Oddest moment at the Food Show

[gordonzola]

At the beer and cheese tasting that I was working, I got cornered by a couple of higher-ups at a local cheese distributor. They were grilling me about why I buy this from one company and that from another one and basically why I don’t buy everything from them. They seemed hurt when I told them I think of them as a commodity cheese seller first and a specialty one second. And geez, it’s not like I didn’t order half a pallet of Basque sheep cheese from them last week.

Anyways, one of my favorite cheese folks walks up and I introduce everyone. The main distributor guy is probably younger than me by the way; the guy who just walked up runs a store in Milwaukee and I would take to be a just too young to be a real hippie back in the day. When I tell Distributor Guy that this person is from Milwaukee he responds with, "Oh wow, my brother is a weatherman in Madison."

Now, I know it’s probably a function of age and whether one did college-based activism, but this is the kind of statement that lets you know who you’re dealing with. Milwaukee guy and I almost jumped in surprise.

"No way!" I said. "What did he bomb?"

"I didn’t think there were any left. " Milwaukee guy said.

Now, we were joking. But Distributor Guy had no idea what we were joking about.. Even as we tried to explain it, he just got more confused and, I think, a little horrified that a group of old underground revolutionaries popped into our heads so easily. Obviously, this had never happened to him in his usual circle of business associates and friends.

His brother was not Karl Armstrong, for the record.

Comments

[masscooper.livejournal.com]

1. I thought of you the other day when I was on the Division bus and passed a store called "The Cheese Stands Alone." I wanted to check it out but a) I was on the bus b) I have no money and c) I can't eat cheese.

2. Oh man. The weathermen. I went to school with a couple of weathermen progeney, and regularly heard my mother's spiels on the class issues of who got put away and who didn't. Awkward!

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

2. so true. Where's the radical miss manners when you need her.