Sherri Cavan's LIQUOR LICENSE

5. Space and Spatial Proprieties

In most public drinking places in San Francisco, there are usually seating facilities available for the patrons both along the physical bar and at tables and booths away from the bar. The ratio of bar seating facilities to non-bar seating facilities varies among establishments: in some there may be few if any facilities away from the bar and in others there may be many more places to sit away from the bar than there are along its length. There are, of course, some establishments that have no seating facilities away from the bar and others that have only a service bar and hence no seating facilities along the bar.
Where the ratio of bar seating to non-bar seating facilities is high, the dominant arrangement is lateral; in the reverse case, the dominant arrangement is largely or totally contra positional: the patrons are face-to-face. While contra positional seating generally demarcates groups by separating them spatially from each other and orienting their members in a partial or fully face-to-face arrangement, this is not true of lateral seating. Here the members of any seated group are abreast of each other and the distance separating the members of different groups is no greater than the distance separating the patrons within groups.
Boundaries of any group in a lateral seating arrangement are much less clear and easier to cross than those of a group in a contra positional arrangement. Where the dominant seating

arrangement is lateral, there is a tendency for groups and their encounters to be much more fluid, group merging into group, encounter merging into encounter, and patrons who were originally a part of neither group nor encounter being in close proximity to both. In general, the mutual openness of bar patrons and their encounters is heightened when patrons are spatially distributed in a lateral seating arrangement. Consequently, contact is more likely between unacquainted patrons seated along the bar than among those seated away from the bar.
Both the vagueness of group boundaries and general proximity contribute to the heightened openness of bar patrons and the heightened expectation that contact between the unacquainted will take place. At Erikson notes, the boundaries of a system control the fluctuation of its component parts, permitting the whole to retain a definite pattern of consistency and stability.[84] Thus, where such boundaries are vague, there is less consistency and stability of the component parts of each group, and one would expect that groups would be more likely to merge. At the same time, the average distance between patrons at the physical bar is typically less than between patrons seated away from the bar, and insofar as there is an inverse relationship between the physical distance separating persons and the likelihood of communication between them, such contact would be expected to be more prevalent along the bar than away from it.[85]

Contact Distance

As a general rule, a distance of three bar stools is the maximum distance over which patrons will make overtures

as preludes to encounters. When three stools separate unacquainted patrons, overtures may well be made, but when the distance is four or more stools, they generally are not. If ego desires to contact alter seated four stools away, he will typically move to the third stool, and not infrequently to the second, and from there begin the encounter.
Four bar stools represent, on the average, between eight and ten feet of space separating the patrons. To start an encounter over this distance means that one's voice must be raised to the point at which it would be audible to most of the other patrons present as well as to the other participant in the conversation. Such a remark might well take on the character of a declaration, giving the other the option to respond or not as well as opening oneself to the response of any other patron who might choose to respond but who, for some reason, might not be desired as a participant in an encounter.[86]
Encounters that begin with a distance of three bar stools separating the participants may be maintained over this distance, but generally they are not. Bar patrons customarily space themselves out along the bar whenever possible in such a way that each is separated from the other by at least one stool. When patrons separated by three stools are carrying on an encounter, the probability that an entering patron will locate himself between them is much greater than when there are only two stools between them. Thus what frequently occurs is that, when alter proffers a counter-remark to ego's opening remark, if ego desires to continue the encounter beyond his subsequent reply, he will move to the second stool either immediately prior to or during his reply to alter's counter-remark,

to protect the encounter from an inadvertent termination caused by the intrusion of a new patron.
It might be noted that verbal responses to declarations are one way in which the typical distance for encounters may be rendered inapplicable. Interchanges following declarations may take place over distances exceeding four bar stools. If the encounters are prolonged, however, the participants are likely to reduce the distance between them, as in the following Example:

A middle-aged man began humming songs from 1930 vintage movies, apparently to himself but loud enough for everyone in the bar to hear. A second man, seated about five stools away (and separated from the first man by another patron), began guessing the names of the songs, and after a few minutes the two began talking about old movies. The conversation continued for about five minutes, and then the second man moved over to sit by the first, the encounter between them continuing for almost an hour longer.

