The Grinnell College Pub, early 1980s, by Marshall Poe

From MemoryArchive

Who: Marshall Poe
What: The Pub
When: 1980-1984
Where: Grinnell College

When I got to Grinnell College in 1980, fresh out of Kansas, The Pub was the center of social life. Everyone went there, and everything happened there. Here’s the way I remember it. The Pub was a gritty dive located in the basement of Main Hall. It smelled like stale beer and smoke. The floor was always sticky. The walls were covered with paintings that seemed to be left over from some earlier era. I recall a large mushroom, of the psychedelic variety no doubt. There were beer lights and of course a jukebox (with everything from Marvin Gaye to the Tom Tom Club). There was pinball, and the same people always seemed to be playing, everyday, all the time. Beer was cheap. I don’t even know if it was sold by the glass. Everyone bought pitchers, which I believe cost $2.50. There were bottled beers, and even fancy bottled beers (like “Elephant” beer, or so we called it). On occasion the staff (all students) announced nickel (dime?) beers for, say, an hour. People would run around campus announcing this (even the library) and general mayhem would ensue. I remember a friend of mine named Gordon with a pile of nickels in front of him and about 50 cups of beer. He was giving them away. People did not seem to go to the Pub to have a beer; they went there to get drunk. And there was a lot of drunkenness. I can remember many times stumbling out of the place at 1:00 in the morning, drunk off my ass, and thinking “It’s so cold out here, I could die. Better get home quick.”

Some Pub Anecdotes

• When I got to Grinnell, they had just raised the drinking age to 19. I was not 19, but I desperately wanted to go to the Pub. I had tried to sneak in a number of times and been foiled. But one night in early December, I think, I tried it again. I walked down the steps to the door, where a folding table had been set up to card people. I had no ID, of course, but explained I was a sophomore. The checker was not buying my line, but suddenly one of the student-employees, a guy I later learned was named Dave, said “I know this guy. He’s a sophomore. Let him in.” And to Dave I am forever grateful.

• A crazy friend of mine, whose name I’ve forgotten, was the benefactor a some sort of several hundred dollar windfall. It had something to do with his brother, a girl, and possibly drugs (so many windfalls do…). Anyway, he was in the process of being deeply confused by an ethics class, and so he did not know what to do with the money. We sat down in the Forum to discuss the best way rid him of the money, and hence his psychic burden. The conclusion we reached was that he should immediately go to the Pub and buy everyone all the beer they could drink. And so we did. It was the right decision.

• I took German, and found out that the college would pay for me to get a tutor even though I didn’t really need one. Nice place, Grinnell. So I contacted my friend Pete, who was quite a good German speaker and quite a big beer drinker. We agreeed that we would repair to the Pub for our tutoring sessions. There Pete spent the college’s money on beer, and we tried to speak German. I remember it being rather productive.

• According to lore, there was great band at Grinnell in 1979 called The Dentists. I was not at Grinnell in 1979 and so I missed The Dentists. But the leader of The Dentists, Charlie Briggs, was still there and he lived on my floor, West Norris 4th. Charlie put together a new band (the name of which escapes me), a sort of power-pop outfit that I just loved. When they played the Pub it was a huge event. Everyone danced and had a glorious time. There were other bands, of course, and some very good ones, the Shrooms, for example. I loved going down there, getting a pitcher, listening and dancing. I believe those days are over, for me anyway.

The End of The Pub

I’m told the Pub closed in the later 1980s, when the drinking age was raised to 21. It became a café or some such. Sic transit Gloria mundi...