I’m a disgrace to my German heritage. I have to confess I went years not liking the taste of beer. Then, one hot summer, Brother-in-Law John Perry came down to Florida to help us re-roof the house.
Well, to be more accurate, he did most of the work when he wasn’t answering dumb questions from The Boys and me. (Sample: “These nails have the heads on the wrong end.” “Just put them back in your pouch and use them on the other side of the roof.”)
At the end of the day, I took a shine to the Bud Light I was quaffing with John. Nowadays, I usually have a bottle with dinner at least three nights a week.
My friends make fun of me for drinking Bud Light, but I counter by saying, “I’m not really crazy about beer, and Bud Light is the closest thing you can get to Not Beer that still has a little of the taste of beer.
In 1993, the folks at Anheuser-Busch came up with something that might be a little light even for my taste. They switched over one of their lines in Ft. Collins, Colorado, to produce cans of drinking water for folks fighting the Flood of 1993.
Use by 10/15/1993
Wife Lila and Foodie Road Warriorette Jan are always giving me grief about how long I keep food past the theoretical expiration date. I wonder if they’d object if I cracked the can and took a swig of 1993 water? The can’s full and shows no signs of leakage.
Canned water outlasted Dutchtown
Ronald Kucera Jr. of Kucera Demolition reduces a Dutchtown house to landfill material. Eleven of 15 houses eligible for a buyout have been marked for demolition after residents got tired of more and more frequent “100-year” floods.
Not-so-fond memories
Brother Mark and I have some not-so-fond memories of the Flood of 1993, when we were surveying the height of the water inside one of the buildings Dad used for his construction company. We were barely able to get the canoe under the top of the door.
I suspect that the directors and officers of AB InBev would not be so charitable if such a disaster struck again. They care little about community involvement, only about the bottom line. On another note, I found it interesting that the water was canned at the AB brewery in Fort Collins, home to Colorado State University, my alma mater. The brewery was built long after I left, but I can say that while I was a student and the age for drinking beer was 18 in Colorado, I stuck to Budweiser. None of that Colorado Kool Ade for me. Coors was a watered-down version of real beer, though I made quite a profit on the many cases I hauled home for the holidays back then.
I doubt they would crank up the cans of water, mostly because the plastic water bottle has become so ubiquitous.