Tough times with all the pubs shut

Fortunately we were on leave when the news broke a couple of weeks back that hotels would be among the establishments shutting in a bid to curb the coronavirus pandemic. We had time to get to our favoured hostely, the one based at Chatham, to have one last drink before the doors closed at noon that day.

It was an emotional time. Manning Hotel icon 'Skinny' was also at the bar as we supped a couple of mid-morning schooners. We then bid adieu to the bar attendants saying we'd see them when all the madness is over, hopefully sooner rather than later.

We possibly mentioned this recently, but in a matter of just weeks now this correspondent will be turning 60 (no presents by request).

Having little else to do at Struggle Street, we started to reflect on how much of an impact hotels have had on us in the past six decades. Generally speaking, hotels are convivial places. We've been fortunate enough to drink in pubs right around Australia (with the exception thus far of WA). We've frequented pubs in England and Ireland and closer to home, New Zealand. We've visited bars in other parts of the world as well. But bars aren't the same as pubs. They don't have the homely feel about them.

We weren't the legal age when we first started going to pubs. But that was back in the mid-1970s and no-one cared much then. Rugby League great Graeme 'Changa' Langlands was the Mine Host at the Manning. There were bands on Saturday nights and occasionally brawls, usually broken up by Bogdan the Bouncer. This correspondent was too young to be in Langlands' sanctum. But we did occasionally manage to sneak in with a select group of after hour drinkers. This often included prominent rugby league identities visiting the area to see Chang. They were heady times for a kid.

From there we progressed to the wild ride that was the Bob O'Mahony Era at Foggs, an epoch we've touched on before. In the years since we've at one time or another called all the Victoria Street pubs home along with the Manning. We've never been a club drinker. Nothing against clubs, put we prefer pubs. Always have, always will.

Of course pubs have changed dramatically since we first ventured there, with them now boasting the TAB, poker machines and family friendly restaurants. We can still recall the days when women weren't allowed to drink in the public bar. Pubs only opened on Sundays back then for 'bona fide travellers,' a law that was regularly flouted. We were also there the first day Sunday trading became legal back in 1979.

But now pubs (rightly, we quickly add) are shut. We're counting the seconds until the doors are open again.