Sometimes you want to go where everyone knows your name. At least, that's how the opening song to the old TV show Cheers went.
There's a comfortable feel in a neighborhood watering hole. When a person finds the right one, it's like finding a match to a favorite glove. The ambience, the proprietor and staff, the folks who frequent it, and, of course, the offering of libations all form the perfect mixture to create a setting familiar and, well, comfortable.
My wife and I found our way to The White Horse Tavern in New York City not long ago. The tavern, located in Greenwich Village, has that antique feel that comes with countless bodies passing through over more than a century. The bar is a deep, dark wood rubbed smooth by thousands of elbows. Bottles, lined up neatly behind the bar, glowed in what little light flickered nearby. We received our drinks from a smiling bartender and settled in an adjacent room to watch the rain fall outside.
Tributes to Dylan Thomas covered the walls. Dylan Thomas. Remember that name from your high school literature book? "Do not go gentle into that good night" are the opening words to his most famous poem. Thomas was a Welsh poet who joined other Bohemian singers, writers, and poets at The White Horse Tavern on occasion.
I love a good neighborhood bar. In my college years, I enjoyed visiting Maxine's, a Fayetteville landmark. I wrote my final college paper there and used the constantly slamming blue steel door as a metaphor for my life at the time. Inside Maxine's was warmth and certainty. Outside lay the anxiety of jobs and a future unknown. That steel door had been beaten over the years, but it held strong.
To my 22-year-old mind, those words were pure gold. My professor yawned as he read them.
Right out of college, I frequented the Town Pump in the Riverdale area of Little Rock. It was a short way from my apartment and the Tuesday special was a bowl of red beans and rice, bread, and a Budweiser for $5. I didn't like the smoke, but the company was great and I'm a sucker for red beans and rice. Parades of Little Rock personalities came through every time the door opened. I enjoyed the Town Pump every Tuesday until I married a woman allergic to smoke.
You may recall that Dylan Thomas was a handful, and that's putting it mildly. Celebrated as a brilliant artist, he made albums reading his poems and stories so the masses could hear his words in his own voice. Think the first book on tape, or an early Audible app. But fame brought hard drinking and infidelity. He cheated on his wife and drank himself into illness. Thomas' character did not match the soaring nature of his lyrics.
In fact, one night at The White Horse Tavern, Thomas went on a binge and boasted "I've had 18 straight whiskeys ... !" and subsequently died a few days later of causes exacerbated by his heavy drinking. Thus, the room filled with tributes to the poet.
Once I started a family, I moved from grownup bars to neighborhood restaurants that happened to have bars inside them so I could feed the kids while enjoying the company of friends within. US Pizza and Canon Grill in Hillcrest both remain favorites, with great personalities working in and frequenting each. But I still long for the feel of a neighborhood joint, the feel of a high-falutin' mahogany bar or the comfort of a well-worn dive. If you have a favorite anywhere in Arkansas, please let me know.
The White Horse Tavern was built in 1880 and reportedly served as a local bar for longshoremen. Then, the Beatniks took it over in the 1950s and '60s with Bob Dylan, James Baldwin, Norman Mailer, Jim Morrison, and other legendary artists calling it home.
Today, it's as much tourist spot as it is cozy getaway for the locals. Still, that neon sign hanging over the white-framed windows and wooden doors beckons a visit, and a visit creates a longing for the comfort of the neighborhood bar. Thomas' lack of moderation had a devastating impact. For the rest of us, moderation remains the key.
You may recall the first stanza of Thomas' wonderful poem:
Do not go gentle
into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage
at close of day;
Rage, rage, against the dying
of the light.
Thomas wrote these words as his father faced death, and the words became a battle cry for living life passionately. But passion burns brightest when it's stoked by the respite of family and friends. That's where the neighborhood bar provides a good backdrop, a cocoon for conversation to build strength into words and ideas.
Whatever our station in life, whatever situations we face or challenges we meet, sometimes you just need to go where everyone knows your name.
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Steve Straessle, whose column appears every other Saturday, is the principal of Little Rock Catholic High School for Boys. You can reach him at [email protected].
Editorial on 02/23/2019