The Royce Files

 What is this a one post a year blog now?! No! At this rate it will be a 2 post a year blog. On to the sign. Grain Belt Premium was the beer of choice in the upper midwest. These signs were everywhere in small town beer joints across Minnesota and the Dakotas and even into Nebraska (Grain Belt had a brewering in Omaha at one time.) They might even still be there considering how slowly things change out in the boondocks. As a side note, there was a bar in my town called the Boondocks. I think they only served 3:2 beer. They did not have a sign like this.  I discovered this sign out at Bonanzaville in West Fargo on a cold weekend in December. The pioneer museum has numerous old buildings from the region on the property including a few bonanza farm houses. The Brass Rail was a saloon and hotel in Page, ND . It existed since ND became a state in 1889 but did not serve alcohol until prohibition was repealed in 1933. ND was a dry state until that time. Although, considering the larg...

 2020 certainly will certainly pass with no one grieving its' departure. What felt like nearly a whole decade of ordeals and intrigue and unrest, I will gladly place that volume on the backside of the bookcase never to be opened again. One hopes 2021 will not be the sequel although in some respects it could be and perhaps for years to come. The impact was a large meteorite in the groin. Methinks I rambled on too much. It is was it is. In this new covidian era, you better watch out and you better not cry, 'cause the Santa drones are coming to town. And man are they ticked!    This is quite honestly the pandemic Santa we needed- harmless and antiseptic. That is unless you believe this is the ticked off Santa drone. Then you can just stay home. Coal for you.  On to other items. Namely signs of beer. A mid-century clock promoting the beer of choice of your fathers and grandfathers if they lived up in Minnesota or the Dakotas. As a child I only recall 3 brands of bee...