The Bar Chronicles: #26, ‘Old Dogs and Old Men’

Bar Night 2

In a bar on a hot summer night with three friends, presumably to ‘howl at the moon’, but we all knew better. Maybe years ago, but not now.

However, if we wanted to howl, it’s certain that we would have had good accompaniment. What is it about barroom dogs that they are always friendly, generally calm, and usually asleep, stretched out paw to paw, tail to nose, pressed hard on the beer stained hardwood? Our clinking glasses alerted them enough to stand and exchange pleasantries, sloppy maybe, but sincere.

Caverly’s Irish Pub, our usual spot, was relatively quiet. A baseball broadcaster was droning on about ERAs, RBIs and OBPs on the oversize flat screen TV in the corner, no one seemed interested.

I didn’t have to cup both ears to capture tonight’s conversation. Good thing, because tonight, our 26th Bar Night, we gravitated to a subject that was both riveting, spooky and mysterious. I know, that’s more than ‘both’, isn’t it? Drop spooky.

Are you a believer in ‘ETs’, extraterrestrials? A few years ago, you may have been mocked if you said ‘yes’. Today, not so much. Even the United States Navy has released documents that address sightings or engagements with, shall I say it, UFOs.

Governments are beginning to let the public in on their big secret, that something ‘may be watching us and we don’t know what it is’. Actually, we don’t know what it isn’t, either.

It’s becoming more mainstream to talk about ‘what’s out there’ without being considered ‘out there’. And this isn’t ‘Senior talk’, or four Seniors talk, as was the case tonight. And we were only halfway through our first beer (our first is our last, too).

Respected news outlets have written extensively about ETs and related incidents, the New York Times* and Popular Science**. There are clubs with respectable citizens and expert speakers meeting to talk about it. Really!

We finished our beers and stepped out to head home. What a brilliant sky, plenty of stars and other ‘stuff’, up there. It’s fun looking at the sky, but now it’s even more intriguing.

By the way, here’s a great phone app for sky viewing, ‘SkyView’. Hold it in any direction and see what’s in the sky at that moment. Here’s the view in the southeastern sky at 10:45 am, EST…Mercury, Venus and Mars, and Virgo, but no UFOs, darn…

Keep looking up…

Steve (August 2019 … ‘srbottch.com)

* Dec 8, 2017 ‘On the Trail of a Secret Pentagon U.F.O. Program’

** Fall Issue 2019 Popular Science on UFOs

For Robbie, a ‘big fan’ of ‘The Bar Chronicles’.

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srbottch

Retired in 2013 after 5 years as an elementary school teacher and 40 years as a sales representative to begin anew as a school crossing guard. SMy essays/stories are a way to communicate through the telling of personal experiences. One reader said about my blog stories, "...these are like a cold sip during a marathon run, simple, real life events". Another offered about my blog, “it brings some sense of normalcy not easily found in the modern world.”

19 thoughts on “The Bar Chronicles: #26, ‘Old Dogs and Old Men’”

  1. Thank you for this great post, Steve. You have a wonderful way with words. The UFO question is intriguing. It makes sense that we must share this enormous universe with others, doesn’t it? Earth can be the only planet with suitable conditions to support life. I recently re-read War of the Worlds and The Time Machine by HG Wells, both of which depict strange creatures and interesting societies. I think I would enjoy your bar evenings.

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    1. Wouldn’t it be quite interesting to know what, if anything, is there? For now, we’ll just have to be satisfied to keep ‘looking up’ and find our own mysteries 😎. Thank you for you comment.

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  4. That was fun. I like musing over the possibilities out there in the universe. We know nothing, assume a lot (relative to nothing), and psychologically prepare ourselves for contact, sort of. I hope when it happens the result is rather placid, exciting but serene overall. What’s the likelihood of that?? 🙂

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  6. I love old dogs in any establishment. The one at the bar would melt my heart in one beat. Does he have a name? As for the discussion, I’d enjoy that too. My dad used to say everything is possible but not everything is probable. But he devoured information on UFOs and life in other places. My MIL, who had an IQ 0f 186 missed med school due to WWII said matter of factly that she had seen one and knew they were here from time to time. You know how you can walk past something in your neighborhood dozens of times and never see it?? Well, it happens that way with many things. You only see what you believe is there. I think MIL and I were having a conversation about an Angel I saw when my son was born. We understood each other’s skepticisms. 🙂 I love a good philosophical conversation about anything. I’m a one beer person too. More than enough for this German.

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  7. You’ve reminded me of a barroom dog at an old watering hole in Lincoln Park. He was a big bulldog that snored–and you could even hear him over the din:). Nothing better than a big ‘ole dog taking a relaxing snooze:).

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    1. You would enjoy the company of three older gentlemen, with wit and good conversation that you’d find stimulating…well, you’d enjoy a beer, anyway. Thanks for commenting, Kristine, from an ‘old dog’, himself!

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