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Blogs by Paul Cuenco
A Penny for a Drink
2/15/2012 9:12:28 PM
Drinking was such a pleasurable endeavor. It relaxed the senses. It opened up good conversation (and not so good ones.) And here at Greater Trumps, I am treated like family. The bar maids tell me to go if I needed to as they close the joint. (They could not tell non-regulars to leave. But yes, they tell me. Ha, ha, ha.) And practically I am there every day. Most likely, I am there at 10:00 pm and normally until closing. But I only drink 1 pint of beer. That’s not even enough to make a mouse drunk. My beer turned warm…and that is the way I like it. The bar closes at 12:00 midnight. On Fridays and Saturdays, they close at 1:00 pm. Thus, it was most probable that I can drink 2 pints of beer. I am a pretty slow drinker. My buddy, PDX Mike, drinks about 3 or more in a span of an hour to an hour and a half. Sometimes, I would be in earlier but that is very rare. That is when I get home from work quite early. I don’t go home. I spend my days on Hawthorne. Years ago, I could drink 3 (maybe 4) pints of beer in a two hour period. But my health would not allow me to drink that much anymore.
I certainly didn’t know much about drinking anyway. I knew one mix drink – orange juice and vodka – which was a Screw Driver. I didn’t know much about beer. So when ordering I have my usual, IPA (Indian Pale Ale). Beers were generally nameless to me. Sometimes, I would remember their brands, though, but not the type of beer of each brand. When I am at other bars, which was rare, I get lost in deciding what I should drink. I get lost on what a mimosa was or sex on the beach. I normally had them straight like vodka. I still get confused between bourbon and scotch. A customer made me taste scotch once; and it was very good. Several months later, I tried it once, only once even though it was very good because it was very expensive. It cost me about $20.00 for a shot. I could not be here at Greater Trumps everyday and ordering drinks that expensive.
Time changed here at Greater Trumps. Since the prohibition of smoking, no one was allowed to smoke cigarettes. But since Trumps was a cigar bar, cigars were grandfathered in. One could smoke cigars inside the bar. But cigarette smokers must stay 10 feet away from the bar. There was a time that I am one of the few regulars who smoke cigars while the rest smoke cigarettes. Then, when prohibition came, there was a substantial reduction of clientele. Now, cigar aficionados populate this joint. I have a normal space at the bar I always occupy since I type my blogs; that sometimes I find it occupied by another regular or a transient customer.
PDX Mike and I occupy the same space at the bar all the time. We discussed things but nowadays, I am not just sitting down, cradling my pint and smoking a cigar. I type my blog. He would step out to the sidewalk, 10 feet away and smoke his cigarettes. Then 10 minutes before the bar closes, we would discuss politics or religion, which according to Hope could occupy another thirty minutes or more. But knowing that the bar was closing, we would bring the discussion out of the bar, paying our tabs, of course. Today, Mike said that he is starting a blog, Taste Like Chicken – What’s Mike Cooking. This will be interesting, indeed.
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