Farewell Childe Harold.

I read in the WaPo today that the Childe Harold closed down this past weekend. That really sucks! I spent many an entertaining evening there after work, as well as a few long afternoons. It was always a great place to meet interesting folks to chew over all the political controversies of the day. By the time I started hanging out there the music thing was pretty much over with, but the crazy conversations I always used to get into made up for it, I guess.

The most amazing day I had there was on a Sunday afternoon where I engaged in many hours of Civil War trivia with two fellows who really knew their stuff. The talk went from ' Oh, you actually know what the Crater is?' to discussion of the miners who constructed the tunnel that led to the Crater, to the guy telling me about his family coming from the Pennsylvania coal mines, to me mentioning that the guy who came up with the design for the "Crawler," the massive tractor that took the Saturn V from the VAB to the launch pad had come up with the idea for the Crawler having seen similar type tractors when he was growing up in mining country.

I know, really nurdy stuff, but you're not going to just run into people like this at any bar.

In any case, I always looked forward to that first cold beer at the end of the day at the Childe Harold. I have missed it ever since I moved out of DC and now I'll never get to hang ther again. What a shame!

P.S. For some bizarre reason, one of the bartenders who used to work there knew the Dolphins fight song and had also been an eyewitness to Patti Smith falling off the stage in Tampa. This is why I started going there in the first place.