26 May 2021

Regulars

We have lived in this house for almost thirty two years. In all that time, I have been a regular at our local pub. Of course, COVID-19  has had a big impact on English public houses. Until very recently our local had been closed  for many months. Three weeks ago it opened for outside drinking only but on May 17th customers were allowed to go back inside. No waiting at the bar. Table service only. Hand sanitising. Masks on when not at your pre-booked table. Such fun!

Regular customer Stan  in our local - one sunny 
afternoon in 2015.He died in 2019.

Last night I moseyed on down there for the first time in a year. I met up with five other regulars - all retired folk like me. I have known them for years and we have  seen that pub pass through several changes - including refurbishments, management comings and goings, deaths of other regulars and the sad decline of pub attendance in this country.

I remember the pub being packed to the rafters on Friday and Saturday nights. It was hard to find a seat sometimes. The air would be a fug of cigarette smoke, filled with lively conversation and raucous laughter. When we first moved to this suburb, there weren't even any televisions in the old place - just a piano which apparently, before my time, used to be the focus of Saturday night sing songs.

Shirley and I have spent several happy New Years Eves in the pub and we have attended a number of wakes there too.  It is where I honed my quizzing skills on Tuesday and Sunday nights. Generally speaking, the atmosphere was always pleasant and unthreatening in this law-abiding neighbourhood but I have seen a couple of fist fights in there - like scenes from The Wild West - though they never lasted long.

Just before the pandemic the old days were long gone. Before closing time most tables would be empty and the careless young bar staff were often in a rush to stop serving and get customers out. It was putting me off going there any more and it felt as if the pub was dying before my eyes. Metaphorically speaking, it was becoming like an old western saloon in a dusty ghost town with the tumbleweed blowing past.

And so I was back in there last night. A slim young woman with long dark hair was taking our orders. I asked what her name was and she said, "Alice".

"Welcome to wonderland!" I said and she chuckled under her black coronavirus mask.

"Are you regulars?" she asked and I admitted that we were though alternatively I might have claimed that we were in truth dinosaurs.

40 comments:

  1. I comfort myself with the thought that I'm a dinosaur who can read cursive.

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    1. Cursive? Is that writing that contains a lot of swear words?

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  2. A thought provoking posting YP. I miss a 'local' pub. The socializing is so important for the the human spirit and mind. Oh to see a live Rock band again.

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    1. In times gone by it was like having another "front room" - but some distance from your house.

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  3. Our village pub closed three years ago, shortly before we moved into our new home. Apparently it is due to re-open next month, on a short lease. Whether it will be able to attract enough punters to stay open, only time will tell. Although I'm not a regular pub goer I would like to see it become a feature of the village again.

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    1. I hope that you and Paul will actively support the brave people who will be giving your village pub "another go". Perhaps they will serve bar meals and doggie biscuits.

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  4. Hmmm, a 'Neil'doceratops or a 'Neil'ovenator? The first would make Ian proud--an herbivore, but the second one is perhaps more like you, a carnivore--with a taste for hops. Slightly older than you at 127 million years. :)

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    1. Mother of God! I wish I had a suitable response to this witty comment but I cannot think of an inoffensive one.

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  5. Pubs are something that we just don't have here. Or at least, not exactly. And it's too bad. As I have often lamented, Lloyd has about fifty churches and not one bar which I suppose would be the closest thing to a pub.

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    1. Not far from here - in Stony Middleton - there's a pub called "The Moon Inn". How cool it would be if there was another one in Lloyd FL.

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  6. I only visit a local pub if we are eating out but P likes to pop in once a week for a pint and a chat with his cronies. I think it is more a male thing, to enjoy supping pints in a pub.

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  7. The demise of pubs is sad. But perhaps there's a positive side, too -- the NHS has been on a long campaign to get people to drink less, and that's naturally going to affect pubs. Also, one of my British friends maintains that there were simply too many pubs in some neighborhoods. In London, for example, there was one every few blocks. I love a good pub, but we only go every few months at most.

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    1. My pub habit is changing too. Perhaps we should drink less but I still feel sad about the catalogue of closures in the last twenty five years.

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  8. Where I grew up, there are no bars, at least close by. So the elders of the farming community would congregate at a particular store to "loaf" as they called it and perhaps drink a bottle of pop. I remember as a kid looking forward to the day when I was old enough to go loafing with my peers. It never happened. The world moved on.

    Perhaps someday I might find a place like that to go with some of my peers for a pint or whatever is in fashion then, but for now, my peers are busy working to pay off debts while I'm for the most part retired.

