A few weeks ago I posted the first half of The Moderation Hotel, a zine from 2012 that collecting some of my pub writing. If you missed that, you can read Part 1 here.
I’ll have some hot new content for you next week, but in the meantime, here’s Part 2.
Same as last time - all the illustrations and layouts were done by my friend Tessa.
Here’s an audio recording of the least embarrassing of the below stories - The Blue Gum Hotel, Waitara:
Some bonus facts about The Blue Gum Hotel:
Between 1993 and 2002 I passed The Blue Gum every day going to and from school. I would stare in the front windows at the regulars with white beards drinking their Tooheys News and smoking their cigarettes and think how cool it would be to one day be inside a pub.
It’s since been cut down, but my wife Jess’ late grandfather apparently planted the blue gumtree the pub’s named after.
In the 90s they had a big bistro in the back where kids were allowed if they were with parents. Their gimmick at the time was that you ordered your steak raw and cooked it yourself on a big communal indoor barbeque. It really takes me back, picturing all those Dads in polo shirts, loudly explaining their cooking techniques to each other, pretending they hadn’t just badly burnt their hand on the swimming pool-sized hotplate.
Occasionally, while looking through the window, you’d spot one of your teachers drinking in the public bar which felt just scandalous as hell.