File Under: Now I understand!!

"Where Everybody Knows Your Name"
(Theme Song from the show Cheers)

Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't you like to get away?
Sometimes you want to go, where everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see, our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows your name.
You wanna go where people know, people are all the same,
You wanna go where everybody knows your name.
You want to go where people know, people are all the same;
You want to go where everybody knows your name.

By: Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo

The show Cheers was in its heyday during the 1980's and early 1990's. During that time, I was a teenager and plodding through college. I watched the show, laughed at the things I understood at the time. But I always wondered why there was so much hype about a bar. Why also did many people feel an affinity and identification with the premise of the show?

It wasn't until Scott introduced me to his local bar, the Yet Wah Restaurant in the Diamond Heights Shopping Center, that I understood what was meant by the line where "everybody knows your name." Every character on the show has an equivalent at "the Wah". Without question, the Sam Malone character takes the form of a petite in stature, but large in personality, bartender (and now co-owner) Aree K. My guess the guy named Jerry would be Norm. But more telling is the fact that it seems every person at the place has some story. On more than one occasion, I've been at "the Wah" and Scott has whispered "news at 11". Later on I hear some crazy, you can't make that stuff up, story about a person or a couple. The nicknames there are so descriptive like Chicago Bob or Delta Jimmy.

Lastly, I have to relay a final story about the world of "the Wah". Whenever Scott has some obnoxious comment or makes a statement of the obvious, he uses this nasal pitched voice. I never knew why. One day, I was at "the Wah" and I heard that same nasally voice, but it wasn't Scott. This cartoon character voice actually belonged to one of the regulars at the place and Scott had been imitating it out of habit for years.

Now that I understand why bars are such communities, I can watch Cheers in a different light and probably appreciate more things about it. Let's hope something will soon help me understand Seinfeld.