Thursday, July 19, 2012

Keys and cards...

I am NOT picking on any place in town. This just happens to be in Charleston's oldest bar. Nostalgic.

Gene's Haufbrau in West Ashley.

It's very popular. Usually has smokers standing out front.

It has the city's largest beer selection. Says so on it's website.

Far as I know, it's the only one with a long shuffle board game.

The one with sprinkled sawdust to make it VERY slippery.

Does everyone know it's owned by the people from Vickery's?

When I first came back to Charleston in 1993, Gene's was still a key club. Dengate's on Rutledge Avenue also was a key club. Now Dengate's is known as Moe's Crosstown.

Neither one now issues front door keys to its customers.

That was long ago in a different era.

But people still hand bartenders fake ID cards.

Usually they are kept - or even cut in half - when it's obvious and the underage person is asked to leave.

Mac's Place on East Bay collected enough to make a "fake" laminated table top.

The cards show a variety of how states present themselves.

Bright, colorful and even a different backdrop to reflect if the driver is under 21.

Yeah, I know, who would have presented one of those?

A fake ID by a person with a low IQ.

(Click on the photos to see more details.)

I grew up in Charleston then left as a teenagers to join the Marines.

I visited from Camp Lejeune and took fellow Marines to a few of my favorite joints and dives.

Big John's was on that list.

"Best Dive since '55."

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Saturday, January 26, 2008

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.)

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