Yes, my dad was one of them. I haven’t gone to a bar for years but it used to be most smaller bars had at least a few regulars that basically lived there. I remember one old vet that used to show up every day as soon as the bar would open for his daily fix… It got to the point the bar refused to serve him, so he would try and get unsuspecting customers to buy them for him. (This was in the 70’s and 80’s, there were (or at least seemed to be) a lot more alcoholics back then.)
Also booze used to be a LOT cheaper, so it wasn’t nearly as expensive as it would be now.
I remember stories from my dad about a guy he knew where the bar maid would have to help him with the first drink in the morning because his hands would shake so much.
The romantic history of the happy drunk is almost entirely fictional. I say almost because I know a few people who are able to take it or leave it, but for the most part the people I know/knew who were drinking either in bunches or daily end up complete and unabridged alcoholics, whether they are active and in serious trouble or have sought help and straightened up, but cannot touch it.
I remember one old vet that used to show up every day as soon as the bar would open for his daily fix… It got to the point the bar refused to serve him
So he’d go to this bar during business hours to drink. And this went on to the point where they stopped serving him? Something is missing from the middle of this story…
Sorry If I didn’t explain that right… the guy was drinking non-stop every single day, to the point you could physically see his liver was shutting down because of his yellowish color. So the bar didn’t have much choice and had to cut him off. He was an awesome old guy so no-one wanted to boot him, but if he drinks himself to death the bar would be potentially liable for still serving him so they chose to stop.
Dude managed to get a parenthetical inside a parenthetical, respect
Yeah, I wouldn’t want to spend that much everyday, I’ll just have some beers at home for 1/5th the price
The extra price was so they weren’t drinking alone, or to avoid going home.
A lot of blue collar workers went straight to the bar after work 3-4 days a week.
I did sheet metal back in the 90’s for a year. Typical day… start at 6, off at 2:30, bar from 3-5. Pretty much everyday.
Still do?
I don’t drink anymore, but yeah. Those people you see in dive bars are often daily customers.
I currently have 2 great microbreweries near my work. So, I alternate nights, but, very much a regular at both.
Around 10-15 years ago I worked in a pizzeria with a little sports bar. We had more than a couple people who were there almost every day.
I still stop by there once in a while, and without fail I run into at least one of those old regulars every time.
Bartender from the US here. Im one of the few people i know in the industry that doesnt go out drinking almost every single night
It still is. There’s bars like that in every town.
I live in a tiny NE college town where that happens but for breakfast at a dive coffeeshop. It’s loud, packed, the food and coffee are meh, but every single day I can walk in there and see 5-10 locals eating breakfast and shooting the breeze. There’s cliques who always sit together, and social butterflies who pick a different group every morning. A bottomless mug of coffee is $3, so folks will just come and hang out from like 8-11am. It’s great fun.
There’s a brewery next door that’s often busy at night but generally it’s a quiet town so folks are home chilling after dinner.
That sounds awesome.
It really is the dream
I like that in the US, New England (NE) is in the North East (NE).
Could be Nebraska.
It is, but they used to be NB.
New Brunswick?
Some of the older old dudes I’ve worked with used to. I actually convinced one of the avocado toast whiners he was wrong based on bar cost now and back in his day
I worked in a bar for a few years and I saw the same people everyday. They would even come in on holidays if the bar was open. Some of them would blow their whole paycheck, I always thought it was kinda sad.
In the show Clarkson’s Farm, Jeremy Clarkson is looking around, trying to buy a pub. At one point they talk about wanting to have a pub with a little grocery store attached. Clarkson’s girlfriend explained why that was common at one point in Ireland. It was because in the past men would get paid, go immediately to the pub, and drink until their paycheck was gone. If there was a shop attached to the pub, they could hand in an order at the shop before they started drinking. And then, even if they drank away the rest of their paycheck, they’d still be handed a bag of groceries before they were kicked out and had to stumble home.
I had the same experience and did feel badly for them as well. For a lot of them (especially middle aged men in my experience), they just seemed very lonely. I miss a lot of those regulars, they were generally good people.
Yup, it used to be a lot more common, Not Just Bikes has a great video on this subject too and how our car dependency made most of them disappear:
The Great Places Erased by Suburbia (the Third Place)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvdQ381K5xg
non YT https://yewtu.be/watch?v=VvdQ381K5xgFor folks who like this theme, there is https://lemmy.world/c/fuckcars
Yes, and it’s still pretty common.
Still is common, most bars have their regulars
Yeah. Few times a week I go to mine to chat with all the locals over two or three beers then head home. It’s a nice way to wind down, be out, and socialise at a really low intensity. No organising is needed, just arrive and there’ll be someone there you know.
That was kind of the point of pubs (public house). A place for the community to meet up in any weather and have a good time together whether games, sharing stories, or having a meal. The smaller the town, the friendlier and more tight the patrons are too. Also great places to frequent when travelling, meeting new locals, getting great travel advice, making friends for the few days you’re there.
I live a block away from my local bar. Go multiple times a week to play pool. There’s a lot of regulars so it’s like hanging out with friends/neighbors.
Yep, been a while since worked at a place like that, but there was definitely a crowed that would be there most days. This was mid 2000’s. Partly dried up when smoking indoors was banned, I think that was the last straw for a big part of the culture that was already drying up.
Yes. In my fathers time men would go there often for lunch and after work. I think some went home and then went over for an hour or two. Later it was still common but someone who did it all the time would be called a barfly but almost everyone did like friday night and pretty often thursday or saturday. Its diminished since and more and more bars have to sorta be restaurants or dance clubs or band venues.
I think the men were called “loadies”, getting loaded (drunk) before going home. Women got the much less forgiving name of being a “barfly.” However, that may have just been regional and/or for that era.
when I heard barflys it was always men who hung out every night in a bar.
Huh. Must have been regional where I was then.
Never heard of loadies but barfly was always a term used for women around me.
I live in England, but maybe twenty years ago I’d go to my regular pub most days, have a couple of pints and maybe some food, socialise with people I’d got to know there.
Obviously that doesn’t happen anymore, it’s way too expensive now. Going to the pub or out for a meal is a rare treat these days.
