Sitting around with garage door open (Oct. 29)
Music Video: “Not Going Anywhere” by Keren Ann
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
The other day I heard a friend talking about something her neighbors did, something which made her uncomfortable.
“They sit out in their garage and drink beer, with the garage door open,” she said. “And they laugh. You can hear them laugh.”
I knew right away she wasn’t talking about me. First, I am not her neighbor, and second, my mom would never have let me do that.
In mom’s view, garages were for putting cars into. Of course, you could store things in your garage, but only if the stuff would fit along the walls. The car still had to fit in the garage. Also, she would have fainted, and we would have had to call 911, if I had told her I was going to open the garage door and sit there drinking beer.
She was not against beer over all, but she did not want it to pass through her son’s lips. He was to remain pure until he was 40. (That didn’t happen, but it’s another story.)
We have people in our neighborhood — not on our block, but nearby — who sit in their garages, drink beer, or Coke, or something, and talk and laugh, sometimes into the night. Some of them smoke.
This friend I mentioned thinks that sort of activity is sinister, but I don’t. It’s probably fun having all those people around, if they are your friends. And it might be a little cramped to have them all in the house, especially if the Mrs. is telling them to get their feet off the furniture.
On occasion, I’ll drive by one of these open garages, and I will think it might be fun to phone some of my friends and invite them over to sit in my garage on folding chairs.
But then, I think mother would come down from Heaven and slap me around if I did that. Mrs. Doud might take a swing, too. Perhaps my friends’ mothers would slap them around, as well. It’s probably best not to risk it.
