{"id":74094,"date":"2020-05-12T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-12T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=74094"},"modified":"2020-05-10T21:43:55","modified_gmt":"2020-05-11T02:43:55","slug":"pass-this-around-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=74094","title":{"rendered":"Pass This Around, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was Sunday, October 20, 1985. I was a scrawny, 22 year old kid who’d been relocated to the Twin Cities – at this point, a couch in Burnsville – for exactly five days. I’d already had a couple job interviews (for jobs I would not get), and had just finished looking at a rental room in Powderhorn Park (which I also didn’t get), and was taking a brief culture day<\/a>, visiting the old Northern Lights (long gone), First Avenue and Seventh Street Entry and Schinders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I walked up Sixth Street, a little hungry, but willing to part with a little bit of my small supply of cash for my first big city meal. I wandered over past Hennepin, and saw a neon sign beckoning to me: Murray’s, home of the Butterknife Steak. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To a 22 year old enamored of the forties, of Casablanca<\/em>, of guys in felt greatcoats and fedoras driving 1946 Buicks, it was one of those things my dreams of the big city were made of. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But not quite <\/em>yet. Not on my budget. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I turned and walked into Lyon’s Pub and had a burger and a Bass Ale. And I plotted – someday, when I’ve “made it in the big city”, I was gonna go into Murray’s, in a nice suit, with my improbably gorgeous and out-of-my-league girlfriend, and have a waiter treat me like I was something other than a flea-bitten recent college grad in a rust-bucket 1973 Monte Carlo, and order exactly anything we wanted<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Someday. Not that day – but someday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, I didn’t “make it” quite to the extent of my fantasies at that age. Although in some ways, I did a lot better than I’d imagined. And in recent years (especially now that I can fit into a much better -looking suit<\/a>), about a year ago I started thinking – maybe that someday is here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I’m hoping I didn’t wait too long:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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