A British man is turning the tables on a night out at the bar, offering to pay someone to sit and chat at the bar while drinking beer, rather than forking over cash for the same pleasure.
Mike Hammond has posted a notice in the local post office seeking a drinking buddy for his 88-year-old father, who will take him out for drinks twice a week, the Daily Mail reports. Hammond is offering $14 per hour plus expenses, along with the promise of excellent conversation with his father, Jack, a retired engineer.
Jack recently moved into an assisted living home near Winsor, England, to be closer to his family, but is now too far away to spend time at the local pub with his old drinking buddies.
“It's a bit difficult at this age to go out to a pub on your own,” Jack Hammond told the Daily Mail. “I don't want to be a nuisance. It was a bit upsetting when I had to leave as I left all my friends back home.”
Mike Hammond takes his father out for a drink once a week, but wanted his father to enjoy more of a social life.
“He is a very intelligent man with a physics and math degree,” Mike Hammond told the Daily Mail. “He used to go to the pub three or four times a week and have a couple of halves of Fosters with a neighbor who was of a similar age. It's the company he misses more than anything.”
Hammond’s advertisement reads: “Person to accompany elderly gentleman to the pub. Possibly two evenings a week. Probably two hours per evening. Seven pounds an hour plus expenses.”
So far it has garnered four responses from drinkers eager to be Jack Hammond’s next bar buddy.
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