Joann Foley

Tonight I want to go to the movies. I just found a theater that has dropped their ticket prices to just $1.50 – yes, that just a buck fifty! They have a movie I really want to watch, starring Clint Eastwood. The movie is called Gran Torino. My dad used to have a 1971 orange Gran Torino and he looked a lot like Clint Eastwood, except taller and my Dad’s hair was much darker. So I want to see this movie.

All of the convenience stores in the area have had to cut the hours of employees and are down to just one or 2 clerks on duty instead of the usual 3 or 4 at the busy stores. That is a hard job and I’m amazed that the chain owners really expect just 1 or 2 people to do a good job not only running the cash register but keeping the store and restrooms clean, stocking the inventory, making fresh coffee every 20 minutes, and all the other things they have to do.

It’s not fair to the customers, either. We now have long lines to wait at the cash register and lots of times now I see the crowd in the store and just decide to not go buy anything. They are losing business by being cheap and I don’t think anyone is smart enough to see that. they make their profit on sales from inside the store but they have made going inside the store undesirable. Dummies!

I am sure it is men making these types of decisions. They are so stupid about things like customer service and taking care of the people who spend their money in the stores.

About the only I drink these days is vodka or an occasional glass of wine. Vodka goes with or in just about anything, so it is a good all-around alcohol. But we don’t drink very often. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I had a drink other than a glass of wine at an Italian restaurant a couple months ago.

Luckily I have never had a drinking problem nor been around anyone with a drinking problem, other than 1 boss that was a single guy and very socially active on the DC bar scene. He drank about every night and would come into work hung over. I think just seeing his pitiful self every day was enough to keep me away from too much alcohol.

My parents drank socially. We all knew that my dad kept an assortment of liquor bottles in the dining room buffet cabinet. It was never locked but we knew we were not allowed to go in there. But we did anyway.

As a teenager I wanted to try liquor and didn’t want to risk getting drunk on a date or out with a group of friends. I didn’t trust any of them to watch out for me and help out if I got into trouble. They would all probably be just as drunk or worse off than me to do anything helpful anyway.

Kids would drink at every private party I went to or heard about throughout my junior high and high school years. I found out that I could drink and tolerate beer. I seem to have a high tolerance level for beer and have never gotten totally smashed on beer.

Beer was easy to get – there was always someone with an older brother willing to drive over the state line and buy a case of beer for us. Then we would go to someone’s house where the parents were not home and sit outside or in the car in front of the house and pop a top. The advantage to being close to someone’s house was so the girls could go inside to use the bathroom if they needed to. Of course, the guys would just stand behind the car and whip it out. But the girls needed an indoor toilet and some privacy.