One Thursday Night

This post is from a blog I wrote in 1999. 

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October 20, 1999

It's dark outside, and even the bar seems darker than usual. They must have some of the bar lights switched off, or the dimmers turned down. It really is a good atmosphere, and I really do love it. The bar never got crowded tonight, and after happy hour ended it thinned out even more, with only a half dozen or so bar-goers sitting around it.  I watch people at the bar, watch the waitstaff, watch people in the room, watch the bartender, Darlene. I'm a watcher now, I guess. I'm an observer. The Prime Directive prevents me from interfering.

Amy saves me a seat beside her and again we talk for a couple of hours. A guy sitting beside her talks to us and does little bar-type  magic tricks. I once performed magic tricks myself, long ago. Maybe that's why I see all his sleight-of-hand moves. At one point he tells Darlene to pour me another beer and put it on his tab. Nice guy, huh? Shortly after that, he gets up and walks out without paying for my beer which, at his request, was on his tab. "What do you want me to do?" Darlene asks. "Do you want me to run after him?" "I'll pay for it," I tell her. The people I meet – sometimes I just shake my head.

Amy says she has to go. We pay our tabs. I was intending to leave, too. But instead of leaving, I stay and order another beer. I want to soak in a little more atmosphere.  The ambiance is just too nice to leave just yet.

What is there about a dimly lit bar that feels so comfortable, that feels so much like … this is is the place to be? There is an unspoken camaraderie among the people sitting by themselves at the bar. We may not speak to each other, but we are in each others' company. We're people who have nothing special to do, no place special to be. We sit at the bar, we buy nachos, or wings, or ribs, and we order beer, or mixed drinks, or shots, and we chill. We soak in the ambiance. If you're a true bar-goer, it's a place you love to be. Amy knows what I'm talking about.

"God help me," she says, "I love sitting at the bar."

I can't say it any better than that.