zojosc wrote:Brian
I know of a pub close to me like that, I'm sure you will enjoy your own company in there. Go back to the days before widescreen tv's and lager and I remember sing songs about the war when it had been over for 20 odd years, darts hitting wires and flying in all directions across the bar and being slung out at two o'clock on a Sunday afternoon just when the pub was warming up.Things change old boy and the youth get their say as you did when you stopped the Inns allowing the watering of horses and the end to mead, served by wenches.
My old local where I used to live up to 3 years ago had 4 out of the five, he did have lager but the majority of drinkers were like me, partial to real ale. Yes we used to sing war songs, in fact we played 'em in our communal band, but we used to do more of that old fashioned thing, talk to each other. A newcomer would be welcomed with "Glad you popped in 'nipper'" and would leave thinking that he had been there many times before. Yes there was a dart board but it was tucked away and I never played it. In all of the many years that I went there, I never heard of anyone getting hurt though. 8 real ales in summer and six in winter gave us plenty to talk about and barring from the odd wife coming down and ordering home the errant husband, I never once witnessed a fight of any kind. Jokes abounded, dogs were made welcome, and the odd spill on the old floorboards was widely tolerated for the old floor had experienced it many times in the 200 years or so they had been there. A brilliant landlord who knew how to keep his ale, knew how to keep a lively pub going because it was occupied most nights and full on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. You may be flippant in your remarks but the good old fashioned pub cannot be beaten and since the original poster asked how to keep out the brats I only gave the my answers in an opinion that I am entitled too, I did not say that they should not have any where to go, they may of course..... but not in my pub.
