• Barred

    Skyline Tavern

    When: Wednesday, 5:30pm

    Skyline Tavern is a faux roadhouse that used to be a real roadhouse and has a similar vibe to the Lighthouse in that it doesn’t attract a super young crowd, seems blue collar on the surface but is adjacent to very expensive properties in the woods.

    Age appropriate? Yes.

    On this visit, a blonde, tattooed woman who appeared to be in her 30s was wearing a t-shirt that said “grandma” in the cooper font and actually said aloud, “I’m 42” in a discussion with friends about New Portland and Old Portland. She also said, “Once you turn 40…” and did a raspberry (why do people call that a raspberry?) but I didn’t catch the end of the sentence.

    On a subsequent visit, the band setting up had two members who were women around 50.

    Also, the bartender said she had my tattoo that’s been on my upper right arm for 24 years. I’ve never encountered anyone with this tattoo of a stylized ‘60s (?) cat face that I saw in a book of logos in the early ‘90s and is now dated, faded and is probably mistaken for that “Glitter Kitty” that was ubiquitous on stickers around that same time even though no one has ever said that to me. I kind of didn’t believe it, but sure enough she had a smaller version of mine on her shoulder. She said it was a logo from a cafe in Bellevue, Washington and she got it around 1994 when she was a senior in high school. I graduated college that year, so that’s practically a different generation, but upon further reflection that would make her around 42.

    As much as I want to resist it, I’m very much a product of Old Portland.