On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I woke up and looked towards the mountains. I wanted to do some LSD. Long, slow distance. I have a dream of running a 3:15 spring marathon.

Recently I read about actress Shirley Maclaine's mountaintop property. After a couple of paragraphs I lost interest. Then I read that the NBA's premier rebounder, Dennis Rodman, kicked a courtside photographer in the groin. Enough already, I went to the kitchen for another cup of coffee and stared out the window. It was over my second cup that I decided to head out towards the eastside and Atalaya, nice and slow. I had to see the mountain in its purest form.

Along the way something interesting happened. My mind played the Schafer beer jingle. It took me back to days in Pennsylvania. For those unfamiliar, it plays something like this:

"Schafer/is the/one ber to have/when you're having more than one/Schafer/pleasure/doesn't fade/even when your thirst is done/The most rewarding pleasure/in this man's life/for people who are having fun."

Why the Schafer jingle? Could it be the LSD? I hadn't done a long run in a while. Did I long for a cold Schafer? No. Lately I opted for more tasting lagers, such as microbrews from places like Crested Butte, St. Cloud, Klamath Falls, Eau Claire, even Santa Fe. The answer came to me while running along East Alameda. Yes, I had come down from the mountain.

A hometown friend told me that a local distributor was selling Schmidt's beer. "Schmidt's?... Really?... Where?..." Schmidt's and Schafer. Two beers from home. The latter jingle stayed with me a long time. It was quite revealing.

Chances were good I'd be having more than one run after this one. A run offers me pleasure, although it sometimes fades. More often than not it quenches my thirst. It is one of the most rewarding pleasures in this man's life. And for fun...?

Well, as of this writing, Shirley Maclaine's property is still up for sale; DR is suspended for 11 games and $1,000,000; and for me, instead of buying some out-of-state microbrew for $9.00 a six-pack, I made a beer run for a 20-pack of Schmidt's at $6.20. One hundred twenty-five years still brewing with H-two-O right from the City of Brotherly love's Schuykill River. Yes, the Schafer jingle taught me three lessons: 1. I can't forget my roots. 2. I need to have a little fun in this life. 3. I need to keep doing my LSD: long, slow, distance.

February 1997