did anyone else go to bars with their parents when they were a kid?

[datasuspect]

we lived in a working class neighborhood that at one time was heavily german. there were still some hangers-on in the early to mid 70s, but the population was a mish mash of polish, bohemians, latinos, and italians.

however, the bars (and there were many, not just on the main streets, but often one or two capping each corner of every block) were a part of my childhood life.

during the early 19th and 20th centuries, my neighborhood was a port of entry for germans. further east, in pilsen, the first wave was german (like every chicago city) then polish/eastern european, and then latino or black.

anyway, i guess the beer hall culture was very popular back then and many bars were built. but they were more or less neighborhood services centers: you could get your check cashed; get a loan; find a job; have weddings, birthdays, and other parties; or just get hammered.

i remember going to many bars as a child, but this is where adults often congregated to celebrate and have parties, but families were included--they'd have a buffet with things like mostacioli, baked chicken, italian sausage, tamales, cake, and other food.

and they had pickled eggs, pickled hot dogs, and bromo seltzer.

[lost-in-nj]

1. When we lived in our first house

there was a bar at the bottom of the hill.....
my Mom always said that all 4 of us kids were put
on the bar......
they went there alot....


lost

[NMDemDist2]

2. yup

we hung out at the Moose Lodge a lot

and a neighborhood Italian place too

years later, I ended up tending bar at the Italian joint :rofl:

[Inchworm]

3. Always

It was just how it was. Man, us kids raised some hell :D

:hi:

[Droopy]

4. Yes. I had my first drink of beer when I was 8

at the American Legion where my step-father was a member.

[VenusRising]

5. I got taken to Billy Bob's a lot as a kid.

Most of the time they would take me to the rodeo, but I went on regular nights, too.

It was always fun to go to the Stockyards as a kid. We always ate at the Old Spaghetti Warehouse. It wasn't the greatest food, but who cared? I got to eat in a train car!!

[PaddyBlueEyes]

6. Im Irish

you kiddin me......

[GenDem]

7. We had a bar on ever street corner.

I grew up in a small, rural, blue collar community. At 3:30 when the factories got out, the bars filled up. I remember sitting on a bar stool next to my grandfather drinking pop. My grandfather was the retired chief of police.
It would be a definite taboo today. Besides the bars are now long gone.

I remember those jars of pickled eggs.
:hi:

[bluetrain]

8. My dad would take me to the bar with him when I was a kid. I'd drink Shirley Temples and the old

men would pull quarters out of my ears. I learned how to wiggle my ears in a bar when I was 5.

[1gobluedem]

9. We went with our grandparents

And drank Shirley Temples. We loved it.

[Ivan Sputnik]

10. Yes...

And I would get a "Tom Mix", which was the boy equivalent of a Shirley Temple (probably the same thing), plus maybe a tiny sip of something stronger. "That tastes awful. How can you drink that?" I remember saying about the latter. If only my father had listened to me (*sigh*).

[DS1]

11. More like Pubs, but that's just how it was in England

Kids at pubs was common.

[Drum]

12. Naaa...we lived out in the sticks and my parents never went out.

:-/

Enjoyed reading your post, though. :hi:

[greatauntoftriplets]

13. When I was very small, my parents used to take us pub crawling....

It was really only one place and I remember having great fun there. It stopped when my older sister had trouble explaining where we were going to her friends, whose parents didn't pub crawl.

We'd also go to restaurants where there were bars as part of the dining area, but sit at a table and eat dinner while my parents enjoyed cocktails.

[havocmom]

14. Yeah, it was Dad's idea of how to deal with us on his visitation weekends

I still hate bars.

[Kutjara]

15. I grew up in Ireland, where pubs were part of family life.

The village pub was part bar, part cafe, part coffee shop, part social club, and (often) part funeral parlor. Some pubs were more "child friendly" than others, of course, and we knew better than to go into the places that were meant for serious drinking by serious men. I was drinking shandies (half beer-half lemonade) almost daily by the time I was twelve.

[Inchworm]

16. I grew up in ire, same effect

hehe. Couldln't pass it up :)

:hi:

[Kutjara]

18. LOL!

:hi:

[GenDem]

24. I drank shandies while on a visit to Ireland a few years back.

Delish! I drove the rental car so shandies allowed me to have a weaker drink while we went pubbing and still hit the road sober.

[JVS]

17. Yeah.

[graywarrior]

19. Hell yeah!

St. Mike's Polish Club. Draft beers and sawdust on the floor.

