So I've been digging around the Internet to see if other people's memories of fern bars match my own. For the most part, they seem to. Allowing, that is, for the watering down that must have happened between the first such places in San Francisco and the version that showed up in the mill town in Quebec where I grew up.
I also expected to find much snide criticism and I did. But it was worth it for this one guy who thought he was being terribly superior by referring to the Tiffany-style lamps that were found in Fern bars as "fake Tiffany lamps". The implication being that he has the authentic thing straight from Louis Tiffany sitting in his parlour right in front of him; no doubt sitting on his Duncan Phyfe table.
If you don't actually know what you're talking about, always adopt a cynical tone it will make the most foolish nonsense seem authoritative.
LOL, there are a lot of those guys like the one you encountered here in Litchfield County CT, especially in the antique shops, which are genteel tourist traps, they rip you off with a smile!
ReplyDeleteThe Tiffany lamp (or fake Tiffany lamp) was very popular here in the 70s in bars and restaurants. They were also relatively affordable so people could buy them for their homes, either to put on their fake Duncan Phyfe tables or hang from the cieling.