My previous post on the Indescribable Dive article has generated some mixed feedback from my Buzzy friends. I’ve tried to contact the article’s author via email but have not yet heard back from her. If I can, I want to talk to her before I do a followup Dive Bar 2 post.
However, something in the article that I want to mention was the comparison of Buzzy’s to the T-V show Cheers.
Years ago I suggested to Buzzy that he should watch Cheers. Now keep in mind that Buzzy was a “fact no fluff” T-V viewer. His main shows were 60 Minutes, CNN, Financial News etc.. Sitcoms never crossed his treshhold. Even when he was laid up in the nursing home, he put the T-V on Headline News and left it there.
So when I suggested to him that he watch Cheers, he asked me what it was about. I told him “It’s about a guy who has a bar with a bunch of characters hanging around.” Sitting behind the Store’s counter, Buzzy replied “I don’t need to watch that. I got that in here every night.”
My second Cheers reference has to do with a cheat sheet that Buzzy had taped to the back of the chimney here in the Store. On the paper he would write down names of folks who came into the Store once or twice a year or only in the summer. He would write a physical description as a reminder and then something personal. I remember seeing “Bill, red face, Aberdeen.” Bill would roll into the Store, Buzzy would glance at his cheat sheet and say “Hey Bill, how are things in Aberdeen?” Bill would elbow his wife and say “See honey, I told you he would remember me.”
Once I asked him about this and actually took him to task for “cheating.” Without missing a beat Buzzy replied “Let me tell you something, people like it when you know their names. Besides after I do it a couple of times I’m able to remember them anyway.”
The Cheers line “You want to go where everyone knows your name” always reminds of that exchange with Buzzy. Check out this video and see if Pete and his Buzzy’s stool doesn’t come to mind. 