The Pabst Brewing Company is moving its corporate headquarters to Los Angeles, according to a story I heard on NPR this morning. They went on to say that sales of its signature product, Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer, have rebounded in recent years due to a growing cult following. Sales had been in decline over the past thirty or so years, not entirely because I stopped drinking it.
Pabst Blue Ribbon figured prominently in my beer-drinking life in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, starting when I was in college in Wisconsin back in the days when an establishment with a "B" license could sell beer to persons 18 and older. Going out to the B-bars (especially on Thursday, known as "Loadin’ Night") was required behavior back then. My particular favorite place was Rudy’s Tavern, where a "Shorty Pabst" (an 8-ounce can) was a quarter.
One of my Blue Ribbon memories is about the time a college friend who lived in Milwaukee invited me and another pal for a long holiday weekend. Her father worked for Pabst, and he kept a refrigerator in the garage filled to capacity with PBR. We had the place to ourselves as her family had gone away, and the three of us spent three days doing almost nothing except playing pinochle and drinking beer, with occasional breaks for food, shorter ones for sleep, and short but frequent ones for going to the bathroom. By the time we left, the refrigerator in the garage was empty.
When I was a starving graduate student, I started buying brands like Old Milwaukee and Red White & Blue because they were even cheaper than PBR. Later I took a shine to Stroh’s. Now my favorite is Miller Genuine Draft.
But I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for Pabst Blue Ribbon. This is not original, of course, but it’s what I remember of our version from those old Wisconsin days:
I think that I shall never hear
A poem lovely as a beer,
With golden crown and foamy cap,
The brew that Rudy's has on tap.
Poems are made by fools, I hear,
But only Pabst can make a beer.
No comments:
Post a Comment