Bars, Taverns, Gin Mills, Clubs, Pubs or whatever the owner wants to call them, was a way of life in my secular business. I owned them, managed them, worked in them and yes, occasionally drank in them. All said, I really did not like to frequent them because at the end of the day or night, all of the social whitewash is removed and the great revealing of what a person really is comes to light. The quiet become loud and the loud become quiet and everyone is invincible. The shy guys become masterful lovers especially at the end of the night when the "not so lovely" gal at the end of the bar looks like Greta Garbo. The shy gals are dirty dancing on top of the tables and are quick to reveal what they keep hidden during more sober times. When the Karaoke cranks up, everyone is a rock star and Mustang Sally rings throughout the place in at least 10 different versions of terrible. If anyone has ever had to clean an alcohol serving establishment, we find the ladies room mirror plastered with cat claws and who not to date while the men's room walls are filled with phone numbers and major political statements that generally start with the letter F. And if the graffiti isn't hard enough to clean up, what was left after the chili fries around the commode is enough to make the strongest of persons to turn in notice or ask for a raise. When all else is said and done, it's the employees of said establishments which are to be pitied. They work hard and put up with veritably anything and everything and earn every penny they put into their pockets. While it might also be noted that food and beverage employees have the highest number of people addicted to alcohol and / or go-faster type drugs. Uh.......nope. I do not care for bars..........................
My husband still loves his beer...but not in bars. He'd rather sit on our porch drinking a cold beer and watching the birds, etc. eat from the feeders. Everything you posted about bars is true @Bobby Cole but when you are young and enjoying that kind of partying you really don't see things that way. With age comes the kind of wisdom you spoke about.
We always have at least a six pack of Bud Light in our frig. I'm lucky because my wife loves Bud Light, but also likes some wine, champagne, my margarita's and a gin and tonic sometimes. I'm definitely not a wine "connoisseur". Heck, when I was single/divorced, I wouldn't ask a gal to dance, or even date, that I seen drinking anything but a beer. She had to be drinking a beer. Other guys (rodeo cowboys) I knew looked for the same kind of ladies.......beer drinkers only. Funny, but true. Hey, there are certain things in life we all are picky about.
One wouldn't wish to cross the smell of whiskey coming from the mouth of a gal with the beer smell of the guy. It simply isn't proper. Now, if one should come upon a two fisted drinker who does shots with a beer back, perhaps the personas of Annie Oakley or Calamity Jane types might be a bit more fetching.
Since I don't drink, my experience with bars is limited. I have always thought it sad that someone would spend their evenings sitting at a bar, drinking beer and talking to other people who spend their evenings sitting at a bar. Of course, there are the dingy bars that I would associate with alcoholism, and then there are the louder music or sports bars where people might go to have a good time. Perhaps not so sad, but still not for me. There used to be a business in Marinette, Wisconsin, that was a classic soda and malt fountain in one half of the building, which had a bar where kids would sit and drink things like cherry colas or vanilla colas. The other half of the building was an alcohol bar, with a separate entrance, but whose patrons sat at the same bar. Although there was a wall separating the patrons of the two establishments, they shared the same bar, and the same bartender who mixed the cherry cokes or made malted milks for the kids was serving beer on the other end of the bar. If you leaned forward, you could see the beer drinkers on the other end of the bar. That place stayed in business several years after all of the other classic soda fountains had gone under, but the last time I was in Marinette, the building was empty.
(In red): This was what my real dad did, that was until he bought a bar of his own. I didn't associate with him (live with him) from 6 years old on, but did visit his bar in Texas. It was definitely in a bad part of town and his idea of lunch and dinner was a bottle of Lone Star beer. The patrons of his bar were the kind of folks that I sure wouldn't associate with. Wife and I just thank the Lord I didn't turn out like him. He has been deceased for years now. He died of Cirrhosis of the Liver and it was definitely from drinking.
Good point I suppose @Cody Fousnaugh. Generally speaking I have used bars, clubs, and pubs synonymously. Based on an exact interpretation I suppose my comment above is out of line and the comment I placed in Tall Tales referring to @Kitty Carmel 's first comment and should be corrected or deleted, which I can't do but maybe @Ken Anderson might want to delete the one in Tall Tales. Otherwise, I stand corrected.
@May Benot " ( is that too un PC?)" As far as I'm concerned, PC is overplayed, overemphasized, overexagerrated, and overly contributory to more and more litigations. Frank
@Bobby Cole " Bars, Taverns, Gin Mills, Clubs, Pubs or whatever the owner wants to call them" Speak easies, blind pigs.