Dear Editor:
Sunday night at the Elysian. A number of years ago the Reporter published a collection of letters to the editor. A couple of my letters were published. One about a priceless old neighborhood tavern named Connie Tahen’s which was on the corner of 12th and Washington and one about the Hoboken High School, Kennedy Stadium and a couple of others.
With so many new people moving in to Hoboken I thought it was appropriate to write about another tavern, The Elysian on 10th and Washington. The Elysian is one of the oldest bars, built in the late 1800’s. It is a bright airy place with a beautiful pressed plaster ceiling with angels and other figures. It has stained glass windows and an art deco bar. The bar has good blues bands on weekends.
The bar is busy on the weekends with locals, newcomers and old-timers like me, sixty-something. I was home one Sunday night watching the Knicks lose again and around 10 o’clock, I decided to go to the Elysian. There were only three people in the bar. Two young women in their 30’s and Dave White, a weekend bartender, who was an Irish immigrant.
The two women were in the center of the bar deep into girl talk, and I sat by the rear TV to watch the rest of the Knick’s game.
Another young woman walked in and sat near the other two women. Nothing unusual about that except that she had a 6 foot boa constrictor around her shoulders. Dave served her without comment. He wasn’t too alert past 11 o’clock.
The two girls continued to chat away and didn’t see the snake. As I watched, the snake began to uncoil and it placed his head on one of the chatting girl’s shoulders. The girl thinking someone wanted her attention turned and she was then face to face with a 6 foot boa. She did a double-take worthy of Jackie Gleason and then began to scream bloody murder. Her friend, seeing the snake, joined in. The girls leaped to their feet tipping their chairs and spilled their drinks. One of the girls leaped into my lap and grabbed me around the neck.
None of this seemed to bother Davy. The girl with the snake finished her drink and left the bar shortly followed by the two young women.
You can’t make this up.
My next letter describes another incident at The Elysian called “Buddy Matthew’s cat.”
Leo Genese