20 - Volume Two - funny old men in bars

Stephen says I have a knack for attracting some real characters. Here are two great examples back to back.

One Saturday afternoon, I picked up my Mom and met Lynn at The Rex to see Abbey's Meltdown and then the Swing Shift Big Band. At some point during Swing Shift, Lynn took Mom back home. Stephen showed up. Also going and coming back was a very gregarious funny guy named Jo from Washington, DC. He was there enjoying Abbey's Meltdown, sitting next to us, and then he had to leave. We couldn't believe he had such a great seat lined up for Swing Shift and he was leaving! He said he could come back in time to catch the second set, and we offered to save his seat for him (if you have ever seen Swing Shift at The Rex, you know this is a big favour to offer!) Sure enough, he did come back. My Mom had been replaced with Stephen in the meantime, and I hit him up for something from his wallet.

The following week, while I sat at the bar at Quotes (I was there solo, since Stephen had a race that night), I got to chatting with Merv. Merv is at Quotes every Friday for lunch and stays for the afternoon, catches the 7:30 train back out to Burlington. Merv is a 77-year-old retired lawyer with a great sense of humour, even though he is cantankerous (which just adds to the humour, in my opinion).

Merv's comment is hard to read, so I will interpret. It was a snippet of our conversation from that evening.

Merv: "Can I buy you a drink?"

Lee: "You can, if you must"

Merv was disgusted at my response. Young people today ... mutter, mutter...... "you can if you must"...what kind of a response is that ...mutter, mutter, mutter....


While I was showing Merv the Something From Your Wallet journal, he mentioned Jazz FM. I was just in the middle of showing Merv the entry by Jaymz Bee when .... Jaymz Bee walked in. He felt compelled to add an update to his previously journaled entry.

I thought it was kind of funny when I grabbed him as he walked by to say what a coincidence it was that he should walk by just when I was showing someone his entry in my journal and he said "oh THAT'S what happened to that picture!"