There were three main hangouts my friends and I frequented at college: the Phoenix, the Flying Club and the Circle Bar.
The Circle bar was a friendly little hole in the wall joint with two pool tables, a shuffleboard table against the back wall, and a juke box. It was the place to go if you weren’t in the mood for the loud music and crowds of the Phoenix and Flying Club.
I was a pretty good pool player and Bob was even better. Once we got on one of the tables, were were pretty hard to knock off. We spent many an evening there drinking draft beer from frosted mugs and shooting pool or playing shuffleboard.
I wasn’t one to put quarters into the juke box, but there were always people there who were. Inevitably - and usually more than once - this song would play. When I hear it, I’m twenty again, back in the Circle Bar, Bob and I leaning on our pool cues drinking beer between shots during a game of doubles pool.
I first met my wife at the Old Cutler Oyster Company Raw Bar and Grill. The original restaurant blew away in Hurricane Andrew in 1992 (a year after we left for Japan), but they’ve long since opened at a new location.
She was a waitress and I a young Air Force guy stationed at the nearby Homestead Air Force Base (also blown away; it’s an Air National Guard base now, with only the runway open).
The Raw Bar (as we called it) was a popular spot - good food, good prices, plenty of week day specials, and two pool tables. They had live music, a band called the Instamatics that played popular hits as well as some classics. Around 9:00, they’d clear some tables out of the way to make space for a small dance floor and the Instamatics took their place on a little raised stage against the wall. The lead singer’s name was Sarah; she dated a guy named Kenny, whom I played pool with upon occasion. One of the songs Sarah often sang was Love Shack.
When I hear the song, I can see the layout of the Raw Bar clearly and easily recall the friends I hung out with (as well as a jerk named Frank who used to get drunk and try to start fights). I remember always seeing a very attractive blond waitress hurrying about….
The music of the 80’s firmly defines my high school and college experience. The early 90s recalls my newlywed days and the three years my wife and I spent in Japan. We married in January of 1991 and moved, courtesy of the Air Force, to Tokyo, Japan, in August that same year.
Being young and married and without children lends itself to a fairly carefree and spontaneous lifestyle. We had a good group of friends we hung out with. One of our friends was a guy named Roger. A security police officer, Roger was tall, handsome, sought after by the ladies, and somewhat insecure. He could also pack away the booze. When I hear this song, it reminds of Japan and the people we knew there, and specifically of Roger downing eight Mai Tais at the officer’s club one night.
My wife used to mess with him.
“Are those new pants?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmmmm.”
“Why? What’s wrong with them?”
Shrug. “Nothing.”
And for the rest of the night he would sit there, worried about his pants….
