Friday, August 17, 2018

11,079. THEIR SODA AT HOT DOG JOHNNY'S

THEIR SODA AT 
HOT DOG JOHNNY'S
Geology students from the Bronx
were talking next to me. They had
piled out of a large van for a lunch
break right where I was. About 12
of them on some sort of a field trip;
they were two and a half hours from
home, and hungry. They ordered their
hots dogs with sodas and fries. Their
leader, or guide, or whatever, had bought
a very large birch beer for, as he said,
all of them to try. Evidently they had
never had birch beer before. Something
about the Bronx, I guessed.
-
I sat there listening to him explain to
them how it 'tastes like root beer but
with a wash of Wintergreen in it.' None
of them, it seemed, really caught on,
as he was left begging with a huge
cup of soda in his hands.
-
We were all sitting outside, in the thin
Autumn chill, along the brook or river
which ran alongside. These knowledgeable
'Geologists' were taken by what they'd
found : a trace here of mountains and
streams. 'Not just any stream,'' said the
birch-beer guide, 'that's the Pequest
River.' I hoped for his sake he was
right. They piled back into their
van and took off, while eagerly
plotting their next rest stop.

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