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10. The Home Territory BarSome public drinking places derive their special character from the fact that they are used as though they were not public places at a1l, but rather as though they were the private retreat for some special group. Those who use public drinking places in this way frequently designate them as "my" bar and often describe them as a "home" a "second home," or a "home away from home."An old woman came in and bought Ron a beer and then bought another beer for the fellow sitting next to him. Ron asked her if she were having one also but she replied that she was "on the wagon." She and Ron began talking about some of the people they knew in common; Ron then suggested that they go down to the R_____ (a bar down the street). "Why should I go to the R_____," she said. "This is my home here."Such establishments become in effect a kind of home territory, a setting where patrons may stake out proprietory claims and |
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| 206 | create an order of activity indigenous to the particular establishment,
to be defended if necessary against the invasion of others.[136]
Those who make a public drinking place their home territory will be referred to as the "habitués" of the establishment. The term will be used to refer to the fact that the patrons of a particular bar share one or more features of their social identity, and this common bond forms the basis of defining those who are welcome in the establishment and those who are not. In many respects the English pub and what has been called the American "neighborhood tavern" stand as prototypes of the home territory use of the public drinking place, but the lines along which the patrons of the home territory are drawn are not necessarily limited to residential areas. In Okinawa, for example, where some forty thousand American servicemen are stationed, in the course of time the bars and cabarets have become defined as home territories for groups differentiated along both racial and branch of service lines. According to one officer. It isn't only a racial problem.... Marines, paratroopers and sailors--they all have their favorite places. After a while these places become, in effect, exclusive in their patronage. . . . It saves a lot of fights, I'll tell you.[137]Racial and ethnic groups provide one type of collectivity that is likely to make some public drinking place their home |
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| 207 | territory; in San Francisco one can find bars that may be used almost
exclusively by Negroes, by American Indians, by Mexican Americans, by
Italians, by Irish, by Russians, by Chinese, by Filipinos and by British
subjects, to name just a few. One can also find bars that are used in the
same way by the homeless, by the biographically blemished, by those whose
organization of daily life is in part or wholly outside the typical range
in terms of time and space, and by those who share a common fate that has
little value in the everyday world. In San Fransisco there are bars that
are used as home territories by the unmarried who may have little else
in common beyond their lack of a conjugal home; by newspapermen, actors,
musicians, and seamen, whose daily round is somewhat apart from those with
more conventionally timed or spaced occupations; and by the chronically
unemployed and unemployable, the homosexual, the beatnik, and the petty
criminal.[138] The collectivities from which the habitués of the home territory
bar are drawn may also be compounded of a number of attributes: one can
find bars that serve as home territories for elderly Italian men, middle-class
homosexuals, or young, single Negros of both sexes.
The attributes of some collectivities (e.g., class or marital status) are such that a sizable proportion of all bar patrons could utilize many bars as their home territory; in this case, whether or not one chooses to make a particular establishment his home territory is a matter of personal choice. This, Of course, is true also even where the demarcation of the babitués |
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| 208 | is more limiting, so long as there is more than one establishment
that could serve as a home territory for the more general group. For example,
there are a number of establishments that are "open" to any Negro or any
homosexual, regardless of any other attribute, but not all are patronized
or used as home territories by all Negroes or all homosexuals in the community.
The choice of one particular establishment over its possible alternatives
by certified members of the collectivity may be a matter of such factors
as residential propinquity, pre-existing friendship networks, subtle differences
in the standing behavior patterns of the various bars, or vagary, where
one particular bar may become the place for a given collectivity to go
for a while, to be superseded at a later date by another establishment.
For example, homosexual home territory bars in San Francisco are often
in and out of vogue, and one can find an establishment that was literally
packed seven nights a week for some time to be virtually empty a month
later, with many of its patrons at a new place that previously had little
popularity. Of course, some homosexual bars maintain their popularity for
long periods, and others, whether they are in or out of vogue among homosexuals
in generat may stiff be patronized on a regular basis by some members of
the homosexual population.
Among the habitués of any home territory bar one can differentiate between what Chandler has referred to as a "hard core of regulars," who may be found at the establishment on a frequent and recurring basis,[139] and those occasional patrons who may drop in once in a while but whose attendance is, in general, sporadic and unpredictable. But "hard core" regulars can be found in other types of bars as well, and their presence does not necessarily imply by itself that the establishment will be used as a home territory. Convenience bars often |
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| 209 | have patrons who use them On a frequent and recurring basis, some Of
whom Prefer one bar to another that is equally con. venient, although they
still characteristically use the bar as a convenience.
