honky cracker: Tonight, Let it Be Lowenbrau It's not often that you find yourself standing in a deli confronted with the opportunity to keep a strange old promise to an old friend.
It was one of those "let's go grab a beer after work nights" for Dogg in I, back when I lived in Boston. "Let's go grab a beer" meant, in Dogg-speak, "Let's go sit and talk til the damn place closes, cuz sometimes you're my only friend in the world."
Our topic of conversation turned to Forgotten Beers of Our Youth. Not beers that we drank, of cours. But beers we'd seen around. In liquor stores. In ads. In our fathers' fridges. Beers like... oh, I can't remember all of them exactly but... beers like Narragansett. Shaffer. And the one that sticks out in my head most of all, Lowenbrau.
"Lowenbrau, Dogg. Remember that? I haven't seen Lowenbrau inyears!"
"Yeah... Lowenbrau. What the hell ever happened to that?"
"I don't know, Dogg. But I remember being six or seven, and there was a six-pack of Lowenbrau just sitting on our back porch. And I remember thinking, 'someday, when I'm a man, I'm going to have a beer. And that beer will be Lowenbrau.'
That six-pack sat there for years, like it was waiting for me to growup. Eventually it disappeared. I don't know what happened to it. But I promise you this, Dogg. If I ever see Lowenbrau available anywhere, I'm going to get it. And I'll have one for you."
Today I just wanted a sandwich.I was hungry. But my attentioned turned, as it often does, to the beverage shelf in the fridge.
And there it was. The lone six-pack of Lowenbrau.
I swear the thing had to be at leasst 15 years old. I could be wrong, but I haven't seen Lowenbrau available anywhere ever in my alcohol-buying years. And I've bought alcohol in a lot of places -- including this deli.
But there it was. The same blue label I rememberfrom my youth. The same proud red stamp that read "made in MUNICH". The same green glass bottles.
I don't feel like drinking alone today. Infact, I don't really feel like drinking alone much anymore these days. I've been down that road before, and while I don't think it was ever a "problem" for me, I just don't... I just don't need to do that so much anymore. You know. These days.
But it's New Year's Day, and for some reason I just can't bear the thought of being all alone all day today. I don't know why exactly. I just crave the company of people I really give a shit about, and who in turn give a shit about me. But as I said, it's New Year's Day, and we all need time to ourselves.
So I owe this to Dogg. And I won't feel so alone if I'm drinking beer as a promise finally kept to an old friend.
I bought the beer, and I'm going to drink it. I'll watch the light go down on the Clositers from my living room window. And in true silly cliche form, I will listen to old Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel records while I crack one open for old promises and old friends kept.
Hello darkness, my old friend. Tonight, I will let it be Lowenbrau.
