1. Dan Armstrong and I were hired at LCC on the same day back in the fall quarter of 1990 and developed a deep respect for each other as colleagues and a deep friendship. Dan will lie as low as possible as long as there's a pandemic, so instead of meeting face to face, we had a superb conversation on the phone and talked about all sorts of things -- college basketball, Pink Floyd, our health, our mutual LCC friends, and more. It was an awesome hour of seriously superb yakkin'.
2. Anne, Debbie, and I piled into the Camry and headed north to the Whiteaker neighborhood and grabbed a table at Sam Bond's Garage and listened to the Sunday Irish jam for nearly three hours. I returned to my campaign to SAVE THE PORTER and enjoyed a couple pours of Ecliptic Brewing's Capella Porter.
Sam Bond's Garage opened in 1995 and, from the get go, has been a venue for local, regional, and national musicians and I've been going to shows or just dropping in for a beer there for about 27 years now. I've listened to Debbie perform at Sam Bond's, both on her own and with Babes with Axes and other fellow performers -- Debbie hosted her 50th birthday party at Sam Bond's garage -- what a great night that was! I've listened to Bill Davie, Jim Page, Laura Kemp, Big Fiddlin' Sue, and many other performers and some of my most enjoyable nights ever were when I went to the Bluegrass Jam on Tuesday nights at Sam Bond's Garage.
Since I hadn't been to Sam Bond's Garage for about three years, this afternoon I relished how comfortable I feel in this place, how much I enjoy being in the company of the people who hang out there. I enjoyed today's musicians, many whom I recognized from many years of going to Irish jams. It was awesome that they were back again today to play Irish music together -- my understanding that the pandemic had the jam on lengthy hiatus until today.
3. One very low key but cherished memory returned to me. Back in 1982 and again in 1983, I spent time in San Francisco and during one of those visits I ordered a bottle of Anchor Brewing's Anchor Steam. I didn't know it at the time, but that was my first ever American craft beer and I absolutely loved it.
After a long period of abstinence, I returned to beer drinking in the fall of 1996. Back then, and, as I remember, for many years after, Sam Bond's Garage carried Anchor Steam on tap.
I loved ordering it at Sam Bond's Garage and tonight I was just faintly hopeful that Anchor Steam might be on the tap list.
To honest, I didn't expect it would be and it wasn't, but as I relaxed at our table with the porter I did order, I had a few nostalgic minutes of remembering drinking Anchor Steam at Sam Bond's Garage and how that beer and the Garage's wonderful environment made this one of my most cherished places to go in Eugene.
I have many other warm memories of going to Sam Bond's Garage, but, for now, I won't extend this post any more and I'll sit here and indulge in their warmth within myself.
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