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> CP wrote --
>> > Nor could an establishment be called a "saloon".  A local place here went
> to court about that in the late '80s and won.
>> 
>> This was your childhood era/location?
> This was here in town.
> AFAIK there no places called a saloon otherwise in WV.  And that place
> went of business years ago.

I've only known of "saloon" as the American term for a bar/pub.  There's a
few  across the border here. 

We used to pop in there on our monthly tobacco run in Sumas, have a couple 
pitchers before heading home. . .

>> In my hometown (now officially a city) they had no Sunday shopping laws
> WV had blue laws until around the '50s or '60s.
>> I had no skin in that one -- mattered nought to me.  If the stores were
> closed any day, I got what I needed another day.
> Concur.
> At one time liquor and beer laws prohibited selling on Sunday.  I always
> thought why not just buy it ahead of time?  Or are you planning on drinking
> all those bottles and need more?

Yup? No biggie, but a local millionaire(presumably not religious in the 
Christian/Sunday sense) wanted customers to be able to shop on both common 
weekend days off at his grocery stores, so he began quietly staying open.  
Prolly some old lady who didn't really care deeply(more on "principle"), made
a phone call to the constabulary or her friend on the police force.

Personally I don't care, but principly, I believe if we're to define
ourselves  as freedom to act/speak/worship as one wishes, then you can't have
blue laws.  If community standards were truly against it, then nobody'd shop
no Sundays &  eventually the guy would keep it closed.  If staff wanted
Sundays off for their own worship -- it's already established in law that they
must be granted their  religious freedom & the day off (not with pay, of
course); the position has to  be advertised as including Sundays & holidays,
then one presumes those applying are fine with such.

Then you get some guy who took a job that was to include scheduling on any 
days, per the boss' needs. & he later converted to some obscure religion that 
had certain days off, & sued, as the boss, when asked for those days to be 
blocked off, essentially said, "I hired you to fill any shifts without
blocked  off times," sadly, the courts ruled against the employer, & he had to
pay back  pay plus interest for those days worked against his newfound
religion.

I don't agree with this -- I'd expect two weeks notice of any changes, 
including   quitting or starting a new religion with certain rights. Not that 
the courts would support me, even if the contract they signed said this.

> In the late '70s I drove a cab and liquor blue laws were still in effect.
> (Beer was allowed by then).  After a short time I knew where all the
> bootleggers were in town from someone wanting booze either after the state
> stores*
> closed or a Sunday.
> I knew knew where the houses of ill-repute where.

Typical for cabbies,. I understand, especially in smaller towns, or tourist 
destinations. My landlord/employer(PT Casual Dispatcher) back east when I was 
17, owned the block, including the only local taxi company.  He used to keep
a  hooker in the back room, until his wife forced him to stop, & they had the 
basic boozes people requested(beer, whiskey. vodka) stocked up in a different 
back room.  Nobody ever asked for anything besides a ride when I was
answering  the phone(most days, as he had a line run to my pool hall), but,
yeah, locals  are going to talk to the driver directly, not to a
stranger(non-local, to boot) on the phone.  Most trips were shopping trips or
drunks going home who lived  too far from the hotel bar to walk in the -40 &
2' of snow.

The main trip for  this was 30 miles up out of town, & the cabbies typically 
required payment up-front, from the welfare drunks.

> I have no idea where they are today or if they even exist.

Likely do, but with different staff providing the fitness classes to customers.

> I also knew many of the hookers, who for the most part were as ugly as a
> mud fence.  I always thought their johns must been awfully hard up to go
> with one of them.

I've seen my share of both ends of the quality continuum. Only as an outsider -
- not my thing. . . I was offered a freebie from a Calgary pimp because he had 
a brother who lived in Vancouver & I was from there.  I was a 16yo virgin, & 
wasn't about to have my first experience with a hooker, plus I was scared 
they'd beat me & rob me. . . (I've read a lot of stories with this as a scene)

> I do remember one beautiful woman, like a model, whom I discovered after
> a few rides was a call girl, at $100 an hour (over $385 today).  She was a
> secretary by day.  Looking at her one would have never suspected.

