Visited: June 2, 2021
While visiting my parents, it can be rather boring.
They live in a nice little town but never really go more than a mile from their front door, unless my mom needs to go to the bank and then we hear about it for days.
When we visit, we go to one restaurant where my mom is in everyone's business, and my dad just wants to play Keno and have a cold one.
Dad isn't really "allowed" to drink beer due to some medical issues that have risen over the years. The bar has agreed to keep some non-alcoholic Becks on hand for him, and my mother monitors him like, as he puts it, Nurse Ratchet.
He's made it to 81 yrs, for all the decades of self abuse, I gotta say, you've come a long way Bart.
He is allowed to have a Budweiser once in a while. Sometimes he'll buy beer for us when we come to visit. He's under the impression we like Heineken, which we don't really but it's a nice gesture when he picks some up when we come to hang out.
My mom doesn't like to go anywhere, but my dad is forever a restless soul who likes to get out.
Doug decided we'd take him for a ride and go down to the canal. I thought we would take a nice long walk along the canal, it was breezy, not too cold. I thought it was perfect but my dad is perpetually cold. My cousin Bill called me so I sat on a bench to chat with him and catch up, and then the next thing I knew my dad was walking over to cross the parking lot and the street and go to Mahoney's on Main.
"Stop him," said my cousin. "Jockey him a little to the right and go to Buzzards Bay Brewing. It's my favorite. You'll love it."
Bill knows his shit, so, we repointed the ship to move a little bit to the east to the taproom.
"Do they got Budweiser here?" he asked. Bart has escaped the lockdown. And we are the enablers.
"No dad," I said, "they make their own beer but I'll check on what they have that's similar."
We've taken dad to some of our familiars up north where we used to live, like The Tap, and there is always some sort of ale or pilsner that will fit the bill for someone who doesn't usually drink fancy craft.
Approaching the bar, I ordered him a Flounder, which I felt would fit closest with his sensibilities. Doug got a Pink Power Raspberry Sour, which made my dad laugh. He ... may have had a derogatory name for pink beer and those who may drink it, but Doug weathered it perfectly. I got the Buzzards Bay IPA.
The staff at the taproom were really nice, I had a huge, long discussion with them about a lot of what's been going on with women in brewing, and the recent surge of #metoo, and the work Brienne at Notch up north of Boston was doing in sharing all the stories about sexism, abuse, and outright nonsense coming out of the brewing and service industry.
I used to work at a restaurant back in college, it's been a long time, but I lived it, saw it, knew it.
I asked her what her thoughts were, and how her experience at Buzzards Bay was. She said that the staff there and the owners were incredibly proactive in making sure the female staff were not just comfortable but safe. She told me how much she admired Brienne Allen, and she thanked me for asking about this very important topic.
We toasted each other, and it's really the first time in my life I've sat and talked about this kind of reckoning in the industry with anyone.
The taproom doesn't have a menu, but if we were hungry we would have gotten something from the Thai restaurant next door and enjoyed it. We were full from late lunch at my parents' familiar, and weren't looking for a meal or snacks. My dad said that's why he wanted to go to Mahoney's, because there's food. I told him that we didn't need food since we just ate, and it looked like maybe Mahoney's wasn't open for food anyway so we were at a good spot.
Doug grabbed a pack of cards and dealt 21 to us. We had a great time chilling and chatting.
I think I won.
I don't talk a lot about my dad and our relationship. There is a lot of discomfort, I was very angry and rejectful of him for a long time. I also didn't understand him, and was very selfish. The fact he's 81 and I'm 54 now, we're a lot different than me at 24 and him at 51. We've come a long way, I enjoy his presence, and time with him. And we had a great day hanging out at a really nice taproom. I'll be happy to go back and visit again.
And he liked the beer.
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