You know you are getting old when:

[Tiki Tom]

The other day, my wife and I were discussing that we had both noticed that, when we are traveling, single women in their 50s-60s will glom onto us and tell their life stories, etc, and just hang with us (uninvited) until our paths naturally diverge again. Anyway, it has happened often enough that we both took note of it.

 

[Turnip]

Yes, sometimes on travel one can experience some nice, sometimes also slightly creepy, barfly moments without a bar or even alcohol around.

I remember once I stepped into an elevator, along with a woman in her 50s and three levels later I knew that hat her hobby was Tango, she had type 2 diabetes and has been divorced.
To be honest I’ve been happy once we reached ground level . I’m sure after two or three more she would have made a wedding proposal.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Would anyone hang up a party placard with "Free Cocktails For Ladies", these days?

In my state, it's illegal, and has always been illegal, for a licensed establishment to offer free liquor to anyone for any reason, regardless of gender. Posting a sign like that would get your license revoked before the paint was dry.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^^
I clearly remember “tables for ladies” signs painted on the window glass in drinking establishments, but that’s going back more than 50 years. It was considered improper for a woman to sit at the bar, the implication being that she would be seeking to leave the place in the company of a man, perhaps with commercial motivation. A woman just wanting what the fellows wanted when they strode into the joint, to throw back a drink or two, wouldn’t wish any confusion on that account.

I’ve learned in recent years that barstools themselves weren’t common until the repeal of Prohibition. Period photos certainly indicate that, and they also indicate that the clientele in those pre-Prohibition days was almost exclusively male. So I’m left thinking that those “tables for ladies” signs dated from the first couple of decades post-repeal.

 

[belfastboy]

^^^^^^^
I clearly remember “tables for ladies” signs painted on the window glass in drinking establishments, but that’s going back more than 50 years. It was considered improper for a woman to sit at the bar, the implication being that she would be seeking to leave the place in the company of a man, perhaps with commercial motivation. A woman just wanting what the fellows wanted when they strode into the joint, to throw back a drink or two, wouldn’t wish any confusion on that account.

I’ve learned in recent years that barstools themselves weren’t common until the repeal of Prohibition. Period photos certainly indicate that, and they also indicate that the clientele in those pre-Prohibition days was almost exclusively male. So I’m left thinking that those “tables for ladies” signs dated from the first couple of decades post-repeal.

Up until the 1970's here the only place to buy a drink (without having to order food) was in a hotel 'lounge' or "beer parlour'. There were separate entrances, the main entrance and then another labelled "Ladies & Escorts". Then the new government allowed the opening of neighbourhood pubs ala Great Britain, to place drinking establishments more in neighbourhoods, thinking we would walk to the pub and not drink and drive.

Even into the 1990's the old beer halls would bring in male strippers for ladies nights. Drinks were not free but greatly reduced. The ladies would get hammered, let their hair down (so to speak), and turn up hungover the next day to work.

 

[belfastboy]

The other day, my wife and I were discussing that we had both noticed that, when we are traveling, single women in their 50s-60s will glom onto us and tell their life stories, etc, and just hang with us (uninvited) until our paths naturally diverge again. Anyway, it has happened often enough that we both took note of it.

When travelling, my wife and I love to hike/wander about. We make a point of engaging in conversations with folks we meet along the way. Yes, it is surprising how much people are willing to reveal but we do cherish having genuine conversations with strangers along the path. It might not mean anything in the grand scheme of a life but I find joy in sharing, if even but a moment in time, at least it is a human, face to face moment.

 

[tonyb]

Up until the 1970's here the only place to buy a drink (without having to order food) was in a hotel 'lounge' or "beer parlour'. There were separate entrances, the main entrance and then another labelled "Ladies & Escorts". Then the new government allowed the opening of neighbourhood pubs ala Great Britain, to place drinking establishments more in neighbourhoods, thinking we would walk to the pub and not drink and drive.

Even into the 1990's the old beer halls would bring in male strippers for ladies nights. Drinks were not free but greatly reduced. The ladies would get hammered, let their hair down (so to speak), and turn up hungover the next day to work.

Learning the local code was the first order of business when a committed drinker found himself in unfamiliar territory.

The liquor laws in Washington state have loosened quite a bit from where they were when I moved there, in 1968. Back then a person could get a drink on Sundays, but only when it was accompanied by a “meal.” So many a bar kept these cellophane-wrapped hotdogs and hamburgers and such (you’d have to be hungry) in a cooler and tossed them in a countertop oven (we’re talking pre-microwave oven times) so that the customer could drink his fill and neither he nor the business would be in violation. It’s doubtful the bar broke even on the “meals,” but the sale of booze more than made up for it.

