INVEST WISELY AND HAVE SOME FUN.
Never, really saw myself as a bar owner as I was growing up. The fact that I was one of the last people in my highschool class that even started drinking. Not until my actual senior graduation party where I remember everyone going around saying.” Have you seen Schroeder, he is actually Drinking tonight” Yes I had finally gotten permission from my parents that if I needed to drink a little to be sociable with the crowd then they said go ahead. That conversation really occurred months earlier when I was reprimanded by my dad for not being sociable at a Family reunion party. My cousins were drinking and I decided to just sit in my car to avoid the stress of continuing to say no. My father had come from a family that struggled with alcohol and my mothers side, the Schellers, were extremely comfortable with beer,wine,(grape mainly) and some of the harder stuff. But since my big brother Jim was not a drinker then I felt pretty comfortable with sobriety.t..
Was I weird? Did I want to be with my highschool friends on those nights where you heard about the party coming this next weekend? I definitely did. I lived in Indiana where the drinking age was 21 but our sister state Illinois was only 18 so it was not uncommon to cross the state line and in no time you could be driving back to the great hoosier state with your drink of choice. But being at a catholic school and being very involved with both Football, Wrestling and a spring activity. The usual speech of the coaches was that if you were caught drinking you could be suspended from the team, and that was all I needed to give my friends the excuse to not partake. In reality it was not alcohol that plagued our class, for some strange reason a large number of my classmates had not only experimented but fully enjoyed the THC from the often rolled joint. The class above us and below us were not smokers, but It was more than once I would watch a classmate of mine roll the doobie during a pep assembly,
I was always intrigued to watch and he obviously felt comfortable enough to do it. But smoking pot was never really that great of a temptation. Primarily because of my parents..First. I would never want to embarrass them if I ever got caught., But even more importantly I was afraid that if I smoked I may really really like it, and that would not be good.. One thing I knew about myself most of my life was, if I really liked something I would do it all the time, I would become so engaged in an activity that there was no stopping me. Sports, fishing, outdoor adventures scouting , Gilligan’s Island,, If I become enamored with an activity or a thought, It would often become my near obsession. Thus If I tried pot and I really liked it I could be in big big trouble, not with the law but with myself. Kind of like the day I discovered Long Island Ice teas, ( see a Colorado afternoon).. I also noticed with my reefer smoking classmates that unfortunately there were some that once they started their lives changed drastically, to the point that some 30 years later they were a shell of who they once were, or could have been. I am not saying many, but definitely a few of my friends I knew in grade school that began smoking the herb by the end of highschool they resemble our friend Spozoly from ridgemont high), and seeing that made me more determined to not let a quick and hungry buzz set me back.
But today was graduation day and since I was spending the night at the house I decided that after being a good boy for 18 years it was time to cut loose and enjoy the fruits of my abstaining patience, and enjoy a lot of the hops of this really cold beer that became the libation of the party.. Here I am drinking and laughing. Partying with many of my classmates for the first time and each one I encountered all had this look of shock when they witnessed a John Schroeder they had never seen before.
I talked with so many people who asked me questions in this order,” so it’s true you are drinking?How are you feeling?What made you decide to join the fun? And most memorable. John now be prepared because you are probably going to be feeling really bad in the morning. I guess they realized that It was not only the beer but I was also immersing myself into the sweet wine that was everywhere., I remember going under a large pine tree and seeing a super nice girl we all respected and there she was smoking a huge joint. I think it was her first. And I was as surprised to see her smoking the reefer, as she was surprised to see me drinking.. Well M….. I guess this ends our highschool chapter and is also the beginning of our next new life. I stayed up until almost 2 in the morning and as I crashed I remember my good friend Chris telling me to drink a lot of water. In doing so, amazingly I woke up at 5;30 feeling great. So much so that I fixed breakfast for a number of my friends, but also I remember being dry mouthed and the taste of a delicious Mountain Dews was so gratifying that I drank three of them in a matter of a couple minutes.
I had finished my grade school and highschool career, for the most part as a good boy who seldom got into trouble, followed my parents wishes and had a big brother, who I looked up to with such respect I called him Superman. My record was pretty clean. However,.. The next thing I knew I was a member of Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity with many great brothers . at a local University and as I look back today, yes, I can attest that alcohol and I did mix and I must admit many of my fondest and most exhilarating moments involved some cold beer, some great friends and a mind that is not special but is different. .but also I must be transparent and say that some of the stupidest things I’ve ever concocted also involve a brain cell destroying process involving this same elixir.
But how did this lead me to owning a bar??
