United Nations of Beer

Oxford Arms

by Stacey Langille
(Beer Delegate, NS, Canada)

Oxford Arms pub
London, ON, Canada

The day was like any average day as the phone rang and my buddy Don was on the other end. It was a Saturday afternoon and he was at a local favorite pub call the Oxford Arms in London, ON. He said he was watching the football match on the big screen and I should come down to check it out.

For those not educated in the REAL use of the term "football", this meant a soccer match with no 4th down in sight. He also stated a group of 40 or so people had descended on our favourite little pub as the destination for the start of their pub crawl. He met the organiser and suggested we join the pub crawl once I had gotten off work.

Accepting his initiation meant going to a bar that I had previously enjoyed on many occasions, but leaving work early was out of the question since running my own small business meant my boss was not very understanding!

This was a bar where the staff was friendly and the atmosphere made you want to come back again and again. A friend of mine, who was born and raised in England, clearly stated that in all the years he had been in North America, this was the only pub that had truly made him feel like he had been in an authentic UK pub. I have never had the privilege to be in a British pub in the UK, but I will surely take my friend's word for it, as he is always the first to show up and definitely the last to leave.

Regardless, I had to finish my shift and close the store which I did successfully, despite the urging of my friend on his cell phone. He had been joining in on the cheer of the pub crawl in the Oxford Arms and said that they seemed like good folks. Despite this invitation I locked up the store on time and took a cab to the pub, as I knew I my friend was in the mood for a night of frothy, beer-tipping times.

As I walked into the Oxford Arms, the atmosphere was not as I had anticipated and the waitress was looking at the walls of this fun watering hole in complete dismay.

Enquiry was my first step. I asked her what she was looking for and she promptly told me that they were missing three football jerseys. Not only had this group of pub crawlers excited my friend with their enthusiasm, but they had taken off with three of the pub's donated and very sentimental jerseys that were proudly display on their walls.

I could tell how much the jerseys meant to the small non-chain bar and before even speaking to my friends, I promised the waitress we would go and retrieve the lost treasures. My friend had told me he knew the next stop on the pub crawl, so we loaded into a van to capture the stolen merchandise.

Arriving at the next bar on the pub crawl, I realised I was the only one besides the driver who had not yet indulged in a few too many pints.

That did not matter, as the mission at hand involved standing up for our favorite little pub, the Oxford Arms.

We entered the other bar (whose service was horrible and always is... you know who you are) and proceeded to find the pub crawl organiser to retrieve what we considered at this point our property.

The kind old Scottish gentleman was a bit intimidated when we approached and was not very forthcoming with information: he was cautious, but definitely did not condone the actions of those who stole the jerseys. He said he would speak to his son to get to the bottom of this incident. At that very moment my friend's girlfriend came running form the front of the bar and stated she had seen one of the jerseys on a guy in the pub crawl.

I approached him and after meeting him eye to eye I said that he was wearing "our" bar's property and that he had to surrender it immediately. Fortunately he did, as we really did not want any problems and only wanted all three stolen jerseys back for the Oxford Arms. After the initial confrontation the organiser's son, who said he had nothing to do with the theft, had spread the word so quickly that miraculously the other two jerseys showed up within minutes.

We piled in the van and headed back to return what was rightfully owned by our little pub, the Oxford Arms. Upon entering the pub and returning the jerseys, we were greeted with applause and a few rounds of drinks, not expected but very much appreciated.

I have since been back to the Oxford Arms many times and the staff always greets us with a great smile... and the beer is always cold. The only difference is now our picture is on the wall with the jerseys we retrieved!