 |
| Beer is my memory keeper |
I know a lot of folks may have something similar, maybe a shelf or two in the garage or basement for some unique or memorable pints, pretty things to look at that become part of the visual background noise of our house, another thing to dust and move on.
 |
| More than a decade on the shelf. One of my first loves in beer. |
We save them to remember, but one day, they will become a memory of us before finding their way to blue bags and recycling bins when our time here is done. Their deeper meaning, of course, is a tangible, visible link to the past, often viewed through beer goggles and the distance of time. Nobody is saving an empty bottle of MGD from a random night in February of 2001 without a much deeper link between that beer and what it meant at that very moment. It means what it means to us and that’s enough to warrant saving it, no matter what becomes of our path.
 |
| Maybe room for a couple more memories… |
A lot of people might consider them juvenile or frat boy decorations, a throwback to the carefree halcyon days of our youth, when household knick-knacks were more likely tied to drinking and frivolity than memory or decor. I’ll admit it does have a bit of that at its core, but for a lot of us, it didn’t start that way and the reason it still exists as part of the colour of our lives must mean it meant something more. Enough to have them around years and even decades later. I don’t know that there is a story for each one that remains, I’ll admit I have vague memories of how a lot of them even tasted, some have been gathering time for more than a decade at this point. I could part with a lot of them and outside of considering what I’d put on the shelves in their absence, (books would another space filler of mine that seems to grow without my knowledge or participation), I wouldn’t give it a second thought.
But…
I know there are cans and bottles that would give me longer pause. I know in my heart that there would be some, maybe only a select few, that I would refuse to part with, even if I couldn’t tell you specifically why. I would not let them go. With over 500 in this modest collection, for no one else’s enjoyment but my own, I can look around and see a glimpse of my past through the fading print on the bottles in my sight. I can link the gloriously happy, brutally sad, and everything in-between in my life over the last dozen or so years with a simple walk by and for that, I am grateful to have saved these few, hazy mementos…
Life happens fast, do as much of what you can that makes you happy and even if you don’t save the bottles, enjoy the moments.
 |
| They’ll bury me with these two cans… |
Polk
February 18th, 2025
