No Conflict Just Scotch
As I write this, it is July 4th, 2025.
Hope everyone had a good holiday, I know I did.
A few days before the fourth of July I received a text message from my son, Alexander. That in itself could be joyful or suspicious. He wanted to know if I could meet him on Friday (the fourth) after he played golf, he wanted to give me something.
I ask him to call me (hate to text when I can talk), so he did.
Bottom line, he received something at work that he thought I’d like. So I asked, “What is it?”
“I’d rather not say,” he replied, and I could feel his smile through the phone.
Friday (today) I met him at the golf course, he reached into the back of his car, and retrieved a blue cloth bag.
What was in the bag?
A bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label 200th Anniversary Exclusive Blend.
Also, Happy Holidays was etched at the top of the bottle.
It certainly was.
Turned out, a co-worker of Alexander had a bottle of scotch he didn’t want anymore. Apparently they talked about scotch once, and this co-worker didn’t like blended scotch so was willing to give the bottle away.
If I haven’t made it clear yet, this was a very good and a very expensive bottle of scotch.
That leads me to believe two things, either this co-worker had no idea what he had in his possession, or money is no object and he really knows what he does and does not like.
My son works in a bank, so I’m going to with the latter.
Also, I like that my son did not just take the bottle, and keep it. He knows he’s not a scotch drinker, and would not appreciate this particular brand. He gave it to me, instead, who will appreciate just how good this scotch is.
It took me a while to recognize the difference between bad, good, and really good scotch. For that reason, when I open this bottle, it will be someone who is a scotch drinker and not a novice.
That brings me to my brother-in-law Marty and the story that has become legend in our family.
About sixteen years ago, Marty passed away. Marty was many things to many people, and is probably the most generous man with his time to help others that I have ever known.
The one thing he was not, though, he was not a scotch drinker.
At a party one night, the host offered Marty a glass of Johnny Walker Blue, but he declined sighting that he was not a scotch drinker.
The host persisted, and Marty declined again.
This went on until, to be gracious to his host, Marty accepted the glass of scotch.
Side note, for the non-scotch drinkers out there, with really good scotch you do not mix it with anything, not even ice.
So I could only imagine the look on the host’s face when Marty reached over and poured the rest of his bottle of Pepsi into this glass of particular excellent scotch.
As I said, Marty was many things to many people, but what he was not, he was not a scotch drinker.
There are two rules of thought when it comes to what to do with a really good bottle of scotch.
One is to save it and drink it on special occasions (this has been mine in the past), and it will take years to finish it.
The second is to drink it now, with the caveat of ‘You can’t take it with you.’
Either or, I know one thing...
…it won’t involve Pepsi.
