The back-ground Part 1

Okay, so a little dry background history of the building that houses Feathers. It was one of, if not the, original firehouse in River Edge. Yes- A FIREHOUSE- AN OLD-OLD FIREHOUSE! The reason why you go down a ramp when you first walk in is because it used to house the horses that pulled the old fire engines! YES HORSES! The ticket booth when you first enter was the original double front door where the houses would exit to fight the fire. When the dance floor got warped from water damage we had to pull it up and replace it- by “we” I mean us employees, but that is another blog- George and the nail in his head. When we pulled it up we saw the round opening that the firemen would slide down to get to the horses and fire carriages. Meanwhile the new firehouse behind the bar has always been nothing but head-aches. It sometimes amazes me how people will go out of their way to make other people’s business theirs. Just within the past few years the fire house put up a fence, by doing so they blocked the bars back door fire exit! A Fire house blocking a business’ fire exit- imagine the mentality of these testosterone driven morons? I can just see them chanting ; “Fry Fag Fry!”
Archie, the owner, grew up on the only residential looking house on the street. The man owns the property and it saved that bar more than once! Rumor has it that he promised his mother he would not let anyone tear down the house and he is a man of his word.
Anyway, back to the bar building- the little bar downstairs was not always there. It used to be the office. It was turned into a bar when Eddie, the current manager, and Peter, a bartender that you will hear about in future blogs, were being trained to bartend. They needed an extra bar, so they (the employees) tore down the wall and created the “little bar”- which I hear now is referred to as the “dungeon bar”. It is a sad little bar. Originally it was on the opposite side of that cove. We called it the “Poseidon Adventure” bar because it was on a slant and drinks would slide away from you. It was the bar I had my “rat” experience. It was so cramped that you had to do everything sideways; make drinks, use the register, clean! I did not even want to remember what those ice sinks looked like! To make it even more uncomfortable the manager, Hank, put in a 6’x3’ mirror! The slightest touch made it wobble. The fear of it shattering all over us still haunts my night-mares. There was also a jukebox! Remember jukeboxes? Video games were on the rise and I remember a “Donkey Kong” and Johnny playing it! Johnny-another blog.
The lay-out went through many changes through the years. There used to be café style table and chairs, banquette/ diner style seating, even bleacher style seating when you first walked in. The Hank went through a “piano bar” stage and had Eddie build a stage platform for a piano and a lattice style pen around it. Eddie sat there and created a dry bar around it that looked like piano keys. It was one of his most brilliant creations and he has had many which you will read about in the coming months.
The bar features wood beams from a farm house that was built before the civil war in Pennsylvania. The owner had the beams shipped for the bar. I wondered, why? I was told it gave the place a rustic look. So can someone tell me the last time rustic was in style? The funny part of the beams was when people’s sweaters would get stuck on the roughness of them…lol. We are talking about the ‘80’s when big hair and puffy sweaters were in style, or was that puffy hair and big shoulder sweaters? Same difference, so many sweaters got snagged on the beams. I think there were more tailor repair bills than bar brawls law suits. Bar bawls were non-existent in the early years. I think the biggest fight I saw in the bar during the 80’s was whether you liked Crystal or Alexis on “Dynasty”. I digress.
The original dance floor had a much lower ceiling and the only dance floor lights were running lights or something like that , very primitive next to the look now. Actually you could touch the ceiling in certain areas. You could also look down the stairway- there was never a wall around it. The Dee-jay booth was originally where it is now, but for years was in the back where there is now a mirror behind the dance floor bar- which in its “hey day” was called skid row bar. It was the coolest place to hang out, but only the tough guys hung out there. You had to be real cool to hang out at that bar. If you were nerdy, or odd the guys would embarrass you out of there. Oh, the memories of Casper aka Kenny Casper and I trying to get into skid row…I am sitting here laughing remember us wearing fake leopard skin looking tops and pleather pants…We were a riot, and they had some good laughs on us, but we eventually made it in! We were cool! All those years of not fitting in were erased when we made it into the skid row crowd. Mind you we never left our houses looking like this, we would wear these clothes under our sweats and then change in the car. I’ll save the details for another blog, and sign off on this new day of the New Year! Till tomorrow, be safe and kind!