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Ch-ch-ch-changes
After the Rush concert, I stayed with Matt Schildt, a good friend in Kent. His hospitality was first rate, and if you're ever passing through Kent, I suggest you stay with him--just tell him I sent you, I'm sure it will be cool. You'd better hurry, though: he's looking for a job in music theory and hoping to move away. Anyway, my point is not that Matt's a great guy or anything of the sort. Though of course he is. My point is that we got to recalling fondly "the good old days" when I, too, lived in Kent. Holding a place of honor among our memories was a little hole-in-the-wall bar we used to go to every Monday night, The Avenue. This place was never anything like clean, but it had certain charms; foremost among them were the $2.99 steak dinners they served on Monday nights and the $1 drafts of Amber Bock. A little strip steak, a little salad (ranch dressing only) and sweet potato fries: really, how could $3 be spent better? For a while, I had a friend who played in the house band there; our large group managed a strange co-existence with a drum circle that came every few weeks. I almost certainly left more bodily fluid in that restroom than any other single location in Kent. What a great place.
Naturally, it no longer exists. It's been renamed, appropriately enough, The Chameleon, and it's now a dance club. So except for being dark and dingy, it bears almost no resemblance to the place I knew. Now, it's not as though I would be going there if it were open--I live 2 1/2 hours away and my visits aren't even that frequent (and pretty much never on Mondays). The point is, I want the place to exist the way it was when I was there. When I meet someone who went to Kent State or lived in Kent, I want to be able to say "Did you ever go to a place called The Avenue?" If it was after their time, well, I've got them pegged as an old-timer, though at least they know places like Ray's and The Loft. I'd like to be able to tell people I meet who are currently there that I know this great place they should check out. I want to feel a sense of continuity between us. Instead, I'm pegged as an old-timer myself--"Yup, in my day there was this place where the Amber Bock flowed like water and every Monday several cows-worth (or whatever the animal really was) of steak were consumed. God, those were the days." God it makes me sound old.
At least Ray's and The Loft are still around. Sigh.