Those who are not welcome in the home territory bar will be referred to as "outsiders," but not all who fall outside of the collectivities from which the habitués are drawn are out. siders. Some patrons who are not members of the habitués' collectivity may be present as invited guests of those who do hold membership, and in time they may achieve complimentary membership. In some home territory bars there may also be patrons who are neither certified habitués, guest members, or outsiders, but rather are neutral persons whose presence may be tolerated: they may be in the bar but for the habitués they are non-persons. They may be permitted to join in the activities of the bar to a limited extent and for the time being, but not entitled to the privileges that are accorded the habitués, such as check-cashing, inclusion in raffles and pools, special parties and dinners, and dancing. Neutral persons who are non-persons for the habitués are often found when a given establishment is characterized by more than one type of usage at one time. Thus, in one skid row bar that was used as both a home territory and a market-place throughout the day, patrons who came to drink with the B-girls were for all practical purposes ignored by those patrons who used the bar as their home territory, the latter group customarily paying neither verbal nor visual attention to the former. Some bars may be only occasionally used in more than one way, and the treatment that is there accorded to those who are not habitués varies. A number of bars in the vicinity of the football stadium that were used almost exclusively as home territory bars were occasionally patronized after the game by many who had gone to it. At these times, the habitués would characteristically extend a limited welcome to those who were |
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| 210 | using the establishment as a convenience bar. But in the home territory
bars in the vicinity of the opera house, which experienced the same kind
of occasional dual usage after a performance, the habitués would characteristically
treat those who were using their establishment as a convenience bar as
non-persons.[140]
Variation in the range of people who may be accorded a limited welcome in any given home territory bar is primarily a function of both the kind of collectivities that form the basis for the habitués and the indigenous culture that develops in the bar. Home territory bars that draw their habitués from relatively extensive collectivities or from collectivities that arel compounded of more than one attribute are generally open, at least on a limited basis, to patrons who might be excluded if the habitués were drawn from less extensive collectivities or from collectivities with single attributes. For example, a number of bars that are used as home territories by young unmarried persons typically grant at least a limited welcome to those who are young and married and those who may be no longer young but who are still unmarried. In the same way, when the standing behavior patterns of a given home territory bar differ little if at all from those found in public drinking places in general (e.g. such as in the use of profanity), the range of people to whom a limited welcome may be extended is typically greater than it is when this difference in patterns is large. |
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Home Territory BehaviorRegardless of the categories from which the habitués may be drawn, the characteristic feature of the home territory use of the public drinking place is that the habitués treat the bar as though it "belonged" to them, as though it were no longer within the domain of public drinking places.As a general rule, those who use the public drinking place in this way single out one establishment to treat as 44their bar. There are exceptions, of course. For example, a group of unemployed and unemployable men on skid row had two bars and a hot dog stand that they used each day as home territories in a scheduled manner; they were PA the first bar from about 10 A.M. to 2 P.m.; at the hot dog stand from around 2 P.m. to 4 P.m.; at the second bar from around 6 P.M. until 9 or 10 P.m.; and back at the first bar again until 2 A.M. A similar phenomenon was found in a more respectable neighborhood: a number of patrons used one bar as their home territory on weekdays and another, which was a block away from the first, on weekends, although upon occasion they would patronize both places during the same evening. Again, two homosexual bars separated by two blocks were occasionally used by some of the same patrons, although by and large the patrons who went to both were very few compared with the number who used one or the other exclusively. Once a collectivity has established itself in any particular bar, and assuming that the particular collectivity is one that the management of the establishment does not find repuguant,[141] |
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| 212 | Proprietary acts on the part of the habitués become routine. Telephone
calls and messages may be made and left at the bar, with the expectation
that information will be forthcoming and delivery will be assured. The
bar may be given as a mailing address, with the expectation that, like
the general delivery department of the post office, items will be kept
until called for. Money may be deposited, with the knowledge Chat the same
sum will be available to the depositor when he at a later date. On occasion,
items may be pawned, to claimed at some future time, or money way be borrowed
without a promissory note. The following examples come from a home territory
bar located on skid row:
Sammy came in and picked up his mail. The bartender said that he had letters for some of the other fellows, too (most of whom were seamen), but that he would send back all of the traffic tickets, writing on them, "Not at this address." A little while later, the bartender said that some fellow from one of the hotels down the street had pawned a watch with him for $10 and he wondered when he was going to reclaim it.The habitués of the home territory bar may also the establishment for smiging dancing, and playing musical instruments, although the bar may have no entertainment license, |
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| 213 | and sometimes even for eating and sleeping, although for others the
bar is neither a restaurant nor a hotel.
