It’s good to be different!
The Thursday Aer Lingus flight to Chicago isn’t usually packed this time of year, so I was more than surprised to realise I was booking the last seat at an exorbitant cost! Arriving at Dublin Airport and checking through US Immigration I kept meeting these people all dressed the same and then they all got on the same plane as me! What I didn’t realise was that that particular weekend was the Chicago Marathon.
The closest I’ll ever come to the Chicago Marathon was the marathon drinking session in which I was involved in Chicago Airport a number of years ago. There used to be a pub there with beers from around the world, long before pubs with 100 beers became popular in the USA. My friend Steve and I decided to start with a New Zealand beer and work our way through Australia and on into Asia. There were no flight announcements in airports in those days and I ended up having to run for my TWA flight to London. The plane was taxiing before I found my seat!
Back to the Chicago flight in 2009 and all the people there with me looked fit and smart. They all had matching Polo Shirts from the Marie Keating Foundation. I hope they did well in the Chicago Marathon, even those who were going to walk the course. I had to pause for thought about this as I had never considered people who deliberately walk the marathon. These guys were as serious as the runners, they had a mission to raise money for charity and they were going to achieve it with their limited resources! Sounds like everyday business to me.
The reason for the short haircuts was revealed later when the captain added his best wishes to the 60 people on board from the Gardi taking part in the Chicago marathon. Gardi that can’t run, only walk, now there’s a thought! I thought only Beer Men could get away with this!
I felt a bit sorry for those in the party who didn’t have MK Polo shirts. There weren’t many of them, but they stuck out a bit like a sore thumb! I remember this feeling from my younger days when I didn’t really fit into the mould! I was the only violin playing rugby prop forward in the whole of Glamorgan and possibly South Wales! You can imagine how much teasing I endured with this combination. The boys in the rugby team weren’t impressed. Still, the girls in the orchestra thought it was cool, and orchestra parties were a blast with 35 girls and 5 boys!
Today I find myself “probably the only Welshman in the village” (you need to watch Little Britain to understand this). It’s interesting how later in life being different is something we all strive for. Being part of the majority doesn’t always make it right. Ask any drinker of craft beer, people with taste may be currently in the minority. Still, come the revolution we will be the majority!
Finally, I often wonder about the quality and freshness of beer served at pubs that offer 50, 75 or even 100 different beers. Is there some secret to keeping such a vast array of beers fresh to the taste, even when you’ve not sold a pint of the beer for 3 days? One secret I discovered on a recent trip to Kansas is not to have all the beers all the time. The first 6 beers I ordered were not available. Even then they had 94 to keep fresh!
Until the next time ‘May the grains of sand upon the shore; Number all your days; May the love of God in darkest times; Enlighten all your ways’. I bet you didn’t know there was a second verse to the popular Irish Blessing!
