Rainier Ale

[Old Hippie]

Some memories!

I think my favourite TV commercial of all time was for Rainier Ale. (Surprise!)

Showed a "real man's man," obviously a rich fellow showing off his expensive kitchen and cookware. All the best stuff. "My beer?" he asks, then walks over to the fridge, and shoves his hand THROUGH the door and rips out a bottle of Green Death.

"Rainier Ale. It's BEYOND macho."

Used to drink a fair bit of Lucky Bock when I could find it.

I still have my old "Oregon Border Patrol" hat. Dale's gonna get this one: One day, back in the last century when Ft. Lewis was still Ft. Lewis and not "Joint Base Lewis-McChord" I was off duty and shanking along the walk outside the PX wearing a pair of brown slacks, brown long-sleeve shirt, and that cap.

This young troop pops up in front of me and is clearly trying to figure out whether he has to salute me or not. It's a special deer-in-the-headlights look you get from young men and women who are just learning that any lifeform higher on the evolutionary scale than they are needs to be saluted, as they try to decipher clues from an unfamiliar uniform.

I gave him a look and a nod. "Excuse me, Sir" he says. "I don't recognize the patch, are you with one of the border county sheriff's departments?"

My evil twin promptly answered, "No, I'm with the federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms."

"Oh, thanks!"

[Dale Seago]

I still have my old "Oregon Border Patrol" hat. Dale's gonna get this one:

Oh, I do indeed -- hee!!

[Coastie]

One day, back in the last century when Ft. Lewis was still Ft. Lewis and not "Joint Base Lewis-McChord" I was off duty and shanking along the walk outside the PX wearing a pair of brown slacks, brown long-sleeve shirt, and that cap.

This young troop pops up in front of me and is clearly trying to figure out whether he has to salute me or not. It's a special deer-in-the-headlights look you get from young men and women who are just learning that any lifeform higher on the evolutionary scale than they are needs to be saluted, as they try to decipher clues from an unfamiliar uniform.

I gave him a look and a nod. "Excuse me, Sir" he says. "I don't recognize the patch, are you with one of the border county sheriff's departments?"

My evil twin promptly answered, "No, I'm with the federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms."

"Oh, thanks!"

Man, I always hated running into some foreign military exchange student when my ship was homeported at Training Center Yorktown. Always safer to salute.

I remember that motorcycle commercial as well, saw a riff on it as a political ad this last election cycle. Too funny. Spent my last 5 years stationed in Seattle, I do miss the view of Rainer on a clear day, not so much lumpy ground now that I have retired to Kentucky.