It's Norwood rodeo weekend, and we walk into the Lone Cone at 5:30 so we don't have to eat the junk at the fairground. The place is usually empty, but tonight it's packed, big tables of six people or more. It's the only restaurant in town , and it's a saloon on the other side of the wall. Tables are filled by farm families including babies and grandpa. The mother at the table next to us is a ringer for Cindy McCain and looks really pissed off. She orders iced tea and a salad. People are talking about hay and Paradox (a town nearby) and bad dogs.
There's a loud mouthed blonde behind us who wants to shoot her dogs. A guy walks in and taunts her, "Is that your Obama sticker on the van outside?" She knows him. "Hey, when are you going to take down those campaign stickers out in Paradox?"
"They're still up? My guys were supposed to get them all down."
She calls him by his last name and then we know who he is: a Democrat who was running for state office a while back. We know someone who was working on his campaign. But the candidate had to drop out after he got in an ugly bit of trouble: broke into his pregnant girlfriend's apartment and stabbed her photo with a knife, then puncheded her wall and her car's windshield and did a couple other weird and unpleasant things.
It looks as if they're still a couple. She's incredibly beautiful, a tall thin brunette with sharp features and huge eyes, no makeup. Maybe she's Scandinavian-- she just looks really different.
The ex-candidate, on the other hand, seems all wrong for the part. He's tall and rumpled looking, balding, with glasses, could be a school principal or a guy who sells cars in a small Western town, and not very successful at it. Maybe he's Irish. They have a pretty toddler who's playing with a cel phone.
Our burgers come, and everyone's settling down. We hear the pretty wife talking about GERMAN SHEPHERDS. It's a small dining room. Jon turns around and says, "We have a German Shepherd." And soon he's telling them that Molly's dad is a K-9 dog in Cortez. The former candidate says, "I think your dog's dad busted my friend last week."
End of that conversation!
The blonde calls out to the ex, "You coming to the big lunch tomorrow?"
"Yeah," he says, "Are you serving it?"
"Yeah, and we may even let Democrats in this year."
We leave. Later we see everyone from the dining room at the rodeo.
(picture is of the carnival in town, right next to the rodeo.)
4 comments:
Sometimes the conversations and antics of people sitting nearby can be entertaining. Sometimes scary freaky entertaining.
"I think your dog's dad busted my friend last week!" between has friends and his behavior, this guy sounds like a piece of work on a hot plate.
I thought eating junk at the fairgrounds was the big attraction? Fried dill pickles and 3-day old corn on the cob, you gotta get your grease somewheres.
The scene, the talk--it answers those "What does it mean to be American?" questioners. It makes them shut up. So good, so fine.
Namowal, the dog drug bust was big news in Telluride about a week ago. The town felt they'd gone too far.
Mean jean, when you read in my newer post what the choices of junk food were, you'll see why we went for the $8.00 cheeseburgers.
Anon, glad you enjoyed it!
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