[TheForge] Re: YAK - Please talk Missouri UP or down

[Dann Johnson]

I think the point  of the idea was to sit with a smile on your face, 
anywhere people gather, generally with some beverage in hand absorb local 
talk.  Asking about local blacksmiths might be a nice lead in to get a 
conversation going.  Once in a while you might even stumble on to an unused 
post vice, a power hammer or a swage block that needs a new home.  Doing 
exactly that, for the price of a cup of coffee and $100, one morning,  I 
found a 25 pound little giant, a nice coal forge and a post vice. 

There is always the "greasy spoon" kind of restaurant where retired people 
gather for a cup of coffee, and the talk is friendly.  For me,  Columbia, Mo 
is  "big city", but I am sure that some of these still exist in and around 
there. 

Many of the "smokey old bars" that I grew up in, have gone by the wayside. 
Still, I have been able to find a cup of coffee in every bar that I have 
been in.  We didn't go to the bars with a primary purpose of drinking, 
rather it was to be with friends, talk and play a few hands of cards. 

Small rural bars trying to survive today, often serve a limited variety of 
food, like hot beef or some kind of crock pot food, and the likes of 1919 
root beer on tap.. all  serve pepsi or coke too. 

Dann 

Dan Tull writes: 

> You must be an old sage.
> Good advice, eloquently spoken, except "a bar..." if you don't drink, or 
> frequent those kind of establishments.