Date: Tue, 3 Oct 1995 20:29:55 -0700
From: THOMAS CLARK tlc[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]NEVADA.EDU
Subject: Re: Terminology of unexcused absences/ and bar time.
Sounds like "bar time" is the opposite of what, in certain southern
climes (and Northern, from what I've heard from African-American friends)
was called "CPT."
Cheers,
tlc
On Tue, 3 Oct 1995, Beth Lee Simon wrote:
As a (n inept but at The Mill, no one, including Keith Dempster, the
owner/boss, cared) waitress in a bar/restaurant in Iowa City, IA,
everyone used/knew bar time.
Bar time had two senses: the time that the bar ran on, which was ten
minutes earlier than real time
and
the time that the bar stopped serving liquor, which at that time, was
2:00 a.m.
The bartender called "Last call," at 1:50, bar time. At 2:00 a.m., the
bartender called "Time, folks." Because 2 a.m. bar time was 1:50 real time,
everyone had ten minutes to knock back whatever there was and collect
the glasses, etc., before 2 a.m. real time, the last moment when one
could be drinking legally in a bar.
And "bar time" was in use in Des Moines, IA, as well, although I can
only provide personal experience for the second sense. One summer, I
worked at the International House of Pancakes, which was open until
2 a.m. on Saturday night (i.e. Sunday morning). In Iowa, one could not
buy liquor on Sunday, and in Iowa, bars closed at 1 a.m. (real time) on
Saturday night. And while people might have a drink, as it were, or two,
on Friday nights, Saturdays were when they came in blotto because Sunday
was dry.
So we, the waitresses of the International House of Pancakes, and, I suspect,
we, the waitresses of anyplace were one wore a uniform and the patrons thought
a dollar bill was a big deal, knew the phrase "bar time" quite well,
because when the men came in and starting puking in their way to the booth,
we'd say, "Must be bar time."
(forgive the were for where, etc. i can't edit on this)
beth simon
Oh, for the character-building of working one's way through college