Re: America's ten oldest bars.
- From: Rumpelstiltskin <PleaseDoNotReplyByEmail@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:32:55 GMT
On Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:09:44 -0400, Gary <not@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:56:28 GMT, Rumpelstiltskin
<PleaseDoNotReplyByEmail@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:12:11 -0400, Gary <not@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:46:07 GMT, Rumpelstiltskin
<PleaseDoNotReplyByEmail@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Tue, 10 Jun 2008 07:29:58 -0400, Gary <not@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
This is an interesting article about the ten oldest bars (grog shops)
in the USA. They have pictures, too. I suppose it would be quite
an experience to get plastered in a room where men were doing it since
before the Revolution. I'll have to put it on my "to do" list. ---
gj
---------------------------------------------
http://www.sloshspot.com/blog/06-02-2008/The-10-Oldest-Bars-in-the-United-States-16
1. Jean Lafittes Blacksmith Shop
Established in 1772.
941 Bourbon Street, New Orleans, LA 70116. (504) 593-9761.
This tavern is the only known watering hole that pre-dates our
nation's independence. Founded originally (as its name suggests) as
part the Lafitte brothers' Blacksmith Shop, this bar survived a
disastrous fire in 1794 that left most New Orleans, specifically the
French Quarter, in ruins. Interestingly, much of the bar's
authenticity has been kept in tact, and the bar remains to be mostly
lit by candle. Most nights you can still go in and get a well-priced
drink and enjoy the old-world charm and the musings of the century-old
piano bar. There has also been a jukebox installed in recent years.
Definitely worth a visit if you are ever in or around the Chocolate
City.
Any pool tables? I can't see the point of going to a bar
if it doesn't have a pool table. If the bar has a pool table,
you can socialize with the pool players.
It's hard to believe, but when I walked into my first pool hall in
1959, there was no drinking allowed. It was the law in GA and all
the hustlers I met were -- in varying degrees -- sober. The idea was
that if you mixed drinking and gambling -- somebody could get killed.
I was about 18 when I first went to pool halls, and drinking age
in Massachusetts was 21, so I guess there was no drinking there.
Actually, I've never had alcohol in a pool hall. I haven't been to
pool halls lately, but the last one I went to frequently with a
friend, about 10 years ago now, did serve alcohol, I think. It was
pretty upscale though, no ruffians, certainly no hustlers. I don't
think any of the few pool halls I went to before that one served
alcohol.
Upscale ? No ruffians ? No hustlers ? What you just described is
not a pool hall. It's a girls recreational and social center.
We do have girls, though some of them could beat you and
me up. There's one I'm particularly attracted to named Heather,
who has tattoos. She's a very "handsome" girl, and I mean
that in the old sense, that she's easy on the eyes in a non-
demonstrative way, not that she looks like a man. If I were in
a bar fight, though, despite her very feminine physique, I'd
want her on my side.
Two of the guys I most used to like hanging around with have
been permanently 86'd from the bar for fighting, but most people
are peaceable, though there was a situation yesterday that
could have blown up into a fight.
It wasn't a bad idea. A lot of the old hustlers operated at a
disadvantage if they had to play sober -- but they did OK.
If it doesn't, you
can only socialize with drunks, which is even less
rewarding than socializing with druggies. Druggies are
compos menti at least some of the time, and they're
better looking since drugs tend to make you thin
whereas booze tends to make you fat.
I can enjoy a bar without pool tables. Actually I prefer it that way.
I enjoy pool and I enjoy drinking. But not together. However I
cannot stay long in a bar that does not have either a band or a good
juke box.
I often complain to people that there's no Bach or Mozart on
the juke boxes. For the most part, I don't really even hear the
music that does come out of the juke box, though occasionally
there's something that isn't just background noise crap, Elvis
or Pink Floyd or Amy Winehouse or Ella Fitzgerald or something
like that.
If you had suggested Bach or Mozart in any of my old bars -- they'd
have sat you out on the sidewalk with a saucer of milk.
Regrettably it's the same in the gay bars. People expect me
to be weird though. I was out on an architectural tour with a
few of the guys yesterday while we were waiting our turn for
pool, and they unanimously and unhesitatingly voted me as
the person they'd want to be their call-a-friend choice on a
TV game show. It was unanimous because I voted for myself
too. It was pointed out that I would be no good to call up on
a pop culture question though,such as movies or pop music.
There is one other thing. The first pool halls I went into did not
allow women. The idea being that a man can't concentrate on pool if
there's a good looking woman near.
Good looking women don't bother me at all, but I was sitting
with Joel most of yesterday, who's the hottest boy around IMV.
He's very good at pool, and beat me yesterday, though I more
often beat him. My motto at pool is "No Mercy", though,
frequently stated during the preliminary handshake and/or hug,
even when I'm playing Joel. Pretty often I give him the table if
I beat him, just because he really likes to play pool, and he's
so cute and so good-natured and flirtatious that he lights up a
room just by entering it.
I don't see how gays play pool. With all of that lovely "stuff"
crawling around on the tables. It would drive me to distraction.
There's not all that much that catches my eye, but Joel
definitely gets my juices flowing. It's no secret: he knows it
and his boyfriend knows it and all our friends know it. He
enjoys the attention and I enjoy the attending, and in fact
he gives no shortage of attention back, even initiating it
most of the time. His boyfriend isn't jealous at all: after all
I'm a creaky old fart. I keep things within limits to make
sure he isn't the one who'd have to do that and spoil the
fun. Anyway, he's way too young and irresponsible that
I'd want to get too committed. He even dresses perfectly,
in jeans and a black T-shirt just like me, though he sure
advertises the virtues of that style a heckuva lot more
enticingly than I do.
I'm surprised to see you talking about the "lovely stuff".
Is there something about you that I don't know?
I guess I'm giving the Old Biddy more ammunition to
post over and over hundreds of times in an apparent
attempt to defame me, but one can't live one's life
trying to avoid aspersions from Old Biddies who seem
never to have gotten much joy out of life.
Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus
Rumoresque senum severiorum
Omnes unius aestimemus assis.
(Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love,
And the mutterings of crabbed old men
Altogether let us value as worth only a farthing.)
-- Catullus (I guess he had run across his own Sordos)
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivamus,_mea_Lesbia,_atque_amemus
.
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