If ego and alter are seated two stools apart, an encounter may not only begin from this location but may be maintained for a time without any change in distance, unless one participant buys the other a gift drink. Then it is incumbent upon the recipient to move to the stool adjacent to the donor. When two stools apart, if ego buys alter a gift drink, usually the bartender sets the drink almost before the stool adjacent to the donor, just slightly toward the side of the recipient, permitting the latter to move with ease from his present location to the stool next to the donor. But if coo and alter are separated by only one stool from the onset of their encounter and ego buys alter a gift drink, alter has an obligation to move to the stool adjacent to ego only during those times when the probability of inadvertent discontinuance of the encounter by an entering patron is great. Thus in bars that are usually populated by

fewer patrons than there are seats along the. bar, or during times when few patrons are present (such as mornings, mid-afternoons or weekday nights), the two may continue an encounter separated by one stool, even when a gift drink is purchased. In other circumstances, in terms of either the general nature of the establishment or the time, even when there is only one stool separating the two participants, the purchase of a gift drink carries with it an obligation for the recipient to move to the stool adjacent to the donor.
In cross-sex encounters, the obligation for changing location is the male's, even when he was not the one to make the initial remark and even when he is the donor of a gift drink to the female. For example, in a situation where a male and a female are located three stools apart and the female makes the opening remark beginning an encounter, the male addressed will typically move to the second stool and, with the exception of pickups, this position will not be changed. Similarly, if they are separated by two stools and the male purchases a gift drink for the female, he will be the one to change positions, rather than the female who was the recipient of the drink.
In same-sex encounters where the participants are separated by one stool and no gift drink is purchased, one of them may choose to move to the adjacent stool when the probability of intrusion by another patron is great. However, in cross-sex encounters that are not expected to be read as pickups, unless the participants have begun the encounter from adjacent stools in the first place, a one-stool separation between them is usually maintained throughout the course of the encounter, no matter what the contingencies are. Adjacent stools typically represent a nose-to-nose distance of about eighteen inches when the participants are facing straight ahead and somewhat less if they are facing each other. Such distance is in American society indicative of some degree of intimacy

for those involved,[87] and hence even in the public drinking place it may be too close for casual cross-sex conversation. Thus cross-sex encounters in public drinking places are often more vulnerable than same-sex encounters to inadvertent termination by the intrusion of a third person sitting down on an intervening stool.

A man and a woman had been talking for about twenty minutes, with one stool between them. Another woman came in and sat down between the two. The man looked at the new woman, looked down at his drink, then tried to look at the first woman around the front of the new woman, but this appeared to be unsuccessful. He then looked down at his drink again, smoothed his hair, and appeared to be somewhat at a loss as to how to reestablish contact with the first woman. During this time the first woman was apparently very involved in stirring her drink, and when she looked up, the new woman engaged her in conversation. The man left about five minutes later to go to the bathroom and when he returned, he relocated two stools away from the first woman.

Unlike the same-sex encounter, where nothing need be said if positions are to be changed, the general expectation that casual cross-sex encounters are maintained over a one-stool separation requires that, if a change is desired to prevent inadvertent discontinuance of the encounter, the male (whose obligation it is to make the change) request the female's permission to do so.
Where an encounter is begun by participants who were in the first place seated on adjacent stools or separated by one stool, if either party wishes to terminate the encounter, he is at liberty to do so by a variety of means: by moving away from the other party either temporarily (as by going to the

bathroom, the cigarette machine, or the jukebox) or permanently (as by gathering his goods from the bar and relocating somewhere else or leaving the establishment altogether); by means of terminal silence; or by means of ceremonial good-byes. But once the relative positions of the participants have been altered, control over the termination of the encounter is no longer equally distributed between them. if one participant moves closer to another during an encounter, he is bound to maintain that encounter as long as the other desires. Whatever the reason involved in the move, he who has moved has in effect surrendered his right to terminate the encounter and granted control over the course of the interaction to the other. He may terminate the encounter if he must (or is willing to) leave the establishment entirely, but this is, in general, the only exception, and it requires that he who is to leave ceremonially excuse himself.[88]
Spatial moves during the course of an encounter typically are read as expressions of the extent of the mover's involvement, and the concomitant concession of the right to terminate the encounter to the other provides grounds for the other to believe that the expression so read is sincere. Thus when ego, during the course of an encounter, moves closer to alter, ego's tacitly expressed commitment to the encounter may subsequently permit alter to generate or express a greater involvement in the encounter as well--alter having been assured by the move, as it were, that ego will not suddenly terminate the interaction between them.
Since he who alters the spatial distance between himself and the other commits himself to the encounter until the other desires to terminate it, and since in cross-sex encounters the