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    1. If I am ever over there again, I would love to go loafing with you Ed. To "loaf" - I love that word and your local memory of how it was once used.

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  9. We don't really have pubs here, restuarants that masquerade as pubs, mostly chains. I live in farm country and grew up in a small town surrounded by farms; the equivalent of a pub would be the coffee shops and restaurants where the old farmers congregated, especially on rainy days, to sort out all the woes of the world.

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    1. It is hard for me to imagine a life without pubs.

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  10. No pubs here, only bars and most of those are attached to restaurants with blaring music and no good atmosphere for talking with friends. Too bad.

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    1. Some American "bars" I visited in past years were not too different from some English pubs.

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  11. Your pub has a familiar look to it but only because we have a very unique establishment in our small town - an Irish pub started by a couple with Irish heritage about twenty-five years ago. The decor and furnishings are similar to those in your photo, although I'm sure there are differences in Irish and English pubs that you would notice. There is definitely a different atmosphere in "our" pub, compared to a regular bar. It's a popular place to go here for a drink and a meal, and is surely suffering under our lockdown rules since the pandemic began. I hope your pub stays afloat and maybe even reverts to the kind of place you remember.

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    1. Your Irish pub sounds great. Applause for the couple who made it happen.

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  12. I have many fond (and not so fond) memories of places that no longer exist or have changed beyond recognition. It sometimes makes me feel like I'm walking on shifting sand. The sands of time?

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  13. Tastes change over time, fashions for eating and drinking alter too, although pubs, in form or another, have lasted well over the centuries. Future generations of youngsters are unlikely to want the same kind of atmosphere that their fathers and grandfathers enjoyed. It seems sad that something so quintessentially British should be lost for good, but a few will surely remain as examples of another era.

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    1. I feel sad that as traditional free houses have disappeared, pub chains like Wetherspoons have thrived.

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  14. The Pub of my youth and not-so-youth was the social hub (particularly, in my case, after bellringing on a Thursday) and as a place where we celebrated birthday etc after work. Those days are long since gone and whilst we all are sad that they have gone we are the ones who have caused their demise. We don't socialise in pubs any more and we drink wine at home not beer in the pub. We have also moved into publess housing areas. Society has changed. We have changed. I think it's sad. Many youngsters have no concept of what loss we are bemoaning.

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    1. People driven back into their houses with their Netflix, i-pads and cheap supermarket tipples. You are of course right to point out this shift. Some trends are almost impossible to hold back.

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  15. I think many people will have a similar story when they go back to regular activities.

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    1. Perhaps this world will be forever changed as a result of COVID-19.

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  16. I am not sure when pubs, bars, restaurants etc. will open again in my area, but at the moment I would not feel really at ease inside yet. I would love to visit a beer garden for a refreshing shandy on a warm weekend afternoon or evening, but sitting indoors at pre-booked tables, being served by masked staff and myself having to wear a mask every time I get up from my seat does not hold much appeal.
    My Irish Pub is one of the few things I have been missing since the start of the pandemic. It really is very much like my front room away from home; I have spent many a great evening there with my friends, both with and without the pub quiz. Also, I rented the entire place for a whole Sunday to celebrate my 50th birthday three years ago - unforgettable.

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    1. I didn't like the procedures either but it was nice to catch up with a bunch of other COVID survivors.

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  17. Well the little pub next door still goes on. Locals use it, big burly farmers, non-speaking solitary men as well. Also the tourists who love an evening meal. Harriet has been cooking take-away food all through the pandemic, and I see the villagers go by to collect Tuesday pies and Friday Fish and chips - special offers!

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    1. Why not treat yourself to fish and chips tonight Thelma?

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  18. I went to a pub with some friends at the weekend for the first time in ages - admittedly we sat outside under cover, as we felt safer. I ordered half a bitter shandy - I was still salivating at the one you'd mentioned a few weeks ago.

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    1. You should have had a pint! In a "lady's glass" of course!

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  19. The pub in my village in Northumberland used to have an open fire, a 'dogs allowed' policy and a big sign that said something like - there's one big friendly conversation in this pub - join in, or bugger off!'
    I've always thought they were very good rules for a 'proper pub'.
    Saturday nights would be packed with locals, there were raffles, domino cards (remember them) various shows throughout the year - and even summer trips for the 'old folks' - a real community nexus - and right opposite the Presbyterian chapel!

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    1. Aye lad - them was the days. I wonder if you remember men in white coats at the weekend bearing baskets of cockles, mussels, winkles and fish sticks to have as pub snacks?

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