CLOSING TIME

It’s “Closing Time”- Here we go, another tequila drowned diatribe about the things I miss. Most have closed down a bar. Most have felt the feeling of one more for the road - SOMETIMES the night shouldn’t end. The music matches us, it fades and slows into an oh so familiar song - curated to capture that last moment before we go our own ways, like a camera framing that goodtime moment.

The bar lights are up. The Barback needs to sweep under your feet and its probably time for sleep. New and old friends leave the way they came and you’re back to where it began. The people that had made your night into something not boring are the same people that paid your salary - and they’ve now moved on to their next passing moment. It’s never been about the money for most here, and hopefully not for those who come. It’s an exchange. It’s about the experience, it’s about how we choose to pass our time. We’re all passing strange, I’m glad that it’s within these four walls.

I’m humbled every night. You have some of the most real conversations in your life here with complete strangers, that may, hopefully, turn into friends. If nothing else you learned something new about someone’s life - and that’s always a good thing. It’s an indescribable feeling while you mop the bar top at the end of the night, an innate sense to make sure that every inch of the bar is clean and rebuilt for tomorrow. And it happens alone - you go from a crowded room to finding yourself completely and utterly alone.

Half smiles curl about the fun times and anxiety creeps about the things that didn’t go as planned. Our minds reel and race, always waiting for the tired to takeover. The long walk home, and the final thoughts of what will come tomorrow. The bar seems to be a living thing.