Hanging with Ro and the Peeps

Rick and Becky Teague with Roland and me.

Roland and author Neil Sagebiel.

I wandered over to Parkway Brewery in Salem early this evening to wish my friend Roland Lazenby a happy birthday and ran into some old friends and some new ones.

Roland always attracts a crowd and often it's a literary one--he's written 60 books--in addition to the sports people who like to hang with him. His books almost all deal with sports.

My old friends Becky and Rick Teague of Newport drove up and so did author Neil Sagebiel, whose new book Draw in the Dunes, is due out in a few days. His last effort was named a Top 10 Sports Book of 2012.

Felt strange sitting in what is essentially a brewery with a huge bar (outside). I haven't been in a bar in years and haven't been around cigarette smoke in that long either. But these friends were worth the effort.