Ladies and gents, we have a winner!
I loved this story because it's real. It's relatable. And it's a classic story of that first beer. Plus, it made my tummy do that nervous churn-y thing. I like that in a story. And I loved that he remembered the name of the officer who reprimanded him but, ultimately, let him off the hook.
Enjoy your passes, Michael! Here's to hoping that the beers you'll enjoy this weekend will cause you much less angst than that first one did.
And thanks to all of you for playing - see you all at Wild Brew!
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You could rent a jet and go globe-trotting to try 80 of the world's premium beers.
Or, you could buy tickets to the Wild Brew, Tulsa's "crawl-in-one" beer tasting, music and food festival at the Exchange Center at Expo Square Saturday, July 31st (just one Saturday from now). The event kicks off at 5pm, with a patron-only hour at 4pm.
Headlining the list of brews this year is the aptly named Wild Brew, a critically acclaimed collaboration Belgian-style IPA by Oklahoma's own Choc Beer Company and Marshall Brewing Company. A slew of other Oklahoma beers will be featured at the festival, too, including beers from Choc, Marshall, COOP Ale Works and Mustang Brewing Company. The Wild Brew festival will also feature beers ranging from Ayinger and Asahi to Young's Double Chocolate Stout. Get the full list of beers right here.
But 80 different beers is a lot to enjoy without some food and music, right? WB's got you covered. Look for more than two dozen local restaurants at Wild Brew, serving up noms ranging from noodle bowls to barbeque. Chow down and drink up to the music of Shelby Eicher, Mark Bruner and The Mid-Life. Here's a complete list of Tulsa restaurants you'll see at Wild Brew.
Proceeds of the event benefit the Sutton Avian Research Center. The folks there work to support conservation, education and research on endangered, rare and neglected species of birds and their habitats.
If that's not worth drinking to, I don't know what is.
Tickets to this wildest of T-Town parties are $55 per, a bargain for a night chock full of food, beer and music, with a donation to a worthy cause thrown in for good measure. Tickets have to be purchased in advance, so if you haven't snagged yours yet, you'd better get moving - time's a-wastin'.
So, here's what you do. Go ahead and buy a pair of tickets - one for you, one for a friend or sweetie.
Then, head to the comments section of this post and tell me about the first time you ever tasted beer.
Be sure to include all the gory details, because the best story before Monday at 8pm wins a pair of general admission tickets to Wild Brew.
See? If you're the winner, and since you'll already have a pair of tickets for yourself, you'll have an extra pair with which to flatter the boss. Or the Joneses. Or the new 21-year-olds in your life. I mean, Lord knows how much I would have enjoyed Wild Brew tickets back during those first few months after I turned 21.
On second thought, don't give these tickets to any new 21-year-olds.
Good luck, everyone. I'll choose my favorite story shortly after the end of the contest, and after I notify the winners, I'll post them here. Cheers!
8 comments:
First of all, Wild Brew is being held this year on my birthday, July 31st. I already have patron tickets for me and the wife and have a bunch of friends going as well. It is truly one of the top parties in Tulsa every year.
My first taste of beer occurred 36 years ago when I was a sophomore at Will Rogers High School. I was in a crowd of about 25 kids at Turner Park next to the school hanging out around dusk. We were listening to eight track tapes of Foghat when some older boys (seniors) showed up with about five cases of beer.
Everybody was given a beer and told to pop the tab and chug it. I was nervous and broke the tab off while barely opening the can. It was barely coming out so I squeezed the can and beer sprayed all over my face and shirt. Everybody laughed at me, but it was cut short as a police officer in a patrol car suddenly showed up.
The policeman (I still remember his name, officer Mark Wollmerhauser), made us all tell him our names and when I said mine, replied, "I know your father".
I begged him to not tell my father and he agreed to keep the whole incident quiet for everybody if we promised to clean up the litter in the park and not drink there again.
He opened his trunk and gave us trash bags and all of us canvassed the park and picked it clean. He drove off and we didn't drink beer there again for at least a week.
Michael Patton
My first experience with drinking beer was in high school(ish). I was with my friend David who I had a huge crush on at the time, drinking warm cans of Miller at the park. I was so nervous, but I started to feel more comfortable once I had a few beers. However, after a couple of hours had passed, I started feeling hot and sick so I asked if I could be taken home.
I got inside of the car, buckled up, and promptly vomited all over the inside door of his mom's car. ...David and I never went out again, but I never stopped loving beer.
I wish I could tell you about my first taste of beer... but I don't remember it.