Over the course of time the routine patterns of behavior in the home territory bar may diverge in one way or another from the patterns that are more or less general for all public drinking places, crystallizing into a kind of indigenous culture within each. Perhaps one of the best examples of this divergence is found in the proprieties concerning the use of profanity and obscene language. As a general rule, public language is expected to be circumspect. Swearing and taboo sexual references are conventionally beyond the pale of acceptable words in polite society, and this is particularly true when women are, or possibly can be, present. In general, the rules governing such language in the public drinking place are analogous to the rules governing language in other public places. Even though the entertainers in nightspots may be permitted a good deal of freedom in the use of double entendre and profanity, the license to use such language is typically not extended to the patrons, and its use by patrons in nightspots, convenience bars, and many marketplace bars generally elicits sanctions from the management of the establishment. On the other hand, there is much more variation in home territory bars with respect to the use of taboo language than there is in bars in general. There are some home territory bars in which swearing is characteristically absent altogether and others in which occasional swearing (but no more) is the rule. in others, both occasional swearing and taboo sexual references are acceptable) and in still others, bartender and patrons alike appear to engage habitually in the use of various taboo exclamations for their own sake. But whether such language is permissible or whether it is expected as a part of the ongoing activity is typically known in advance by those who use any particular bar as their home territory. At the same time, those who breach the expectations, either by using words that |
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| 214 | should not be used or by becoming ofifended by others using words that
are locally acceptable, are typically a matter of concern for patrons as
well as for management. Any sanctions that are meted out are just as likely
to come from other. patrons as they are to corne from the management.
Mock sexual licentiousness provides another example of the lines along which the indigenous culture of the home territory bar may develop. In the marketplace bar, sexually oriented encounters that are to remain within the confines of the bar must be purchased by the drink; where such activity is without set price, it carries a possible implication that goes beyond the immediate setting. In home territory bars, however, where sexually oriented interaction becomes one of the characteristic patterns of behavior it is transformed into a game with special rules that are expected to be known and respected by the habitués. Because the sexual activity of the home territory bar is defined as only a form of play, it is expected to be temporally delimited, to contain no meaning beyond the immediate moment. Thus, unlike sexually oriented encounters in the marketplace bar, there is never any question of eligibility. Passes, flirtation, embraces, and kisses are merely moves in a game for which typically neither long-term commitments (such as marriage or engagements) nor short-term commitments (such as dates) have any relevance with respect to determining who is eligible to play. There were thirty to thirty-two people in the bar, and at least five couples were dancing at all times. A young man in a blue shirt, at the end of a number, kissed the woman with whom he had been dancing, returned her to the bar, and then went down to talk with his wife, who was sitting talking with two other men. |
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ting at the table. When we got back to the table, the fellow in the blue shirt came over, sat down on the bench, put his arm around me, and started talking to both of us. He eventually introduced himself, pointed out his wife, and then said that it was his anniversary.While the previous example comes from a straight home territory bar in which the habitués are drawn along lines of cLus and ethnicity, a similar kind of sexual play can be found in homosexual bars that are used primarily as home territories: Louie was insisting that everyone around him caress his Persian lamb vest, then winking at them and saying they could go farther if they wanted to. A number of times he grabbed at the genitals of men who went by him, and although upon occasion some of those who were so grabbed became embarrassed and hurried on, no one became indignant and no One appeared to expect anything more from him.Similarly, where sex is only play, it is not uncommon for straight females who are wise, and hence acceptable within the male homosexual home territory bar, to be singled out for mock flirtations. |
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There was a constant, although changing, group of men around an attractive blond in a black dress, admking and ffirting. The fellow sitting next to me nodded toward them and then said to the fellow on his right, "I hope that she doesnt take them seriously."Profanity and sexual play provide two examples of the lines along which special patterns of behavior within the home territory bar may develop, but they are not the only such cases. Joking relationships, topics of interest, noteworthy events of the past in the bar or in the fife of the collectivity may all gradually come to be defined as part of the culture of each particular home territory bar, and for the habitués they may come to stand for the characteristic features of their bar. Territorial Defense: the HabituésThe maintenance of the home territory use of a public drinking place is in good measure dependent upon the way in which the habitués are able to handle the problem of outsiders who may enter the bar because of its apparent public character. The particular behavior patterns associated with the bar and the degree of intimacy and control that the habitués have |
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| 217 | over their establishment may often be disrupted by outsiders who do
not know what is going on or how the activity is to be carried out, or
who may question the legitimacy of the activity. The most notable example
of this is in the homosexual home territory bar, where both patrons and
customary behavior patterns may be not only incomprehensible and repugnant
to outsiders, but once seen, may be made the object of police attention
as well. Hence it is within the gay bar that the most elaborate forms of
excluding outsiders are often practiced. In one such bar, the habitués
routinely made outsiders appear out of place and feel uncomfortable about
being where they were by breaching the outsiders' expectations that they
would be inconspicuous within the establishment and by declining to accept
any claims the outsider might make to being a respectable person.[142]
Like homosexuality, the play of licentious heterosexuality is also a vulnerable behavior pattern. In one straight bar, where temporary exchanges of partners and mock-sexual overtures were typical modes of behavior during the patrons' stay, the habitués would often distribute themselves around the bar in such a way that entering outsiders would be unable to get into the establishment easily or, once they were inside, would be unable to seat themselves at the bar. This barricade was no problem to entering habitués, who were either provided with a clear passage into the establishment or who merely barged through the mass of people at the door or around the bar, as they had a "right" to do. But even where the divergence between the general features of bar behavior and the indigenous culture of the home territory bar is not so great, a bar can be considered as one's "own" bar only insofar as it cannot be considered as "every- |
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| 218 | one's" bar. Hence, the maintenance of proprietary interest in a bar
is dependent upon the exclusion of others who, for some reason or other,
appear to have no "right" to patronize the establishment.
