BAR BELLE

I drove to Pittsburg yesterday to visit with Mama Bore, take her to a doctor appointment, etc. Although it's a bit of a trek, I always enjoy going to The Burg, the site of my crazed college days, 1967-72. Forty years ago seems like last week.

My best memories from college, of course, centered around hanging out with friends, going back and forth to our favorite watering holes--The Pizza Palace and The Basement. The Palace was conveniently located across the street from the campus. The pizza was thin--none of this thick and chewy, hand-tossed, stuffed crust business--and the beer was cheap. Most of my time there wasn't spent eating and drinking, however. I could usually be found playing the pinball machines--specifically "Misso"--with my pal Kathy Mac. We'd spend hours perched on bar stools, each of us in charge of a flipper, racking up game after game and chattering away at ol' "Misso" like it possessed some human element, which I'm sure it did.

"Time to hit up The Basement!!" Friends would load up in my '68 VW Beetle and we'd Drag the Gut (Broadway Street) downtown where this bar was located--in a basement! It had two rooms--one with the bar and loads of tables, and the other one with pool tables and overflow seating. Playing cards was my activity of choice at The Basement--spades or pitch--choose your game, grab three other people, and the night was on. One of my cohorts on the college newspaper staff, a frat guy named Crossan, would bring his typewriter to The Basement to write all his assignments while socializing. Getting quotes, albeit alcohol-infused ones, was a cinch.

There were a bunch of other bars in P-Burg that I hopped around to: The Leather Ball (it burned down), Danny's Tavern (my pick for polka dancing), The Alley (shhhh...gay friendly, but don't tell anyone), Sammy's Club (sadly, Saddle-Head Sam died in a car wreck one night after work), Freckles Melody Inn, and The Idle Hour--home of the one-man polka band. The latter joint is still idling away in Frontenac, but The Pizza Palace and The Basement are long gone, replaced by newer, hipper establishments. Their once-jumping buildings are empty now, gathering dust and cobwebs, but my, oh, my, if their walls could talk!