The Tender Bar

The author begins Chapter 20, entitled “My Mother,” by recounting the experience of writing his application letter to Yale. After many attempts, he wrote a simple and honest essay, which his mother approved. Moehringer remembers the joyous moment when he and his mother opened his acceptance letter, which also informed him that the university would waive his tuition.

When he arrived at Yale, however, he immediately noticed how most of his fellow students came from much wealthier backgrounds than his own. The author recalls a peer’s mother who gave him a look of pity when she saw he was taking a taxi and had no parents with him. He felt self-conscious about his social background and lack of preparedness for the rigors of Yale academics. As school began, he was deeply discouraged about his poor grades and his professors’ impossible standards. Bill and Bud were no longer a source of support for him, since they were fired from their bookstore positions in Arizona, and Moehringer lost touch with them.

As New York’s legal drinking age was 18 years old at this time, Moehringer reflects on visiting Dickens for his first legal drink. Moehringer explains that, now an adult, he saw a different side to his