Glorious Times at the Local Legion

Several weeks ago, our posse of three made our inaugural visit to the town's only pub on a Saturday night. We drank a little beforehand while playing a newly invented game of "Spiderdrunk"...a game involving that week's thrift store find of Spiderman Yahtzee Junior (no reading required!) and some inventive new rules. This pre-drink however, was not enough to soften the blow of finding out drinks at the pub cost $6! Each! After one drink (all that was in the ski bum budget), we trotted down the hill to our cozy home with the resolve to obtain personal flasks to make it through the winter.

Life was looking grim for a couple of days, until a suggestion came from our landlord: The Legion. As luck would have it, there are two really great reasons to drink at the Legion: one is $3 highballs and the other is $2.25 beer. And those aren't specials, folks - those are the regular prices!

It turns out that on Fridays, the Legion is the place to be. If you show up after 10pm, you won't be the youngest by 30 years, either! No one seems to mind paying the modest $3 cover (it is jam night, after all) for a plentiful supply of cheap booze backed by locals strumming out classic tunes. I'm told that if I frequent the Legion enough, pretty soon I will know what time it is just by the song that the band is playing! 

The Legion Band

The Legion is barely a block away from our house. I took this picture below to illustrate the proximity.

The Legion - Just a short stumble

Like every other Legion, this one has the world-famous meat draws. Every Friday and Saturday and 4:30, tickets are purchased and numbers are drawn to win packs of raw meat! Roxanne and I finally made it over there this week. We walked the half-block to the Legion at 4:20, hoping to get in, win meat, and continue with our Friday night plans.The Legion meat draw proceeds in the following way:

1. Four tickets for $1
2. A ticket is drawn, and the winner goes to the fridge to take their pick of available meats (whole chicken? ribs? pork roast? So many choices!)
3. Twenty minutes later, another ticket is drawn and a choice is made between the remaining meats. This continues until all meat is claimed.

The meat fridge. A treasure trove of delicious prizes!

Roxanne and I thought we would be in and out in 15 minutes. I don't know how long the meat draw lasts, because we didn't wait around to find out. After an hour, they had only drawn twice, and with places to be we had to head out. The bartender said she would keep our tickets and let us know if we won when we came back later that night. I'm sad to report we did not win, which is such a shame, because the better part of that hour was spent discussing elaborate plans for the whole chicken.

It's now obvious that the meat draw is a lengthy event to encourage the purchase and consumption of cocktails and beer. This would be fine if it didn't start are 4:30. Who wants to start drinking at 4:30? I may be a ski bum, but even I like to wait until after dinner. Most of the time.