Who says you can't have a white Christmas in Hawaii! If you squint a little, you can see a thin strip of snow atop Mauna Loa.Early this morning, my poor co-worker encountered a horrible customer. It actually happened an hour and a half before we were scheduled to open. Teddy was there early, as he often is, when a car drove into the parking lot. It was about 8:30 a.m. The vehicle screeched to a halt, not in one of the designated parking spaces, but smack in the middle of the lot. A man got out, leaving his car door wide open. He walked into the tasting room.
"I'd like to taste some of your wine." he said. The man had ignored the closed signs on our gate and at the front door. He was German and spoke perfect English, but with a distinct accent.
Teddy told him we were not scheduled to open until 10:00, but agreed to allow the man to come in and taste anyway. He wanted to taste the red. The man told Teddy he had slept in his car last night. Why he said this was unclear to Teddy, but Teddy poured on, in typical friendly fashion. Upon sampling a single sip, the man said something like, "This is awful. You stupid Americans will drink anything. I'm going back to Germany to tell everyone how terrible the wine is in Hawaii."
At first, Teddy thought the man must be joking. The guy's just got a sarcastic sense of humor, right? No such luck. When Teddy laughed, grouchy German guy did not. He scowled, stomped out the door and back to his car, then sped away.
Personally, if it had been me, I'd have been tempted, upon hearing him refer to us as stupid Americans, to reply, "Stupid German. You lost the war." I know. Very un-PC. I probably wouldn't really have said that, mostly because I'd have been too slow to think of it fast enough, stupid American that I am. Still, pretty rude of the guy. To be fair, I had a group of Germans in just yesterday who were a blast. They were fun, laughed a lot and seemed to genuinely enjoy the wine and the tasting experience. I suspect they have way more friends back home than the surly German guy, so will tell many more people how much fun they had at our winery than the jerk can tell about how much we suck.
Teddy and the rest of us were soon cheered by today's employee Christmas party. We had a fancy soiree at the Yacht club several weeks ago with spouses and children. This one today was just for the worker bees; more of a cheese platter and soda pop affair. It was a better chance for us to get to know one another, especially those who don't work together. The fun included a secret Santa gift exchange. We all drew names two weeks ago and many of us chose co-workers we didn't know so well. That forced us to learn a little something about the person for whom we were buying a gift. It also broke the ice and encouraged us to talk story with those whom we were less well acquainted. It was a very festive day.
I have noticed something interesting working at the winery. Lots of people bring children, which seems odd to me. There are some places that are not well suited to keiki, and in my opinion, a winery is one of those places. I again today had a parent try to give his youngster a taste of the wine. I had to stop him.
"I can't give it to him, even if I'm his parent?" the father asked.
"You can at home," I said, "but not in here." For some reason, people wouldn't think of taking their four-year-old or 12 year-old to a bar and buying him a beer or a cocktail, but a sip of wine at a winery is OK. Morally, I'm not really opposed. It's common in Europe for children to drink wine with their meals or enjoy a sip with parents from a fairly early age. But doesn't everyone know how strict liquor laws are when it comes to serving minors in the U.S? It's not the Europeans offering their children sips of wine. It's Americans every time. They know better. I know they do.
Something I've observed over the past months is that many American children are wild and undisciplined. Not all, but many. They run amok around the store and the grounds while their parents ignore them. They're allowed to hang on the bar, to eat all the pretzels in the bowl and to drink cups of our complimentary coffee. Kids drinking coffee? Mind you, I'm not talking teenagers. I'm talking nine-years-olds. Is that weird or am I just old fashioned? I guess a kid can suck down a Mountain Due and get all buzzed up, so what's the difference? I may have mentioned this before, but one day, I caught a little girl licking the stir sticks, then sticking them into the sugar dispenser, then licking them again. Yummy! Yuck! Her parents had no clue. They had their backs to her while they tasted wine. She was about four or five. I didn't blame here. The poor kid was bored. She'd been drug to a winery, after all. What could be more dull. Today, a two-year-old was allowed to put his hand in the pretzel bowl, stuff the pretzels into his mouth up to the knuckles, then reach for more pretzels with his slobbery little mitt. He was adorable, but geeze! Anyway, I've noticed that keiki from other places in the world are, for the most part, much more well behaved. They are also pleasant, conversational and engaging. Usually, the kids brought in by European or Australian parents are a little older. Either it's too expensive to bring pre-schoolers on vacation all the way to Hawaii or these parents instinctively know that young children do not belong in wineries. Americans like to bring in toddlers, then just let 'em go. Little tykes are left unsupervised in a store filled with breakables. Today, a three year old reached up to grab a red velvet box near some fragile Christmas ornaments. Luckily, the box was empty and did not contain one of the hand painted glass balls for which it was designed. Still, he took off with it, running around the store at full speed until his mom finally noticed and stopped him. Yesterday, two children, brother and sister, ran back and forth across the floor stomping loudly for several minutes until their parents finally noticed that we were all having to shout over the clomping to communicate. I guess I'm just an old fuddy duddy. All I know is that if I had behaved in public like I see kids behaving in our store ... well let's just say I knew better.
Today was the first day in more than two weeks that we've seen the sun. The sky was mostly blue at the winery all day, although I was told that it rained all afternoon here at the house. I can't tell you how nice it was to see that blaze orange orb in the sky. It was warm and bright and put me in the best mood I've felt in ages. Sunday, I'm going to the beach no matter what. I may even get a little sunburned. Ron can come if he wants to. If he doesn't, that's OK by me. I'm headed out of fungi-land, with or without him. I need a fix of vitamin D and a little color in my cheeks. For a girl who lives in Hawaii, I've become downright pasty. Shark bait, as they say here. So I can't wait to soak up some rays!
A hui hou. Aloha!
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