But I can't remember precisely what he said. So I'll go with the wistful and melancholy version.

I have mentioned college girls who have been at the bar. This is because I am at the bar, college girls are sometimes at the bar, and sometimes I am there at the bar when the college girls are there. At the bar. But hopefully you have seen from my writings that it is not all about the college girls.

I have also conversed with the parents of college girls. At the bar.

A few months ago a college girl came into the bar with her parents. I think it was a Saturday, early afternoon. The parents were no doubt visiting their daughter, and she brought them to the bar to have lunch. I'm not sure what signal it sends the parents that their daughter is bringing them to the bar, but I leave it to them to understand their own dynamics.

After lunch and a beer the mother and daughter leave. I assume they are going shopping. It is a thing I suspect mothers and daughters do. Maybe this is stereotypical thinking on my part; maybe they went to attend a rocket science seminar. I know I'd be interested in going to a rocket science seminar, and I'm no rocket scientist. As you have probably determined on your own. And I would hope the seminar was held near the bar. For convenience.

Anyway: the mother and daughter leave. The father is alone, drinking a new beer, watching sports on the various televisions. He also looks intermittently at a few college girls who are over by one of the pool tables. They are the ones putting money in the jukebox.

I do not think he is looking with lust in his heart. Maybe he is: they are young attractive girls. But I prefer to think that when he looks at them it is because they remind him of his daughter. And they probably remind him of his own college years. Which no doubt makes him think: where the hell did all those years go?

A few college boys enter the bar. IDs are checked, a pitcher of beer is poured, and they proceed to join the girls by the pool table. There is laughter. And mild sexual tension at moments. Because they are young, and they are boys and girls in America.

There is a Hold Steady song, "Boys and Girls in America."  The title is from a Kerouac quote.

“Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together; sophistication demands that they submit to sex immediately without proper preliminary talk. Not courting talk — real straight talk about souls, for life is holy and every moment is precious.”

The Hold Steady song is not played on the jukebox by the girls; the band's audience is thirties-ish males who like bar-band rock with smart lyrics. About life in bars, sometimes. So yes: I have heard of them.

The father is at the table next to me. He catches my eye and says something to the effect that "it's great to be young, isn't it?" Maybe he said "it was great to be young, wasn't it?" Which is more wistful and melancholy. But I can't remember precisely what he said. So I'll go with the wistful and melancholy version.

I answer Yeah. 

I think the thought crosses his mind that maybe I am there at the bar because of the college girls. Maybe I try to hook up with the college girls. Maybe I have even tried to hook up with his daughter. By 'hook up' I mean 'have sex with'.  As I have written before, I do not chase the college girls. But I think that is what he might be thinking; I don't know.

There are post-college guys who occasionally come by the bar to chase the college girls. So his concern is not misguided. But those guys mostly fail. Because it is Boys and Girls in America, not Girls and the Older Guy who might even give them the creeps.

At the pool table one of the college boys grabs the ass of one of the college girls. They are laughing. The father finishes his beer and leaves.



- james james

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