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Barolong Seboni | Friday September 26, 2014 17:11

They have seen the ups and downs and the turn arounds of this management of a tavern. Infact, a good many have been directly responsible for the fortunes and misfortunes of the taverna Nitty Gritty either by payment or non-payment of their bills.

There was a time when things got so bad that the housing corporation threatened to evict Ausi Maggie from the house for rental arrears. Those were the dark days in the life of the Nitty Gritty.

To save the situation, the fellows in their abundant wisdom, dug deep into their pockets and collected money to put up the minimum needed for the retention of the house.

Maggie was of course very grateful to the fellows for their timely intervention, but she wasn’t overly excited. She believed that if they had paid their bills on time, she wouldn’t have been in that mess in the first place!

Well, it taught her to be more careful. Certainly to be more strict on who drinks on sekoloto, and collection of the money at month-end. In the early days she even had to pay monthly visits to the workplace in order to ensure timely payments of drinking debts.

Every time she brought Walkie along, she would be sure of getting her money. Everyone knows that Walkie does not mince her words when it comes to debt collection. She just had to threaten to open her mouth and the money would come rolling in!

Yes dear reader, with whom I am most honest, those were the days indeed. Now of course things are a little more sophisticated, thanks to the advent of computer and information technology.

Fellows pay their tabs more or less on time. Not that she has an online payment facility, nor does she provide computerised accounts. I’m afraid its’ much cruder than that, dear reader.

You see, there’s this facility called the email and the internet that she is connected to. If you do not pay your debts there is the real and palpable threat that she may inform the whole galaxy of your indiscretions of the financial kind through the internet. This surely is a fate worse that ITC!

Those without computers take a little longer to pay, but imagine the prospect of the whole universe knowing that you got drunk on credit! How do you face your colleagues at work? Worse than that, how do you face your bank manager?

Worse still, how do you move to another drinking hole with your head held high? Put simply, if there is a shebeen in Alaska you would not be able to drink there. Unless of course you are lacking in the self-respect department.

Anyway, back to the oblong table, where the fellows are reminiscing about the old days and also wondering why after such a long time of dedicated and meritorious service, Ausi Maggie, the sole proprietor and chief executive hostess of the Nitty Gritty, has not been endowed with some sort of award.

“It is just not fair,” pronounces one fellow with tears welled in his eyes, “Ausi Maggie deserves an award from her community”.

“Oh come on, wa bo oreng? You know they never give her an award for selling booze,” counters another fellow.

“It’s not about selling booze, man! It’s the other important roles she plays in the community. She is a good mother, not only to her own kids, but to some of us as well. She has counselled many of us on more occasions than we remember. She feeds us, offers us opportunity to meet and socialise and get to know each other well. She provides a house for the homeless.

I mean, how many times has she welcomed those who were lost and accommodated them for the night? How many times have some of us slept here when our partners kicked us out, or even our landlords? How many associations, clubs and societies were born here?”

“Never mind clubs, what about babies? I know at least two women who gave birth here when their boyfriends kicked them out or abused them. I agree with you entirely. I think Maggie deserves some kind of recognition for her self-less efforts.”

“Well, you know what?” says Smooch sounding very serious “if no one else will give her the award we should do it ourselves.”

And it came to pass that a delegation was sent to Ausi Maggie, chief executive hostess of the Nitty Gritty, to offer her the award.

I have to report, dear reader with whom I am on the level, that she declined to accept the award for various reasons not quite apparent to anybody.