Old people are fun too!

Last night I finally went to one of the most talked about restaurants in Door County- The Gordon Lodge's "Top Deck."

It was my uncle's 65th birthday, and thus the occasion for a night out. Jana Nyberg (a friend of the family) and her band (The Jana Nyberg Trio) were the musical entertainment at the Top Deck for the evening. I've known Jana for a while but I've never heard her sing; I was in for a treat. I often think I should have been born in the 20s because there is nothing that I love more than sitting in a dark, enchanting bar and listening to live jazz music, cocktail in hand. Top Deck overlooks the lake, and the bar is encased in glass windows which enhanced the fantastic quality of the scene. My company included my aunt and uncle and four of their friends, all of whom kept repeating "poor Julia, stuck with all these old people!"

The truth is, maybe I should have been born in the 50s, because I didn't mind at all. Once you get past the obnoxious "what do you study?" and "what are you plans for after college?" questions, "old people" are really quite a blast to hang out with. They don't give a damn about appearances of any sort; they simply want to have a good time and enjoy their lives, and at the end of the night the men fight over who gets to pay the bill.

The women I was with, my aunt and two friends were playing "scare the young waiter boy," who left us sitting for too long without taking drink orders. No one actually cared- the earlier cocktails took any sort of edge off of the company- but the women still pretended to be upset with the delay and played with poor Kyle, "a college student, just up here for the summer."

My aunt said to Kyle, after he forgot to bring her garnish- three cherries and an orange slice- for her whiskey sour, "You know, my niece writes for the Peninsula Pulse Newspaper. She's going to write a review about Top Deck for the next issue, right Julia?"
Swallowing a huge gulp of martini I said "Oh yes, definitely."
"Well," Judy interjected, "she was going to, but not anymore."
Kyle scampered away all red and befuddled.

Old people also drive drunk! My uncle, who's large, cherubic face was grinning ear to ear was obviously entertaining the notion of "its my party, I'll have the steak and an entire bottle of red wine...and three old fashioneds..." took the reigns upon our exit (after we were the only people left in the restaurant for at least an hour, chatting it up with the chef), and much to my aunt's dismay proclaimed "Honey, I'm a better drunk driver than you are sober!" My aunt was obviously way too drunk to drive herself because she just laughed at this comment, and said "It's true!!"

The whole ride home the car erupted with laughter every time Jim opened the birthday card he gave my uncle. It was one of those music playing cars, and it was very large, about 12 x 12 in, and on the cover it simply read "A long, long time ago..." When it opened, the star-wars theme song began to play and all it said inside was "...you were born." We listened to the song about eight times through on the ride home.