The other day I found myself in Eischen’s bar in Okarche, Oklahoma at eight am explaining myself to seventy five year old Ed Eischen as he swept the floor of the bar his family had owned since 1896. He and his brother Chief were the third generation of Eischens to keep the only bar in a small farming town of two thousand a little North East of Oklahoma City. A bar like Eischens has seen a lot; two world wars, a depression, a devastating fire in the nineties and now some guy from Seattle muttering something about t-shirts.

“Well”, says Ed, “The thing is, trucks come on Wednesday. Today’s Wednesday. Today’s no good.”

When you drive a forty year old machine with no heat down bumpy roads in the dead of winter for twelve bloody hours thinking about one thing it’s a cold pill to swallow when you feel that one thing slip through your fingers. Sure, I could have given him that sob story or I could have taken a room in town and come back day after day until I wore him down and somehow gained his confidence, but I learned a while ago that in this job, some shirts are just not meant to be.

It’s not that Ed didn’t care or that it was Wednesday and the trucks were coming, but rather that Ed liked things the way things were. He liked the town of Okarche and the fried chicken his customers raved about and he liked his floors swept by nine. And while I can’t be sure, I think that maybe he liked his shirts worn only by people who walked through his grandfather’s 100 yr old doors.

Ed and I shook hands and I let him get back to his floors.  I bet by the time I reached the farm road heading north, Ed had forgotten all about the guy from Seattle talking about the t-shirt thing.  Sure, I’d rather have the shirt but as the miles rolled on I smiled when I thought about Ed and the way he swept the floor like his father and his grandfather, and the way he listened to me respectfully in a place where I’m sure he’s heard everything. This time I didn’t get the shirt but at least I got that. And that’s OK with me.  Thanks Ed.

“You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need.”

and thank you Mick.

From somewhere out there,

Gabe