The Soundtrack is the first drinking establishment on the way into Magnolia, and that seems perfectly alright. It's a normal place, the kind of place where two guys on a weird quest can walk on in, sit down at the bar, and not feel at all out of place. Okay, at least this half can do that. But then, it's another one like the bars of my boyhood.

The patrons were overwhelmingly male, overwhelmingly working class, and not that you'd likely notice at first, good guys to sit next to at the bar. They're the kind of guys who can sit quiet if that's the way it is, or can talk sports, or chat up the bartender, or whatever. Great bar company, really.

The drinks were reasonably priced, reasonably made, and served by Holly, who was a nice woman that knew how to handle her bar crowd. She was funny, mostly about herself which is a good thing, interested in our mission, and seemed to have admirers aplenty at the bar, which is understandable. And she started the string of lady bartenders we'd have in Magnolia, all of them pleasant.

I probably won't go back to the Soundtrack. I like the place well enough, but it's not the sort of hang out my crowd is likely to assume. I hope, though, that when I start to get a little older, and settled into my neighborhood and such, that there's a Soundtrack nearby to be my regular watering hole. And that there's a Holly there to be called a flirt by some guy who's obviously sweet on her. I think I'd like that a lot.