A NOT TOTALLY INSIGNIFICANT BOTTLE OF BEER

   

By Dr. Robert E. Plucker

           
             In late 1951, Seattle had already been a Port of Debarkation for thousands of military men, returned from the big war in the Pacific, and lately more were coming back from a tour of duty in Korea, the “Police Action” which was much less important and popular than the “good war”, WWII.  Surely by this time Seattleites were used to returning troops and would have a kind of “So what” attitude toward us when we showed up from Korea on a hot day in late summer.         

            The trip by Army bus, from the docks to Fort Lawton, went through the lower part of downtown.  There were several bus-loads of us returnees, and we formed a short parade going up past the Smith Tower and on a short tour before heading off to the fort, now known as Discovery Park.  One wonderfully kind man, seeing us coming, hurried into a liquor store, bought a six-pack of beer and handed it in through the open bus window.  I had been terribly hot and thirsty, and was somehow lucky enough to get one of the beers.  I don’t remember the brand, but it was the finest beer I had ever tasted.

            My thought was that a Seattle citizen who could feel that much support for us after all this time, when thousands had been here before us had to be a genuinely good man.  I thought if he were representative of the citizens of Seattle, they had to be good people and I wanted to come here again.

            Some fourteen years later, when I was finally ready to go for a doctorate in music, I had been accepted into the graduate schools of the University of Wisconsin and the University of Washington.  My wife was all gung ho for this advanced degree dream of mine, and got herself set with a teaching position in a small town just outside Madison, Wisconsin.  She would support me, just as countless other wives have done, while Hubby was off working for a degree.  I could perhaps have retained some tie with the Green Bay schools where I had taught for the past five years.

            But something, possibly a bottle of beer, kept pointing me west to Seattle.  I held back from committing myself to Wisconsin, and sure enough, I got a phone call from Washington which made it all possible.  They offered me a teaching assistantship which entitled me to a stipend, resident tuition, and top priority for very inexpensive student housing.  That was not all, as my wife also got resident tuition charges for work on a Master of Librianship degree, and landed part-time work in the Seattle Public Library system.

            I can’t help but wonder just how much that bottle of beer influenced my decision to go west.