As some of you that follow my facebook feed have noticed, Sean and I have a couple favorite bars that we go to here on Tybee. Before moving here, we hardly ever went out to a bar. Partly because there were not many places to frequent in Stafford VA, and our life was consumed with many other things that took our time and energy, we did not have much “frivolous” time to hang out in bars.

On Tybee there are 35 bars sprinkled across our 3 miles that are open year round for the 3,000 residents on the island. I would estimate that 1,500-2,000 of those residents don’t participate regularly in the drinking establishments. So that leaves about 1,000 Tybeenians to belly up to the bars together. It is only natural that these folks will find a few favorites that feel home to them. Whether they allow smoking or not, serve $2 beers or $15 martinis… there are plenty of choices. The three that Sean and I visit the most are The Sandbar, Hucapoos, and Tybee Social Club. Two of these are within what we call staggering distance from our home. We joke about that, but even though we go out and enjoy throwing back a few cold ones, it is not an everyday thing for us to over indulge.

Many years our life was spent helping those in need, lending an ear and giving spiritual advice to those that came into our lives, usually through the doors of our church. Now we find ourselves in a different place. After trudging through some crap in our own lives and knocking off some of the shine, we find ourselves perched on barstools side by side with some wonderful people, all walking through their own struggles and triumphs. Only this time, it is without the facade of church, denomination boundaries, labels, and fear of judgement. We have come to love these people, our friends, family and neighbors and have learned to receive love from them in return.

I have never been a big fan of watching TV but I do remember catching a few episodes of Cheers back in the 80s. We equate some of our favorite bars to that of Cheers, you know…”where everybody knows your name”  It is a special place to walk in and immediately be greeted by others as they come up and give hugs, kisses and high fives. Tybee seems to be the perfect atmosphere for this type of behavior…friendly relationships that always have room for one more. When I post pictures on Facebook of our late night bar crawls, I have some friends and followers question “do you people EVER work?” There is an interesting dynamic that happens. We find the more we go out and play, the more people we meet and consequently, the more business we get and thus the more we work! I enjoy this type of networking far more than I did when we attended numerous boring and contrived chamber of commerce meetings.

As I was writing this post, I stopped for an hour and watched two episodes of Cheers on Netflix. It made me laugh as I imagined our friend’s faces gathering around the bar at the end of a day. The theme song, warmed my heart as I listened to the lyrics.

Everyday I am thankful for the eclectic group of friends that we have to love here. I genuinely care about each and everyone of them. Praying for their situations… Married, single, divorced, kids, no kids, successful, broke, retired, working, over worked, unemployed, sick, healthy …you name it… where “our troubles are all the same”

I am not sure that this blog post accurately portrays what I am trying to say from my heart, as I am not trying to coax or persuade anyone to join the “bar scene” late nights and being around alcohol is not for everyone. Its just that we love our crazy little island and our friends that gather here.  I will just close with the lyrics to the Cheers theme song…

Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.

Wouldn’t you like to get away?

Sometimes you want to go

Where everybody knows your name,
and they’re always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see,
our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows
Your name.

You wanna go where people know,
people are all the same,
You wanna go where everybody knows
your name.