"A license to spill..."
Speaking of fake ID cards/drivers' licenses, the College of Charleston (S.C.) was founded in 1770 and chartered 15 years later in 1785.
(No indication why there was a 15-year gap but possibly it was tied in with the growth of the city, the fact that it had finally shucked the awkward original name of Charles Towne, and it started to build and develop its famed Historic District downtown.)
The C of C has about 10,300 students roaming around its beautiful 52-acre campus.
Many of these students are under the legal drinking age (21) and yet, many of these same students do a LOT of drinking and partying in public bars, of which there are many.
Bartenders are wise and have several ways to discern if the proffered driver's license is valid or even real.
One downtown bar of an Irish persuasion started sticking captured fake IDs around a back bar mirror but, because they were hard to read at that distance, it created a tabletop, covered with all sorts of fake and dubious pieces of identification.
A license with a girl's face on it, shown by a young man, is pretty easy to discern and it is kept by the bartender.
One that caught my eye among those on the Tabletop of Shame, was an out-of-state license that was printed vertically, indicating the bearer is underage. Duh.
You go to college to learn. Some quicker than others.
I just went through the rigid DMV guidelines to renew my driver's license and now have the REAL License.
With it, I can go through TSA to board airplanes and step foot on military bases.
Without the yellow star on the face of the license, you would have to carry your passport to do that after a certain date next year.
Labels: 52-acre campus, Charles Towne, College of Charleston, fake IDs, REAL driver's license., Tabletop of Shame
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." Labels: Big John's, Dengate's, fake IDs, Key Club, Mac's Place, Moe's Crosstown, restricted entry
Roamin' Around Downtown...
About a month ago, a new IRISH pub opened on East Bay Street, across from the Custom House.
Welcome to
Mac's Place. Pub grub and plenty to drink at a long, long bar. Yikes.
I asked several people and the consensus is the bar is 35 - 40 feet long. With a return at each end.
The new place is tucked into a row of drinking establishments that make a pub crawl a natural - no streets to cross.
Mac's Place already has a small collection of fake IDs and drivers licenses that have been confiscated.
They're lined up on the wall and one, from out of state, is in a vertical format.
States usually issue the license standing on end to indicate the bearer is LESS that 21. As in underage. Not the best ID to use for a drink in a bar. Duh.
Around the corner at
Mad River Bar & Grill, the early bird blues events continue from 5pm - 7pm as part of Piccolo Spoleto.
I sat and enjoyed two sets by
Acoustica from Savannah.
Ray Lundy on guitar growls rumbling deep blues accompanied by Mike the Butcher on bass.
A few nights before I was back at Saffron's Cafe and Bakery for
Waters of March and a delightful Brazilian bossa nova
evening of the Antonio Carlos Jobim Songbook.
The crowd was asked to
"Ahh" along during the chorus of
The Girl From Ipanema.
Jobim wrote the music to that worldwide hit in the mid-1960s.
Upstairs at Theatre 99, we wound our way through the countryside on a delightful, quirky one-man show that took us along on a bike trip while on LSD.
Monologist Martin Dockery, from Brooklyn, had the packed house's attention from breath-taking start to finish.
What a high-energy performance! You could almost picture the bike wobbling along on the empty stage.
A re-visit to
Hedwig and the Angry Inch at the American Theatre opened with a patriotic look.
Actually, three Vaudeville type fan dancers preceded Hedwig showing deft covering moves with ostrich feathers.
The off-Broadway favorite was made into a well-received movie and several years ago, there was a small production presented down by the old IMAX on the waterfront.
Quite a crowd-pleaser and the live band added to the enjoyment.
Labels: Acoustica, Antonio Carlos Jobim, fake IDs, Girl from Ipanema, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Mac's Place, Mad River Bar and Grill, Martin Dockery, Ray Lundy, Sugar Daddy, Waters of March
A license with a girl's face on it, shown by a young man, is pretty easy to discern and it is kept by the bartender. 