Perhaps the most common form of tacit rebuff that an entering outsider is likely to receive upon entering a home territory bar is a conspicuous, questioning look, too long to be taken as a prelude to civil inattention, too intent to be taken as an invitation. As the patron of one home territory bar said of other establishments in the vicinity of "his" bar, You walk in these [other] bars and people look at you. You have to patronize them regularly if you want them not to look at you. You walk in them and you can see them thinking, "What's this guy want?"Sometimes the look may be accompanied by an audible remark as well, as in the following example: When we entered the bar it was about three-fourths fall. Two or three people at the bar gave us a long, somewhat questioning look, and then one woman said, quite loudly, "Oh, boy, make room for the paying customers." This was followed by much laughter.Outsiders who enter home territory bars may also be pestered or treated in a purposefully annoying manner. The habitués may attempt to cadge drinks from them or to monopolize the dice boxes, pinball machines or juke box so that these facilities are not available to the outsider. The habitués may attempt to move past outsiders with a little more roughness than is routinely given to other habitués. They may attempt to bait the outsiders into entering arguments, make mock of their manner to the rest of the patrons in a way |
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| 219 | deliberately performed for the outsider as well, or request picayune
information, as in the following example:
The fellow who had been at the door came over to me and said, "Do you have a skirt on?" It was quite obvious that I did, and he went on to say, "Well, I just wanted to make sure because you couldn't come in here if you didn't."Further, the characteristic openness of bar patrons may be denied to outsiders in home territory bars. As much as I tried to participate in the convergation, I could not do so ... they were extremely loath to talk to strangers, especially one like myself who came unintroduced, alone, and then only irregularly about once a week.[143] Dean and Hal were discussing baseball when an older man, a little drunk and rather disheveled came in and ordered a beer. He tried to enter their conversation a couple of times and finally Dean said to him, "You think you know all there is to know about baseball." The old man finished his drink and then left. Dean said loudly as he was leaving, "He thinks he's so smart." A man from one of the bars on the street bordering the colored district came to Murphy's, began |
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playing the juke box, and tried to get friendly with the crowd. When he got no response, he called out, "How's that? You let me put my nickels in the juke box and listen to my music, but you won't talk to me. Whafs the matter here? I'm as good as anyone of you guys." When he received no response, including no beer from the bartender, he remarked, "Well, at least I demand to be served like a human being. . . ." He carried on, with everyone in the tavern studiedly ignoring him. . . . The visitor left after a few more harangues against the treatment he was receiving.[144]And, of course, the habitués may deliberately engage in routines of behavior that they know will be offensive to the outsider. When we came in, there were about five patrons seated at the door end of the bar, and two lesbians seated three or four stools over from them. The conversation between the bartender and the patrons at the end of the bar seemed to be exceedingly loud, even by bar standards, and included a number of references to "diesel dykes" and "girls who look like Muni bus drivers." This went on for about five minutes, and the two women eventually left without finishing their drinks.Once they were gone, the conversation continued as loudly, but with the topic changed to what miglit generally be considered "offensive" sexual references and overly descriptive homosexual matters, and we left soon afterward.[145] For some home territory bars, the problem of outsiders never arises. In some cases, the existence of the premises may be unknown to those who might be potential outsiders, either because the establishment is located in an area that outsiders |
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| 221 | do not frequent, because it is unmarked on the street, or because
it requires a devious route to gain entrance. In San Francisco, one homosexual
home territory bar is located at the top of a long ffigbt of stairs and
another presents a blank and dark fagade to the street.[146] Similarly, a home
territory bar for British subjects was unmarked on the street, requiring
potential patrons to pass first through a small gift shop to get to the
door. When asked about why the last bar was so concealed, one patron in
the establishment stated,
They are particular about who comes in here. You have to find out about the place the hard way.Some friends told me about it, and now I come here regularly. This is a real British place--I have dual citizenship--this is just the way they behave in pubs in the British Isles. All the British subjects around here come here. Everybody behaves himself.In other bars, the collectivity that congregates may be a matter of public knowledge and those who are not eligible do not enter either because they know in advance that it is not the kind of place they would care to frequent or because they know in advance thatq even if they would like to enter, they would not be welcome.[147] |
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There were five persons in the bar, a group of four men at the far end playing poker dice and another man sitting next to me. The patron next to me was explaining that he was on a dinner break and went on to say, "I actually like crowded bars best. This place would take about fifty people to make it look like it was full." I asked if there were any other bars he could go to in the area and he said, "No. This is the first one from where I work. You could go north to the J_____ Club. It's a little shorter I guess, but it's a dingy place, mainly for the characters in the tenderloin."For some bars, such information may not be a general matter of public knowledge, but once the entering outsider has opened the door the character of the establishment may be immediately apparent to him and he may withdraw. The following statements came from a number of men in response to the question of whether homosexual bars should be marked: "They don't need a sign. There's no mistaking whafs going on. You wouldn't believe what's happening! A regular, or a straight guy, wouldn't want to walk into one of these places, Not if he's in his right mind." |
