I tasted beer for the first time at age fifty-nine.<\/p>\n
We toured the Yazoo Brewery where they offered three different brews for tasting:\u00a0 Dos Perros, Pale Ale, and the one I finally broke down and took a sip of, the Hefeweizen. \u00a0It’s an award-winning brew made with yeast that supposedly makes it taste like bananas with a hint of clove.\u00a0 I must have an undiscerning palate, however, as I didn’t recognize those tastes at all.<\/p>\n
My son, Chris, kept urging me to take a taste every time my glass was filled.\u00a0 Instead, the first two times, I handed mine to George, giving him a double portion (and ensuring my designated driver status).\u00a0 The third time, though, I gave in.<\/p>\n
Why?<\/p>\n
Good question.<\/p>\n
I grew up Southern Baptist, no drinking allowed.\u00a0 In fact, I seem to remember my parents telling me that beer was made of rotten, nasty things like dead bugs, so I’ve always called it bug juice.<\/i><\/p>\n
The first time I smelled beer was at a slumber party in tenth grade.\u00a0 My friend, Alta, invited a group of girls over for the night.\u00a0 It was permissible for the boyfriends to be present before bedtime, but somehow, invitations were issued to quite a few extras.\u00a0 (We suspected boy-crazy Robin was the culprit.)\u00a0 At one point, I counted 75 boys in the house, in the yard, swinging from trees\u2026.<\/p>\n
One of them, Joe Crook, stuck a beer in my face, offering a drink.\u00a0 I backed away to escape the unpleasant smell.\u00a0 (Do you suppose it’s possible the offense I felt may have been tied to my preconceived beliefs about how the drink was manufactured?)<\/p>\n
My next exposure to beer, or at least to beer cans, was my freshman year in college.\u00a0 Alta and I went to the same small Baptist college that had lots of rules, including curfews and no smoking or drinking.<\/p>\n
One day, walking to see Alta at her dorm, I happened to pass her car, which was parked in front.\u00a0 I saw empty beer cans all over the floor, which seemed to indicate that my friend had become a party girl.<\/p>\n
I was horrified, angry and heartbroken all at the same time.<\/p>\n
This was my best friend.<\/p>\n
Who was obviously headed straight to hell.<\/p>\n
I have no memory of what happened next, whether I turned tail and ran to hide in my room, or went to see Alta and (a) confronted her, or (b) didn’t mention it.<\/p>\n
I do know that I didn’t want to end up in hell as well, so I promised myself that I would never, ever drink beer.\u00a0 I stuck to that promise for many years.<\/p>\n
Why was the day at the Yazoo Brewery different?<\/p>\n
Because my son suggested I could blog about it and it would make a fun story?<\/p>\n
Maybe.<\/p>\n
But also because I am acutely aware that this is my sixtieth year of life. \u00a0I’m growing old and I want to enjoy whatever time I have left on this earth.\u00a0 When I turned fifty I started taking risks.\u00a0 I rode in a hot air balloon that year, a glorious flight above the Colorado Rockies, my father and daughter in the basket with me.\u00a0 I’ve been tattooed and ridden a motorcycle.\u00a0 I’ve taken a self-defense class and learned to fight.\u00a0 I’ve shot guns at the range and I have even said a few curse words.<\/p>\n
A friend did a tandem skydive a few years back, something I swore I would never do.\u00a0 But when I was recently asked what was on my bucket list, skydiving<\/i> is what popped out of my mouth.\u00a0 No one was more surprised than me.\u00a0 In fact, I’ve never even had a bucket list.\u00a0 But I do now; the only thing on it is skydiving<\/i>.<\/p>\n
I’m determined to do it this year, the year I turn sixty.<\/p>\n
Bold.\u00a0 Daring.<\/p>\n
So maybe it was time to at least taste a beer.\u00a0 Everyone around me on the brewery tour certainly seemed to be enjoying theirs’.<\/p>\n
Did I like it?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 It tasted bitter to me, just as wine does.<\/p>\n
I think I’ll stick with water and the occasional Coke.\u00a0 I won’t have to worry about adjusting to a new taste\u2026or about getting drunk.<\/p>\n
But at least I had a taste of the dark side.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I tasted beer for the first time at age fifty-nine. We toured the Yazoo Brewery where they offered three different brews for tasting:\u00a0 Dos Perros, Pale Ale, and the one I finally broke down and took a sip of, the Hefeweizen. \u00a0It’s an award-winning brew made with yeast that supposedly makes it taste like bananas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions\/55"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldkaren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}