Back in Ann Arbor

Last month I found myself back in Ann Arbor for a long weekend. Several college roommates and friends made it back to where we all met for a bit of golf and a few good times. We got an AirBnB right next to The Blind Pig/Circ/8-Ball. A great location to enjoy AA nightlife and relive some of our glory days.

We all arrived on Thursday. Some got in early enough to get hooked up with a tour of Schembechler Hall and Crisler Arena. I missed out on that. But once we all arrived, we proceeded around the corner from the AirBnB to Grizzly Peak for dinner. We all thought it wasn't as good as it seemed when we would pick it as the "fancy" place to have our parents take us when they visited us while we were in school. Afterwards, we drank at the AirBnB and then went to the 8-Ball for beer and darts.

The entrance to 8-ball saloon

I went to the 8-Ball a handful of times as a senior at Michigan. I didn't make it over to Main Street often while in school, but when I did, the 8-Ball was a place I liked to pop into. I always remembered it as a townie bar, and a little rougher one at that. Leather jackets and guys who had turned a wrench or two before. However, I didn't see too much of that this weekend. It was mostly college kids and no longer seemed like a bar for the working man anymore. Maybe those folks can't afford to live in AA anymore?

Friday morning we played the U of M Golf Course. We did a scramble, and the losing team had to pay for hibachi that evening. My team won, mostly because Zola decided to show up this trip, and it turns out he is an absolute stick, despite not having played for 2 years. I wasn't much of a golfer in college and had never played that course, but I really enjoyed it. It was so much more interesting than the other Alister MacKenzie course that I play regularly near my office in Sacramento.

Teeing off at the U of M Golf Course

After golfing we were going to go to a CIAYCELB (Cottage Inn All You Can Eat Lunch Buffet) but were dismayed to find out that Cottage Inn stopped doing their lunch buffet years ago. Instead, we decided to get some pepperoni styx from Charley's. On the way we decided to grab some sangria from Dominick's. We had the whole courtyard to ourselves. The place was pretty dead, which surprised me for 3 p.m. on a Friday.

We made it to Charley's for some snacks and a few pitchers of Labatt Blue. Charley's was also pretty quiet. From there we headed over to the Brown Jug for a Hairy Bitch. They were delicious as ever, but it was odd that there was nary a student in there, just a few older couples eating an early dinner. I know it was spring term, but even when I was a student there would usually be a bit of action at one of the campus bars on a Friday afternoon during the spring. And I know they weren't at the Blue Lep because that apparently had closed.

After leaving The Jug, I took stock of South U. All the small shops and little buildings had been replaced by mid-rises. From in front of the Raising Cane's at East U, all of South U looked like every other generic mid-sized American city. Middle Earth never stood a chance against the developers. We argued as we walked about where things used to be before it had all gotten bulldozed for fancy apartments catering to students who didn't want to have the college experience of living in a shit house with all their friends doing dumb shit and loving it.

Speaking of dumb shit - a polar bear fight

From there we went to the Garage Bar for a lively round of Polar Bear Fights, which I gladly refrained from. This led to one participant passing out at hibachi (the 2 sake bombs didn't help), which makes 2 golf trips in a row in which this person has passed out at a restaurant. After hibachi, we went to the Heidelberg for beer boots. The basement was basically empty, which is strange to me since the Heidelberg was always such a fun spot. Maybe it fell off once they stopped serving the free hot wings on Fridays.

Most everyone having a memorable time at Hibachi

From there we went to the Circ Bar, which everyone we talked to said was the place to be. I remember going into it once or twice when I was a student and it was called Circus Bar. I remember it being a kind of odd second-story circus-themed bar. I was a bit surprised it was still open. I was even more surprised that the place was packed. A few beers and games of pool later I was fading fast from 12+ hours of drinking, and things got a little fuzzy.

Saturday was the main event of the golf trip. My buddy Dan had worked a connection to get us onto Radrick Farms, which is the university-owned golf course that is just for regent and staff use. The course is a Pete Dye course set on the rolling hills just outside the city. It is a beautiful course and was an absolute gem to play. After sleeping in and a late breakfast at Fleetwood Diner, we headed over to the course for an early afternoon tee time. I didn't play my best golf, but I made 5 pars and broke 100. Not bad when going up against a Pete Dye course. I couldn't help but splurge a bit in the pro shop on some gear.

Radrick

By the time we got back to the AirBnB it was nearing time for dinner and we were all hungry. We had seen a Detroit pizza place on our way back from the course and headed over there. It was just us in the restaurant besides 1 guy at the bar in a bright red fishing vest. The bartender/server said he didn't even work there. He was an odd dude. But he got us drinks and our pizza, which was surprisingly good, although not good enough to attract a crowd on a Saturday night.

Then we headed over to Ashley's, which was pretty quiet. After a beer, everyone else headed back to Main Street. I decided to take a bit of a walk around campus. Maybe it was the alcohol, but it felt like a bit of a fever dream, where there were things I recognized but everything seemed wrong at the same time. South of Ashley's, where there should have been a Jimmy John's, was a Dunkin'. I walked down State Street towards my old house. I stopped to see what failing restaurant was at State & Packard and laughed when I saw the "Restaurant Space for Lease" sign in front of the business de jour which happened to be Pizza Cat Max. I continued down to my college house, but instead of it being there, there was a ginormous high-rise apartment building under construction in its place. Around the old neighborhood where there should have been house parties with beer pong in front yards, there was quiet. The houses were there, but the porches were devoid of life on a nice May Saturday night. Elbel Field had a dorm on it for some reason.

Where my old house was

I went into Campus Corner to pay my respects to Joe and saw that they didn't sell 40s of malt liquor anymore. Joe's nephew behind the counter said that after COVID the kids stopped drinking it, and they stopped stocking it. I stumbled out to the street wondering if kids were going through their entire college careers without drinking a single 40 of malt liquor. As I walked I remembered how the first time I ever got drunk in Ann Arbor was off a 40 of Mickey's. About how we would make brass monkeys with Olde English "800" my sophomore year. About sitting on the porch my junior year drinking Colt 45s. About senior year participating in the CSI (Camo Silver Ice) Challenge and coming in second place. These kids would never have the joy of cracking a 40 of malt liquor with their homies.

Olde English "800"

I continued walking, stopping in at the Union for a hearty poop (I still remember all my favorite dumping grounds on campus). Then I went to spin the cube only to realize that the Fleming Administration Building is now a grass field. I walked back, past the Original Cottage Inn, only realizing that it's no longer Cottage Inn and now just another pizza place. I walked past Pinball Pete's only to realize it was in the wrong spot too, and had probably been pushed out by some developer on South U.

I found myself very relieved as I walked back into the friendly confines of the 8-Ball Saloon to find my friends playing darts and drinking beer. It felt like my friends were still the same, even if the town had changed, and the college students had changed, and Cottage Inn had changed. We were still the same dumb kids, just stuck in 38-year-old bodies.