Summary

The Prologue is titled “One of Many.” The author, J.R. Moehringer, talked about the role of the neighborhood bar to his hometown of Manhasset, Long Island. Some referred to this as a “bedroom community,” but residents felt they were a “barroom community.” The bar had been in the neighborhood for decades but became “the” neighborhood bar after a man named Steve took it over. He named it Dickens and later changed the name to Publicans. Drinking was a part of daily life. “So long as you drank publicly, not secretly, you weren't a drunk” (7). Steve set out to make the bar inviting. No one judged others. Moehringer felt everyone had a place that was “holy” to them, and his was the bar. As a child, Moehringer and his mother Dorothy often lived with Dorothy's parents, the Maguires, who lived 142 steps from...