http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPHXj_FbqgA

Indirect inspiration for this post, mainly because…

We used to pool our meager cash to purchase a few choice hours in an isolated environment. It was a short drive away and in a day sans the prevalence of cell phones might as well have been hours away.  Yet, this was a cheap, easy departure from the world.  We payed the owner for two hours of usage and would go at various times of the year.

My fondest memories are of the times when it was practically antarctic outside.  But being well prepared for our environs, we would don long underwear and extra sweats.  The  dirt and gravel lead to this bastion was in stark contrast to the retail compound and multi-story coffins that arose lining the macadam nearby.  Sometimes though the roughest roads lead to the most appreciable rewards.

We would converge our fiberglass and steel horses at the wooden fence rimmed edge of a small dirty pasture that likely was a haven for pigs and chickens at one time.  At any current visit, though, no livestock were visible.  The lingering smells of manure and feed penetrated the wood fibers of the structure and clung to the fences as a cloying homage to an actively agrarian past.  The edifice to our cultural roots was our focus and we proceeded.

We were going to the Barn

This was where we purchased our few hours of basketball time. We were just playing pick-up games 4 on 4 or 5 on 5. All depended on how many could vacate their rote compulsions. There was a freeing sensation when it came to the Barn.  We had no other focus than to shoot around and enjoy an uninterrupted, adult free, athletic bliss.  It was also an oddity as we felt we were of the blessed few that enjoyed this experience.  Surely the farmer that owned this property was providing this barn as a charity, as ten dollars provided 2 hours of entertainment for 10-12 people. It would be fortune these days to enjoy a meal for ten dollars.  As enjoyable as the basketball was, it was also the sense of enjoying an unknown place that made it special.  We couldn’t just go to a gym and play hoops for a while. We couldn’t go to a park or playground.  It had to be here.  Isolated, liberated, encompassed by the scent and graces of nature; we were free.

Green Bullet – This brew smells like dank mossy vegetation.  There are also notes of alfalfa and lingerings of an old musty barn.  Its tastes like dry straw and hop pellets with a tinge of wheat and barley grass.  There is a prominent sweetness and yet mouth tingling bitterness to it. And most importantly it feels organic and comforting, like the Barn. 8/10