Back when I was a young man me and my friends didn’t need an excuse to hang out and be together, we just did.  We hung out at school.  We hung out on many of the dirt roads that crisscross our territory.  We hung out in town.  We hung out at our hang out.  All this hanging out was nice.  We got to discuss everything under the sun.  We talked about all the things we were going to accomplish.  We laughed about all the things we hadn’t.  We were glad to be around each other, glad to have the company, glad to have the shared experience.  When there were girls there we were really, really glad.  I miss those days, sometimes.
Nowadays the coffee shop is the closest thing to our hang out of old.  It isn’t quite the same though.  We do more bitching about things than discussing our hopes and dreams.  We’re not glad if girls show up.  As a matter of fact we are quite indifferent to their presence.  They’re just one more bitcher added to the mix.  Gone is the male/female tensions of our youth.  We don’t try to impress them anymore.  We gave up on that years ago.  It’s only natural.  We did just enough to impress one of them to marry us.  It seems a terrible misuse of one’s energy to go trying to impress another one now.  That’s not to say if a really hot one comes walking in, which doesn’t happen to often, we will suck in our guts for as long as possible at least trying to look presentable but there is only so long a guy can hold his breath for the sake of vanity.  No one peels out anymore upon leaving.  Tires are expensive.  No girls were coaxed into the truck with you for a nice quiet ride where running out of gas was always a possibility.  We did figure out that the price of cattle is too damn low and the price of gas is too damn high.  There was no music being played to loudly and no one punched anyone.  It’s still good.  It’s just not exciting anymore.
I have found a new place to hangout nowadays that is almost as exciting as the hangouts of old.  It’s in cyberspace.  I belong to an online virtual world just full of people who are perpetually eighteen.  We dress in the latest fashions.  There is no ear hair, no nose hair.  All the men are handsome and the women are gorgeous.  There is an energy here.  There is the old male/female tension here.  You don’t have to suck in your gut here so you can sustain your grove much longer.  I believe people come to these places to hang out.  Why not?  If you get into a fight at a virtual cowboy bar you do not get hurt.  You don’t bleed.  You can talk all the B.S. you want to.  Nobody cares about cattle prices.  Gas doesn’t cost a thing.  It’s just like high school.  A high school for people who wouldn’t go back to high school if you paid them.  It’s fun.  Everyone’s happy to be there and looking good.  We’re hanging out baby.  We’re young rebels at least until the evening news comes on.  Then it’s back to bitching about stuff.