Stephen Gutknecht#FWakeRoundSparrow #FWakeFuneralRitual #FWakeFacsimile
We had a family funeral in Columbus Ohio when I was a child. This is one of my earliest memories that sticks without trouble. My parents drove from Fort Wayne, Indiana. Dressing up and the car trip are part of the ritual. There was a bartender at the wake. And I was a young kid. My father worked in the soda business so I probably thought about soft drinks more than most kids. So what does a young kid order at an adult bar? I went with something I would not normally drink and associated with "mature" for a death ritual.
I asked for a ginger ale. The bartender informed me he didn't have ginger ale. But he said he could "make a facsimile". Now this memory had always stuck with me, as I was into nonfiction books about telephone networks and information technology. I had never heard a person use the word #facsimile in oral conversation - and my father was in soda business, so my ears perked up.
Xerox solidified the term "fax" in year 1966 like "Xerox this paper", "fax this paper to another office".
the drink cocktail? mostly with lemon-lime soda (Sprite or 7UP), and adding a small splash of Coca-Cola for color and slight caramel flavor. A fake ginger ale facsimile.
Must be once a year this dialog between me and that bartender is recalled and pops int my dreams as my first time ordering a drink at an adult bar, funeral wake.
RoundSparrow
