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Taverns of Yesterday: The Northern Hotel.

'Prohibitions never work and the working man always wants to cut loose after a hard day at the Mill'

Let’s face it, Prohibitions never work and the working man always wants to cut loose after a hard day at the Mill.

What happens after, is his responsibility, but if we can loosen the cash from his grip before it is all spent, well; we might be compelled to do so, from a benevolent impulse of course.

Was Midland a Dry Town and Penetang Wet? In my day, we drank in Penetang at the Commodore or Brulé, depending how large the beer trays were, which band was playing, and where the most chaste of the Catholic girls were to be found.

Sin was for Friday and Saturday nights. Sunday was for redemption and forgiveness. They had it all worked out in Penetang. That is why we all went there.

Originally called the Northern Hotel, the Commodore was its last incarnation before finally closing. From the poem found in the Poetical Directory of Penetanguishene, it shows Jos. Dusome to be most entertaining to the sober and civil.

Plenty of cigars and port available for the weary traveller.

René Hackstetter March 18, 2022.