Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Hot Wine
DESTINATION; Nashville, Tennessee and in need of service on our home on wheels. The repair (furnace) is scheduled for mid afternoon, so we planned to stay overnight.
DESTINATION; Nashville, Tennessee. Dilemma; time on our hands. We choose to take in the famous Grand Ole Opry and feed our new appetite for blues and blue grass music. The Opry tickets include bus transport to and from the Opry house and the campground, but we have to be ready early, at 6:15 after an early dinner. The show lasts for 2 1/2 hours or more.
The search for a restaurant proved that this part of Nashville has a high “tourist quotient”—no great expectations here. We settled for a chain called Santa Fe, a steak house, with a promise of vegetarian choices for me. It is a peanut-in-the-shell world as well, with large buckets of peanuts for everyone in the lobby and again at the table after being seated.
We had “team” of two waiting on us. A young man, Ed--the trainer, and a young woman, Amy--the trainee. They were exuberant and personable and after much deliberation, they took our order. I know it is a beer place, but I can’t handle beer, so, a fool, I ordered Merlot. It arrived steaming hot and in a warm glass. After my complaint, the second glass arrived, in the same condition.
Amy took the 2nd steamy glass to the bar tender to discuss the mistake. She stopped by to explain that the wine bottle would be put in the refrigerator for a bit to chill and later lamented the fact that the broken air conditioning may be part of the problem. (Paul and I couldn’t miss the bloody fat lip and large facial bruise on Amy’s face.) It also felt too late in the saga to cancel the wine order, so I waited.
Our duo-team was very attentive, stopping by often to chat. Slowly, each of their stories unfolded. Amy and her 8 year old daughter recently arrived in Nashville to live. Post divorce, her daughter had to be near her daddy. Amy could not find a job using her financial background and is waiting tables to help ends meet.
Outwardly, she seems optimistic and happy. A good front I presume. Inwardly, I imagine must be a different story. We never got the story confirming the alleged abuse, I can’t let go of the feeling that she is a long time victim.
Ed is holding two jobs. When asked about his second job, he described his life as an air marshal, traveling as a security officer on commercial airlines. It seems that someone so vital to the security of our airways should be paid enough so that he doesn’t have to rely on a waiter job to make ends meet.
The stories presented by the two 30-somethings are stories that we have heard repeated in kind over and over in our Chat’s with folks as we travel down the road. Mostly we heard tales of dashed dreams, hardship and hard work, courage and hope.
OUTCOME; The wine came back very cold…the food was poor to medium, but the warmth and courage extended by our servers made up for everything. The themes we heard later set to music at the Grand Ole Opry reiterated the hopes and dreams of Americans like Ed and Amy extending through time, reaching back into the past and extending into the future. Our trail leads us to everywhere.
DESTINATION; Nashville, Tennessee. Dilemma; time on our hands. We choose to take in the famous Grand Ole Opry and feed our new appetite for blues and blue grass music. The Opry tickets include bus transport to and from the Opry house and the campground, but we have to be ready early, at 6:15 after an early dinner. The show lasts for 2 1/2 hours or more.
The search for a restaurant proved that this part of Nashville has a high “tourist quotient”—no great expectations here. We settled for a chain called Santa Fe, a steak house, with a promise of vegetarian choices for me. It is a peanut-in-the-shell world as well, with large buckets of peanuts for everyone in the lobby and again at the table after being seated.
We had “team” of two waiting on us. A young man, Ed--the trainer, and a young woman, Amy--the trainee. They were exuberant and personable and after much deliberation, they took our order. I know it is a beer place, but I can’t handle beer, so, a fool, I ordered Merlot. It arrived steaming hot and in a warm glass. After my complaint, the second glass arrived, in the same condition.
Amy took the 2nd steamy glass to the bar tender to discuss the mistake. She stopped by to explain that the wine bottle would be put in the refrigerator for a bit to chill and later lamented the fact that the broken air conditioning may be part of the problem. (Paul and I couldn’t miss the bloody fat lip and large facial bruise on Amy’s face.) It also felt too late in the saga to cancel the wine order, so I waited.
Our duo-team was very attentive, stopping by often to chat. Slowly, each of their stories unfolded. Amy and her 8 year old daughter recently arrived in Nashville to live. Post divorce, her daughter had to be near her daddy. Amy could not find a job using her financial background and is waiting tables to help ends meet.
Outwardly, she seems optimistic and happy. A good front I presume. Inwardly, I imagine must be a different story. We never got the story confirming the alleged abuse, I can’t let go of the feeling that she is a long time victim.
Ed is holding two jobs. When asked about his second job, he described his life as an air marshal, traveling as a security officer on commercial airlines. It seems that someone so vital to the security of our airways should be paid enough so that he doesn’t have to rely on a waiter job to make ends meet.
The stories presented by the two 30-somethings are stories that we have heard repeated in kind over and over in our Chat’s with folks as we travel down the road. Mostly we heard tales of dashed dreams, hardship and hard work, courage and hope.
OUTCOME; The wine came back very cold…the food was poor to medium, but the warmth and courage extended by our servers made up for everything. The themes we heard later set to music at the Grand Ole Opry reiterated the hopes and dreams of Americans like Ed and Amy extending through time, reaching back into the past and extending into the future. Our trail leads us to everywhere.
# posted by Ann Carol @ 9:54 PM 
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