Water on the Rocks

With their 2-for-$20 menu Applebee’s is a pretty reasonable place to go for a date night dinner.

The overly-enthusiastic 20-something waiter tried to be both helpful and entertaining. “What can I get you to drink this lovely evening?” he asked. “A margarita? A strawberry lemonade? Water on the rocks?”

I smiled at the notion of calling iced water “water on the rocks.”

“I’ll have water on the rocks,” I told him.

Lyle said, “I’ll have the same.”

“Are you sure?” the waiter inquired helpfully. “I’d be happy to list what we have on tap tonight.”

“No, thanks,” Lyle replied. “Water is fine.”

“Fantastic!” and he hurried off to put our order in.

As we dug into our spinach-artichoke dip, I said, “Ya know… with your Racer Magazine ball cap and your plaid shirt you do kinda project a Good Ol’ Boy persona that looks like someone who would want to know what’s on tap.”

He looked puzzled. “My cap and shirt don’t even match.”

“Well, no. I don’t think most Good Ol’ Boys worry about their caps matching their shirts.”

Later in our conversation he said, “I was reading in one of my car magazines a travel tip for road trips. When you’re going through small towns you want to eat at the place where all the pick-ups are parked.”

Where the Good Ol’ Boys hang out, of course. Makes sense.

I wonder if they serve water on the rocks.