To the editor:Sam Blackwell's Dec. 30 article about the stabbing at Schindler's Tavern in New Hamburg, Mo., hit the nail on the head, including the fact that some people go to Schindler's after Mass. A lot has changed since Si and Dottie Glueck had the tavern, but basically it is the same.

If your last name is not Glasstetter, Heuring, Dirnberger, Kirn, Schetter, Heisserer, Bucher, Grojean or Westrich (I probably missed a few), you are not a true New Hamburgian, just a transplant. Everybody is related somehow in New Hamburg.

Like the story said, Stag is the working man's beer, but the younger generation is known as Busch and Budweiser drinkers. If you mentioned Alphen Brau, Griesedieck or Falstaff, they would shake their heads and think you were nuts.

Schindler's is a nice place to go, just like when Kelso, where I grew up, had Essner's, Herb's, Red Bone's and then Jeannie's Place. When you serve alcohol, you will have a few disagreements, shoving matches or maybe a fight. But never a stabbing. Some places never had an incident.

ANDREW WESTRICH, Jackson