Milk Bar

[carrie]

MT's post about the Agricultural Clubs Restaurant and bar got me to thinking.
The AC doesn't sell alcohol and never has but has a bar where soft drinks tea and coffee are prepared.
What is a bar, does it have to sell alcohol to be a bar?
Many moons ago, in my early teenage years, my friends and I used to go to the local swimming pool every Thursday evening. Then known as the baths.
With our wet cossies wrapped in our equally wet towels, on our way home we always called at the local "milk bar".
There we ordered half a pint of what was described as nettle beer, hot in winter icy cold in the summer. This was always served in half pint glasses the round ones with handles and dimples.
We felt so sophisticated holding our half pint pots.
Strange how someones post can evoke memories of times past, things you haven't thought of for years. Happy carefree days.

[HEPZIBAH]

What is a bar, does it have to sell alcohol to be a bar?

A bar in the drinks context means a service area (often a narrow area or even a table). The food equivalent would be buffet.
So when people say they are going to the 'buffet bar' (to get food) it is as though they are saying 'table table'.

[hatusu]

It brought back happy memories for me too. In my teenage years we went, not to Milk Bars, but to Coffee Bars, usually owned by Italians. (When youre 13 going on 14 you feel more grown up going to a "Bar"...) We would buy one Coke each that lasted all night but the 4 of us would have a kitty of sixpence each, and that 2 shillings would buy us 6 songs on the jukebox .
Surely the 60s must have been the best time ever to be a teenager?

[HEPZIBAH]

I don't remember Milk or Coffee Bars from my own experience. I think I was a bit too young to have gone to them in their heyday, and don't recall seeing any in my local area. However, I remember seeing one across the road from the promanade in Cleethorpes, and viewing them in films, and would think how grown up you must be to go to one, and how exciting it would be.
I've never been the right age for so many things in life.