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"They have to have some place to go. Let them have their own bars. I've gone into them. Accidentally. Just takes a couple of minutes to tell. Some of these places in Sausalito! Wow! Four of us gays went in, ordered a beer and sat down. The scene was too much!" "Yes. That way it would protect tourists and people from being humiliated. Get those guys all together. Let them have their own entertainment, if that?s what you call it. But keep it private. Let the rest of the decent people enjoy themselves in a normal fashion."There are, of course, always some who may be unable to read the cues for what they are, as a final respondent indicates. "Yes, Otherwise you don't know what's happening. They ought to have a sign outside or something. Let you know whaf s going on. They should put up a sign so everybody'd be aware of the situation. Gay bars might be all right but they're sure not for me."[148]The following field examples both come from homosexual home territory bars, the first patronized primarily by men, the second by women. A very nicely dressed couple came in, stood for a few minutes at the door looking around and then left, apparently deciding that this was not the place for them. |
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| 224 | posters around the room, occasionally casting surreptitious
glances at the patrons.
The knowledge that a particular public drinking place serves as a home territory for some particular collectivity can, of course, raise problems of its own for the habitués. In most home territory bars, the presence of outsiders is usually inadvertent; they patronize the establishment because of its "public" definition. However, bars that are known to be home territories for a variety of "exotic" or otherwise socially curious groups may find that outsiders have deliberately entered to observe the habitués and their activity, or in some cases, to make trouble for those who are there. This is a rather persistent problem for some homosexual bars in San Francisco, and an occasional problem for others, as in the example below: There were about seventy patrons in the bar; almost 80 per cent of them were female and almost an of these were in pants, either tailored capris or levis or what appeared to be men's slacks. Two men in their late twenties came in and stood next to where I was seated. We started talking, and eventually they told me that they were both straight and that they had come into the bar because, as they put it, "this is a place where you can observe real life." One of them went on to say that he had been in all the bars along the street but that this was the most "alive" one he had found. (Of the eighteen bars along the street, two others were also home territory bars for homosexuals, but both of them had a predominantly male clientele.) When I asked him what he meant by "alive," he replied, "Well, it's the kind of place that things happen in. It's exciting." |
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find out what men were like and that once I had sexual intercourse with a man I would no longer be interested in women. One of them suggested that we drive to a nearby park and he would show me what he meant.Homosexual bars are not the only establishments which outsiders may enter to observe. One bartender said that he would sometimes go to one or two of the Filipino bars not far from his establishment just "to see what they're up to," and occasionally would enter one of the bars on skid row for the same purpose. Similarly, bars that are used as a home territory for prostitutes and their pimps may also be treated by outsiders as scenes to be viewed: There are [also] the tourists, the Out-of-Owners who have heard of this strange club in the bad West End where practically everything is said to happen-They come, dressed either carefully in slacks and duffel collars, or unsuitably in off-theshoulder dresses and stiff collars, not because they really appreciate good music or enjoy dancing in whatever space they can find in the ill-decorated club, but for the shiver in the spine at the vice bubbling beneath the surface, about which their friends have whispered or boasted of having seen break out, at the Prospect of a fight |
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or a girl being beaten up by her ponce, at the thought of spotting illicit love in a dark corner.[149]Characteristically, the activity known as "slumming," in which respectable people intentionally visit settings of little respectability out of curiosity or for excitement, is usually cairri ied ou31 in public drinking places; one rarely if ever finds people slumming in other possible settings, such as cafeterias, parks, hotels, or movie houses.[150] It might also be noted in passing that home territory bars are not the only type of public drinking place in which some patrons may be present primarily to observe other patrons. Some marketplace bars are treated in the same way, and one such place in San Francisco became so well known as a place where prostitutes made contact with their customers that the rites of the prostitutes and their clients became objects of interest, men bringing their dates to witness them. Similarly, in asking patrons about various public drinking places, they win often say of pickup bars that the activity that goes on is worthy of being viewed in and for itself. Territorial Defense: the ManagementThe collectivity that utilizes a bar as a home territory typically expects that the management will actively support whatever claims they make upon the bar and whatever indigenous culture develops there.[151] If the management does not |
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| 227 | cooperate, the collectivity may move in mass to some other establishment.
