Small Town Saturday Night!

Last Saturday we made the pilgrimage to the town of Rugby (population 2,939). Why Rugby of all places? It was my oldest brother Richard's 50th birthday. I was excited to go because I haven't seen Richard in close to six years (him and his wife Debbie live in Washington state). It was actually a surprise birthday. He had a hunch that something was going on. Why? Because everyone had plans that night, even my parents.

We all met at Jester's Lounge (the high-class town watering hole) at 7:30 to set up the food and to make sure all was in order. Since my cousin is one of the owners of the bar, Grant was allowed in for a about an hour. He had to be in one area of the bar and stay there. Grandpa bought him his first "drink", a 7-Up and munched on some chips. Great parenting, I know! My parents owned and operated a bar while I was growing up and I turned out OK (no jokes, Mark!) So it didn't bother me as much as Mark that Grant was in there for awhile. I think Mark was feeling like a pretty lousy father at that point! Grant went back to the hotel were Grandpa and Grandma babysat and from what I was told they had some interesting conversations about baseball. Grant asked us later if we were "going to the bar", which was interesting....he must have enjoyed it! (I doubt Mark will be real proud to share this story with his co-workers!)

Richard showed up around 8:15 and had the biggest smile on his face! Richard knew something was up when he walked in and saw Nicky. It was great having my siblings together and we actually had a lot of fun that night! The bar had a DJ that night. I haven't danced that much in a long time. We enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. Richard's friends were a good group of guys and he really enjoyed seeing everyone again.

Some "hottie" guys were checking out Nicky and I. It was probably because my sisters and nieces and I looked like we were from "the big city". Apparently jeans and nice tops set you apart from the "locals". Mullets (men AND women, disturbingly) and t-shirts with creative sayings like a Gatorade logo shirt that says "Get Lade" are common fashion among the local women. (I think Mark was slightly afraid of them.)

Not exactly a lot of "yeah babies" around there, y'know? Mark said he felt like he was in a time warp most of the night with some of the quality music being played. You know the kind- a lot of AC/DC, Metallica, etc.

The party ended about 1:30AM. But the night isn't over until there is a good old-fashioned bar fight (because as Elton John sang, Saturday night's the night for fighting, right?) Two enlightened gentlemen who I'm guessing had slightly in excess of the legal limit of alcohol got into a fight and took it out into the street. It was hilarious to watch because they were drunk, saying stupid stuff to each other like "You wanna throw fists". The two geniuses ended up rolling around on the street. Most of the town motorcycle guys were just laughing. I'm sure if there had been a real fracas breaking out those guys would pretty much destroy any one of the young punks around that area. It wouldn't be much of a contest. Those guys had tattoos older than most of those younger guys.

As the song says, they probably howled at the moon and shot out the lights after the bar closed down. Just another small town Saturday night in the upper Midwest!