[bigwillq]

20. Nope (nt)

[Tuesday Afternoon]

21. ~

:kick:

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

22. My dad was transferred to Europe when I was a kid

In Germany on the Air Force Base, my parents would go dancing and bring me along to the Officer's club where liquor was served, especially during holidays and celebrations. Everyone there seemed to be completely drunk and no one noticed I was about 7 years old. In fact, they had floor shows with scantily clad women and gambling tables in the rear and I was there cheering the acts. My dad would tell me to keep it down but no one seemed to care. This was back in the 1950s. And when we traveled to France, kids and dogs were common sights in the bars and my parents took me along, even giving me a taste of wine now and then (diluted with a little water, however).

[JohnnyLib2]

23. Yup, and in Nevada where they all had slot machines.

Still miss those sounds....

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. My parents used to take me to a bar called The Peanut

when I was a little baby. They would put me in my little infant seat up on the bar and they said the bartender told them I was the prettiest baby who ever sat on his bar.

The Peanut is still there and I go there now and then. I told the bartender last year I used to hang out there when I was a baby and he said that earned me the right to sit on his bar anytime I wanted, that he had never had anyone tell him they had come there when they were that young. He gave me a free drink too.

[S n o w b a l l]

26. oh yeah...

My dad owned a bar ... grew up in it. Interesting childhood and don't regret a thing.

[Rabrrrrrr]

27. Yep - I grew up thinking it was normal for kids to go to a bar with dad while he drinks and drinks

and drinks himself into stupidity, leaving the kids unattended to make their own fun in a smoky shithole for hours on end. That's what my dad and many of my aunts and uncles did. I grew up with a number of my cousins, with stinky shitty lower-class filthy taverns as our playgrounds. And on those days we didn't go to the taverns of the downtrodden ignorati, we went to the great rural Wisconsin summer festivals, like corn boils and such, that actually were a lot of fun because we kids had all the outdoors to ourselves while the adults all drank themselves into a stupor with cheap beer and brandy and shot clay pigeons and had bingo and other activities. Or we'd go camping for the weekend with dad and his alcoholic friends. Summers were actually pretty fun that way.

As I got older - maybe late elementary school - I remember being surprised that not all my classmates did that with their dads.

I grew up without much supervision. Thank God my mom didn't drink, and actually had a sense of responsibility - if dad had raised us, I can't imagine what we'd be like. Assuming we'd even still be alive. Dad was pretty laid back and permissive. "Dad - we're going to pour out some gasoline and light it and see how big a flame we can make!" "Okay, just don't do it by the house or your mom will yell." That kind of stuff.

Then when I was in high school, my trips to the bars were to pick up dad, though my sister had to do that a lot more than I did, since she was older.

Probably why I can't stand to be in the drinking establishments of the lower classes any more.

[madeline_con]

29. I wondered how many got driven home by plastered parents

while reading the thread. :(

[Rabrrrrrr]

30. I think back, and I am surprised I am alive - stupidly drunk dad, no seat belts,

driving on the Interstate and other roads...

I can't believe we never got killed.

[datasuspect]

37. there is a distinct difference between low class

and working class.

looking back, we lived well enough.

i don't resent my background. most everyone we knew struggled in some way, had to fight for many things, but i would never consider them "low."

proud, clean, industrious? mostly. definitely tough. definitely realistic. these were people who had stockpiles of social stigmas. you could drink yourself into a stupor, but you better go to work, better pay the rent, feed the kids, etc. you'd be ostracized if you were a deadbeat, freeloader, or bustout.

being unemployed was probably one of the most shameful thing for a man to endure. that's why many people supplemented their incomes with dabblings in the periphery of organized crime. you could steal from the train yard, but not your neighbor kind of thing.

vital life lessons i learned from these people:

1. don't shit where you eat

2. you play pussy, you get fucked

3. don't snitch

4. don't snitch

[RainDog]

28. my parents never drank

at least not when I was around. but I'm from the south, where the baptists won't have sex standing up because something might think they're dancing.

[femmocrat]

31. Oh yes! Great memories, too.

My dad was a supplier of snack foods to bars. He often took us into them. We usually got an orange soda and some salty snack. But we also went for social occasions like those you describe above. The millworkers would have Christmas parties for the kids, too. We grew up in the part of town where all the immigrants from Eastern Europe settled. Great food, warm friendly people, great memories.

[Roon]

32. My Grandparents owned a bar and grill in the mountains

when I was a kid. Spent a lot of time there. I wouldn't let a kid hang out there today. There was a lot of drinking and a lot of partying in those days. Bad news.

[stuntcat]

33. yah

My dad's group (three men & two guitars) would sing in a bar sometimes and I was almost always there watching.

[I Have A Dream]

34. Yes. n/t

[seemunkee]

35. VFW hall or Moose lodge

It was usually only when we were with my grandparents or uncles.
I've taken my son to a couple. We used to go to magic conventions and after the shows the bar was where everyone hung out and showed their chops.

[rug]

36. All the time, but only family bars. Got pretty good at shuffleboard.