KEWAUNEE, WI — At 8:47 p.m. Wednesday, the regulars at the Anchor Inn held a show of hands and decided, by a margin of 11 to 3, that tonight’s Cowboys–Eagles season opener would be carried on the good television, the one mounted above the Old Style sign that has worked uninterrupted since the bar replaced its picture tube in 2014.
The other television, a 32-inch Sanyo above the dart board, will continue to do what it does, which is show a slightly green version of whatever the good television is showing, roughly a quarter second behind.
Owner and bartender Dale Pribyl, who tabulated the vote on a Spangler Brewing pad, said the meeting was unusual only in that there was a meeting. “Normally the good TV is just the good TV,” Pribyl said. “But Lonny brought up the Brewers, and once Lonny brings something up you have to take a vote or he won’t sit down.”
The three dissenting votes belonged to Lonny Vavricek, who wanted the Brewers–Cardinals game on the good TV; Sharon Kveck, who wanted the good TV turned off entirely because her brother-in-law plays in a kickball league that streams on Wednesdays and once she sees a screen she’s obligated to ask; and a man identified only as the guy who comes in for the fish fry and stays.
Pribyl said the Sanyo will carry the Brewers game with the sound off, which is consistent with the Sanyo’s general policy. The Sanyo has not had functional sound since the second Bush administration, a fact most regulars regard as a feature.
Reached at the IGA, Marlene Dax, who has tended bar at the Anchor Inn on alternating Thursdays since her divorce, said the vote was “the most democratic thing that’s happened in this town since they let us redo the swim dock,” and added that anyone showing up tonight in a Cowboys jersey would be served, but slowly.
The Anchor Inn opens at 4. Kickoff is at 7:20. Pribyl said he expects a full house, by which he means thirty-one people, which is the number of stools and chairs the fire marshal will pretend not to count.
The forecast calls for clear skies and a low of 54.