Friday, July 29, 2011

Day 8

My boy toy just turned 40. I'm feeling old.

Years ago, at one of my former clients, I reported to someone who was a year or two out of college. I'd never had so young a boss before, but we became great friends. Fifteen years ago, he and I figured today, we were at a "staff appreciation dinner" here in Oshkosh where the owner of the company put on this fancy dinner at a hotel and then went around the room and told everyone what a wonderful job each was doing. He concluded by saying, "Did I miss anyone?" and everyone said no.

Well, he had missed someone -- Greg and me. So I whispered to Greg that the heck with this guy, we'll have our own staff appreciation event and said the next day we'd have a bratwurst together for lunch. Bratwurst is big in Oshkosh.

Thus BratFest was born -- it turned into an annual event for the past 15 years, and today we had BratFest 2011. Greg has aged from 25 to 40, and I haven't aged a day.

We have it at a local watering hole called Mr. Cinder's. Note position of apostrophe and the unnecessary quotation marks around REAL CHARCOAL.



I had a senior moment. Had told Greg that I had listened to the Jayson Blair book on CD -- he was the writer for the NY Times who got caught making up whole stories and eventually got fired. Told Greg the book just ends suddenly and it doesn't answer so many questions. Since Greg has his master's degree in journalism, I thought he'd enjoy the book. He came to my car and I gathered up the six discs and then gave Greg the sliding cardboard holder for the plastic box. Greg wondered why there was a gap as if there was another plastic box missing. I realized I'd only listened to half the book (hey, no wonder I thought it ended suddenly!) and I found the other plastic box in the little tote bag where I had my other books.

Never mind, I said. Here's the FIRST HALF of the book. Felt like a fool. But now I can listen to the rest!

I have tried to keep work out of this -- I know you're not supposed to blog about your clients -- not if you want to pay the bills, anyway, but this morning I was at a breakfast and couldn't resist including this photo of two WASP. These ladies are the Women Airforce Service Pilots, and they flew military airplanes as civilians during World War II. They never got their due, but this year, eachWASP(or surviving family member) got a Congressional Medal in April which they wear.  They are such an inspiration -- when they were introduced this morning, they got a standing ovation -- and a particular inspiration to today's female military pilots.

When I saw one WASP speak at a dinner, she was so frail and barely made it up to the podium. They had a high chair like a barstool chair for her to sit while she spoke, and everyone was sort of holding their breath for whether she would have the strength to speak and finally she said in this clear, lovely voice, "You never know what an old lady has been up to..." and everyone laughed and could have listened to her for hours.

So here are the WASP who dress like these women are dressed... this is a not so very good snapshot, but I like to look at the little girl and her mother's face. You can barely see it, but both are wearing their medals, and the one on the left you can see a little better. They're sitting on a golf cart, about to be taken to their next appearance. If you're ever googling some night, google the WASP -- they are such a dynamic group with amazing stories.





3 comments:

Mary Mc said...

The WASP stuff is really cool - wish I could meet them.

I don't understand your issue with the apostrophe in Mr. Cinder's - assuming the restaurant was started by Mr. Cinder

Pat said...

Maybe it was. I always thought the cinders referred to the "real charcoal" fire. I should have asked.

There's a drive in (restaurant) in town called Ardy & Ed's -- and one year we asked if they were still around and the girl said that Ardy is but added, "Ed was killed in a huntin' accident" and that became one of our inside joke lines if someone was late for a meeting or something, we'd say "I think he was killed in a huntin' accident."

Melissa said...

I can't believe Greg is 40! He looks good though!