Its Sunday night and the Patriots (Pats) are playing the Kansas City Chiefs at home on a cold October, New England night. There is no better place to be on a night like this than to be sitting in a recline-ah (recliner) sipping on an ice cold “bottle” of beer while watching the Pats. In my world that’s liv’in large baby….

Before the game I stock up on libations at the local “Packy” before kick off.  My local package store “Leary’s” is historical as it has been in continuous operation in the same space since 1897.  It claims to be the oldest Packy in Massachusetts.  The building was constructed in 1876 and was originally a warehouse for Caldwell’s a Rum Distillery just across the street. Old photographs of the place show horse drawn carriages with beer barrels and in later years Model T’s loaded for deliveries. Most of the locals back in the day’s before cars used to come to Leary’s with buckets and pails to get their beer and rum. I’m not so sure I’d have ever made it the 10+ blocks back home if I was carrying a pail…a lad might get pretty thirsty walking that far I wager.

So why do we call it a liquor store a Packy ?
It’s short for “package store”.   I suppose like everything around here in the NE we say things differently.   Like, bang a right woodjah, Let’s watch the Pats in the pahlah… or pass the clickah I wanna change the channel…. One thing we never say is, “Pahk the Kaah in Hahvahd Yahd”…because we know there no freaking pahikn in the Harvard yards…. or anywhere else around Harvard Sq.

Another thing about people in New England is we also do not like to be seen carrying booze around the streets… Why? ….Because we believe it’s nobody’s business what we drink and especially how much!  We even went so far as to have the state legislature mandate that our Mass State liquor stores sell all their goods in brown paper bags “AKA” packages.

I have always had a place in my heart for a real Packy.  Buying booze from a big box store or supermarket just does not have the same mystique. I remember the 1^st time I ever legally bought beer at Easy Ed’s in Cambridge… we called it Easy Ed’s because he never asked for an ID and he always thanked me for my business.  Leary’s is the Easy Ed’s of Newburyport.  The beer is cold and the service is great…  It’s almost game time and I’ll be settling into the old recliner shortly…cold beer in one hand and the clicka for replay and volume control in the other.

PS..  Pats kicked a field goal in the last minutes of the game to beat KC in yet another come from behind win…  Come backs just never get old for Pats fans. If the KC Chiefs stop by our Packy’s tonight on their way out of town … We’ll pack their booze (Boo’s)  in brown paper bags to give then something to wear home…