Is There a Better Way to Live?

i'm reading from steinbeck' travels with charley in search of america. He comes home again, and he goes to johnny's bar, the galitian. To steinbeck's horror, he starts hearing the word dead,. After he brings up the names of several old time friends. We don't let them in. Yes, here it's better, but can i live on a bar stool? Let's not kid ourselves. What we knew is dead; what's out there is new and perhaps good, but it's nothing we know.