Trad'r Sams

I think the first time I went to Trad'r Sams was about 1992. I had been collecting Tiki Mugs but assumed all the Tiki Bars were gone. A friend one night was looking at my meager mug collection, and suggested we go there, so I grabbed a little Tiki I had carved and we hopped on our Vespas and headed over. This was the first real Tiki Bar I had seen since I came of drinking age, and from the moment we walked in, I knew I had a new favorite destination. It was pretty much empty. We put some tunes on the juke box and Proceeded to get hammered. The waitress said she was the grand daughter of the original owner, and could recite the drinks from memory. I gave her the Tiki, and she put it in the rafters behind the bar. (it might still be there, who knows...)We tried a lot of the menu over the next few weeks. The only one that I remember was "Beachcombers Kens treat". We started going there pretty regularly. I even had my "bachelor" party there. One of the guests Kept pouring gun powder in to the ashtray, so that when we flicked a cigarette, there would be a great fireball and a small mushroom cloud of smoke. Funny, no one complained. Even the waitress would just wave the smoke away and ask what else we wanted. We drank, we screamed, we sang. It was a beautiful thing going to Trad'r Sams. I remember one fine night, I began sticking my umbrellas in the brim of my hat. after the first few, everyone else started putting them there as well. when we left, It looked like I was wearing a 60's era flowered swim cap. Later that night as I was hanging out the sunroof of a friends car howling, they were flying off like little paratroopers. Spinning into the air and landing in the road behind us. It is an image I will never forget. Then Sams seemed to get more and more crowded with beer drinking frat boys watching "the game" and we stopped going. The last time I went there was a Friday afternoon around 1997. It was empty, save for a few sad looking fellows at the bar. It had changed. Some of the decor was gone, and the new waitress didn't know the drinks. But we had a few anyway and went on our way. I have heard rumors that it was revamped in 2002, but haven't been back. Maybe it's time.

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