You Can Have My Heart for $2 pints of Guinness

While taking a vacation from my working vacation in California I stumbled across a nondescript bar with a familiar name along Main Street in Rapid City, SD.  There was no way I was gonna pass up a bar called the Oasis.  What with one of my favorite bars in Fairbanks bearing the same name and mixing the best Bloody's in town.  I proceeded through the door and into the windowless and appropriately dark bar.  It was about midday and the place was empty except the old bartender eyeing me suspisciously as I made my way up to the bar.  He had grey hair going on long, slicked back with grease and a ragged face to match the hard life he most surely has lived.  There was no nod, no verbal, nonverbal or otherwise greeting.  So, eyeing the taps, I cheerfully requested a Bud Light.  After checking my ID he grabbed me a Bud Light bottle and popped the cap. 

With half the bottle empty he asked about my Alaskan ID and we were off to the races.  Conversation flying all over the place.  From bars named Oasis, to the recent SD smoking ban on bars, to politics, and finally a playful exchanging of PC-less jokes.  Interrupted briefly by the postman (currently on his 24th year delivering the downtown route) a self declared, outnumbered liberal, who stopped in for popcorn, a soda, and brief banter with the bartender. 

The turning point in the conversation came when I asked if the Oasis got hoppin over the weekends.  According to him, it's the college hotspot thurs-sat nights, partially due to drink prices.  The bar down the street serves Guinness for $6.25.  The Oasis pours a pint of the tall, dark, and handsome for $2.25 before 6 and $3.25 after 6.  I nearly kissed the man's feet. 

He declared it offensive that a bar would charge such a high price.  "The keg is bought for $100 and you get 125 pints out of a keg so the bar is already tripling it's money at $3.  Why gouge the poor kids?"  The gentleman had my heart at $2.25.