To Eyes that are Bright As Stars

Cheekies, as was,  "McKelvies", and before that...the Ailsa maybe? 

I've just asked on a Social Networking site, if anyone can remember...  It was McKelvies during my era; ha,  I say my era like mine is over... but it's not, not by a long shot. 

It's one of the few pubs left in town that is exactly that, a pub.  Not a bistro, not a bar diner... just a pub. 

One of my mates' dad was "McKelvie", and we would partake in a pint or two upstairs while getting ready, and then we would stagger down the stairs, along the close and into the pub, and take up our positions at the end of the bar. 

The pub was always populated by a real mix of folk, the old men who came in after work, and were still holding a corner of the bar; middle aged couples sitting at the table.  Young guns yelling the odds round the pool table, or the bandit.  Gals tottering in on their high heels and streaming perfume behind them.  Cocky underagers chancing their arm to get a cheeky pint. 

The pool table through the back was always chockers.   Piles of 20p sitting on the edge, showing the queue... Juke box pumping out the tunes. 

The bar would be flying until last orders, and then everyone would pile out and head up the hill to the disco of choice (there were only two (Anchorage or Pebbles)... or collapse, on to the battered stainless steel tables in a drunken stupor. 

Ah. Those were the days. 

All the booze you could drink and still managing to get up for work in the morning.