Pining Away: An Expose' Of Front Royal's One Landmark

I miss it...and I LIVE here.

You've heard the name in casual conversion so many times before. You wonder to yourself, "Is it the Knotty Pine or the Naughty Pine?" as you've questioned a thousand times. It doesn't matter; you're going to go there for the first time and soak it in whether that "it" is its naughtiness or its knottiness. 

You hop in the suburban filled with 9 other hungover college kids, and make the pilgrimage to the Mecca of collegiate fine dining establishments.

As you tumble out of the car, your age old question in your mind is answered: Knotty. Shrugging off a keen sense of wistful thinking as to how cool it would be if it were the other, you step inside the hallowed doors.

All of your senses are immediately and simultaneously assailed: and you love it. You blink rapidly as to shield your eyes with lubrication from the smokey onslaught. You inhale the medley of smoke, grease, and cheap beer (no matter the hour #dedication) that exudes from all directions. The boisterous tomfoolery of bikers follows you, as you bodily cut a path through the smoke. The air is denser here.

You take your seat with your chums and await your server. The menu is chock full of delight: biscuits and gravy, $4 for double cheeseburger and fries, Country-fried steak. You're eating like a king on your 9 hours of $7 an hour work study. You smoke a pack of cigarettes, though not because you want to; because you can and because you can you feel you must.

Leaving the Pine, you reflect on what it is and what it stands for. What the Pine really is in its entirety is a rather grungy bar that you can smoke in that has cheap beer and food. What it truly means to us (that which is truly important) is the American dream. Yes, I just said that the Knotty Pine is the epitome of the American Dream.

The American Dream is, pure and simple, freedom. An unadulterated freedom which speaks to the ability to live and be able to pursue happiness. The Knotty Pine, once blessed by Willie Nelson as "the roughest bar" he'd ever been to, gives you that liberty to pursue those good times. Long after he is gone Willie Nelson will live on in tattoos that are doubtlessly on the patrons' bodies.

Like all good things in life, the Knotty Pine will kill you. I guess that's why we love it. It is the nostalgia of an age America has lost. An age where you could play Nickelback while smoking cigarettes in a bar without feeling sheepish. An age where you could love the 90s television at the bar simply by the fact that it wasn't about watching shows, games, etc, on a 200-inch, HD, 3D, monstrosity. It's about the people you're with. Love the little things, people. They're fading far too fast.

~Worley

P.S: Special thanks to B.C.M.M.C.M.C for the inspiration