chuckography

Bloggers & Tweeters at historic site....

We bloggers met last night in a West Ashley bar that opened 56 years ago - back when I first became a teenager.

I turned 13 in 1952 and Gene's Haufbrau opened its doors. Sort of.

In South Carolina at that time you could quality for a full driver's license at age 14 so we mobile youngsters concentrated on going to drive-in theaters and restaurants where carhops brought burgers - and sometimes beer - to your car window on a tray.

Years ago, before Gene's was bought by the people who own Vickery's, the place on Highway 17 functioned as a "key club" where preferred patrons were issued a key to the locked front door. This effectively barred anyone else from coming in.

Yes, that is discrimination and that particular practice ended years ago. I know of at least one other bar in town that screened its customers with The Key.

Last night Eugene posted some pictures of our get together. As usual, the photographer was not shown, so here he is. I was toasting two Twitter-users who had come as guests of Heather, our blogmeister.

Yes, it's legal now for me to have a beer in Charleston's oldest bar.(Big John's is 2 years younger.)

Labels: Big John's, Blogmeister, carhops, drive-in restaurant, driver's license, Hofbrau, Key Club, teenager, Tweeters

posted by chucker @ 2:43 PM