obligation for changing spatial distance is the male's, it can be seen that women are essentially exempted from committing themselves to such encounters, Thus while the woman in the public drinking place may, by her presence in the setting, open herself indiscriminately to the overtures of all males who are present, in most circumstances she may at any time terminate any ensuing encounter at her pleasure, with neither ceremony nor excuse.[89] At the same time, it can also be seen that in such cross-sex encounters, females need never be the first to express more than casual involvement and hence need never be in the position of having shown more interest than will subsequently be shown by the male.

The Physical Bar

In part, at least, because of the expectation that contact between the unacquainted is greater along the bar than away from it, the physical bar is typically the focal point of the public drinking place. It is here that at any given time the maximum concentration of patrons will be found (except for nightspots). Whether or not an establishment provides an abundance of seats away from the bar, and very frequently whether the entering patrons are alone or with others, locating in the vicinity of the bar is generally preferred to locating away from it.
Women are the notable exception to this generalization. Public drinking places vary in their official policy toward women. Some establishments categorically exclude women from the premises, maintaining the bar as an exclusively male domain. in some establishments, although women may be permitted access, in no circumstances may they sit at the bar,

whether they are alone or in the company of another woman or in the company of a man; in other establishments, women accompanied by a male escort may sit at the bar, but not if they are accompanied by another female. In still other establishments it is only the solitary female who is excluded from sitting at the bar, while in many others there is no official policy about where women may locate themselves. But even when the establishment itself has no official policy concerning the proprieties of female seating, there is a general tendency for women to locate away from the physical bar whether or not there are seating facilities available to them there.

There were a number of empty seats along the bar. An elderly woman with some bundles came in and walked to one of the tables on the far side of the room. She had one drink and then left.
There were only seven people present when we
entered. Along the bar, near the door, was a weft dressed man who appeared to be in his mid-sixties. Over about four seats from him were three young men in casual sports clothes. Next to them was one empty stool and then a well-dressed middle-aged couple, she in a fur coat. At one of the tables was a single woman,
around thirty-five years old, nicely dressed. She sat there by herself until we left, about an hour later.
Two middle-aged women came in, looked down the bar (where there were a number of empty stools) and then moved to a table.
There were about forty-five persons present when I arrived; most of the stools along the bar and the
tables and booths were occupied. Two women in their mid-forties came in and one said, "Ob, there are two here," indicating two adjacent bar stools. Then she and her companion looked bewildered and began glancing around at the tables. Finally they spotted an empty table, but just as they started over toward it three men took it, The women looked a bit disap-

pointed and apparently resigned themselves to sitting at the bar.

Thus to the extent that the physical bar is the center of social gravity of the public drinking place, women may frequently be found to be in the bar, but not of it. While they may be defined as open to overtures of sociability by their mere presence in the setting, their actual spatial location within the bar is often such that the probability of being contacted is lessened.
Once all the available seats around the physical bar have been taken, persons entering the bar may freely move between the occupied stools to stand at the bar and order, and then to stand behind those who are seated while they consume their drinks. Even in establishments where there are tables or booths remaining empty, one can often find patrons standing two or more deep around the bar. And, just as the lateral seating arrangement heightens the mutual openness of bar patrons and their encounters by minimizing the distance between them, so does the clustering of patrons around the bar increase the likelihood that sociability among the unacquainted will ensue.
Patrons do locate at tables when the seats along the bar are all occupied. When there are no available stools, a cross-sex couple will usually move to the bar area together only when there is someone there whom they can greet by name: an acquaintance seated at the bar, one standing behind those who are seated, or even one standing behind the bar if he can be greeted by name. But if there is no "justifiable reason" for a female to stand at the bar--that is, if the newly entered couple know no one there by name--they will usually go to one of the tables; if there is not a waitress in the establishment, the man will then go to the bar and order, bringing the drinks back to the table.
The necessity of a "justifiable reason" for a cross-sex couple to locate in the vicinity of the bar when there are no seats available along its length is related to the general tend-

ency of women to shun the bar area. But even in establishments where women can and do choose to sit at the bar, for them to stand at the bar is something else again.

