More May magic

Bob G. reminded me that the FWPD finally announced the arrest of our little armed robber yesterday.  Here is our little worm, Kentron B. Ganaway .

Our 19-y-o punk apparently rolled over during questioning, not surprising from someone who was brave enough to attack women in the dark but not enough (thankfully) to fire any of the bullets in the gun-cum-hammer he used.  May God give you forgiveness and man give you justice.  A nice long stretch on a chain gang to teach the snot the meaning of work might be appropriate.

Anyway, what I really wanted to chat about tonight was the briefly mentioned and blossoming Beer Cap Collection.  Among the many things I've learned in the last few weeks are: a) there are collectors out there with collections in excess of 30 THOUSAND; I'm closing in on 400, but each one gets a lot of love and attention; b) these other collectors often bring in other alcohols, sodas, even odd caps like brake fluid.  The farthest away I wander from straight beer is Sparkling Champale; c) You can get a lot of neat caps on e-bay; d) it is not necessarily advisable to let me find out that such caps can be had on e-bay; and e) that cap I found years ago, whose only words were "Twistop- or use opener", and had a GA state seal for tax paid on it, was in fact a Pfeiffer Beer.

I thought I would show you tonight a handful of my newest caps, so you can be thrilled by the twinkle in my eyes and bored with the story.

On the top row, we find first our newest member, a somewhat faded Michelob Ultra Scrappy and I found tonight.  If you click to enlarge, you'll see a little blue Michelob ribbon left of the Michelob cursive.  Out of 4 MUs I have, that feature is unique.  Next to him you'll see one of my many e-bay prizes, and one of my three favorites- a Pabst pre-Blue Ribbon cap.  Like most of the caps on this page, it has a cork seal and the center you're looking at has a hops branch with PB superimposed on it.  Next to him is an MGD that was part of the 100 caps for $9 lot I got with my first ebay foray.  This is a newer cap, like the Ultra. Finishing out the top row is a gorgeous Miller High Life before the familiar red bow.  It simply says, "Miller/ High life Co./ Milwaukee, white text on forest green.

The first and third in row 2 and the first in row 3 are all Schiltz, all cork- and amazingly, all different shades!!  When I won these all in separate bids, I was sure I was going to end up with two of the same thing.  That all three were different was like Christmas.  In between is another cork Pabst, with the familiar ribbon- but without the word "beer" written under "blue ribbon".  I love this cap!- but the first Pabst and the Miller edge it out, along with another one still to come.

The middle of row three is a Hamms cork; next to him is a Meister Brau, also cork.  Meister Brau, back when we were all first starting can collecting, was about the first can you'd get that wasn't commonly found along the road, and this is my first MB cap, so it has a certain  je ne sais qua for me.

Row four leads off with the only other non-cork on the page (I've gotten more particular in my bidding, you see), a Rolling Rock which is a carbon copy of another I have except the foreground is white instead of gold.  Now I found the first Rolling Rock can in our little group way back then, one of the two prizes I found as a subsidiary of my nephew's much larger collection.  I believe I found it on that magical weekend at Fawn Forest back when Magic by Pilot was the top playing song on the radio and a mulberry gorged bird managed a bullseye on my niece's shoulder.  Beside that is my next favorite- a Drewry's cork with the mountie inside the shield.  One of these days I'll show you the cap that really got me started - a Drewry's "Big D" beer that I found in the upholstery of my dad's 1937 Chevy.  Finally, my first Budweiser cork- pretty amazing considering -not counting Bud Lights, Bud Drys, Bud Ices, et al- I currently have 24 different Buds.

I hope that in this post, and any following others on the subject, I can convey to you the excitement that I rarely feel anymore, that I feel on gaining these new "babies".  Thanks for putting up with.