And then there were the changing food-to-booze sales ratios. Licensed liquor servers by law procured their inventory from the state Liquor Control Board, so the state knew how much booze they were selling, making it difficult for the bar to cheat on that end of the equation. I’m familiar with a bar owner who drove to another state, one with warehouse liquor stores selling to the public, and loaded up a truck with cases of hooch. Once back home that out-of-state liquor was poured into empty bottles bearing the Washington state seal.

I believe the statute of limitations has long passed, but I still ain’t naming names.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Ha ha! Liquor laws. I remember living in Maryland where you could only buy booze at State Run liquor stores. Of course, right on the District of Columbia state line, there was a row of liquor stores where they had better selection and better prices. Those border line liquor stores did a lot of business!

On the earlier topic, when living in Vienna we would often play the American Card; meaning that, as Americans, we could get away with striking up conversations with total strangers. It’s the American Way! (In the best sense.) Central Europeans tend to be much more reserved in public, but they would hear the American accent and go along with us. Someone once told me, it’s not that the Europeans are grumpy curmudgeons, it’s just that they have been inculturated with respecting each other‘s privacy. As an American, I’d start a random conversation with my thick American accent and the Viennese would always reply in a friendly and gracious manner (while no doubt thinking that Americans are crazy. )

On the other end, when we first moved back here after 20 years in Austria, I was exhausted by the non-stop American friendliness. I’ve learned to build in an extra half hour to any trip into town, just to allow for unexpected conversations. I have since gotten over it, and it seems pretty natural now.

 

[belfastboy]

When I was a teenager and the drinking age was 21 I had no trouble getting served as I was big for my age and dressed well. On Saturday nights the bars closed at midnight and we often stayed open til then. We would send one guy up to the hotel bar, chipping in $2 each (beers were.20 to .25) and his job was to 'Load the table(s)". We were allowed to sit in the bar and drink what had been ordered we just could not order any more. We were good until close to 2:00am when they would toss us out. Once we started opening the midway on Sundays it was harder to get the group together as we could no longer sleep in.

Learning the local code was the first order of business when a committed drinker found himself in unfamiliar territory.

The liquor laws in Washington state have loosened quite a bit from where they were when I moved there, in 1968. Back then a person could get a drink on Sundays, but only when it was accompanied by a “meal.” So many a bar kept these cellophane-wrapped hotdogs and hamburgers and such (you’d have to be hungry) in a cooler and tossed them in a countertop oven (we’re talking pre-microwave oven times) so that the customer could drink his fill and neither he nor the business would be in violation. It’s doubtful the bar broke even on the “meals,” but the sale of booze more than made up for it.

And then there were the changing food-to-booze sales ratios. Licensed liquor servers by law procured their inventory from the state Liquor Control Board, so the state knew how much booze they were selling, making it difficult for the bar to cheat on that end of the equation. I’m familiar with a bar owner who drove to another state, one with warehouse liquor stores selling to the public, and loaded up a truck with cases of hooch. Once back home that out-of-state liquor was poured into empty bottles bearing the Washington state seal.

I believe the statute of limitations has long passed, but I still ain’t naming names.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
By my senior year in high school, when I turned 18 (drinking age was 21), I was bearded (the “hippie” era, you understand) and it was becoming apparent that I would be bald within a few years, so I was the one who procured the alcohol. I won't name the establishments that sold me hooch without hesitation, seeing how that’s kinda like kissing and telling. And some of those businesses are still around, although ownership may very well have changed a time or three over the ensuing decades. And the clerks and bartenders themselves are likely either retired or deceased at this point.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Central Europeans tend to be much more reserved in public, but they would hear the American accent and go along with us. Someone once told me, it’s not that the Europeans are grumpy curmudgeons, it’s just that they have been inculturated with respecting each other‘s privacy.

The German Biedermeier world is more or less based on the Konfuzius rule, I think, because kids were teached this way, over all times.

"Catholic Moufflon" is another story.

 

[Turnip]

That’s also a question of location and size of community, but I could imagine that’s pretty similar all around the world. The smaller the community, the longer it takes to assimilate.
In a small German village it might take two or three generations to get promoted from total, somehow slightly suspect, stranger to „moved in“ status, no matter where.
Northern Germans for example are notorious for not making many words and there is quite some meat on that bone.
Rhinelanders are not quite popular there because these are notorious on the other hand to babble a jack on everyone’s ear who’s not on a tree at three.

