Episode #3 Sports Bar

Why would you take an old lady to a sports bar you might ask? In a nutshell - my dad. My dad has done a great job of making his mom a bigger part of his life as she's gotten older and needed us more, but his way of doing this is by simply toting her around to all of his usual destinations and hangouts. I kind of don't blame him for this anymore. Time with the Gan can be painful, whether you take her out into the world or try to contain her in the confines of your own home, so why not go on with your daily routines?


On this day my husband and I accompanied Gan and dad to a local sports bar to take in a Cowboys game. Surprisingly, Ganny is a huge Cowboys fan and watches most games. This is nice because the game entertains her and provides material for conversation, however her celebration of the team's successes consists of cheering, leaving her seat, and trying to cheer with other patrons. This is hit or miss on the embarrassment scale. At times it goes unnoticed depending on the blood alcohol level of the victim; at times it leads to borderline coherent conversations with strangers from which Gan must be retrieved and guided back to the table.


During this particular outing, two Gannyisms occurred which stick in my mind. (Gannyisms are regular behaviors that can typically be predicted given a specific situation.) First, Ganny became frustrated with the waitress, a poor little 18-year-old girl just trying to make a living, when she did not have the type of wine Ganny asked for. I say they didn't have it; it was difficult to know if they did or not because Ganny's method of ordering is asking the waitress to list all of the available wines, asking for a description of half of them, then asking if they have something she made up on the spot but is convinced actually exists. We watched helplessly as the waitress tried to interact meaningfully with her. Occasionally we would try to intervene only to be swatted away by an irritable, arthritic hand. Eventually Ganny ordered something that of course she did not like and complained about once it arrived at the table.


As mentioned in post #2, this is one of those aspects of modern society Ganny doesn't understand: not everything stays the same. The bar has whatever wines it has that day. Period. Maybe they even did serve your fictitious wine two weeks ago when we were here, as you claim, but the bottom line is they don't now so order something else.


Well one Gannyism led to another, as it often does, and Ganny wound up in the kitchen. She insisted on taking her wine quest to a higher authority and to her, I guess that is where she thinks the wine comes from (as opposed to the bar full of alcohol.) We let her go at first. At times attempts to stop her only bring on more humiliation as it appears you are fighting with an old woman in front of the entire bar. But eventually, my dad had to retrieve her. This is usually done best by smiling and introducing humor to the situation if at all possible to try to give the victims something to laugh about later instead of spit in your beer.