Soccer Bars

A friend of mine is a big fan of a team in the English Premier League, and when my wife was out of town I joined him to watch a game on TV at a bar. Since the game took place in the afternoon in London, it took place for us at about 9 in the morning. I met him at the bar ten minutes before the game began, and though the streets were still empty there was only enough room in the bar to squeeze in a few more people. On the day I met him, his team happened to commemorate a tragedy in their club's history with a full minute of silence before the game began. The bar's patrons observed this minute of silence, and I have to say, you'll never know how long a minute can last until you stand in a packed bar at 8:55 a.m. where no one makes a sound. Well, the only sound was the door opening when a guy happened to walk in, and I have to wonder if he thought he'd stumbled into a robbery in progress or some kind of cult activity in that moment he stood in the door looking at all of us.