Letter: Good old times are long gone

Friday, April 26, 2002 | 10:09 a.m.

Many a time we would break into song, especially around the holidays. At times we would march around the pool table singing our fool heads off. As the years passed and more young people came into our bar, I noticed a strange thing. They would never join in when we had these singing sessions.

One day I asked the bar owner, Nick, why the young guys didn't sing along with us old guys? He said, "John, they are not like you and your friends. They're not happy in their hearts." The time came when my friends and I retired. My wife and I came to the West Coast.

After many years I went back to the old neighborhood bar. I walked into another world. The old solid mahogany bar, with its countless coats of varnish, was gone. Gone were the old stools that refused to die. The bar had a new name and new owners.

I sat down and all the old times came back to me. Then the spell was broken. A young guy aside of me was telling his friend how he was divorced twice and still looking around. The other guy was saying that he was living a rotten life because of the child support he had to pay.

A short time later I heard another conversation: "Ya, I'm getting a new job in a few weeks. I have to stay off drugs, so I can pass the urine test." Gone were my sweet memories of my old bar. Sometimes it doesn't pay to go back.

JOHN TOMINSKY