I was approached by one, years ago,. a downtown street girl, who struck up a 
conversation because I'd, civilly wished a good evening.

She asked if I had a girlfriend (no); then asked if I liked to party 
(occasionally, thinking she meant literally, involving music & drinking),
then  asked if I'd like to party with her; I said, "I'm pretty sure I can't
afford  you" (to let her know I was onto what was going on here, that I wasn't
a  country bumpkin) & she said, quick as a cobra, "$100, anything you want."
so I  said, "Yup, I was right; can't afford you - you have a good night, now.
. ."

> (* Until the 1990s the state of WV sold liquor and could only legally
> buy from the state.)

It was so here until only about ten years ago, when they legalized private 
stores, but with severe restrictions.  Any sales/discounts given were to be 
matched by an equal surtax on the customer.  Bars only two years ago, could 
have happy hour, but only about a 30% discount & had to be a minimum price
for  the discounted drinks, so the bars just increased their overall prices
to  provide the full 30% off. When drinking in the next province over  at age
16, I was in a strip club that had happy hour that night, each drink ordered &
paid  for at the usual price resulted in two being delivered. I got 'faced
pretty  quickly.


> I wonder what look-alike SUV's and such today will someday be
> "classics"?  Darn sight few I imagine.

I doubt many could survive long -- a buddy had a '67 Mustang body he bought 
from a fire -- it was burned right out -- he restored it to mint factory 
condition (all original parts, he found, worldwide, one by one); today's
cars,  there'd be only the odd bolt surviving a big fire. I call them
"styrofoam cars" (the ones made of composites or fiberglass)

I picture a Ford Focus in a fire like a to-go coffee cup in a campfire.

> I an watching videos of classic cars (started with ones from the 1890ss
> and up to 1960 now)*.  They either people and their cars today, commercials
> from the era, dealer sales film strips/films (usually how wonderful their
> car is compared to others of the l
> I love how cars were all the same size, it was mostly just a trim/engine
> difference.  Along with things like standard or automatic, etc.

Yup, you could go back,  do comparative studies on gasoline mileage between 
brands and years, as I was trying to do -- I wanted to prove that we're being 
deliberately screwed on mileage. The companiers say "oh, modern cars have a
lot more going on, so use more power(e./g. AC), so I was comparing like
engines &  car sizes/models in barebones factory models.

> I constantly sigh and shake my head when some young person is talking
>about a car then rags how it doesn't have this, that and the other that are in
> modern cars.  ("This car has no seat belts!"  "This car has no GPS" etc when
> talking about a 1950s or '60s
> One had a some kid in his 20s trying to figure out how to shift a
> standard column.

*LOL* Sounds like a YouTube channel I like: "Kids react to..."

> (*At first it was whatever some YT channel host had.  Then I started
> putting them in order, being a bit OCD, with bookmarks for 1950, 1951, etc.
> And I go from make and model starting with the lower priced to the top of the
> line, and by model.
> For example, take 1960.
> I will start with Ford, Chevy and Plymouth.  Then up to Mercury, then
> Pontiac-Olds-Buick. Then Desoto, Dodge, etc.  Up to Cadillac, Lincoln,
> Chrysler.  Also Studebaker, AMC, etc.)

A fun, inexpensive hobby, not requiring gas or money or even clean laundry! 

My hobbies are all like that now. . .

Collecting/making memes, collecting/sharing jokes, influencing g
vernments(all  Cdn so far,. 3 levels to work with), plus working here & there
in between (my  choice of days & hours); I wrote the Indian PM to suggest how
he could help  Ukraine & gain global respect/business, if he wasn't too deeply
married to  Putin. . .

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-6
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