Greeting Batch,
Well, here I am again. PLEASE, do not shred your copy of BREWINGS out of frustration. I promise, I will quit
soon. In January I told you a little about the origin of Schell’s Border Batch Chapter but did I mention why the
name? No, I guess not. The Schell’s part is obvious, the Border part because we were near the Minnesota
Iowa border and between Hawkeye Chapter and North Star Chapter and the Batch part because Bunch was
already taken by the Badger Bunch. I guess it worked out OK. In the next issue I talked about B.B.B.S.
The story I want to tell you about this issue is a little more on the personal side than chapter history. Here’s the
scoop on the Beer Can Widow. By the way, we still have some records and are donating a bunch or batch, if
you like, to the chapter for fund raising. This whole song thing started one day when I was taking a new
collector, Paul Bonnerup, dumping around Glenville. Don’t get the idea that Glenville was a dumper’s
destination, but it was close to home so it was the best we had at the moment. I mentioned Paul before but
few if any of you would know him. So, Paul and I had been out dumping and stopped back at my home around
lunchtime with the cans we had found. By that time Nona had written this poem, something she still does.
I’m a beer can widowed wife,
In this cold and dreary life.
As I sit home all alone,
My only company’s the telephone.
He goes dumping with a friend of his,
Leaving me home with our four kids.
At night he’s in his bar,
Labeling cans from near and far.
Hey, that’s pretty good, but we’ve got cans to find. See you later. We got back home later in the day and she
had written the other verses and set it to music.
Refrain:
Old beer cans,
New beer cans,
Beer cans all,
Over the house.
When we’re driving in the car,
And he spots a local bar.
He checks the off-sale beer,
Buying cans both and strange and queer.
We don’t pull the usual tab,
We open the bottom with a stab.
He displays them on his shelf,
For onlookers like himself.
Refrain:
When we go to bed at night,
And we turn off all the lights.
He tells of his latest cans,
Listing all the different brands.
While I lay there in his arms,
Feeling safe from any harm.
I wake up w