Ellie nods in agreement and says she never buys pistachios anymore because they come from Iran. Ellie recently watched Lyndon Larouche, an ultra-conservative Democratic candidate on television, and she says he made a lot of sense--"a lot more sense than the other candidates," and she wishes he would run for mayor.

With Ellie's mention of Iran, talk switches to the draft and the possibility of war. Everyone agrees with the large bulky woman, a former professiona1l golfer, who sits at the bar and says loudly, "It's about time Carter did something, he should have done something a long time ago."

"Of course I'd go," says Shermie, 20-year-old who works in his father's package store in town. A chinless 19-year-old, clutching the arm of her middle-aged boyfriend who had both legs blown off in Korea, says, "I'd just get pregnant." The boyfriend looks at her coolly and nods to his wooden legs. "I would if I could," he says.

The residents of Farmington support the draft and they would fight in a war, but they don't like to talk about it.

Conversation drifts to marriages and the cost of heating oil. Above the bar, on a color television screen, John Anderson talks with reporters in Washington about his campaign strategy for New Hampshire. I interrupt two men arguing about last night's poker game to ask what they think of John Anderson.

"Who is John Anderson?" one asks me as he sips his draft and the primary seems very far away indeed.