The patron of one home territory bar said, "We all used to go to the K_____
bar, but Steve, the bartender, acted like he didn't want us there." In
the same way, the movement of homosexuals from one establishment to another
is sometimes explained by statements attesting to the ownees or bartender's
lack of support. As one patron said of such a change, "Oh it was a nice
place, but Del, the owner, woul(Wt stick up for the gay kids."
Thus, the management will often take an active part in controlling the entrance of outsiders into home territory bars, if for no other reason than to assure the habitués that they are welcome, although the probability of real trouble-physical assaults or melees--may be a factor as well. One example comes from an establishment that was used as a home territory by middle-aged, middle-class unmarried people. Since most of the habitués worked during the day, the owner kept the bar closed until late in the afternoon, when what he called "his" patrons would end work. His explanation was that if he opened earlier, "all the wirios; and drunks, with their filthy language," would come into the bar. He would also ask potential patrons who did not appear as though they might fit in to leave, because as one patron said, "This is a place for gentlemen only." The treatment bartenders may give to winos who attempt to enter skid row home territory bars, even upon those Occasions when they can pay for their drinks, is even more severe. They may be bodily thrown out if they make any claims on the establishment, such as sitting down at the bar, for the social distance on skid row between those who have a proper establishment they can call their own and those who typically |
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| 228 | drink on the streets is often very slender, and the former can little
afford to be reminded that they recently were, or soon may be, in the latter
category.
One of the winos came in, holding a fifty-cent piece out before him. Mario (the bartender) told him to go away; when he didn't leave immediately, Mario started to come out from behind the bar. About half an hour later he came back in and acted as though he were going to sit down at the bar. Mario took him by the jacket and pushed him out. Fifteen minutes later he came in again and got as far as sitting down at the middle of the bar, with his elbows stretched far out on either side of him. Mario took hold of him very roughly, shook him, and then literally threw him out the door. He muttered as he was on his way out, "Oh, that's okay--forget it." One of the patrons at the bar told me that they do that just to annoy the bartenders, that they know they will not be allowed in but they enjoy baiting the bartenders and disrupting the bar.Outsiders who do not appear to the bartender to be capable of assimilation into the bar may be more indirectly rebuked by slow or unpleasant service. If I don't know a patron, I give him a warm glass routine. Part of the bar equipment is a large draft beer box and in this is a compartment for chilling glasses. Behind me is a bamboo curtain covering a portion of the back bar shelves. On these shelves is the extra supply of glasses, which are warm, of course. When I serve a stranger, I reach behind me and get him a warm glass. . . . The act of giving the warm glass says, "I don't know this person. No one is to talk to him until I have a chance to find who sent him."[152] |
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The bartender, recounting an incident which occurred earlier in the evening, said, "This guy butted right into our conversation and wanted to argue. That's all he was looking for, a fight. If he had been nice, well, that's a different story. I told him to leave and instead he orders another beer so I gave him a flat one that I opened last night and I guess he finally got the hint because he left without finishing it." |
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both the patron and his companions behind him. A little later, one of the four said, "Let's go down to the queers' place," and they left, their drinks unfinished.Outsiders may also find that, in contrast to the liberal pouring of other patrons' drinks, their own are being measured with too much precision, or that they are being charged somewhat more than other patrons for similar orders. Checking identification cards for age when it is apparent that they do not need to be checked to establish one's majority is yet another way in which the management can attempt to control the entrance of outsiders. Frequently, in gay bars, an employee