Is there any happier time of the day than happy hour?

It’s the perfect excuse to stop what you’re doing, especially if you’re working, take a load off, enjoy some cheap food you don’t have to make yourself, glug back some cheap drinks, and catch up with new or old friends.

On our recent trip to the Maritimes to pick up Clare from school, it was pouring rain on our final day in St. Andrew’s by the Sea. After seeing the sights through windshield wipers on high speed, and dodging puddles and downpours as we browsed the local shops, we dried off at the beautiful historic Kennedy House Inn where we were staying and popped downstairs for their happy hour from 3-5 for half-price wings and pitchers of beer.

As we played darts and watched the ball game on the big screen TV in their bar, we started chatting with the “locals”, most of whom had moved to this picturesque seaside town from Ontario in the past few years. It was the perfect way to spend a rainy afternoon.

“Happy hour” was born in the late 19^th century, when social clubs in North America started planning activities in the late afternoon, such as dancing, quilting, games and lectures. They actually included the name “Happy Hour Club” in their titles.

In 1913, the US Navy adopted the idea of happy hour when a group of sailors who called themselves the Happy Hour Social started hosting twice weekly events aboard the USS Arkansas. The navy prohibited alcohol on ships, so the focus of the hour was on entertainment like boxing bouts, movies, and music.

It wasn’t until the prohibition years, the 1920s and 1930s when young people flocked to speakeasies to eat and drink at all hours of the day that alcohol figured prominently in happy hour.

Restaurants and bars quickly realized they could lure patrons in earlier in the day by offering discounted food and drinks before the busy dinner rush and the modern version of the happy hour was born.

In a cruel, cruel joke, I had just turned drinking age when the Ontario government decided to ban happy hour in 1984, claiming it promoted drinking and driving. The government relaxed its rules in 2019 and happy hour happily has made a comeback in the past five years. Now just about every bar or restaurant offers some kind of happy hour specials.

What’s your favourite spot for happy hour? Leave a comment and share the happy!