A year! A whole damn year! Oh, the stuff we ‘coulda, woulda, shoulda’ gabbed about. I say ‘gabbed’ because that’s what we do, six of us sitting around a beer stained table, ensconced in a mishmash of creaky, sometimes wobbly chairs, gabbing.
It’s a foggy description but if you let your imagination wander, you can picture us. Six older gentlemen, beer in hand, leaning in to hear the conversation over the din of background noises from bar talkers, dart players, and big screen ‘whatever game is playing’ television watchers.
Stop the show! I got carried away, delirious with wishful imagining, we have none of that tonight. A year has passed since our last actual bar soirée but it’s still Covid-19 season, hence we’re still following protocol; social distancing, maybe even self imposed isolation.
Tonight’s gathering, the first in a year, is via Zoom. Each of us has dialed in to a Bar Night teleconference, managed by a Zoom expert. Imagine faces in rectangular boxes arranged across the top of a PC monitor, like panelists on a game show. Think ‘Hollywood Squares’, the old television game show.
Tonight, it was ‘B.Y.O.B’ to the ‘Zoom’ experience and we raised them in a toast, giving thanks that each of us has maintained our health through the Covid months. We grinned proudly when showing our bottles to the group: Buds, Guinness, a lemonade…a lemonade? Boyish grins, revealed a playful innocence in holding up our bottles, like teens and boasting their first ‘nip’ with the gang.
Some of us had our Covid vaccines while others wait, a bit frustrated by the slow rollout and computer competition to try and snag available time slots when enough vaccines do arrive. But they will and we’ll all get ‘stuck’ by late Spring.
Did you see the news? A pilot on a commercial flight reported seeing ‘something’ he couldn’t identify pass over the plane. Something he couldn’t identify? While ground control couldn’t, or wouldn’t, one of our group could, and did. It’s ‘them’ and it’s been ‘them’ for years. Whoa, now the conversation got interesting.
The conversation has always been interesting over the past few years. Adding in UFOs and aliens to the mix gets everyone’s attention. Throw in the fact that even the US government is telling us in drips and drabs that there have been numerous spottings, unexplainable spottings, by legitimate sources (military pilots) over years, and this topic goes from kookie to classified. You can feel the hair on the back of your neck stand up.
This will make you sit up pay attention: https://www.history.com/news/skinwalker-ranch-paranormal-ufos-mutilation
Have any of you, the readers, experienced UFO sightings, or paranormal action? This is great topic for Bar Night. Fortunately, since I was already indoor, I didn’t worry about being outside, y’know, in ‘their’ environment, tonight.
Steve
“Oh, honey, would you mind taking out the trash tonight?”
February 2021. Click the Follow button to catch a story whenever I get the energy to write. They’re fun and cover a plethora of topics…
S'amusing 
What a delightful read. I am all about aliens, Area 51, and even back to the Betty and Barney Hill abduction story. I have never seen one, but back in the day (even after Project Blue Book had ended) our AF switchboard still received calls about sightings. Fascinating stuff! (It was great to read about your Zoom bar night!)
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Maggie, then you would loved to have been part of that Bar Night. One of our group is a bonafide believer (and why not , with everything coming out now) who belongs to a club that meets monthly to discuss this alien, UFO stuff. And when he gets talking about it, the rest of our group listens intently. It’s lots of fun. Thanks so much h for your wonderful comment.
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It is all so interesting, believer or not. Sounds like a fun conversation I would have enjoyed very much!
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Talked to my friend today and he expects big news in May when the Defense Dpt will report to Congress on the status of this whole UFO stuff that’s been happening. Stay tuned!🙀
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Oooh, something fun to look forward to!
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I love alien lore, Steve. This article was fascinating. Thanks for sharing.
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John, if you’re a fan of the alien lore, then you’d love our Bar Night gathering when one of us, a real officianado, gets to talking. He’s the one who sent me the article but when he spoke about it, oh brother, gave me the willies 🙀😂. Thanks for commenting, John.
