Sunday Trip (2 of 3): Nearby bar.

So, I checked out of hobofest and went to this bar kitty-corner the grounds, where they had thick fences over the windows and door and you had to be buzzed in.

I went up and hit the buzzer and the door buzzed and I opened it and walked in, and there was this bored-looking (black) woman sitting in an empty bar watching some daytime entertainment tv shows with the volume up high on the bar's multiple tvs.

Me and her started talking, and I was telling her about hobofest, and she had no idea it was going on, even though it was a 100 feet away.

"I thought I saw something going on over there," she was like.

I told her it sucked except for the free stew, and that it was just a handful of dirty old hippies pretending to be hobos, and she just laughed, and I said that I had seen the bar and decided to come over and check it out, though sometimes you never know if should worry about going into a bar.

"Sometimes you should," she was like, but then she added that that was a safe bar, and they never had fights unless it was between family.

"Like how?", I was like.

"Oh," she was like, "Five, six weeks ago two sisters got to fightin', and they were down rollin' around on the flo' over there, and I wanted to break them up, but on the other hand I didn't, because it was so funny."

"How old were they?", I was like.

"Fifty, no, sixties," she was like.

Then, she was like, "It was the one's birthday, but it was getting late and the other one wanted to go, so she was poking her, and then the one pulls her wig off, and the next thing you know they're on the flo'."

She also told me that there used to be a lot more lounges, especially along a major north-south street, but this one local minister got them all closed down (in fact, the local minister who tried to run for the mayorship recently); he had tried once but people circulated petitions and kept them open, but the second time he was successful.

"He said he'd get jobs for the people who lost their jobs, but heck, half his church is out of work, so you think we're gonna get in line in front of them and suddenly get jobs? Hell no," she was like.

She said the funny thing was, too, was that a strip joint opened up right next to his church but he couldn't get that shut down, though people from his church protested a lot at first.

"Does it serve liquor?", I was like.

"No," she was like, "It's B.Y.O.B., though they give you cups and set-ups."