{"id":6475,"date":"2020-11-02T05:56:08","date_gmt":"2020-11-02T13:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/?p=6475"},"modified":"2020-11-02T05:56:09","modified_gmt":"2020-11-02T13:56:09","slug":"oregon-tavern-age-jaguar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/meditations\/oregon-tavern-age-jaguar\/","title":{"rendered":"Oregon Tavern Age: Jaguar"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-6475\" data-postid=\"6475\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-6475 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    <\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->\n\n\n<p>A shiny silver car pulled up in front of an Oregon Tavern Age joint. I was inside the joint writing a letter to an old flame at my usual table at the window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I looked out the window and beheld a four-door Jaguar, a few years old, mint condition, probably a 40-50k car. Clean as whistle with no road grime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A bearded man, the driver, exited the Jaguar and headed for the joint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Wait!<\/em> It was the same bearded man I had seen often wandering down the road, carrying a guitar without a strap, sometimes with a couple of dogs, occasionally asking me if I had a smoke or would I drive his van out of impound, the same man I saw sleeping on the beach and emerging from the woods for past six months, and the same man who was often accompanied by an OTA woman with no teeth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next I took in the woman in the passenger seat who puffed on a cigarette and then got out of the Jaguar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Wait! <\/em>It was the OTA woman with no teeth, who before I saw with the bearded guitar man, was seen driving a battered sedan with three of the windows smashed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I looked at the Jaguar again. Two dogs were staring straight at me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The couple moseyed up to the bar in their masks and ordered rum and cokes. They took their drinks to the video poker machines and started playing line games. I watched them laugh and lose money. They kept on playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This scenario posed a dilemma for a writer: you want the truth of the Jaguar or do you want to make it up? Journalism or fiction, always a tension for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I finished my love letter. I finished my IPA. I got up to leave and took a final look at the couple. They were still at it and now on a second rum and coke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My mind was made up: I wanted to go journalism on this story, but not this particular moment. Next time.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A shiny silver car pulled up in front of an Oregon Tavern Age joint. I was inside the joint writing a letter to an old flame at my usual table at the window. I looked out the window and beheld a four-door Jaguar, a few years old, mint condition, probably a 40-50k car. Clean as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6476,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","category-oregon-tavern-age","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6477,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6475\/revisions\/6477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}