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😁
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Goodnight. I’ve been sleeping with one eye open since reading that clip!
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😁
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I organize a monthly retirement lunch for the retired folks from our school district. Like you, we have been unable to meet for a year. I miss their company. When I suggested a Zoom meeting, there wasn’t a whole lot of interest. We’re having an outdoor gathering for the first time next month.
I can picture the intense conversation regarding UFO’s. Get a few guys together over a beer, and the conversation can go anywhere.
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When one of us first suggested it, there wasn’t 100% enthusiasm, so I let it die. Our Zoom expert proposed it again and everyone joined. Of course, in-person is much better: the smell of a beer joint, the loud background chatter, the friendly handshake of a barstool fixture about to fall off his seat, the walk to the car in an area that’s becoming less desirable….. on second thought, maybe Zoom is the better option 😂. Pete, you’d enjoy being with us and adding to our no rules conversation. Enjoy your gathering and let us know how it goes. Have a great day!
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I greatly enjoyed your post about gabbing with your buddies! I can just see (and hear!) you now. As for UFOs and other unexplained phenomena of a potentially alien nature, I’m content to leave them unexplained for the time being.
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Glad you’re imagining us. It’s actually a great atmosphere when we’re at a bar and I think you’d enjoy sitting at a table with us, adding to our ‘go anywhere’ conversation. As for the aliens, I’m with you. Thanks for commenting, Liz. Have a great day!
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You’re welcome, Steve! It’s a day of work meetings for me. Hopefully, they won’t be too painful. 😉
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Work is great therapy. I bet you enjoy it. It’s odd, but when we’re younger, we tend to think about the end of working. When we’re older (speaking of myself, here), we (maybe I should use ‘I’) enjoy having to to work…at least some of the time. I’m probably not making sense 🤪.
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What fun to see a pub night post, Steve. Zoom is better than nothing and you can still chat. I’ve not seen UFOs or paranormal activities yet, but there’s still time.
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Keep looking, Robbie. According to the expert in our group, they’re out there and have been for decades. I’ll keep you posted🙀😎 And, thanks for the nice comment.
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My pleasure, I do keep looking, Steve. I think I’m just not observant enough – I’ve always got my nose in a book [smile].
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Reading is great. I’m reading ‘Team of Rivals’ by historian Doris Goodwin. It’s about one of our greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln. It bis so well written by this Pulitzer Prize winning author. A dog gave it to me for Christmas and it’s 750 pages long. I’m not a fast reader but I vowed to release 10 pages a day and get finished with it by March. I’ve got about 20 pages to go now. And of course, I know I’m gonna cry at the end of it, because Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865 following the Civil War. I get emotional over sad endings. I haven’t cried over The Bar Chronicles…yet 🤪
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Fantastic, Steve. I have read a bit about Abe Lincoln and his youth. His greatness was evident early in life. I was doing so research for a story I want to write about a “mad hatter” and I came across this tale: https://www.washingtonian.com/2015/04/12/the-man-who-killed-john-wilkes-booth/. The story of the man who killed the man who killed Lincoln. I thought it was very interesting. I am researching America’s role in WW1 and am listening to Last Man Standing which features Gen Pershing. I am writing a book about a US soldier in WW1.
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That sounds just a wonderful way to spend an evening. I get together with some ladies who do needlework and we talk about nothing that peaks my interest. Think I need to join you at the bar. Much more interesting. I believe in the possibility of everything. My first MIL had an IQ of 186 and said almost nothing to me. She thought I was too dim for her son. But she did tell me she had seen one and KNEW they existed. I trusted her on that. I remember reading something about you can’t see what you don’t believe can exist. Maybe it’s like refrigerator blindness. ;))
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You’d enjoy Bar Night and our talks. The alien stuff gives me the willies but that makes it more interesting. More to come in this subject. ‘Thanks for stopping by’!
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