My family was in the tavern business. My dad owned several places over about 20 years... He had good bouncers and staff, for the most part. Especially "Lurch". 6'7" biker look, yet very controlled and gentle of tone. Until, that is, things got out of control. More than a few trouble makers woke up in the dumpster... Two guys got into it with dad, who was in his 70s at the time. Lurch adored my dad, who gave him a job, a place to live and treated him like a son. Those two guys regretted their bad judgment immediately and for a long time thereafter. No one, absolutely no one messed with dad, much less laid a hand on him.
Several times I stopped by to visit and had to deal with obnoxious drunks. Usually not a big problem, if you handled it right. My brother worked with dad, one time a table of loud idiots required some calming down in "Smedley's". When my brother asked them to be a little less rowdy, one showed him a .32 pistol. My brother just walked away. About 10 minutes later he walked by like he was headed somewhere else and suddenly clobbered the gun toting drunk so hard in the head with the bar billy, that it fractured his skull. The cops arrived just in time to collect the gun and see the jerk off to the hospital. A life lesson....
By the late 1990s, all of the taverns had been sold. It's a rough business, with long hours and too many jerks.
