RE: Nechells - 2

Phil
I saw that programm on the roughest pubs, what a place. I used to drink Scrumpy Cider in our Club "Mothers " in High Street Erdington in the late 60s it was 1/6d per pint then. You could really get drunk for five bob
I can only imagine, what that whole area was like when that pub was built. I would think you had to grow up tough or else. SB

SB

That's the point I am trying to get over, the pub was not the same back them. It was no different to any other pub in Nechells. The Monkey House (The Duddeston Hall Inn) in Cato Street quite close by claimed that honour. I don't think that the Sportsman even sold Cider back then.

I think it was a put up job, I doubt that today the Sportsman would have that many regulars anyway. I have been in a few pubs in my life and I have yet to see that many nutters gathered in one place. I think most of them were shipped in for the filming.

Phil

SB

When I drank scrumpy at the Greyhound on Holloway Head is was 10d old money a pint. What a place that was. You had the rich and poor, famous and unknown, drunk and sober standing shoulder to shoulder in a much too small overcrowded pub.

But it was great, the Greyhound was the first pub I ever knew that did those cellophane wrapped toasted sandwiches that always burnt your mouth when you tried to eat them.

The last time I drank scrumpy would have been on a fishing trip to Holt Fleet over 30 years ago. You can see a pint by my side on this photo. I'm the good looking one in the sun glasses. Rather poor photo, I'm afraid

Phil

I remember the Greyhound, you had to wipe you feet on the way out.

There was nothing wrong with the Greyhound that a good broom and a gallon of Jeyes fluid wouldn't put right. It wasn't as bad as people made it out to be. Nothing that new sawdust on the floor and polishing the spittoons wouldn't have cured.

Phil

The sad thing was I felt at home in the Greyhound, But as I would have been there in the 70s, I suspect it was the newer one. SB

SB

I don't think there ever was a newer Greyhound so to speak, they probably just tarted the old one up a bit. As I said previously it was never as bad as it was made out to be. I didn't ever use it after the 60's though as by then my lifestyle changed.

Phil

You mean you moved on to meths by then ?

No I had moved on to Q.C. Sherry, it was cheaper and more potent than meths.

Phil

QC Sherry, wasn't that the ten bob a bottle stuff everyone got for christmas.

SB

Thats the stuff, you used to be able to buy it in quart bottles, before anybody had ever heard of litres. It's where the word Wino comes from I'm sure. It seemed to be what they all used to drink.

Phil

There was some wicked potion that our best friends and neighbours plied me with one night at one of their barbies. It was dead cheap, it came in two litre blue plastic bottles and it was called White Lightening Cider. It was rather potent rubbish and drunk as a Snakebite is was lethal.
Our neighbour two doors away also had a few glasses and he wasn't used to it. We went looking for him when he disappeared. We found him sitting at his kitchen table crying. He told his wife I was trying to kill him. SB

SB

I've always been a refined imbiber so when you talk about things like snakebite, I of course do not know to what you refer.

In honesty I have never tasted it, not that I think there is anything wrong with it, its just that I have a preference that my drinks are clear. Snakebite must be one of the most opaque drinks I have ever seen.

I have drunk in some rough pubs in my time, but several of those banned snakebite and would not serve it.

Phil

Phil you mean to say you have never tried Snakebite. I don't blame you and strongly suggest that you never do. It's certainly not something I have done too often. I have enjoyed a couple of pints of Scrumpy now and then but would not advocate overdoing it.
Snakebite to most people in pub society is Cider and Bitter or Lager. I prefer a Snakebite of Scrumpy and Lager very refreshing with exreme moderation.
Snakebite originally was a Cocktail and consisted of Champagne and Ale. As you said some hostelrys refuse to serve a Snakebite because of it's very cloudy appearancemaking people think that the beer is off. SB

SB

Those were not the reasons why they didn't serve snakebite in my locals. The reason was it made the punters crazy and they used the smash the pubs up. As most of the pubs I drank in were owned by tenants they preferred the pub to stay in one piece. So it was easier to ban the drink.

Phil