For years, police and bars have tried to figure out the best way to deal with drunken patrons, but I don’t think anyone has ever come up with as good a plan as the bars in Turkey in the 1960s. Of course, the police have little recourse in the case of drunk drivers. They simply have to stop, test, and arrest when the test shows that the driver is over the limit. That is, of course, the worst-case scenario. For a long time, the police and the bars have been trying to cut back on DUIs, and so they have come up with ways to get the drunk patron home safely and without arrest. That leaves the arrests for the most harden drunks, or the stupid ones, who won’t take the offered help. They kind of shoot themselves in the foot, so to speak. Free rides in Taxis, designated drivers, and uber rides are all ways to avoid the dreaded DUI. I’m not sure if these methods have reduced the number of DUTs or not, but they are valiant efforts.
In Turkey, in the 1960s, things were handled a little bit differently. When someone was at the bar, and they had a little too much to drink, the bar owners came up with a very unique plan. They hired men to literally pick up the drunken person and place them in a big basket. Then, the drunk was transported home in said basket. Imagine if you were walking the streets of Turkey, when you didn’t know about this practice. You might be shocked seeing such a scene. Nevertheless, these men, called küfeci, were just doing their job. The bars hire hunched men, who were obviously strong, load up a belligerent drunk, stick them in a basket they carried on their back, and take him to his house. Many of these men were in a…less than happy mood, to say the least.
As for the küfeci, their job was relatively simple. Bars would hire these men, who were often porters during the day, to carry home drunk customers at night. Their name comes from the Turkish word küfe, which means being too drunk to walk. I can’t exactly imagine trying to carry a man on my back…drunk or not, but I would assume that the belligerent drunk would be much more difficult to carry than the sober man, but then you would have no need to carry the sober man either. I’m sure the küfeci had to be strong men, if they were going to be able to do their job. Still, it wouldn’t be that easy, either way, but it would be interesting…very interesting. Don’t you think?
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