Sunbeam Tavern

The world is the same....and also different these days.  On a bright spring day I took a very long walk.  Oddly it was to deliver some hand sewn face masks.  But it was such a nice day that any excuse would have sufficed.

On the way I walked past a tavern on the edge of town.  Like all such establishments it had been closed for a couple of weeks and will remain so for several more.

I'm pretty sure this has never happened before in Wisconsin.  Through wars and recessions taverns stayed open.  Even during the 1918 pandemic a lot of them did.  Milwaukee closed the churches but let the bars carry on.  Prohibition - which in Wisconsin was sort of an abstract concept - did not close the bars entirely, just made them discreet.

Small taverns have been such an integral part of our culture in the Badger State.  But even before this draconian shutdown they were beginning to fade away.*   Some of them will not reopen.

The Sunbeam tavern.  I've never been in, and one of my kids says it might be a bit rough for my tastes.  In my own younger days, perhaps not.  But in my serene retirement years I'll take his word on this one.

Their sign has taken some kind of a major hit.  Probably high winds, although it is in a rather sheltered area.  Actually that steel pole is bent to a degree that I suspect a pick up truck might have been involved somehow although the adjacent railing seems intact.

All bars and restaurants are closed these days, with carry out orders the only exceptions for the latter.  You see lots of signs in windows wishing patrons well through the corona virus pandemic.  At the Sunbeam tavern the hastily taped up sign says something different.....

I imagine the bartender meeting was loud, spirited in more ways than one and was attended by some regulars granted one night status as "auxiliary" bartenders.  But from the darkened interior the meeting and/or party is over.

To better days Sunbeam, I hope you come back strong and carry on the long tradition of local taverns.  
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*Some of the reasons for small rural bars dwindling are good ones.  We are an automobile culture and I don't want my children on the road with intoxicated drivers. But small watering holes struggle even in neighborhoods where a sufficient clientele could walk to them.  We've become socially distanced even in non covid times, hunkered down in front of screens drinking stuff we bought at the Big Box store.  In some ways the friendly tavern was a good thing.