Up in Chicago for a couple days so took this opportunity after a long gap to visit my old college town of Champaign-Urbana. Basically all my old bars are gone. Back in the day, Boni's (upper left) was always a popular club playing Top 40 and Rock but now it's a bunch of store fronts. I think rock club Second Chance burned down during my senior year and now there's a restaurant there (upper right). The very first bar I ever went into (at age 17; the drinking age then was 19) was in what was called T-Birds (lower left). It was famous for glasses of Olympia Beer for 30-cents. Looks like it's a comedy club now. Interestingly, the T-Bird logo is still on the sign but otherwise the club is long-gone! The Giraffe Disco (not pictured) is also long gone. It had an awesome acrylic-plastic dance floor that lit up to the music in various colors. About the only thing I spotted that was still in business was Kam's. We called it a pick-up place; now they call it a hook-up place. Same difference, I think. But country music? Not back in the day, no way! Oh well, it was nice to see Champaign-Urbana again.
I too spent just a little bit of time in the Champaign-Urbana area, but for a different reason than you. I was attending technical school (sort of like military college) at nearby Chanute AFB (in Rantoul). I was there for about 3 months during the Fall of 1985. I did limited clubbing back then.
ReplyDeleteOn my drive from C-U to Chicago yesterday I stopped in Rantoul for a quick drive through what used to be Chanute AFB. There have been a number of reuses by the private sector but it's largely empty. There's just not a lot of demand in that small town for all the housing that was on the base.
ReplyDeleteWith all the airmen gone, probably a lot of bars/clubs in town closed down.
Man, I totally agree with you on that.
ReplyDeleteThere's just way too many fools out there that can't understand.
In fact, I was arguing with my sort of friend jon yesterday about this, and
they wouldn't believe me that he was wrong. Now I can just show them your blog :)