Amateur night

In my drinking day, St Patrick's Day was considered one of the unfortunate "amateur nights" in the bar of choice, a night when hordes of amateur drinkers would upset the rhythms of the bar regulars, in this case drinking green beer and making fools of themselves. The scene would be louder and more crowded than we were used to. Many of us avoided our regular stomping grounds and drank at home instead. (The major amateur night was, of course, New Year's eve.)

However, a solution to this sorry state of affairs was to do one's drinking in the morning. Even on St Paddy's day, the Gypsy at 7 a.m. was without amateurs ha ha.