will be stationed at the door for just this purpose. Vddle the use of an ID check for controlling entrance is not exclusive to gay bars, it appears that only in gay bars and nightspots will there be an employee whose primary function is that of gatekeeper. But in nightspots, the only concern of the management is typically that the patrons be of legal drinking age. A routine, legitimate ID check is usually undertaken with despatch, so that the potential patron's status can be determined without undue embarrassment to him. In contrast, the exclusion-oriented ID check is usually a prolonged and elaborate procedure, during which the employee looks at the documents, looks at the patron, looks again at the documents, and then coolly returns them.[154] Two young men in suits came in, sat down at the bar, and called out their order to the bartender, who |
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was about three or four feet away, The bartender walked over to the two of them and said, "Lemme see your ID's." The patrons, who both appeared to beabout twenty-five or twenty-six, looked somewhat annoyed, but took out their billfolds and handed some papers over to the bartender. The bartender looked at each identification paper very intently, then at each patron. He handed them back with a small shrug and said to the patrons, "Now, what was it you wanted to drink?" in a slightly solicitous manner. One of the men said, "Oh, forget it," and the two of them got up and left.I asked the bartender, after they left, why he had asked for their ID's since they both appeared to be obviously over twenty-one. The bartender said, "Aw, they looked like trouble-makers."The function of checking ID's in such situations becomes quite apparent when it is noted that the process may be terminated even before the documents are initially handed over by the patron if someone inside the bar greets the potential patron, or if it becomes apparent that he is with others who unquestionably have entrance rights. The doorman asked for my ID just as we got in, but midway during the process of getting it out of my purse, Alan, the bartender called out to him, "Hey, it's okay. I know them." The doorman then waved his hand to me in a way that signified I could enter without producing any papers and offered a small, apologetic smile as well.In return for the assistance which the management provides the habitués in maintaining a bar as home territory, those who utilize a bar in this way will often take it upon themselves to attend to a variety of matters routine to its operaion while they are present. They may act as waiters, taking drinks to patrons seated away from the bar and removing their empty glasses and ashtrays when they leave. They may, if the bar- |
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| 232 | tender is busy, reach over the bar and phone for a cab for a departing
patron. At the end of the evening, they will often shut off the outside
lights, unplug the juke box, lock the door (or unlock and relock it as
patrons leave after 2 A.M.), move the glasses on the bar down to the sink
area, put empty beer bottles in cases, straighten out the bar stools, tables
and chairs, and, upon occasion, sweep the floor.
In addition to routine operating matters, habitués of a home territory bar will often take it upon themselves to assist with or handle a variety of problems that may arise. They may go on errands for necessary supplies such as ice, change, or fuses, make emergency repairs when equipment breaks down, or volunteer their services when the bartender must be temporarily absent from the premises or, as in the example below, when he is unable to function. The bartender (who was also the owner) had been drinking quite heavily and finally left from behind the bar to sit on the other side. One of the patrons went behind the bar and began mixing drinks, making change, cleaning up, and in general taking over the bartender's duties. Occasionally he would grumble, "I don't know where the glasses . . . where the ice is . . ." but his actions were apparently quite voluntary.In the same way, social difficulties that are the responsi-bility of the management in other types of establishments may be handled by patrons in the home territory bar. The problems of ejecting persons too inebriated to be served or to manage physiological control of themselves, pacifying those who are disruptively obstreperous, and cooling-out those who have |
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| 233 | been socially violated may all be taken over by the habitués as a
matter of course.