As a fraternity member I had many opportunities to visit a local bar called Super Inn that was located right next to a major Railroad yard on the south west side of Evansville Indiana . Super Inn was where you were as a college student or a worker on the railroad that had wonderful owners and a staff that was quite unique. One.of the memorable waitresses was Lynda who was the meanest, grouchiest “give me your order you SOB, a classic lady before her time. She always made you laugh as she pretended to bitch but inside she was a fun lady to all her customers.. The other gentleman who was the most recognizable bartender beside the owner was a man named… Let’s call him Fred. Fred was the greatest guy you ever met especially if you were under age and you needed a friend……Countless days and nights were spent at Super Inn to celebrate the many occasions and Fred was always in a Jovial mood who kept us in stitches and was never afraid to share in the festivities by pouring himself a shot to lighten up the crowd.
Some years later, the opportunity presented itself for me to become a part owner in another local Bar that was owned by the family of my Future Attorney and very good friend Jeff Helfrich. The family had decided that it needed some help in improving the bar’s clientele and about 6 of us joined the ranks and I officially became a bar Owner. Fred was the guy we thought needed to be there at our Place. By now I had started a Landscape Maintenance business, and with some extra cash I was offered to help take this Bar that for many years catered to the local neighborhood.It serviced the many businesses of different shift workers with very good food. Third shift workers came here for Breakfast and a cold one before going home in the morning, while plate lunches and suppers were ordered off a menu that had a wide variety of meals with fried chicken being the local favorite. However as the local industries began closing there became a need to repurpose this Bar in the 80’s to something that may be more attractive to a younger crowd, just about the time that sports bars were beginning to take off.
So Old Sweigs, named after Mr Schweigert, and about 8 of my friends were suddenly in the Tavern business. With an investment of $5000 I became a semi- silent partner with a group of friends who all came from different backgrounds and had their ideas of how we could help this place reenergize. One of my long term advisers and Financial guru Dave Ramsey, always talks about the one ship that often sinks is a partnerSHIP, And in many cases this is true. But I saw this as an opportunity to diversify my investments and at the same time learn what owning a bar was really like. Some years later, with many fond memories and a 12% return on my money, I was extremely glad I had done it and was absolutely positive I would never own a bar again. The Glamor Of the hilarious sitcom “Cheers” (which I did finally get to visit traveling to the North East ) did not show the side of the bar life that I did get to encounter on a number of occasions. But to be able to take my friends into My place and enjoy many evenings of love and libations, was something I’m truly glad I got to experience. And with my Maintenance business slow in the winter time, this gave me the chance to try different things with the bar . I once surveyed people to try to rename the bar to more of a sports friendly branding. Going to a local mall, the highly popular “THE HUDDLE” my creation, was a fun day where I was asked to leave the inside of the mall because I was told by security I could not survey people inside, so instead I talked with them in the parking lot. However since the group of us only had 49% ownership, Jeff’s Father still wished to keep the original name. No problem,,
So let’s get a very large screen tv repaint the inside, raise the prices some to try to improve our margins and hey let’s put in a POP-a -SHOT basketball free throw game in and we were in business. But what blew us away was the reaction of the regulars when we added a 10 cent increase to their mug of beer. Randy, Jeff’s brother, who ran the Bar, warned us at the meeting that this increase would upset some people, but we had no Idea how pissed off they would be. He told us stories of how some at the bar would stop coming because of the 10 cent increase.
Remind me to tell you about the POP- A -Shot adventure. It proved to me that I could go to two different countries , help run a local tournament and meet some well known Hoosiers and flamboyant Canadians and at the end of the day, I was told that the reason we could not promote a statewide tournament Here in Indiana and be successful like they were in Toronto was and I Quote “ John, they are just different In Canada.” another story for another day.
So now OL Sweig”s was once again moving in the right direction, a younger crowd was helping the established crowd increase sales, and Fred was now taking care of the Bar in the evenings. During this time my wife and I were involved in a number of volleyball leagues. Being somewhat athletic, Volleyball was the one sport in my 20s and 30’s that I really embraced. Although my vertical leap was minimal. I loved the competitiveness and the after play activities that surrounded ourselves with a whole new group of friends that we would take down to Sweigs to rehydrate with some cold ones.. And Having Fred share his stories and jokes made this bar Business a cool opportunity that gave me the diversification I always liked. I was aware that Fred also enjoyed his position and it was not uncommon on occasion that when a group of people began buying shots that he would agree to partake in the celebration. But for the most part he kept himself in good condition and we felt safe that he was not abusing the opportunities.
Diversification… You see, all my life I was the type of person that could not just do one thing, I became bored very quickly with repetitive things. My group of friends could not just be one group. “ The more the merrier” was my Motto and the more variety the more I felt complete.
