Story Material: It's a Small World

I like to buy my souvenir t-shirt at a thrift store when we travel. I can usually find something fun, but I came up short at the thrift stores in Rapid City, SD. I wear size large, and that was the smallest shirt section in their Goodwill. Their Salvation Army store had about five shirts in my size, and so I came home empty-handed.

I settled for this thrift store shirt that I found here in Johnston, Iowa.

Hudson is only 13 miles from where I grew up in northwest Iowa. I like dive bar shirts almost as much as I like vintage rock shirts, so this was a win. The graphic on this shirt looks like it has seen better days, but that makes two of us.

I wore The Buckaroo shirt today for the first time. While we were shopping in Ames, I was stopped by a woman in her 60s. She exclaimed, "Hudson, South Dakota? I have family there! I grew up in Hawarden. The Buckaroo? That was going on when I was kid! I remember the Buckaroo!" Then she backtracked, "I mean, I didn't know the Buckaroo. I was a goodie two-shoes, but I bet my sisters knew that place plenty well, if you know what I mean."

I did know what she meant, and I think she looked too excited to have not seen the inside of the Buckaroo herself...

Anyway, yes, The Buckaroo Bar & Grill has been around since the 1940s, but still, the 2010 census listed Hudson at a population of 296. What are the odds that I would have a conversation with a stranger about my shirt two hours after putting it on?  That's pretty neat.

Cue the song...

Addendum:

I wore this shirt on our second visit to the Iowa State Fair. Two people approached me at the same time with different stories. The first was a guy in his 30s from Sioux Center, Iowa. He said, "I saw your shirt, and I just had to say something. Back in the day when I was pheasant hunting, all roads led to the Buckaroo." That is a great line.

The second story was a from a woman in her early 70s. She lived in Rock Valley during the 1970s, but I didn't know her. I did know some her younger nephews, though. "My older brother learned how to drink at the Buckaroo. That was back when he was 14. If you were tall enough to put your quarter on the bar, you were old enough to buy a beer." I love stories like that.

This shirt is great.