MAD in St. Louis

Spent a few days in St. Louis visiting my younger son who goes to Washington University in St. Louis (It's in St. Louis) and thought I would have a break from MAD. But the Anheuser-Busch Tour had a room full of exhibits and memorabilia so then I thought if I told you about it I would maybe have a day off when I got back to the District. And since I am the creator of MAD, I get to make the rules.

The A-B tour was very packaged; you were moved around from place to place but left feeling like you didn't see anything real. The memorabilia was interesting - if you like beer; the beechwood aging tanks were enormous and the view of the packaging plant made me well aware of how few people actually are involved in the work of getting the beer out.

I started the tour hoping to see the Clydesdales and wasn't disappointed. In person they are impressive and beautiful ; they also live in conditions that prompted my husband to compare them to the living conditions of people both nearby and around the world. No offense to the Clydesdales.

Tim was our guide and he responded to my questions after the tour concerning the workforce and the economy. A-B was recently purchased by Inbev and the plant employs several thousand fewer workers since the acquisition.

How did a company that produced beer manage to survive so many dry years? Prohibition was mentioned in both the museum section and on the tour. Apparently A-B was able to prepare for it by manufacturing other items and stayed in business for the 13 years it took to get back to beer. How was Prohibition enacted politically? There must have been enormous economic and social consequences.

The tour ended with a free beer - I tried Shocktop - and a free bag of pretzels. I overheard "if you want real pretzels, go over to Gus'" so we did. A few blocks away we found the real thing, hand-twisted since 1920. Cash only .

A good day to be MAD.