Rememberance of Things Pabst

There used to be a bar on the corner of State and Court called Julio's place. It was both a bar and an after hours because it would stay open till around six or seven in the morning. I mean they would close the iron gates out front at official closing time but the drinking would go on inside. And there was always a cop or three drinking to smooth over things if any body came knocking.

Now it was on a block that they were slowly emptying out. Ratner built a big Barnes and Noble and a movie multiplex there. But for years they were buying out businesses and leases as they expired. For a good five or six years the block would get worse and worse. They had the only dirty movie house in downtown Brooklyn. This was before DVD's or betamax or any of that shit. If you wanted porno you had to go to a movie house and have Pee Wee Herman sitting behind you whacking it. Not that we did that you understand. When video cassette recorders and video stores came in it went out of business and became derelict. Homeless people would break in and squat there. It was an eyesore for quite a while. Oh and the funny thing was that they had all these old school porno's like Deep Throat and Behind the Green door. But on the marquee they had the words "Plus Femmnes." I have no idea what that means but it struck us as funny.

Anyway Julio's had joker poker and a dart board but was interesting was that pretty much you could walk in there and no one would speak English. Other than Julio and he had a basic grasp of it more or less. But the chicks behind the bar and almost all of the customers would not have a word. So when you rolled in late on a Tuesday or whatever you might be the only person who spoke English in the bar. Which never bothered me. I knew the most important words in Espanol:

Dos Cervezas por favor.