The idea we LOVED.....

January 10

We have been given a lot of ideas about changes to the bar. Some from customers and some from other customers. Changing this to that. Soup everyday. You get the idea. They are all great ideas, except that most of them are gonna involve a BUNCH of money, which is the one thing we are short of. Some of them have been things to be considered, and some of them have been things that I would never consider. The one that got my attention was from a customer that came in and had a glass of wine. He told us of a bar up by the Canadian border, some little town in Idaho. They hang an umbrella upside down behind the bar with string, and customers throw their change into it. He said this bar owner has had the bar for 15 years and they are on their third umbrella, so it takes a couple of years to get the umbrella heavy enough to break the string. When that happens, they have a big party. As the umbrella gets heavier and the string gets close to breaking, they throw heavier stuff. Rolls of quarters. And one guy even threw his open jack knife with the hopes that it would cut the string. He promptly lost his knife to the bar when it failed to do so. Now this idea appealed to me!! So, I put the word out that I was looking for an umbrella, a bucket type. LOL. I didn't know they were called 'dome' umbrellas. Yesterday by accident, one of the customers at the bar heard me, and she went right out to her truck and brought in a clear one. I had Jim hang it, and now we have change in our umbrella! Our last customer came in as Jim was hanging it and I asked him if he had a quarter, to see if he could throw it in. He did, and looked with a question at me. I told him our idea and while he finished his drink, he quickly emptied his pockets of change. So......we're in business. Note to all of you superstitious readers out there, since I had to open the umbrella indoors, I held it upside down, so as to sidestep any bad luck. Lord knows we sure don't need any of that right now.....