I was only at the Ambridge Red Bull Inn for a few months. They had built a new restaurant right off of the parkway near where the new Robinson Town Center was going to be developed. By the summer of 1985 I was moved there to be one of a staff of many bartenders. Looking back I realize that, having started bartending when I was 30 years old, I have always been the oldest bartender anywhere I have worked.
Before I get into any stories about the Parkway Red Bull I have to interject that, bartending can be a noble career. I mentioned in an earlier post in my "things I think I think" blog, that after bartending for about 6 years I decided that I should have a "real" job, so I went to the Pittsburgh Technical Institute and studied Computer Aided Drafting and Design. I was good at it as I had always liked to draw. I have no artistic talent, but drafting came easy, almost like coloring between the lines.
I was hired by Transmitton, Inc. a company newly establishing themselves in the area doing control systems for water, waste water and electrical companies. Their whole group, from the President of the company to the engineers from England and most of the other employees were regular customers at the Red Bull. I had been showing them my schoolwork throughout the course of the two years I went to school, and they were impressed by what they saw. I started in June, right after graduating, and was working part-time while still tending bar. Eventually they needed me more on a full time basis and by January of the following year, I left the Red Bull.
I have some wonderful memories of a three week trip to England that Transmitton had sent me on for further training, but I'll save those for another blog at another time, the bottom line here is that I grew to hate sitting at a cubicle looking at a computer screen all day, every day.
After two years, when Transmitton could not gain the foothold they had hoped to gain in the American market they began scaling back their operation and I was permanently laid off. What a relief it was.
I weighed my options and decided to get back into bartending. I'll write my experiences about finding that next bartending job later. For now, as I said at the opening, I want it to be known that bartending can indeed be a noble career. It is what you make it to be.
I though, in my days at the Red Bull Inn in Robinson, let the bad side of the business grab ahold of me and change my life.
My son was two years old and my daughter had just been born when I started there. I was laid off from the mill when my son was a newborn, and I had the luxury of being home with him almost every day. I love being a father, and now I had a beautiful little girl too. And the bar schedule was such that I still got to spend a lot of time at home. For many years, life was good, I was happy doing what I was doing both at work and at home, we lived in a nice neighborhood where we knew and liked all the neighbors. Most importantly my children were growing up happy and healthy. It was all Ozzie and Harriet, or Leave it to Beaver.
After about five years though, things changed, I let things change. We were in the process of selling the house I had owned previous to getting married, and were buying a new one. Unfortunately the deal on the old house closed before I had the financing finalized for the new house and we had to move out.
With nowhere else to go, we chose to move in with my mother in law. Now, I won't go into details, just picture the caricature of a son in law and mother in law not getting along, and you will get an idea of how I felt. I dreaded going home, I tried to work as much as I could, and after work I found myself going out, and staying out later and later.
I made up excuses about managers from other restaurants meeting at our Red Bull and drinkng til all hours, and in fact, at times that was the case, but not always. I was hitting the bars with the other bartenders and servers and avoided going home as much as possible.
It was all quite innocent, as innocent as being a drunken ass can be, but at this point there was no "hanky panky" going on. I still had a happy marriage in spite of living with mother in law, and was just longing for the day when we could be out of her house.
Well, that day came, and although it seemed like a year had passed, I believe it was just a little more than a month. We moved into the new house, and shortly after I started schooling at P.T.I.
But a strange thing had happened in that month. I started enjoying going out and partying with everyone! I was feeling like a kid again. The new Airport Marriot had opened and the club there was jumping. I was going out dancing every chance I got, with no excuse other than I was enjoying myself too much to go home. During the day I was still being a good Dad, as I said, I love being a father, and I was as good as one could be while leading this double life.
I had always thought Debbie was somewhat attractive, especially with that nice butt of hers, and me being an ass man, well, I did notice. But I had always thought of her as a little drunken slut, after all, she was out there drinking and partying, and doing drugs, and she could get very loud at times. But hey, other than being loud, I've always been a quiet drunk, I was doing the same things she was. Yep, thats right drugs were coming into play at this point and I was spiraling out of control.
And then it happened.
