Wednesday 11 June 2014

What pubs are for

Suddenly I was aware that I needed human companionship. A sudden feeling of the futility of existence evoked by these mighty flints, together with a mighty thirst for cool, bitter English beer, dragged me wearily back up the green slope in the little lane made muddy by spring water and whose green shade was an immense relief from the blazing sun. A little later I was in the cool bar of the nearest inn. Having quenched my thirst, I asked the landlord the name of his house. ‘The County Members,’ I was told. When it was written down he burst into a hearty laugh. ‘Well that’s the first time I’ve ever seen a man write down the name of a pub so that he’d remember where he had been the next day!’
From Forgotten Ports of England, George Goldsmith Carter, 1952

8 comments:

  1. you mean there not for drinking yourself into a stupor and picking up the odd brass?

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  2. Believe it or not I pop into the pop for a half of Freedom Lager just for a chat with people some night, pick up on gossip, talk about nothing in particualr, thing is I quite like people, bit odd like that.

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  3. *Gets drunk, argues with landlord, gets chucked out, steals the "o" from the sign*

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  4. It's not that odd, Ade, lots of people pretend to like people as an excuse for getting kaylied. Usually people who are not much cop at darts.

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  5. I wasn’t bad at darts in my day, had my own arrows, with Welsh dragon motif on the flights, which used to wind my Yorkshire mates up no end.

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  6. Nice find and post Mr Tierney.

    From context I can't tell whether your commentators are tongue in cheek or just against pubs. People who work on the right side of the bar are not so cynical about the value of their contribution to the health of communities and civil society.

    I'm one of those who knows and understands the value of well run pubs and the extraordinary benefits they bring to society.

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