January 22, 2009

OBAMA-MANIA

After a month away from the old keyboard, there’s no shortage of stories or opinions that I’d like to share with you. Frankie O’s backed up! But, alas, they are going to have to wait a little longer. I have been, like just about everyone else I’ve met in the bar recently, totally immersed in the inauguration of our 44th President. For a while now, my perception of the bar has been that more people are more outward towards expressing their political beliefs. Being the “old school” curmudgeon that I am, behind the bar that is, I have tried to curtail the political talk as much as possible. Politics, religion and alcohol combined in any two ways are a volatile mix. Since I need the alcohol sales to feed the kids, I’ve always tried my best to put the ixne on any budding Rush Limbaugh’s in my midst. How times have changed.

I have always felt that my environment was a great barometer for the public at large. The amount of people that I can meet in a week, from differing backgrounds and points of view, is one of the reasons I like bartending so much. I’m still fascinated with meeting new people and hearing what they have to say. (As long as they don’t tap their glass on the bar or whistle for my attention, then the fascination ends abruptly.) Forever, a majority of these discussions would focus on sports (REALLY?) or family life, since these are, generally, two pretty safe avenues of discussion while still being something that can evoke passion and interest.

If I had to draw a line in the shift from, “Let the good times roll!” to “Hey, there is a world out there!” It’s an obvious one, September 11, 2001. The world did truly change that day, or at least the perception of it, but like any dramatic or tragic event in our lives, there’s a longing to get back to “normalcy”, to move on. So while the events at the bar around that time are things that have touched me deeply and changed how I look at everything, I also realize that the “bar” was a place for people to come in and take a break for a while. There was always a 400lb. gorilla in the room (No, not me!) but it seemed content to sit in the corner, for the most part.

That was until this last presidential election. I’ve been behind a bar most of my adult life, and have never witnessed anything like this. I can honestly say that I can’t remember the last shift I worked, that there wasn’t a political discussion. The primaries started a fire and the general election was like dousing it with gasoline. I felt like Karl Wallenda most nights, walking that fine line, without a net. My job is to give people what they want in an environment that they can’t get at home. A bar needs energy to be fun. Political discourse, especially in light of how the Cubs’ season ended (Insert rim-shot here.), was now the source of that energy.

Thankfully, since the rancor of the election has subsided, we’re all in the same boat now, everyone is transfixed with Chicago’s favorite son (No, not me again!). Since the transition office was located 8 blocks away, all of the out-of-towners wanted to know the latest. My main observation centered on the fact that the “other” Big O also seems to have an affinity for foods that aren’t recommended by your cardiologist. (I don’t know why, but this makes me think about the skit on SNL when Phil Hartman as “Bubba” goes “jogging” to Mickey D’s and uses a Big Mac and French fries to explain diplomacy. Priceless.) Anyway, I guess as we move forward, maybe it’s not a bad thing to have a public that once again that is captivated by the occupant of the Oval Office. These are different times that we live in, and some of us are grudgingly going to have to keep up with them. An engaged electorate can’t be a bad thing, can it? Still, I sometimes long for the days when all that mattered was “waiting for next year” to arrive and dissecting the reasons why it truly would be the one. Oh, well.

Although, there’s still one easy sports conversation to start, and it never gets old. I always have Cubs and Sox fans in the bar, so I’ll ask, what baseball team does Obama root for? Like clockwork, a Sox fan will mention that the Southside has won a World Series and a Presidential Election…. IN THIS CENTURY! Cubs vs. Sox works every time.