Oregon Tavern Age: Stalling

An OTA man played the video slots. His OTA brother sat next to him and played video poker. They drank grapefruit juice and Crown, neat.

I waited on a friend and scrawled in my notebook. Why write? I had no idea.

An ad for Untuckit shirts played silently on television. Their inventor was discussing his vision for the fashion. Interesting, now I knew what Satan looked like and how he dressed.

The poker player took a call from his wife. She was waiting for him at the auto mechanic’s garage. Where was he? He said he was running late and would be there in 15 minutes. He hung up, ordered another grapefruit juice and Crown, and went back to gambling.

The slots player took a call from work. There was trouble. The newly hired man had just quit after one day on the job. Okay, he’d be right in to troubleshoot. He hung up, ordered another grapefruit juice and Crown, and went back to gambling.

It was a late afternoon on a weekday.