The old soldier had sold toys and horseradish and finally televisions. He met each afternoon at a 60's strip center lounge with seven other old soldiers. A couple of them had been with him in France and Germany, the rest were GIs in the Pacific and one younger guy that had served in Korea. The name of the place was The Masquerade Lounge. The owner was an old soldier too and had been the first old soldier's partner in the toy business two doors down that now was an electrulux vacume cleaner sales and repair shop. The bar was named after the owner's mother. She had been a burlesque and fan dancer in a popular speakeasy downtown. She wore a mask.
There was always sliced braunsweiger in a cold fondue pot on the bar. The patrons would use one of the long fondue forks to get the braunschweiger and put it on a cocktail napkin with a few saltines from an old Nabisco tin. The old soldier first tasted braunschweiger during the war near the French town of Nancy. It was captured along with a company of German soldiers. He and his army buddies ate lots of it along with commandeered cases of wine. Braunschweiger is smoked liver sausage. He never really liked liverwurst. He loved braunschweiger.
The old soldier's grandson loved to listen to his grandfather's war stories. He always wanted to be a soldier. He joined the Army after high school. He lost his left leg and his right foot in Kuwait.
The old soldier would stop by a couple of afternoons a week and bring his grandson some braunshweiger slices in a styrofoam carry-out box. He never really liked braunschweiger. He only said he did when he was a kid to please the old man so he would keep telling his war stories. The old soldier would never stay long. They would watch some of the evening news and talk about the VA hosptal and baseball. When the old man would leave his grandson would feed the braunschweiger slices to his dog.
From 'Braunschweiger' by Franklin Cincinnatus
