Something That Happened

There I was, celebrating the birthday of a friend at a country western bar in Chatsworth. The bunch of us drank (with a couple of exceptions that included me), danced (with a number of exceptions, including me), and soaked in the atmosphere of the venue (including me). The place started out packed will old people who danced in a courtly fashion to the live band's music. The makeup of the bar's patrons changed as the evening wore on.

There started to be more and more young people of an apparently low character. This is too bad, because the old people seemed nice enough and their enthusiasm for dancing was infectious. This was not true of the new arrivals. They were mainly well behaved enough in spite of that, except for something odd that happened. It was not unpleasant so much as puzzling, but I do wish that it hadn't happened.

What happened is that while I was sitting, a beer fell or got thrown behind me. It did not hit me directly, nor did it directly hit a woman who seemed to catch more of it than I did. I got a bit of it on the back of my jacket. She might not have gotten more of it than I did. That could mean that it was just an accident- that a beer was spilled by someone who bore no ill will to anyone who was in it's path. It it could not mean that.

I did hear one of the guys with the woman say something that sounded a lot like "Stay out of it" or "It's not worth it" or some other words of peacemaking. Why would that be said if it was an accident? They did seem like the sort of people who would get embroiled in stuff like that, and I am the sort of person who is accidentally affected by it. In an case, it was a moment of excitement that enlivened the experience.