One woman was standing beside her female companion, who was seated at the bar. The bartender came down to them and said, "There's some seats down there," indicating the far end of the bar. Two groups of men were situated in the same way, but the bartender said nothing to them about available seats.

In the same vein, when asked if women should be allowed in bars, two male respondents made the following statements:

By all means. Particularly the pretty ones. But only during visiting hours. A pretty woman conducting herself in a ladylike manner is a delight to behold. But they don't belong standing at a bar,
I go along with what Charles McCabe said. "Allowed but not condoned." A club type of bar is a fine thing. Women look better sitting back in a booth than standing at a bar.[90]

Again, while there is a decided tendency for patrons to occupy the bar seats first, in those establishments where the non-bar-seating facilities are in excess of those along the bar, it is relatively rare that patrons of either sex will stand at the bar if there are seats available away from the bar. However, in establishments where the ratio is reversed and the number of bar-seating facilities exceeds the number of away from the bar, male patrons, either singly or in groups, will frequently cluster around the physical bar even when there are tables or booths available for their use.

In the L_____ there are four or five times more seats available away from the bar than there are along

the bar. A number of entering male groups of two and three members who came in when the bar-seating facilities were fully occupied went automatically to the tables. There was little if any clustering around the bar at any time.
In the S_____, there are 16 bar stools and three small tables, each with two chairs, across from the bar (a distance of about five feet). Around 1 A.M. the bar had begun to empty, but by 1:30 it began to fill again, mostly with young men. A little before 2A.M. there were about twenty-five persons crowded around the bar, many standing because there were no empty stools, although all three tables were vacant.

In addition, in establishments where there is an excess of non-bar seating facilities, patrons who can find neither bar nor non-bar seating accommodations may not stay at all, although it is rare for patrons to leave establishments where the ratio of bar to non-bar facilities is reversed simply because there are no seats available.

Standing and Milling

While the absence of available seats along the bar is the usual reason for standing in its vicinity, it is not the only circumstance in which patrons may choose to stand behind the bar, When patrons enter in groups or two or more, if there are not adjacent seats available for all members of the group, some may sit while others stand behind them, or all may choose to stand.
Even when there are sufficient adjacent seats along the bar for groups of acquainted patrons, such seating facilities, by distributing the patrons side by side may make it difficult for those situated at the ends of the group to enter into the conversation. Thus they may choose to stand behind those in the

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center of the group rather than to sit where they will be excluded from the interaction.[91]

Three men bad been sitting at the bar talking. A woman for whom they were apparently waiting entered and the one in the middle got up, gave her his seat, and then went to sit to the right, by the side of one of the other men. The woman became the center of the conversation, and the man who had moved kept leaning in front of the man on his left in an attempt to hear and enter in. He finally got up and went to stand between the woman and the man who had been on his left, remaining there for the duration of their stay.