The phrase Jack of all trades , master of None, may describe me fairly well, Master of some, but loving all the other Jacks, may be more accurate. (See, He wanted to do a thousand things.) but as I look back on my life, I may not have mastered many things but I instead feel like diversification creates much more opportunity to meet a greater group of people and that is who I am. I LOVE PEOPLE, let me repeat I LOVE PEOPLE Right or wrong Good or bad There is something very different inside of me that everyone I would meet throughout my life I could find something in them that I could like that I could connect with, and on that I would dwell. So having 6-8 different groups of friends kept me constantly occupied and it also helped that when one group of friends became a bit tired of me, for obvious reasons I had other friends I could associate with.
As more of my friends began to realize that I had a nice watering hole they could come to, the more often I would find myself at Ol’ Sweigs and the larger groups of people began to frequent the bar in the later evening.. We were not a dancing bar or karaoke bar . We were just a good place to watch the Big screen tv and enjoy the old fashion feel of this cozy place…And then the night I’ll never forget…
It’s about 1 o’clock in morning as my wife and I were sleep on a weekend night when we heard the phone ring, and as I raised my head from the pillow the sudden strike of frear rose in my bewildered mind, Nothing good happens after 1 o’clock, Right, , as I reached for the phone Tammy continues to sleep as I answered with “This is John.” Immediately on the other end,a voice that sounded familiar said, “John You may want to come down here. Ah Your Bar is Open,… a bit relieved that it did not sound like dreadful news I said “ who is this and what do you mean it’s open, we alway stay open until late on the weekends. .Again I hear a slight chuckle and he says this is Bob and what I mean is your Bar, the whole place is a bit of a frenzied party, Fred is passed out and he told everyone before he passed out that the bar is open and we have about 40 people who are drinking anything they want and are really enjoying themselves. So yes you are giving out a lot of free drinks right now and I thought you may want to know.
My mind immediately flashes to the conversation I was going to have to have with my partners and oh the good side it was only 35-40 people. I quickly asked Bob if he felt comfortable to just tell everyone to try to be fair to the bar and enjoy the drinks till I got there and hopefully it was more beer then the expensive stuff and thank God they were not stealing the bottles off the rack and leaving. As I quickly got dressed I told Tammy, who by now knew something was up, I needed to go to Sweigs and take care of something and I’d be back soon. Tammy, knowing me pretty well, realized no one was injured or dying so she knew I would tell her the rest of the story tomorrow and thus went back to sleep. 20 minutes later as I entered the bar, I saw a fairly tame crowd. As they welcomed me and Fred was sleeping on the bar.. my friend, employee and guy that I realized was in worse shape than I originally thought. Letting him sleep I kindly asked the group if they wanted to , feel free to pay me for what they thought they may owe for their drinks,, few did, or they could thank me and Fred for having an opportunity to give me another story to tell. And as they laughed and finished their last sip on the house. I thanked Bob again for being such a good friend and offered him a bouncer position on the spot. Not really but I should have. Once I was able to get everyone out of the place I directed my attention to a very very drunk bartender who was beginning to wake up and realized that maybe he went a bit too far. As I patted him on the shoulder he welcomed me with a huge smile, a breath that knocked me over and a simple “ John, What are you doing here” . I calmly tried to tell him that it’s not a good story and let’s get you out of here as we locked up and I put him in my truck to drive him home…I realized that I recalled taking him home years ago when he worked by the railroad. But tonight as he laid on his front yard telling me some stories while expressing his sincere apologies many times. I unfortunately knew that our days together were going to be few.
The next day As I told my partners what had occurred I began to hear other stories that this was not the first time that he had drank too much while tending bar and it was unanimous that he would not be able to be our night time bartender. AS I recall he was able to find another job very quickly, but I still ponder whether we had ever considered finding help for himself..
All the years I knew him I had always thoroughly loved his company at the college bar and I never remember him ever doing this before but suddenly I was no longer a guy with a group who loved the big drinker. Fate had put me in a different position and a position of leadership always requires a different responsibility that I was finding myself in more and more.
A couple years later, as the bar was still thriving and My own business was growing, the original owners came to us and asked if they could buy us out. Also during this period I was realizing that My adviser Dave Ramsey was correct about partnerships, several of the partners pulled out for different reason, one felt His money was better served in the company he worked for, one just didn’t agree with what we were doing and felt he didn’t have enough control, but for the most part this was a great way in the early years of my life to see what the bar business was like and yes, it isn’t like Cheers all the time, but as I counted my cash I realized that my investment made 12% and the memories, mostly good would last a lifetime. We all stayed friends and yes, I confidently told my wife, “Sweetheart We will never get in the bar business again. And that was the end of that..
The Liability of today and the constant issues, See Patrick Swasy in RoadHouse, To get out of this little adventure the way I did made me feel very lucky I came, I saw, I now had a totally different respect for the ones that made it 20 years. The End…. for now
. . .
.