Bad Dream’s good books
IN NEW MILFORD, A FRIENDLY ENCLAVE FOR HORROR BOOKS AND BEER
When Nanette Sauer moved recently to New Milford for work, she had one primary concern.
“I moved here and I was like, ‘what the f*** do I do here?’” Sauer says, seated across the bar at Bad Dream Brewing on a recent Sunday.
Behind the bar were Max and Michelle Retter, husband and wife and half of the fourperson team that opened the brewery just over a year ago.
Around the small taproom — tucked between an Olympia Sports and Staples in New Milford’s Fairfield Plaza — roughly 15 other people were scattered. The Retters pour the occasional beer, but mostly talk to customers, most of whom had taken part in the brewery’s monthly horror book club, led by Michelle Retter, which has provided Sauer at least some entertainment in her new home.
“I’m, like, so thankful for you guys,” Sauer says, as lingering book club members carried on lively conversations about the assigned book, “The Elementals,” by Michael McDowell.
The book club began shortly after Bad Dream opened. The brewery itself grew out of a horror book club started by the Retters, Max’s sister Emily Leone, and his high school friend, Brian Benzinger. Increasingly, the club’s
In my younger days, which date back to the last century, I was a twofisted drinker, with a bottle in each hand and one large mouth to fill.
In my older days, which date back to last month, I was a twofisted feeder, with a bottle in each hand and two small mouths to fill.
The latter scenario took place when my wife, Sue, and I met our new twin grandchildren, Zoe and Quinn.
Our older daughter, Katie, had given birth to the dynamic duo three weeks before Sue and I visited for seven days and (more important) nights, during which we helped Katie and our soninlaw Dave with babysitting Zoe, Quinn and their big brother, Xavier, who is 2 and a half and is a sweet boy who loves his little siblings even more than he loves playing with me, which he did constantly at home, at a friend’s house and at a birthday party to which I, a bigger kid than any of the toddler guests, was invited.
The two bottles came into play when I fed Zoe and her younger (by 25 minutes) brother, Quinn, both of whom have healthy appetites that must be sated simultaneously to keep them on the same schedule.
This entailed, often between the wee small hours of 1 and 4 a.m., placing them on either side of me while using an ingenious invention called My Brest Friend, a nursing pillow that wraps
around the feeder to ensure that always the twins shall eat.
I did double duty several times and even did quadruple duty (two twin feedings in one night) twice. I also did double doody (dual diaper detail) each time I did double duty, always before the feedings but sometimes directly afterward, too, which is doubly daunting for a geezer working on precious little sleep.
The greatest challenge was getting the bottles into both mouths and keeping the babies balanced while each guzzled between two and four ounces of 100 percent, allnatural mother’s milk.
At halftime, there was burping. The babies also had to be burped, then fed the remainder of their meal, after which further eructations had to be coaxed before they could be swaddled (the only part at which I did not excel) and put back in their bassinets to sleep it off while I attempted to do the same on a nearby couch.
Two hours later, it was feeding time again.
Katie, who is nursing, had the most important role, of course. Dave did double duty with the pillow, but Sue never got the hang of it because, she said, “I’m too short.” During the day, she fed either Zoe or Quinn while I fed the other.
Xavier provided moral support, saying hello to his infant siblings and kissing them in a touching display of brotherly love.
He also provided moral support to Nini and Poppie, by which Sue and I are known to our five grandchildren, who now number enough for a (very short) basketball team.
Xavier helped Sue make blueberry bread and meatball pizza, which he scarfed down for breakfast and dinner, respectively. And he helped me be uncharacteristically useful by reading to him, driving his toy trucks and trains, and engaging in spirited games of hideandseek.
“Xavier has joined the Cult of Poppie,” Katie remarked, noting that his cousins, Chloe and Lilly, are already members and that Zoe and Quinn are applying for admission.
They proved it by spitting up on me after a nighttime feeding. The next morning, I attended the aforementioned birthday party with Xavier and Katie in a Tshirt streaked with spitup stains.
But I didn’t care. Meeting my newest grandchildren was a twinwin situation.