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In many public drinking places, in addition to the standing area behind the physical bar there is what might be called a "miffing area," usually consisting of an open space in the general vicinity of the physical bar and often demarcated from the non-bar seating facilities by some device such as a partition or counter. In establishments that have few or no non-bar seating facilities, the milling area may in effect be the entire area not otherwise taken up by the physical bar.
As in the case of the standing area behind the bar, patrons may elect to locate in the milling area regardless of whether there are seats at or away from the bar available to them. However, unlike the standing area behind the bar, where there is a milling area it may be properly used by both men and women. For example, it is not uncommon in establishments where women do not generally stand behind the bar to see women who enter with a male companion wait in the milling area while their escort stands at the bar and orders, and then the two of them consume their drink while standing behind the bar (although at a distance from it).
As the name implies, this milling area is where vague and casual patron movement takes place. Unlike the standing area immediately behind the physical bar, and although patrons typically have a drink in hand, there is no fixed location for those in the milling area. Rather, there is typically a slow circulation of patrons throughout the area. This circulation may be arrested temporarily as patrons cluster in groups for encounters of varying duration, but it is still characterized by a constant movement of people. The progress of a patron, once be has stepped away from the immediate vicinity of the bar into the milling area, takes him often in counter-clockwise patterns through most of the area and typically brings him momentarily into the proximity of a substantial number of other patrons who are also in the milling area.

The milling area of the C_____ is separated from the tables and chairs at the far side of the room

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by a low partition. Sometimes there is a counter along the top of the partition and at other times the counter is absent. Patrons entering will often move slowly from the door almost to the end of the bar (a distance of about fifty feet) and then turn and come back to some point at the middle of the bar to order. Once they have received their drinks, they stand with their backs to the partition, idly sipping their drinks and watching those seated at the bar and, others milling between them and those seated. They may stand for two or three minutes and then move down to look at the selections in the juke box. Of those milling, many more simply look at the selections than actually play anything. After a pause there, they typically move on, to stand momentarily again before the short hallway leading to the bathroom and then to move to another place along the partition or to the center of the area where they pause again to watch the movement of others. Once again they may move, this time toward the door or over by the cigarette machine, perhaps to watch those playing the bowling machine. If during the course of their milling they have finished their drinks, they may put their empty beer bottle or glass on the bar counter and then move empty-handed to some other part of the bar to order. When the counter is attached to the top of the partition, empty bottles and glasses are often left there, and sometimes on top of the cigarette machine, the juke box, or the window sill as well.
During this time they may have engaged one or more other milling patrons in a fleeting encounter, which is often terminated after the first exchange. Some may enter into conversations of somewhat longer duration, but for most patrons in the milling area these encounters extend for no more than three or four minutes at most. Then both participants wander off again, sometimes in different directions, sometimes in the same direction at different paces.
The only seating facilities available at the T_____ are about thirty to thirty-five stools along the bar. These are all occupied, and at least a hundred.

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other patrons are slowly moving in a counter-clock-wise direction throughout the rest of the bar area. By focusing on three or four patrons who are distinguishable by dress or stature, it becomes apparent that within fifteen minutes each has made a complete circuit of the milling area, pausing momentarily, if at all, and then starting over again.
In the center of the area a few clusters of patrons pause for a few moments and talk; these clusters give the impression that the participants are eventually peeling off, one after another, to rejoin the circulating crowd. Occasionally the regularity of the movement is broken when a patron crosses through the miffing crowd to reorder at the bar. Some of those who go to the bar may sit for a moment or two and then return to the parade, although most simply stand there and, once their drinks have been delivered and paid for, immediately join in the movement again.
Between the physical bar at the P_____ and the tall partition that separates it from the restaurant, there is an area no more than ten feet wide, but it is here that the vast majority of the patrons are moving in a slow counter-clockwise parade. With a drink in hand they step back from the physical bar and pause to watch the others maneuvering through the crowd. A middle-aged man pauses by the pillar and looks over at a small group of two men and two women standing before him and chatting. As he turns to move on, another man says something to him and he stops to exchange a few words with him. The two part, each slowly moving in opposite directions. Five or ten minutes later their paths cross again and they stand momentarily side by side, although nothing more is said between them.
Two men enter together. One stands in the middle of the area while the other goes to the bar to order. The one waiting moves to his right to watch two women who are talking. The one who had gone to the bar for their order turns with the two drinks in hand and, not seeing the other, moves to the left, where he stands, sipping his own drink and holding the second

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one. Eventually the second man comes up to him, takes his drink, and the two chat for a few minutes-Each then starts moving toward the other end of the bar, but now they no longer appear to be together. One of them stops to talk with two other men and the other moves on.
Standing off to one end, I was talking to a patron who was at the same time idly watching the others. A second man walked by us and said something about the size of the crowd. He entered into the encounter for a moment or two and then wandered off in the direction he came from, only to reappear a few minutes later to address another remark to us and leave again. This time he stopped to say something to a couple and another man talking at the bar, and then moved on again.