But all that, including that small town strangeness’s, erodes more and more with the time marching on, fortunately.

 

[The one from the North]

Learning the local code was the first order of business when a committed drinker found himself in unfamiliar territory.

The liquor laws in Washington state have loosened quite a bit from where they were when I moved there, in 1968. Back then a person could get a drink on Sundays, but only when it was accompanied by a “meal.” So many a bar kept these cellophane-wrapped hotdogs and hamburgers and such (you’d have to be hungry) in a cooler and tossed them in a countertop oven (we’re talking pre-microwave oven times) so that the customer could drink his fill and neither he nor the business would be in violation. It’s doubtful the bar broke even on the “meals,” but the sale of booze more than made up for it.

And then there were the changing food-to-booze sales ratios. Licensed liquor servers by law procured their inventory from the state Liquor Control Board, so the state knew how much booze they were selling, making it difficult for the bar to cheat on that end of the equation. I’m familiar with a bar owner who drove to another state, one with warehouse liquor stores selling to the public, and loaded up a truck with cases of hooch. Once back home that out-of-state liquor was poured into empty bottles bearing the Washington state seal.

I believe the statute of limitations has long passed, but I still ain’t naming names.

Decades ago here too in most restaurants one could get a drink, wine, beer only with a meal. So many not so high class establishments had a few sandwitches in a fridge. You ordered your beer, it came with the sandwich, and after the beer was finished the sandwich was promptly taken back to the fridge waiting for the next customer... Thankfully things have loosen up a lot since!

 

[Trenchfriend]

Decades ago here too in most restaurants one could get a drink, wine, beer only with a meal. So many not so high class establishments had a few sandwitches in a fridge. You ordered your beer, it came with the sandwich, and after the beer was finished the sandwich was promptly taken back to the fridge waiting for the next customer... Thankfully things have loosen up a lot since!

Man, I think, THAT'S a business idea, at least in old Germany!
A beer coupled with a sandwich, maybe a solid Bismarck sandwich? With any funky motto, and Jeeesus, that would sell like hell.

 

[Trenchfriend]

B-E-E-R-S-N-A-C-K-S !!

Monday to Friday, every day fresh!!

JUST A DOLLAR!!
Hop in and have a hearty snack!



Too cheesy, too old-fashioned, too low price??

 

[Turnip]

Back in the 80s of last century and way back earlier we had several program cinemas in bigger West-German cities that were specialized on, let’s say Swedish Western movies, and therefore were not permitted to take an entrance fee.
So you had compulsively to buy a consumption stamp equivalent to a pretty expensive beer instead before entering.

VHS, DVD and www killed most of them.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

Back in the 80s of last century and way back earlier we had several program cinemas in bigger West-German cities that were specialized on, let’s say Swedish Western movies, and therefore were not permitted to take an entrance fee.
So you had compulsively to buy a consumption stamp equivalent to a pretty expensive beer instead before entering.

VHS, DVD and www killed most of them.

I know of "Spaghetti Westerns" (they made Clint Eastwood's career), but "Swedish Western movies" is a new term for me. Should I infer that Sven and Ilsa made appearances in these wearing wide-brimmed felt hats, or maybe something less?

 

[Turnip]

Maybe phone book movies: Many numbers, no story.

 

[belfastboy]

That’s also a question of location and size of community, but I could imagine that’s pretty similar all around the world. The smaller the community, the longer it takes to assimilate.
In a small German village it might take two or three generations to get promoted from total, somehow slightly suspect, stranger to „moved in“ status, no matter where.
Northern Germans for example are notorious for not making many words and there is quite some meat on that bone.
Rhinelanders are not quite popular there because these are notorious on the other hand to babble a jack on everyone’s ear who’s not on a tree at three.

But all that, including that small town strangeness’s, erodes more and more with the time marching on, fortunately.

My brother, an Anglo, born on the west coast, emigrated to Quebec, became fully bilingual, married a local......he will forever remain an outsider. Those born in Quebec City consider themselves 'pure laine' (pure wool) and only they are truly Quebecoise. I met a middle aged fellow that ran an art gallery in QC, born and raised in Montreal, he moved to Quebec City to marry a local girl. He told me, that he too, would forever be an outsider and never to be considered ...'pure laine. Tribalism runs deep.

 

[Trenchfriend]

When THIS gets your attention.