Green Room

Always inspired by the unexpected, and today was no exception. After dropping Caroline off at her house, Mary Kathryn and I went to grab some dinner to take home for the three of us. On our way, I passed many places from my recent past -- my former house, the apartment house where Betsy lived, Watts Grocery, Mid-South Fencing, and the Green Room. Lots of bittersweet for me in those two blocks, but also good memories...

The Green Room is a Durham institution. When I was at Science & Math, it was across the street from where it is currently (and has been for over 20 years). It's a pool hall, with a shuffleboard table, and a great place to just be with people you know, or don't know.

Betsy's husband Joe Wilson owned the Green Room for over 20 years, and sold it a few years ago to some of the guys who had worked there for years. One of my favorite things to do was sit on the couch at Betsy's and listen to Joe tell stories from those years. They were touching, and emotional, and funny, and real. Too many (and not enough) nights ended feeling that I had been given a great gift to have those stories shared.

If only we could get Joe to write that book: "A Thousand Saturday Nights at the Green Room." Betsy -- get to work on him!

Must close tonight with lyrics:

But you lied again

Now you get to watch her leave

Out the window

Guess that's why they call it window pane

- I love the way you lie, Eminem