Monday, June 15, 2009

The Harbor Inn.

Ken Stop, check it out, we need to have at least one in here. The Harbor Inn. A place so small we would have missed it if not for the drunken sailors by the door. Happy hour 9 till 11 AM, no food but Angel will order it in for you. We weren’t having food but we were in luck, Angel was working the Bar. Ice cold beer, no bottles just cans. Ordering a round we find it the cheapest place yet, this is stop number six or seven, I think. Angel was funny and friendly in a “don’t fuck with me way” The sign behind her said a lot, “I’m not fluent in Idiot, so please speak slowly”. She tells us among other things that this is the oldest bar in Ocean City! Ken talking it up with a couple regulars gets one to take our photo with Angel. It took some doing as “Danny” was trying to get us and bar signs all in the shot. I’m “talking” actually listening to Mrs. Bee tell about the time it flooded in here and her cat drowned. The cat would have been lucky to live as long as the story of his demise. One beer turned into more, then we head off, lots more bars to see. The drunks are still hanging out on the porch, can’t stay inside if you can’t afford a beer. We find ourselves at the Inlet Bar and Grille a short few blocks later. Laughing and talking with an older woman and the Jennifer behind the bar. The conversation screeches to a stop when they hear where we came from. You went into the “Bloody Bucket” people get killed there all the time! Turns out that is the local name for the place. They don’t believe us till we show them the photo of us and Angel. They have all heard stories but had never been inside. We had and survived unscathed. The worst injury for us this day will be self inflicted at a bar called the Mug and Mullet (or mallet) much later and involved Vodka, but that is another story.

6 comments:

Heyseed said...

It is working

Incognito said...

This is a great story; the "Bloody Bucket," eh? Just a tad scary. And with an Angel behind the bar; just perfect.

kloppski said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
kloppski said...

Great story. Like I mentioned to you, Norfolk was full of places like this. Fewer now than there used to be, but with all the nautical-themed names (Pirate's Cove, Jolly Roger, Harbor Inn, Bayview Inn...) and these are the bars I used to go to. They all had a reputation that preceded them, and some were deserved. But we still went, mainly because of the lore we'd heard growing up.

Many are gone, some have been revamped, but several remain, and these are the gems where you can meet the folks that know Norfolk from the underbelly, so to speak. Real folk, folk that love the sea and everything about it. Ah, nostalgia...

Thanks for the post, hope you keep sharing your stories.

P.S. I can esp. relate to the 'funny and friendly in a don't fuck w/me way' :)

Emily Barker said...

Hey! Your comments work!

How cool is it that you have this tale to tell, and that you do it so well?

Hey, that rhymes.

Heyseed said...

testing, trying to get this working, testing