In short, the habitués of the home territory bar typically behave as though the premises were their own home, for which they themselves are responsible. Thus, they actively engage in the work of making sure that the guests are properly cared for while they are there, that unforeseen events do not disrupt their visit, and that the room is put in order when they leave. In summary, once a bar has been staked out as a home territory by some collectivity, the maintenance of the definition in effect requires the habitués to treat certain courses of action as consequential. If territorial defense has the character of a seriously pursued activity, presumably it is because the viability of the home territory use of the bar is in large measure dependent upon it. Were no patron to be defined as an outsider, the obverse definition of an habitués--with the implication of activity that definition carries--would be difficult to maintain. Thus, just as variations in use may modify to some extent the standing patterns of behavior typically associated with the public drinking place (as in the nightspot), so, too, may variations in use modify to some extent the inconsequentiality typically associated with the setting. |
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[136] The concept of "territory" or "home territory" is used in the lield of animal ecology to refer to the preferential treatment of an area by members of a given species, sometimes including defense of that area upon invasion by others of the same species (see W. C. Alee et al., Principles of Animal Ecology [Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Co., 1950] p. 412). In Barker and Wrighrs analysis of behavior settings they also note that for any setting there may be in addition an implicit or explicit exclusion of certain groups (Midwest and its Children [Evanston, Ill.: Row, Peterson & Co., n.d.] pp. 99-147). [137] San Francisco Chronicle, May 10, 1962. [138] Maurice Gorham (The Local, [London: Cassell & Co., 1939], p.x) writes that in England, collectivities that use pubs as home territories include waiters, artists, medical students, musicians, banknote engravers, ragpickers, used car salesmen, B.B.C., chorines, draymeu, fruit salesmen, market porters, Negroes, and car thieves. A description of a home territory bar for fighters, fight managers, trainers, and ex-boxers can be found in "Neutral Corner Cocktail Lounge" (New Yorker, December 18, 1954, pp. 71 ff.). Another description, of a home territory bar for writers, can be found in Time, May 3, 1963, pp. 65-66 [139] Cf. Margaret Chandler, "The Social Organization of Workers in a Rooming House Area" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1948), p. 73. [140] Although the habitués of the bars around the football stadium and the opera house were in many respects similar, the outsiders who used their establishments were not, in a very apparent way, The regular patrons of the bars in both areas were characteristically dressed in a very informal manner; while those who came from the football stadium were typically in the same casual garb, those who came from the opera house were in suits and ties. The difference in treatment that they were accorded may well have stemmed from the fact that the casual dress of the former group indicated that they were likely to fit in, while the formal dress of the latter indicated that they were less likely to fit in. For a discussion of dress and behavior, see Erving Goffman, Behavior in Public Places (New York: The Free Press, 1963), pp. 203-204. [141] Quite obviously, not all collectivities are equally acceptable in all establishments, and those who attempt to co-opt a public drinking place as their own may be discouraged by those who have a vested financial interest in the establishment. Ibus, for example, when one of the small theater groups in the city changed their theater to a new location, they also sought a new bar that could function as a home territory for the members of the company after their shows. The one they more or less decided on was a respectable convenience bar right next to the theater, but they had no sooner begun to use it as their own than they received a formal message from the manager stating that if, in the future, they desired to patronize the bar, the men must wear ties and suits and the women must be equally respectable in their dress The message was taken as evidence of the management's lack of welcome for them, and after that they rarely used the establishment for anything other than a convenience bar. [142] Cf. Sherri cavan, "Interaction in Home Territories," Berkeley Journal of sociology, 8 (1963), PP. 17-32. [143] Herbert Gans, The Urban Villagers (New York: The Free Press, 1962),p.341. [144] Chandler, op. cit., pp. 97, 98. [145] Other examples can be found in Cavan, op. cit. [146] Donald W. Cory and J. P. LeRoy, The Homosexual and His Society (New York: The citadel Press, 1963), pp. 105-106, provide a number of similar examples, although they imply that the masking of such bars is a much more general phenomenon than it appears to he in San Francisco.
[147]
Gordon Westwood (Society and the Homosexual [New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1953] p. 126) writes that once a pub in England becomes known as a "homosexual hangout," those who are not homosexual avoid the establishment.
[148] The Question Man, "Should Gay Bars be Marked?" San Francisco Chronicle, June 23, 1964. [149] Anonymous, Streetwalker (New York: Viking Press, 1960), pp. 62-63. [150] See, for example, Harvey W. Zorbaugh, The Gold Coast an the Slum (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1930) p. 115, A Alan Lomax, Mister Jelly Roll (New York: Grove Press, 1956) p. 49. There is, of course, a notable exception, namely, the coffee houses of the bohemians. [151] There are lawful limits upon bar activities, of course, which are specified in the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, but the extent to which these will be met within the home territory bar is variable. As noted above with respect to dancing, the ABC statutes specify that such activity shall be engaged in only in establishments that have a special dancing license. But dancing is prevalent in many heterosexual home territory bars, most of which do not have a dance license. [152] Helen Branson, Gay Bar (San Francisco: Pan Graphic Press, 1957), pp. 42-43.
[153]
Slow service is not always oriented toward excluding the outsider, for sometimes neutral patrons may be ignored to give priority to the habitués as in the following incident:
[154] When, for some reason, the police feel that a particular bar warrants particular attention, they sometimes also use ID checks as a method of control. These checks are similarly not necessarjty for ascertaining that no one under legal drinking age is present but rather for Assuring the management, and perhaps the patrons too, that the police have their eyes on the bar. Bartenders frequently mention such checks as one form of police harassment, along with men on the beat dropping in too frequently and stationing patrol cars or paddy-wagons outside the bar. |
