Everyone who has read this column more than once probably knows that I love beer. Well, I am not a proper bar hopper per se, but I like it when bar makes me feel at home; that becomes my hangout shady bar.

When I started visiting it many years after high school, Chez Gangu became the first ‘chez moi’. Gangu was my high school classmate who got some money from relatives, and decided to make dimes from an open a bar.

Gangu opened the bar in lower Kiyovu, and trust me on this; we guys were almost there every two days gulping Primus and building up huge debts. The debts soon became too much that poor Gangu had to close the bar.

My buddies and I were like a bunch of lost sheep. We wondered from one bar to the other without really feeling like we belonged. We could have been named ‘The wondering tribe of drinkers looking for the Promised Land’!

We went to the likes of kwa-Louisa, kwa-Immaculates, M’s and Chez Yves bars, until one day really dawned on our side and we saw great light.

The boys and I were walking down to M’s for a cold one, when to our shock and horror, we found it closed. Like any drinker, there is nothing worse than being thirsty with money burning holes in your pocket and not being able to get a cold one.

One of the boys, who happened to live in the neighbourhood, sceptically suggested a nearby bar; he was not sure what we could make of it. It was as shady as hell. No chairs, stools, tables or any of the things you’d expect could be found in this bar, and guess what? We loved it!

The bar attendant, Haba, opened beer like champagne. The boys and I had a credit facility that meant poverty would never stand between us a beer. The rule was ‘drink and then sign’!

I’m sorry that I can not give directions to the Shady Bar because it can only accommodate a few clients at a time…and we are there everyday. Get your own bar!

Contact: madogz2002@yahoo.ca