In many bars where milling is the custom, the activity may partially encompass those seated along the bar as well. In such establishments, those who are seated along the bar will often sit with their backs either partially or completely to the edge of the bar so that they too may observe and in effect be part of the miffing activity. In homosexual bars, where milling is a notable although not exclusive feature, often the men seated at the bar will sit only partially on the stool, with one foot still on the floor, so that they can move with ease from their place at the bar into the moving crowd.
Like the seating arrangements along the physical bar, space between patrons and patron groups is minimized in both the standing area and the milling area, increasing the likelihood that encounters between the unacquainted win be begun, that ongoing encounters will be entered by others not present at their inception, and that ongoing encounters may merge, either momentarily or for a longer duration. For both those seated along the bar and those in the standing and milling areas, space is in a sense no obstacle; by reducing the distance between patrons, both the propriety and the practical problems of making contact are minimized. Persons separated from one another by no more than twelve to fourteen inches have one

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or more others immediately available to contact and the other patrons may be approached by a remark rather than a declaration, thus assuring the person making the initial overture that at least a minimal response will be forthcoming.
Problems associated with maintaining an encounter once it has begun are also minimized. For example, the possibility of being unable to hear another or the inadvertent discontinuance of an encounter by the physical intrusion of a third party are practically eliminated. And, unlike the decisive movement that characterizes the change from one bar stool to another and obligates the mover to remain in the encounter until it is terminated by the other, those who are standing either immediately behind the bar or in the milling area may surreptitiously inch toward the others without declaring what they are doing. If the patron's follow-up quickly terminates the encounter, face is more easily saved in the absence of a decisive committing move.
Thus if the physical space around the bar is socially fixed for each tenant, the floor space claimed in the milling area is socially transient. Unlike the clear-cut boundaries for each occupant along the bar, the milling area is composed of indeterminate camp sites that can be abandoned or altered at win.

A young man walked up and started talking to two girls standing by the cigarette machine. Their cursory visual attention and monosyllabic responses indicated little interest on their part in an encounter of prolonged duration. When the waiter approached with a tray in hand, the man moved back from the girls and then turned completely away from the encounter area, although bad the girls been more responsive, he could have as easily moved toward them.

Spatial Proprieties and Use

For many public drinking places, the salient use to which the setting is put may vary through the course of the day or,

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in some cases, through the course of the week, Some establishments that are used as convenience bars during the afternoon and early evening may be used as home territories at night. Others may be used as home territories through the entire course of the day and week, but the collectivity for which they serve as a home territory may change from one part of the day to the next or from one part of the week to the next. Nightspots typically do not come into existence until around nine o'clock in the evening, but the premises may be used earlier as either a convenience bar or, in some cases, a home territory. Marketplace bars may change the commodity available over the course of the day so that what can be obtained in them at one time is unavailable at an earlier or later time. The following varieties of temporal changes are only a partial listing of the alterations in use which may routinely take place.

Bar 1: During weekdays, from early afternoon until around 8 P.m. this bar is used by many who work in the area as a convenience bar, a place where they may get a drink or a snack for lunch and where they may get an after-work cocktail. By 8:30 the number of women present begins to increase and from then until closing time, as well as on weekend evenings, it is used as a pickup bar.
Bar 2: This is one of a number of bars in an integrated neighborhood. In the evening its patronage is almost exclusively Negro, and it functions essentially as a home territory. But in the afternoon the majority of the patrons are white, and the general use of the establishment is that of a convenience bar.
Bar 3: The patrons of this bar are restricted by managerial policy to males. During the day it is used as a convenience bar,'but between 4:30 P.m. and 7:30 P.m. it has the reputation of being a homosexual pickup bar.
Bar 4: This establishment is one of the best. known heterosexual pickup bars in the city. From around 4 P.M. to 7 P.M. almost all the females pres-

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ent are recruited from the women who work in the area. After 7 P.m. the professional prostitutes begin to arrive, and by 9 P.m. they typically constitute the entire female population of the bar.
Bar 5: Like Bar 1, this establishment is used as a convenience bar in the early afternoon and evening, but after 8 P.m. and on weekends, it becomes a homosexual home territory bar.

