WHAT HAPPENS WHEN MOTHERS IN LAW DRINK

At Tigard’s Tapphoria good things happen when mothers in law drink.

A scene from Tigard Confidential, “It was a dark and rainy night….” image via DG Studios

The first time I met the lady in white she was fifty years old and climbing out of ’69 Mustang fastback.

Wearing black leather. Could have been Steve McQueen’s Mustang from Bullet.

She and her second husband drove up from LA to see her daughter, my future wife.

I was part of the ‘friend’ group who played guitar.

After serenading future wife’s mom with the ballad Pancho and Lefty she asked, “Who’s the dork?”

This dork’s been her son in law for the past thirty years, and she’s never been boring.

Raised in a small village in the English southern counties, she served in WWII, watched bombers pass over her house, and after it was over came to America.

She’s a walking page of history and when we stop for a drink we turn the page.

More often than not, baby boomers with ninety year old mothers in law visit them in the home.

We’ve shared a multi-generational home before sharing a multi-generational home was popular.

Wife, kids, dog, the works. And then some.

When mothers in law drink, they go where they can find a good beer, cider, or cocktail.

We go up the road to Tapphoria for any one of those, and a good time inside.

Considering the pros and cons of dragging around bars to investigate when mothers in law drink, it comes out pro.

She knows her limits, my limits, and every other limit. Goes with the territory. And that’s the fun part.

Right or wrong, she’s got a solid take, and disputing it too hard feels like bullying.

We’ve said she ought to try a cane, learn to balance with a cane, for a while now. My argument is I don’t want to bully her into using a cane, then feeling guilty if she falls.

The same goes for a walker. Hounding people to do things for their own good gets old fast. If bad things happen after that, who takes the blame?

If you’re asking whether you should risk taking an elderly person to your favorite joint, do it.

One day it works, the next it won’t. They could trip on a walker. Those things have sharp edges around the hinges.

Get tangled up in a wrestling match with a walker is like a knife fight in Westside Story. There will be blood.

She’s doing so much better now.