Sounds like Grizz stepped in something and now he's trying to spread it. I remember a few bars we visited the ladies room had an extra throne with a male hillbilly sitting on it. Sort of shocked and disturbed a few "ladies." I mostly like the bathrooms with old signs, photos, and other memorabilia to look at while I sit and think Then there's the BBQ place where you pass through outhouse doors appearing like an outhouse to get to the in-house outhouse. It's the same bar with fold down pick up truck tailgates to sit on at large wooden cable spools. I think Grizz lives in the ritzy part of Nashville.
Wow, ivy! You must be a spy for real because you have squared up on my personality twice now. Was that you in the tree room row last night?! I love a seedy dive bar. Sadly because of all the hipster duffuses moving into town by the droves these places are disappearing. Mainly because Everyone with tattoos and Hip hairdos has to express their feelings when someone is smoking various forms of combustible plant material or gets their noggen knocked for acting out of line. Go back to chilis and endulge in their two for ones all day! somewhere that's safe for someone with so many sensitivities. There is the "springwater" which I attended 6 days a week after work, all the old regulars are now dead, in jail, or bitter because they banned smoking indoors. Angel the bartender left to work for her brother, I haven't been there in over a year. Johnny's shut down years ago, might have been condemned?! What a great place, I once bought a small .22 fire arm there for $30. Since I've moved out of Nashville maybe 12miles I had a regular haunt, "the longbranch saloon". Shut down this year. What a place! Had Nice pool tables plus a hord of bikers who frequented the spot. I would bring my old 79' Yamaha up there just for a reaction. Funny thing about those places. You would think that it's full of mean hearted bigots and when you walk in everyone might stop and glare but order a beer, play some outlaw music and the next thing you know your invited out back to spread love with some homemade shine and left handed cigarettes.
Grizz, those are some of the places we miss in NW Florida, along the Gulf, and the far east coast. The old run down buildings were local hangouts with neon lites and gravel parking lots. Inside they were old rundown buildings with more neon lites and creaky wooden floors, a long bar and small old tables, right out of the wild west. A mix of farmers in bib overalls, rednecks in jeans and sleaveless shirts, city dudes from up the far east coast there for winter wearing dress pants and sometimes suits and ties, hunters in camo, babes in bikinis, bikers in full leathers, and us regulars in tank tops and mid length shorts. The owner's dog and huntin dogs at their feet. Smoke so thick you couldn't see across the room, live country or rock-n-roll music so loud you couldn't hear people across the tables. Yet at least one evening thru the week and Saturday was pot luck where you may find dead ferrel hog, deer, ham, gator, hotdogs, and more all for the price of your own covered dish and a few 50 cent beers. Eventually smoking and dogs were banned. One bar had pet white rats for awhile. Seems as though animals are a health hazard around food. Yet, now and then fruit jars filled with "fire water" and funny smelling weeds were passed freely. Places that looked and sounded rowdy. Yet safe enough to bring children and babies. Most bars of middle Florida were this way. Sure not what we expected when we first drove or rode up. One place on the Suwannee river, people came by way of everything except airplanes. They came on horses, cars, station wagons, jacked up mud trucks, bikes, and boats of all sizes. You could buy gasoline, rent a canoe, buy groceries, hot meals, and liquer. Amazingly we never heard a discouraging word and snow birds returned every winter to see old friends. The bar bathroom had old photos and antiques randomly scattered. During special events out houses were near the outside deck and near the boat docks. The "real Florida" is much more fun and cheaper than the "touristy Florida".
