'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving

[infinite monkey]

I was remembering my bartending days.

Because it's Thanksgiving Eve, and everybody comes back to this smallish town. Most get in the night before, and are ready to go out to the bar to see everyone.

The particular bar where I worked was THE spot to find your friends. Old people, younger people, in the middle people.

T-Eve is completely insane. The owner has since bought a bigger place, but back then we didn't have a ton of space. People would pile in and pile on. You couldn't wait tables in any sort of normal fashion. At the bar everyone was yelling for another round. To take a pizza to a table you had to hold it WAY over your head (so we went ahead and boxed them) and inch through the bodies.

Piles and piles of garbage bags were being taken out back. There would be piles and piles more when everyone was gone and we could actually get somewhere to start cleaning up.

We'd take a look around and say things like "fuck man!" and "Oh. My. God." and "we sure banked on tips tonight!"

And bank we did. I remember getting about 250 one time. Keep in mind we split tips. And every available hand was on deck, even non-usual emiployees. If you got stuck cooking or waiting tables or bartending or back bar or whatever it was, you got an equal share of the tips. Not fair for the person stuck in the kitchen to get nada, or even a percentage. We'd done it that way since the previous owner and it always worked out well for everyone. If someone came on shift or got off shift we split what was there at the time and started over.

Before we cleaned, we all sat at the bar and got whatever the hell we wanted, to drink. We were like jelly people. People started counting out the tips, and some wandered off and started throwing trash away.

There was still so much to be done, but it was euphoric. Our adrenaline had been running high all night. There was a comaraderie as we had our drinks before tackling the mess. Stories about the night.

I worked with a great fun bunch of people. We worked our asses off sometimes, and had a great time doing it.

I miss bartending sometimes. I liked talking to the customers, making them laugh. I liked being very good at it, having acute perception and quick moves.

So I suppose that this happens in a lot of places. I guess the smaller towns might notice it more.

Do any of you do that, is it a tradition to go on the town the night before Thanksgiving?

Thanks for indulging me. Those were good times.

[classicman]

The night before Thanksgiving is the biggest bar/club hopping night of the year. Even bigger than NYE.
When I worked in restaurants, I recall very similar experiences. Loved doing that. Hated the $5.95 an hour though.
Ahh ... lotta good memories though.

[monster]

Originally Posted by classicman

Hated the $5.95 an hour though.

No-one tipped? What did you do -pee in their soup in front of them?

[classicman]

Originally Posted by monster

No-one tipped?

It was back in the 70's/80's. Thats all Line Cooks made. :/

[monster]

Originally Posted by classicman

It was back in the 70's/80's. Thats all Line Cooks made. :/

it's only just below minimum wage right now. What the fuck are you whining about?

[monster]

schweet. you should do it again. either to cure you of nostalgia or just for fun. To catch up and fel part of it again. You said it ws all hands on deck -I bet they'd welcome you with open arms wherever your friends and family are drinking these days.

I guess the nearest Brit equivalent is the pub on Christmas day morning. In small working towns. Not something I grew up with, but happily adopted when i met beest

[infinite monkey]

Oh, I don't know about this town. Too much waters under bridges or something.

But yeah, a neighborhood 'tavern' or 'pub'...where everybody knows your name. In return, you remember what they drink and how! Oh, and you listen, and you commisserate, and you congratulate...love it.

This sort of thing I think will happen someday. Life is not so stagnant as I have been thinking.

I think the Christmas morning pub sounds great.

[infinite monkey]

Oh, classic...dude also paid us 8 bucks an hour! It was a freaking killer second job, let me tell you!

[classicman]

I wasn't whining. Just didn't like the pay. What do you care?

[jimhelm]

Stop it you two.


I waited tables graveyard shift at Denny's for a couple years. And managed another. Thanksgiving eve was buh rutal. All night. The fuckers you chased out at 2am, Monkey?
Know where they went when they left your bar?

Yup.

Denny's

I think the most I ever made in tips for one night was $150 or something. Not nearly worth how much work I did.

I occasionally have stress related bad dreams about waiting tables in busy car dealerships.

[Clodfobble]

My family does Thanksgiving as an afternoon thing, so we were always home by 7:00 PM. But I don't think I ever managed to get scheduled at work that night, even though I volunteered, because most of the guys who worked there weren't exactly family men (this was at Domino's pizza in my teens,) so there was no shortage. But still, my best friend and I would always load up several plates of leftovers and bring them to the store for whoever was working. Three Thanksgivings I worked there. That was an eternity ago.

[Spexxvet]

I heard on the news that the night before Thanksgiving is the highest death by DUI night of the year. Like 36% higher than average.

[Sundae]

The only thing I can compare it to is New Year's Eve.
So this is a bit of a tangent as you were specifically posting about the night before Thanksgiving.

But it brought up some happy memories, so here you are.

Our pub was just not big enough for all the people it held. And although the bar was long, the space behind the bar not wide enough for staff to easily pass. Some things were only at one end or the other (the ice machine for example, or wine)

But I loved it, even though I wouldn't have said it at the time!
Unlike town centre pubs, Ben didn't sell tickets. He just locked the front door and drew the curtains. Only people who actually knew the pub knew to come to the back (round the corner, through a narrow entrance and through the beer garden). We were a regular's pub but many people drank on their way into town, or came for lock-ins so knew the deal.

It meant people could come and go, rather than stay all night (although many did) and we also got the early birds who necked their drinks early and moved on. If you sell tickets, people have to commit to a whole night and often start slowly.

Canny chap our Benito.

He used to pay us our normal wages, but would offer extra money after 23.00 so that we would stay. The amount he offered went up as he got drunker and it got later. I worked until 02.00 on at least two occasions I remember. This in a time when the pub did not have a late licence, so three hours of illegal trading! and then went home with a customer Although in both cases it was the same man and we dated in between.

We didn't have to serve food, but it was 3-4 deep at the bar in a tiny space and hot as your bloody hat. We regularly ran out of bar essentials like ice, lemon, glasses etc. We played our own tapes on the stereo, home-made compilations we'd been listening to for weeks and all the songs had special meaning. If there was a particular part of the song we liked to sing we wouldn't serve! Soddit, they can wait a few seconds. One of my special lines was in REM's The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight "A can of beans or blackeyed peas, some nescafe and ice, a candy bar, a falling star, or a reading of Doctor Seuss". I still have no idea what the song is really about.

And we were soundly and roundly kissed by everyone at midnight.