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

>