In the same way that some public drinking places may be routinely used in more than one way by more than one group during a period of time, other establishments may be routinely used in more than one way by more than one group at the same time, separated by their spatial location within the bar rather than by their temporal location. The spatial differentiation of activities and groups permits a simultaneous differentiation of use for any given establishment.
Perhaps one of the best examples of this spatial differentiation of use is provided by a bar which was on the fringes of the entertainment section of the city. For a fairly long time (until it closed) it was at the same time used as a convenience bar for some patrons and a home territory for two separate collectivities, the activities and groups separated only by their conventional spatial distribution in the setting. The physical bar and its immediate vicinity was used as a home territory for homosexuals; the table space at the far end of the room was the conventional home territory of the actors from a nearby theater group; and the seating space along the wall opposite from the bar was generally used by a variety of patrons who merely dropped in for a drink or two as a part of their larger round of visiting the bars in the area. This informal spatial distribution was supported by the personnel of the establishment7 and on my first visit there I was pointedly informed by one of the waiters that I was seated where the theater group sat, although none of them were present at the time.
The home territory use of public drinking places by more

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than one collectivity, separated only by their conventional spatial distribution within the setting, appears to be a rather common phenomenon. In one homosexual bar, for a period of at least six months (from the time I first began observations there until it was closed), two tables at the back of the room were used almost exclusively by deaf mutes who were also homosexual and by their acquaintances who could communicate with them in sign language. In another gay bar, the conventional separation of the males and females persisted even after the interior of the establishment had been physically altered. Before the changes were made, the premises consisted of a long bar along the west wall and five or six booths along the east wall. During this time, when the bar was operating at less than its maximum capacity, both men and women would be more or less randomly distributed along the length of the bar. But as the establishment began to fill, the men and women would typically separate, so that the men would be primarily located at the physical bar and in its immediate vicinity and the women would be seated at the booths. When the interior was altered, opening the restaurant area adjacent to the east onto the main room and constructing a piano bar that formed a partial circle from the old east wall into the new seating area on the east, the men expanded their territory into the old seating area, remaining along the south end of the east wall, and the women took over the piano bar and the new seating area on the east, at the north end of the room. As before, as long as the bar was not crowded the lines between the two groups were fluid; but once the establishment began to fill with patrons, the rather rigid spatial distribution became evident.
In another establishment utilized as a home territory by a group of young Russian men as well as by a number of ethnically heterogeneous blue-collar workers, the far end of the bar was the conventional territory of the former group and the bar area closest to the door was the conventional territory of the latter group. While the two groups shared equally

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in the use of the pool table and the mechanical games and danced in the open area between the bar and the few tables against the opposite wall, when the two groups were present at the same time--typically on weekends--the separate seating distribution tended to be clearly maintained.
In addition to the use of one establishment as a home territory for two or more separate groups at the same time, two or more types of activity may be supported within the same setting, again conventionally separated by their spatial distribution. One rather common example of this is found in bars that feature live music for dancing. In such places, couples and larger cross-sex groups typically sit at the tables and booths and orient themselves primarily to the dancing facilities, while those who are present alone or with a partner of the same sex situate themselves at the bar or in its immediate vicinity and orient themselves primarily to the opportunity for cross-sex encounters. Those whose apparent status changes during the course of their stay, by entering into a prolonged encounter with someone of the opposite sex, may indicate the change by moving from one area to the other.
Marketplace use and home territory use can also be found in the same establishment, again spatially separated. In one skid row bar, the far end of the bar was the locale of the B-girl and was also used by the peddler of miscellaneous items of found and stolen merchandise when he came on business; the rest of the bar was used as a home territory for a number of residents and past residents of the area. As a matter of course, when the B-girl or the peddler were not working they would situate themselves in the other segment of the bar, being accorded guest membership by those who used the bar as their home territory.
In another bar in the entertainment section of the city, both home territory and nightspot use could be found at the same time but in different areas. A group of young Italian men had in effect staked out a home territory claim on one end of the

