,closing time comes early, unless there is a weekend war to attend to.
I’m wondering what makes thursday the day, for you, for me, for the optimist and the lions, whay can’t we wait till friday night to get together? or even weekends? there seems to be a primal/tribal thing about a (Thor’sday) thursday night meeting of the kindered spirits, talking and laughing into the late evening hours, all across the country, thursday nights creating that specail glow in the dark we call living…………Jeff
I think you’re right about Thursday. We’ve done it on Monday too, however (“musicians’ night off,” as they said).
Was just informed, BTW, that due to my compadres hauling off to Lubbock for a gig, we can’t get together tomorrow after all, so next week it is. I’m addicted, though.