Standing at the bar in old-time Phoenix


Although I enjoy beer, and even whiskey sometimes, I really haven't spent much of my time in bars. I tend to quaff with friends at restaurants (especially eating cheeseburgers) and on the rare occasions that I've had whiskey it's been at home. Alcohol has a sedating effect on me, it makes me cheerful then sleepy. Very sleepy. So I've never had much interest in being in a crowded building after I've had a few. But since the bars in Arizona have been ordered to close for the next thirty days because of COVID-19 (it's July 2020 as I write this), I'm thinking about people who like to go to those places, and especially people who stand, or "belly up to the bar".

Nowadays, of course, bars have bar stools, but back in the 1890s when you visited the Commercial Hotel, which was on the northeast corner of Central and Jefferson, you stood. There was a comfortable railing, and you'd lean. There would also be handy towels for cleaning the beer foam off of your whiskers! And spittoons, too, of course, for spitting your chawin' tobacci!

I visited a local dive bar here in Glendale (a suburb of Phoenix) with a friend of mine a few years ago, and since I have a wonky ankle, of course I always sit down. But I wanted to stand at a bar, just once in my life, so I did. It was remarkably comfortable, with my bad ankle up on the railing. Still, I had to move the bar stools out of the way, and it just seemed kinda strange to the people around me, who were all sitting. The only time I've really seen someone stand at a bar is when the stools were all taken, or if someone is talking to someone who is sitting there. I wonder when people at bars got so lazy?

Anyway, I'm imagining that it's the 1890s, and I just stopped in for a beer. I'm really not sure if the Commercial Hotel had electricity yet, or not, but I know that they had cold beer. Making ice in Phoenix was a big business!

Set 'er up, bartender! And see what the boys in the back room will have!
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