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bar and could be found there regularly, while the rest of the bar and the abundant non-bar seating facilities were being used by others to view the entertainment program which the establishment provided.
Frequently bars that are no more than a convenience bar to many may be found to have some area which has been set apart for some other type of use. This is particularly true of establishments located in areas that support both a transient population and a stable group at the same time. In actuality, the extent to which the population of any large, urban area is "transient" is variable. For example, in the downtown section of San Francisco one can find on the streets at the same time tourists whose presence in the area may be a once-in-a-lifetime occasion; persons, such as shoppers and certain business people, whose presence is occasional but irregular; persons whose place of employment is in the area and thus who can be found there on a regular but temporally limited basis; and persons whose permanent residence is in the area. At any given time, a public drinking place located in such an area may be patronized by representatives of each of these groups, and in some cases, persons in the last two categories may claim some part of the establishment as a customary meeting place. Thus, as an example, one of the bars in the vicinity of the downtown theaters ostensibly served as a convenience bar for theater patrons, but one end of the bar was often used as if it were a home territory for the actors from the theaters as well.
Similarly, bars that are located where they may be treated by many as convenience bars but have a general reputation as establishments for another use may have a special section set apart for patrons who are using the place as a convenience. In one marketplace bar in the downtown area of the city there was a small section of tables which for all practical purposes was set aside for those who appeared to be entering only for a convenient drink. The hostess as a matter of course would offer to find a table away from the bar for cross-sex

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couples, although she would extend no such offer to those entering by themselves or in same-sex groups, assuming that their intended use of the establishment was different.
In summary, the proprieties and the practical contingencies associated with space in the public drinking place result in a differential spatial distribution of patrons and sometimes a differential distribution of activities. This differential spatial distribution may either heighten the mutual openness of patrons or insulate them from contact, and in some cases it may maximize the distance between separate groups or activities and hence reduce the possibility for disparate groups or activities to disrupt one another. Thus space, unlike encounters and comportment within the public drinking place, may be a matter of concern for those present. But if the expected and actual use of space in the bar has implications beyond the immediate moment, unlike the consequential features of many more serious settings, these implications are not automatic contingencies. Rather they require active work on the part of the persons present. Those who are not indifferent about their presence in the setting (such as those present for "serious drinking" or those who are there as a part of a special group and for a special occasion) must take particular care with respect to where they locate and how they arrange themselves once they have entered, just as those who would express any commitment to an ongoing encounter must actively work at doing so.

[84] Kai T. Erikson, "Notes on the Sociology of Deviance," Social Problems, 9 (1962), p. 308.

[85] Dean C. Barnlund and Carroll Harland, "Propinquity and Prestige and Determinates of Communication Networks" Sociometry, 26 (1963), p. 468.

[86] In American society, at least, between four and a half and five feet separating individuals is considered neutral distance, appropriate to nonpersonal discourse, while from eight to twenty feet is more appropriate to addressing a group rather than an individual. See Fdward T. Hall, The Silent Language (Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett Publications Inc., 1961), pp. 163-164.

[87] Ibid., p. 163.

[88] Erving Goffman has suggested that what may be established when spatial changes are made between patrons is a participation unit rather than an interaction unit. Reduction of the distance between those already in interaction may in this sense characterize the inception of a "with" or an "in-the-company-of" relationship, and it may be this fea. ture, rather than the interaction as such, that is binding.

[89] The notable exception is when she has been made the recipient of a gift drink dining the course of an encounter. This will be treated in the next chapter.

[90] The Question Man, "Should Women be Allowed in Bars?", San Francisco Chronicle, June 6, 1964.

[91] In small-group studies of communication networks, although those occupying peripheral positions in lineal communication arrange. ments are not excluded from participation, they are found to display poorer morale than those in more central positions. See Alex Bavelas, "Communication Patterns in Task-oriented Groups." in D. Cartwright and A. Zander (eds.), Group Dynamics (Evanston, Ill.: Row, Peterson and Co., 1956), pp. 493-506.

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