A truely tropical drinking story, by Kathy MacCallum.
Sometimes drinking has great side benefits….those other than good drinks with good friends. The scene: Maui…..mid-day….HOT. And there is a pub on the second floor of an old building, open to the air, with a ceiling fan lazily twirling away. And the place is empty….not a soul there except for a bartender slowly polishing the long counter.
So I order a margarita, possibly the best I have ever had, not to mention the biggest. So big, in fact, that the bartender hands me one of those old metal milkshake canisters, and says “here’s the other half of your drink”. He chats with us; after all, we are his only customers. After a while he starts polishing the empty counter at the other end of the bar. Then, he tilts his head, looks at us, and works his way back to where we are sitting. He leans in close, and whispers, even though there is no one else there “if y’all would like to drop by this evening, my friend George Benson is going to come by for a drink, and I know that he’ll play for a while. Just don’t tell anyone”.
Now we are huge fans of jazz great George Benson so we arrived early and downed some more margaritas. Sure enough, George Benson wanders in, sits nearby and has a couple of drinks. Then he calmly stands, looks around and says “would anyone mind if I played awhile?”
There weren’t more than 20 people in the place and we all enjoyed George’s playing for at least an hour while the tropical breezes blew through the room. I will always wonder how many people passing on the street below heard the music and though they were listening to George’s latest CD. At the end of the evening George came around and shook hands and thanked us for being there.
The bartender has asked us not to tell anyone, but we cheated and told one person, but not until we got him to the bar with the promise that he would have a good time. To this day he thinks we are gods for knowing about this secret concert.
Thanks for your story Kathy! You get a $25 Gift Certificate to use at one of our pubs.
Submit your story to blog@vicpubco.ca. If we select your story you will win a $25 Gift Certificate! We will post a new “real people/real story” every Friday.
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