Live Mermaids Make This Montana Dive Bar One of Our Great National Treasures

[procon]

1. I remember mermaid shows at those big roadside tourist

attractions in Florida and Texas in the 60s. The pools for the mermaids had painted backgrounds, one I remember was a fantasy castle under the sea, and a giant clamshell to relax in that cleverly disguised their air hose in the greenery.

They had a big treasure chest in their pool where the mermaids tried on crowns and necklaces and even squabbled over the jewellery until one of the bar guys would run out and when then you saw him next he was swimming with the mermaids and trying to break up their fight. It was fun.

My dad loved stopping at those places to take pictures posed with the mermaids, or pose the whole family with the cement dinosaurs. He took photos of the pretty girls doing fancy trick riding on galloping horses. He took pictures of the gunslingers in a shootout in the "authentic" Western movie set, he was easily amused and all those old photos still make me smile.