I was about 2 at the time. I bald and chubby toddler who loved to raid the recycling bin in my house for beer cans.
I'd toddle over and grab one and sit in the kitchn floor, a tall can of coors upturned into my mouth. I must have liked it because I did it all the time.
My grandparents seemed to think it was okay... cause instead of taking the cans away from me... they just took picture after picture of the baby drinking beer.
It probably explains why I'm the way I am now.
My junior year in high school, two buddies and I decided to make a run to Kansas. Living in St. Louis...we decided we just had to try Coors, which wasn't available in Bud-town.
In Kansas the drinking age was a couple of years lower than in Missouri. We made the trip, bought a couple of cases and then realized that transporting it back across state lines might be considered bootlegging or something like that...so three 17 years olds (we were underage back in the early 1970s) go under the radar for a taste of Coors. We didn't get caught, but we got nervous when Highway Patrol passed us on I-70 outside of Kansas City.
Smooth, mountain water...it seemed light...Not sure it was worth the 5 hour trip...be we did sell what we didn't drink to unsuspecting classmates.
Great taste, decent profit from that first taste of Coors.
My first taste of beer was when I was 28, just 3 years ago! This is why I want these tickets so bad! I have yet to discover so much about beer. I was a "good girl" up until then when I was going through a messy divorce. My siblings took me to a party at a friends house to show me what I had been missing out on all that time. Not only was it my first taste of beer but was my first ever lesbian party. Nothing different than a regular party, just mostly girls who, by the way, happened to take their shirts off to run down the street on Brookside later that night. I did not.
My very first taste I disliked it so much I didn't know if I would continue. I think I had about 5 Bud Lights that night that came from Arkansas (higher point) before we left to go to the Caravan where my sister and her husband had met many years before. We stopped at a What-a-burger and they made me eat a hamburger on the way there. I remember it falling apart all over me and telling them about a tomato I had left in the floor board. Once we got to the Caravan, I danced with my brother-in-law a couple of times before getting really dizzy & spinning out of control, good thing he caught me. After a few more beers it was time for the place to close so we went to my sister and bro-in-laws house to sleep it off. They gave me PJ's to wear, IB Profen and a glass of water before crashing on their couch. "Here," she said. "Take this and you won't feel it in the morning." Good thing she did. I didn't feel it and fell in love with having a good beer. It got me through my divorce and I'm happily single now. LOL. Don't worry, I will have a date for Saturday if I happen to win ;)
“Everyone pile in the Jeep!” he said after we loaded up the cooler. It was the summer between freshman and sophomore year, and a good group of friends and I were going to float the Illinois. It was my first time to float it actually, and I was excited to experience it. We had everything we needed; Cooler full of beer that someone’s big brother bought, smokes, sunscreen that no one wore and a water-proof radio so we could jam to some Nirvana.
After we rolled into the starting area we got our tubes and cooler in the water and Charlie handed me an ice cold Coors. I settled into my tube and we started down the mighty Illinois. I cracked the Coors and took my first (of many) sips of beer. It was SO good on a hot Oklahoma day on the river. I obviously didn’t know my limits at that age and pounded 3 more during the next half hour.
By the end of the float trip I was Hammered. I probably hurled 5 times in to the river, much to the dismay of the other group behind us, and definitely had the spins. At one point I had to hold onto a tree trunk to keep from falling off the Earth. It was an awesome trip! I eventually learned to handle my beers after that…I’m a professional now!
Although I am prone to love at first sight, my relationship with beer unfolded much more slowly. I remember begging to be allowed to try a sip from my father’s Budweiser can as a child and then screaming and sputtering in mock horror after barely wetting my lips. In high school, I scoffed at all the kids drinking their canned domestic brews and opted instead for more sophisticated drinks. My girlfriends and I stood in the corner drinking our berry wine coolers and premixed Mudslides, congratulating ourselves on our superior intelligence. It wasn’t until I went away to college and was introduced to the microbrew that I fell instantly and irrecoverably in love. Every night was an adventure--another dark, delicious 6 pack to discover. I blew most of my budget at the liquor store, surviving on ramen noodles and chocolate stouts. I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, debating the merits of India Pale Ales and hazelnut porters. The love affair continued after college with frequent trips to Europe, a Mecca for beer aficionados, and has not diminished over the years. These days I am less of snob and on a blazing hot Oklahoma afternoon, you may well catch me in the backyard with a cold can of Coors, swinging in my hammock and congratulating myself on my superior intelligence.
Who did you pick as the winner Tash?
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