The Third Annual Rutland Bar Tour
Rutland never changes. I sometimes think it might but then we head on another bar tour and it ends up being pretty much the same as the last time. But anyway, not changing is part of its charm, and the bar tours never get old. The third annual bar tour went down in early June, on a Wednesday night as any good bar tour should. Since nearly everyone has now turned 21, it didn’t seem like we’d have the same underage issues as last time. We started at C.J.’s. This bar has recently become a favorite of Rutland locals Jason Levins, Graham Bayne and Marcus Sweeney because of its juke box. Truth be told, it was to be the one and only stop on the tour since no one had any money and Yobeat’s budget is having some issues right now. But we figured one beer and some Motley Crue and it would be a successful night.
We sauntered into to the bar, where the line up of rednecks gave us the obligatory stare down. Something about guys with teased black hair with skin tight black pants makes us stand out in Rutland. I don’t get it. The redneck bar tender with her platinum blond perm stared at us and said, “I’m gonna need some ID.” No problem. We all pulled out our real IDs that clearly showed we were are all over 21. She eyed mine over and said, “There’s no way this is you. It doesn’t even look close.” Of course, it is me and I argued with her and finally she was satisfied. I think the approving nods from the fat redneck patrons, excited that there was a real female in the bar, helped my case. Unfortunately, Jason was no so lucky. He had repaired his ID with some scotch tape after an incident where it broke in half, and the bartender informed him that there was no way she could accept it “because of the sting operations going on in Rutland” and that we should “try one of the 30 other bars in Rutland.” We can take a hint so soon we were on our way back downtown to Jilly’s. Nothing says good times like a mostly empty sports bar, plus there were some girls there that the boys wanted to mock or something. This time the bartender still didn’t believe it was me on my ID but was slightly mellower and let us stay and drink. Graham kept spilling beer on me and Marcus was angry that Yobeat wasn’t buying his drinks. Actually, I think it had something to do with me not bringing any money at all and them having to buy me drinks. But either way, he kept yelling at me to throw down the corporate card.
Less than one drink later, the girls who the dudes were stalking disappeared to Two Shea’s and we were soon following since no Yobeat tour would be complete with out a trip there. The cool bartender who used to work there wasn’t there, just some douche bag dude who failed to complete the trifecta by telling me my ID didn’t look like me. But he served us no problem, and even let our underage friend Jake hang out on the balcony with us. At this point the bar tour gets a little dull cause none of us had enough money to get drunk and Rachel wasn’t there to make things interesting. So I left, but check back next time when the bar tour has a sponsor and things are going to be really exciting. Oh yeah, and if you want to sponsor the next bar tour, that would probably help. -Brooke Geery
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