Date: Tue, 3 Oct 1995 20:29:55 -0700 From: THOMAS CLARK 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 >