Well Hello, Here’s Your Beer Choices: Hamms or Grain Belt?

There's a pretty good chance you've heard older folks talk about how things were a lot simpler in the old days. Now, being an 'old folk' myself, I can attest to the fact that sometimes that's a lot of, well...just talk. There are quite a few things that weren't simpler in those days of old. But some things truly were.

Take beer for example.

I recall as a kid going with my Dad to the Edgerton Pool Hall. It's long gone now but it stood proudly right on Main Street back-in-the-day. He'd go there on a Saturday night and I got to come along. Once inside, you could see (through the haze that I'm sure was good for you) a snooker pool table there in the back. And that's where he was headed.

A few of his buddies were back there and before long Dad would be engaged in a friendly game. But before that would be the bartender (and owner, first I remember Pool-Hall-Jake and then John ran the place) sayin' 'What'll it be Marv?'

Now, the 'what'll it be' didn't take a lot of thought because the variety of choices were the following: Hamm's or Grain Belt. That's it, that's all, those were the plethora of choices that filled the taps, the kegs, the bottles and cans in the pool hall fridge.

And that was fine because that's all the 'old boys wanted, one or the other. I'm not sure how those breweries did overall, but I know they did plum fine in a pool hall in Edgerton, Minnesota on a Saturday night over a half-century ago.

Oh, and one other thing. I'm not sure if this was just an old boy Dutch thing, an old boy World War Two generation thing or just an old boy thing, but all those guys would put salt in their glass of beer. Yep, I can still remember clear as day sittin' on one of the tall bar stools and watching that salt slither and glide down through that golden beer. Not sure why they did it, but they did it. Did you (or do you) know someone who does that?