As early as 1870, there were about 100,000 saloons in America. By 1900, that figure had tripled to roughly 300,000. In the days before strict zoning laws were a thing, saloons were often found in the heart of residential neighborhoods.
The reek of whiskey and stale beer combined with the stench of vomit and the sight of drunkenly boisterous and staggering men – when they were not passed out on the sidewalks – to turn saloons into eyesores and nuisances.
A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.
I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.
A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.
