Whenever I am abroad or elsewhere in the US besides
where I live, people always want to know interesting things about my
homeland. I once had a guy from
New York tell me that I couldn't be from Texas if I'd never owned
livestock.
I'm here to tell you that Texas is exactly what you think it is, but it's also everything you think it isn't. A perfect example of this is the
indigenous (I think) beer barn.
A
beer barn is in fact an actual barn, usually off of a major highway like I-35 or I-20, in a county where the sale of
alcohol is permitted. (In Texas ther are counties which are
dry.) It is a barn-shaped building with the double door at the front and back of the barn open. And, in this barn, there are two things:
- An attendant
and- alcohol.
You cannot purchase
liquor at a beer barn, only beer, wine, and perhaps an assorted
meat snack or giant
pickle.
I've neglected to mention the most compelling aspect of the beer barn as of yet:
It's a drive-thru.I'll give you a minute to wrap your brain around that. Yes, a drive-thru
beer store.
Maybe its because I grew up around it, but I didn't think this was a big deal until I moved
up east and people started calling me a
liar. Hell, people in
Los Angeles didn't believe me and you can have beer AND smokes
delivered there!
Rononspoon has alerted me to the fact that a relative of his owned such an
establishment in the late seventies. This one was in
Kansas City. The phenom spreads!