A Bar Is Like Sacred Soil

You do a lot of thinking and reminising when you pack things up to be moved. From the everyday dishes, to the glassware, there is something about wrapping them up individually and placing them in boxes to be sealed and opened again in a new setting. You can't help but get a little misty-eyed at things that you see on a daily basis, now taken down, bubble wrapped and placed unceremoniously along the wall to be carted off in the U-Haul, to a numbered dimensional slot in a storage unit. I find that I am thinking on things that I haven't thought of in years; running over the first drink that I had at the Red Lion, where I sat, what I had to eat and even with whom I met on that particular evening. I see the faces of all the patrons over the years, some who have moved, some who have married, some who now have children of their own and that generation now new Red Lion patrons. I even think on the bittersweet memories of some who are no longer with us; their faces and voices and especially their laughter. I know that in the few days to come, I will have to help dismantle the front bar of the Red Lion. I have this strange feeling in the pit of my stomach that the bar itself will let out groan at the first nail plank pulled back. The old bar has a life of its own and has seen and heard more than life itself in the 24 years that it has been up! 38 wedding celebrations, countless birthdays and anniversaries, first dates and divorces, proposals and a few indiscretions, mortgage burnings, christenings, promotions, going away parties, bachelor and bachelorette parties, TV premieres, theatre performances, literary readings, art exhibitions, celebrities, (Ah, yes, the celebrities!)protests, political parties, and numerous musical performances. The list goes on and on!

Yes, a bar is like sacred soil. It is as if we need to call in someone to lay it temporarily to rest, to say a prayer over; a shaman called in to hold the voices within the wood. It needs to be able to be placed carefully to rest like a revered family member, somewhere safe, somewhere quiet, some place very much in focus. For the bar itself will once again be gently laid out, shined and polished, placed carefully back together, resurrected if you will, front and center in the new structure of the Red Lion Pub, to be able to hear the new voices, greet the new and old patrons and to provide once again, the life essence of the pub.

The physical and spiritual bar will once again be erected to hear the celebration of glasses raised; toasting to life, to happiness, to success, to new beginnings!