Daily Delawhere, Friday, September 23, 2011

Filed in National by on September 23, 2011

What and where?

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  1. Jason330 says:
    September 23, 2011 at 7:15 am

    Old Swedes Church!

  2. socialistic ben says:
    September 23, 2011 at 7:20 am

    Deerpark Tavern. Newark

  3. Delaware Dem says:
    September 23, 2011 at 7:28 am

    LOL Jason. Ben is right

  4. Jason330 says:
    September 23, 2011 at 7:29 am

    Ah yes. I had a class in that building. Advanced Bullshiting. It met Friday nights (on and off) for three years.

  5. anonone says:
    September 23, 2011 at 8:04 am

    You must have been the top student.

  6. puck says:
    September 23, 2011 at 8:06 am

    Rockwood Mansion.

  7. MJ says:
    September 23, 2011 at 8:16 am

    That’s actually my Winter Palace in Pushkin. Oh wait, someone just showed me a Queen of Diamonds. Never mind.

  8. skippertee says:
    September 23, 2011 at 8:31 am

    I was here for the “riots” in ’74.
    I was on leave from the service and rendezvousing with friends at the U of D.
    With my short hair I walked un accosted amongst the KEYSTONE Newark cops arresting hippies right and left.
    A good time was had by all.

  9. puck says:
    September 23, 2011 at 8:46 am

    In high school I used to hitch-hike to the Deer Park after school let out. Back then the drinking age was 18, but before I reached 18 it was raised to 20, and then to 21. Times were totally different then (the ’70s). When the draft was on. the drinking and voting age was lowered, on the totally reasonable grounds that if you can fight and die for your country, you could damn well vote and have a beer. The draft had ended but the laws were still in effect for a while.

    Hell, I was 17, anyway. But enforcement was barely there. There was a bouncer who checked IDs at the door, but if you got there before the bouncer started work, you were in, and you got served. And I knew what time he started. So I’d go to Morris Library, or to the computer center at Smith Hall (that’s what the called it then) and fool around with their computers until it was time to hit the Deer Park. I can’t even say I got drunk. I basically ordered food and had one or two beers, mostly hanging out at the townie bar. Later I got a ride home with friends. To this day I have no idea what my parents thought I was doing. I’d like to think they understood I was getting an education.

    The enforcement started to get serious though after an underage girl was murdered in the parking lot of the Stone Balloon.

  10. Rebecca says:
    September 23, 2011 at 9:03 am

    Del Dem, you do get around.

  11. V says:
    September 23, 2011 at 9:12 am

    I had a class there too. It was called “The Demise of Mug Night: Post-Balloon Era”.

    my friends would meet a cute guy from school, and find out two days later he was 31, worked at the grocery store, and had three kids. ugh. after like three variations of that we stopped going.

  12. skippertee says:
    September 23, 2011 at 9:35 am

    Puck-The drinking age in DELAWARE was never 18. It was 20 for a while.
    When I was a G.I. and bouncers, bartenders carded and I was under the LOCAL drinking age I just gave them my MILITARY ID.
    I can’t remember one instance where they wouldn’t let me get a drink even though “underage”.
    Which was nice considering the MAJORITY of young people HATED servicemen in MY era.
    The only people who would pick you up hitchhiking were other GI’s or gay blades.

  13. puck says:
    September 23, 2011 at 9:43 am

    You are right, Skipper. I must have been thinking of Maryland where it actually was 18, where I also spent some after-school time in Route 40 dive bars, and making beer runs to the state line liquor shops. Maryland was a great alternative for those who were underage in Delaware.

    I was skeptical about military service, but didn’t feel hate. At the time it was of great interest to me whether vets were drafted or enlisted. It seemed to be a defining moral choice.

    Of course after the war everybody was a volunteer, but then again the war was over, so the moral calculus was reset.

  14. skippertee says:
    September 23, 2011 at 9:54 am

    Moral choice? Not quite.
    With a low draft number and NO college deferment your options were limited to basically three options:
    Go to Canada
    Go to jail
    Go to war
    I’m for NATIONAL service now. Two years not necessarily in the military but in some service to the COUNTRY.
    Wait one, I forgot GOOD HAIR Perry served.
    No deferments!
    I’m seeing less than 1% fighting for TWO wars I don’t believe in.
    And when they BOOED that dear,gay GI the panel of REPUBLICAN stalwarts were SILENT.
    And NONE of them, as far as I know, served!
    Or,in “Middle-class” Mitt’s case, NONE of his FIVE healthy sons.

  15. skippertee says:
    September 23, 2011 at 10:02 am

    Wait one- I forgot GOOD HAIR Perry. He served.

  16. Baba Louie says:
    September 23, 2011 at 10:09 am

    Christine O’Donnell’s undisclosed location.

  17. Dana Garrett says:
    September 23, 2011 at 10:20 am

    Ah, Poe’s curse: Once you enter the Deer Park Tavern, you are bound to return to it.

  18. skippertee says:
    September 23, 2011 at 10:29 am

    I think it has something to do with the Deerparks’ once unique ODOR.
    When they pulled up the floors during renovation they found a HUGE growth of some sort of yeast fed slime. The Biology department at the U of D was called in to identify the BLOB.
    I forget if they ever did, but I’ll never forget that ODOR.
    I’m actually getting nostalgic.
    Old fart or not, I may go down today for lunch.

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