rivettingKateTaylor

A weekend of drunken fights, vandalism and a spitting competition has resulted in a ban of under 20s from a new Kapiti Coast bar, says a story on the www.stuff.co.nz  website this morning.

The stand by Monteith’s Brewery Bar, at Kapiti Junction in Paraparaumu, has been applauded by police. But the move could breach the Human Rights Act.

That is such crap!

Young people did thousands of dollars worth of damage to the bar, toilets, glasses and even the wallpaper at the weekend.  They were sneaking alcohol over the fences and pouring their own in the toilets, urinating and vomiting every where and fighting all over the place.

They probably can’t prove that every culprit was under 20 but I bet they mostly were.

The bar has apparently sent out an email banning “young people” at weekends, on Christmas Eve and at New Year and security has been beefed up.

The story went on to say patrons aged under 25 could meet with management and have their name added to a register to be kept at the door.

I started drinking at pubs long before I was 20 (when the drinking age was 20, I might add!)

From the first time I set foot in the Raes Junction Hotel, I behaved myself (to an extent). My sister was arriving on a bus from Dunedin and it was horrendously cold outside. The publican asked me if I would like to sit inside with an orange juice instead of sitting in my car and I graciously accepted. The next sentence was to stay with me for another five years…. “The dining room is over there and the back door leads through the kitchen to some sheds out the back.. should we ever need you to leave the premises in a hurry!” For the boys in blue of course.

But getting back to the behaviour – the other (older and legal) patrons of the pub would not have a bar of us in there had we been misbehaving. Drinking too much, being loud and stupid, vomiting, urinating in the garden bar (we didn’t really use those very much at night back then cos you could smoke inside!) was not tolerated. You did that and you’d find you weren’t welcome back next time (and I can think of a few blokes from the neighbouring district that this applied to!)

Funny story. There was a new barmaid at Heriot. She didn’t really know how old any of the younger ones were so she played a trick on us. In those days, what we called the flying squads used to travel around country areas checking on the pubs. She said one was on its way and advised any underagers to go sit in their cars for a while until they’d been. Fortunately I was in the toilet at the time, didn’t hear her warning, and kept getting served cos she thought I was 20!  and no, the flying squad never showed. Phew.

Well enough of my reminiscing, my Mum learns more about my teenage years every day thanks to some of these blogs!

The message is – if you don’t behave yourself in a bar then you don’t deserve to be in there. No matter what your age.

And yes – I think the drinking age should be put back up to 20.

And yes – I will be calling into Monteith’s Brewery Bar on the Kapiti Coast next time I’m passing. Think they’ll let me leave the kids in the car with a bag of chips and a sarsparella?