Story by: Isabella Trujillo
Local residents, referred to as townies, have shaped the beloved bars of Mount Pleasant, Michigan.
Jennifer Curtis, a Mount Pleasant local since 1992, was introduced to the bar scene when she moved to the area from Blanchard, Michigan.
Curtis recalls Wayside as being one of the first places she went to.
“In the early ’90s, the big bar night back then was Sunday night, and we called it oldies night,” Curtis said. “Back then it was songs from the ‘70s and ‘80s. It’s been fun to see it evolve over the years, and if you were going to Central (Michigan University) or you were from Mount Pleasant, that’s where you’d go to see everybody.”
Reminiscing about bars in the past, Curtis remembers Blackstone.
“It was our last call bar,” Curtis said. “Blackstone back in the early ‘90s, was the place where we’d all go to when we were ready for our last drink and about ready to go home. That was just the reputation, everybody knew, let’s go to the Blackstone for the last call.”
“Boomers was another bar,” Curtis said.
Jennifer Curtis, a Mount Pleasant local since 1992, was introduced to the bar scene when she moved to the area from Blanchard, Michigan.
Curtis recalls Wayside as being one of the first places she went to.
“In the early ’90s, the big bar night back then was Sunday night, and we called it oldies night,” Curtis said. “Back then it was songs from the ‘70s and ‘80s. It’s been fun to see it evolve over the years, and if you were going to Central (Michigan University) or you were from Mount Pleasant, that’s where you’d go to see everybody.”
Reminiscing about bars in the past, Curtis remembers Blackstone.
“It was our last call bar,” Curtis said. “Blackstone back in the early ‘90s, was the place where we’d all go to when we were ready for our last drink and about ready to go home. That was just the reputation, everybody knew, let’s go to the Blackstone for the last call.”
“Boomers was another bar,” Curtis said.
Boomers was in the old Holiday Inn, where the Soaring Eagle Waterpark and Hotel now stands.
“It was a comedy club, but it was also dancing on Friday and Saturday nights,” Curtis said. “People went there late at night to just dance.” Not only did it attract townies and Central Michigan University students, but also out of town visitors. “I think a lot of people, cause they would stay at the hotel coming from out of town, they would go down to Boomers and hang out. People that were traveling, they would stop there,” Curtis said. Laura Shell first moved to Mount Pleasant in 1981 with her husband who was serving in the Army. After he was stationed in Germany in 1985, Shell moved back to Mount Pleasant in 1988 and has been a townie ever since. Shell remembers Boomers as being the best place to go in the ‘80s, hosting bands every weekend. “Thursday was ladies' night, there used to be a line to get in on ladies' night,” Shell said. “I mean, there’d be a line at the bar. The bar was always packed. It was a fun place to go. Not only college people, but townie people.” Shell’s favorite memory of Boomers was when she got to see Ozzy Osbourne. |
McGuirk Arena, previously known as Rose Arena, hosted Osbourne on March 26, 1983.
“Ozzy and his team stayed at the Holiday Inn,” Shell said. “My friend that I worked with, I said, ‘we’re going there after work, we gotta go.’ So, we changed and headed out to Holiday Inn, and yeah, sure enough, he was there, sitting at a table by himself shoving pizza in his face. I was sitting up at the bar and I was like, oh my god I’m gonna ask him for his autograph. So, I got a napkin, and I started walking up to him.”
After Shell struck up the nerve to approach Osbourne, her path was blocked by Osbourne's bodyguard.
“I maybe got two feet from him, and some big guy came up and stopped me.”
Shell, who bartended at the Main from 1981-82, a bar and lounge previously located on Mission Street where Popeye’s stands today, recalls the Main being popular and packed.
“Ozzy and his team stayed at the Holiday Inn,” Shell said. “My friend that I worked with, I said, ‘we’re going there after work, we gotta go.’ So, we changed and headed out to Holiday Inn, and yeah, sure enough, he was there, sitting at a table by himself shoving pizza in his face. I was sitting up at the bar and I was like, oh my god I’m gonna ask him for his autograph. So, I got a napkin, and I started walking up to him.”
After Shell struck up the nerve to approach Osbourne, her path was blocked by Osbourne's bodyguard.
“I maybe got two feet from him, and some big guy came up and stopped me.”
Shell, who bartended at the Main from 1981-82, a bar and lounge previously located on Mission Street where Popeye’s stands today, recalls the Main being popular and packed.
“Even though it was a townie bar, later at night a lot of college kids would go there, frat guys and sorority girls would go there because the college girls worked there,” Shell said. “At 5:00 in the afternoon, you saw a bunch of businessmen come in, prominent businessmen coming in after work, and drink. You know, it was an older crowd, and then probably about 9:30 p.m. then you saw more college people come in. It was a popular bar back then. It was always packed.”
Curtis recalls the Green Spot Pub, located on the corner of Pickard and Mission Street, as being the number one townie bar in Mount Pleasant. |
“I didn’t start hanging out there until probably my late 20s and early 30s,” Curtis said. “I used to work afternoons when I was a nurse, so I would go there, [the Nurses] would all go there at 11:30 to midnight, and all the bartenders would go ‘Oh the nurses are here’ and they’d have our beer sitting there for us because they knew what we drank.”
Larry Voorheis, another Mount Pleasant townie from 1973, recalls Cascarelli’s, the previous name of Marty’s Bar before Marty Naumes bought it in 1987.
“They had rum and coke pitchers for $2.50,” Voorheis said.
Over the years, Voorheis has noticed a difference in bargoers, shifting from townies to college students.
“I go down to The Bird and it’s more [college students],” he said. “I kind of stick out like a sore thumb.”
Voorheis favorite local bar will always be Freddie’s Tavern, a notorious townie bar located on S. Adams Street.
“I’m just down here for the ambiance of the crowd,” he said. “I just stopped in on my way home from work for a quick one.”
Ryan Backus is a Mount Pleasant townie, and a Central Michigan University student.
Backus and his friends chose Freddie’s Tavern for their Thursday night hangout because it’s quieter.
“Usually, people go downtown, or to Wayside,” he said.
Even though townie bars are an option for Central Michigan University students to go to, there’s a certain stigma towards those students from townies.
“It feels like they don’t want you to be here,” Backus said. Hailey Bates is another Mount Pleasant resident who enjoys Freddie’s since it’s calm and not as chaotic as other local bars. “The familiarity of it,” she said. “I kind of knew a lot of people here, and a lot of the locals bring me here. “I feel more comfortable here.” Referring to the Mount Pleasant bars standing today, Curtis noticed a shift in bargoers. “The bar scene has changed, it’s not so much the locals, it’s everybody.” |