I’LL DRINK TO THIS TOP IDEA!

CARE home in Gedling, Nottinghamshire, has opened its own pub for residents.

This is a great idea. It has a 1960s style bar, free draught beer and a dartboard, and an 82-year-old lady called Esmine acts as landlady.

Louise Nichol, home co-ordinator, said: “A lot of people missed going to the local so I decided to bring the pub to them.”

Which reminds me of my late and greatly missed Auntie Doris, who in her later years was resident in an Edgerton home which she often mistook for a hotel.

“It’s grand here,” she would say when I visited. “Let me get you a drink.”

Then she would wave to get the attention of a care attendant.

“The waiters are nice but a bit slow,” she would explain, if they did not immediately respond.

When they did, she would order a pint for me and a half for herself. The fact they never arrived didn’t matter.

I like the idea of having a real pub in care homes but, if the trend, catches on, will it be updated in the years to come to cater for residents who grew up in different ages?

A pogo room for elderly punks, perhaps, separate rooms for mods and rockers, sound-proofing for heavy metal fans, and floor to ceiling mirrors for New Wave enthusiasts to check their image?

Me, I’ll settle for a pub of any era and a stool at the bar.