One day I grew weary of searching for the LP I wanted to play at lunchtime, came in early the next morning and completely alphabetized the bazillion or so albums Tom had behind the bar. He and Bear walked in and saw all those albums stretched out and figured there was no way I’d be organized by lunch…but I pulled it off, and other than a few dorky bartenders re-filing The Pretenders under “T” for “The,” it stayed pretty orderly!

Often when friends go out and you have to work, you feel left out. But at SSP that was never the case. I might have been working, but that’s where all my friends were anyway, and Tom always released me to the dance floor every now and again when the music overtook me and I had to let go.

Many times I opened and closed, hanging out and shooting pool during the intermission between my double shifts because there was really no where else I wanted to be.

I remember playing “Assholes On Parade” when the suits came in after work, putting their ties around their heads Bruce Springsteen style. I’d play The Beatles’ “Loser” whenever Bob Lech walked in the door, and it took him like six or eight times before he went, “This song always is on when I …. HEY!” When girls danced on the bar, I’d fade out whatever was playing and fade in “Fat Bottomed Girls” … and they NEVER caught on!

Then there was the whiner jar, where you were forced to stick a quarter in if you got too pissy and whiney instead of fun. And one bad day BJ came in with a sullen look on his face, reached in his pocket, pulled out a fiver, shoved it in the jar, and commenced to pissing and moaning about his shit luck! He paid for it, so we listened.

And the music! Oy.

SSP was the center of my universe for quite a while, and now at 40 I look back with only good stories and memories of that time, those people. In January I headed north to fish the Turtle Flambeau Flowage, and I looked wistfully at Wausau as we navigated that infernal never-ending construction on 51. We returned north again in February, and I announced that soon we would make a trip strictly to re-visit Scott Street Pub, and maybe pop into Innersleeve.

And then a few weeks ago I’m bartending in a tavern in Omro, Wisconsin…near Oshkosh….(it’s a way of supplementing my income that was bestowed upon me by SSP)… and there’s this hot blonde looking at me. And she starts looking familiar. And I must be looking familiar to her. Finally I can’t take it, and I go up to her.

“Are you Ann?”

She was! She was my supervisor back then. Next thing I know, I’m on a cellphone singing “Loser” to Lech and getting put in touch with my dear sweet buddy BJ!!!

Life is good! And I’m going to make that damn trip to SSP as soon as it warms up. I worked there year-round, but I was happiest in the summer.

Hope to see you there! And maybe, just maybe, Tom will remember old “Griz” with her goofy hair and odd wardrobe.

Yes, it was actually my first time in the SSP, what can I say? Of course I got the “buffalo burger.” What else could I have possibly ordered?

Tom was at a back table talking to Mohawk Matt about what works and doesn’t work in live music. Boy, square old me felt pretty cool that I was able to say to the nexus that I knew that punk rock dude over there.

Oh yeah, the server was multiply pierced all over her face and was wearing a t-shirt with an obscenity scrawled across the front in magic marker. Try finding that at Red Lobster.

I was going to go over say hello to Tom, but first he was talking to Matt and then I got involved in the conversation at my table. Maybe next time, I am sure there will be more.

Thanks for everything — my first time was perfect.