In my last post I had talked a bit about my old school Friday nights. It brought some memories back, and I thought I'd expand on this topic a bit more. Let me set the stage.
According to wikipedia, Michael Jackson's Thriller was released on December 2, 1983. I'm not 100% certain, but as it was a Friday, I'm can state with some confidence that we were at Tuddi Toots. "We", of course, means the Wreakles. And this was the second iteration of the Wreakles.
The original Wreakles formed sometime in 1977-78. Led by Mark and yours truly, the Wreakles were a Beatles tour de force parody band. As time went on, we added Matt as our lead singer (who couldn't sing), Jimbo as our drummer (who was rhythmically challenged, to be polite), and Dave (who, although he held a guitar, symbolized Pete Best and spent performances with his back toward the audience). After some time, Jimbo and Dave fell away from the group and Dr. Dave (as opposed to Dave, who was NOT a Dr.) was added. At this point, there was no semblance at all of a musical group, but the Wreakles continued on in a spirit of friendship.
We continued to meet on Friday nights at Tuddi Toots, a fern bar and disco emporium on the northern edge of Chicago convenient to most of us in terms of driving distance (to Dr. Dave, it was not particularly convenient, but it was in the college neighborhood). It was the height of the Disco Era, and although none of us were disco fans, "80's hot" babes and Italian women (it was an Italian neighborhood) flocked to places like Tuddi Toots. And we were college-aged guys in search of 80's hot babes.
So there we were- Mark, Matt, Dr. Dave and me (it should be noted that at this point in time, "Dr" was merely an honorific, as he had yet to acquire all of the requisite medical certifications and diplomas). We were, at this point, "regulars" at Tuddi Toots (think "Norm" of Cheers), and had a few regular waitresses. One of the cutest and sweetest was from Kentucky or Tennessee, and we found out that she was fired for being underage- at the time, this saddened us, as she was cute (well, smokin' hot). The waitress that sticks out in my mind was a psychology student named Terri. Terri was sophisticated and smokin' hot.
There were a number of servers at Tuddi Toots, but we generally had one of three regular ones: the one which I can't remember (who had the terrible nickname "the Stork"), the underage one (Cindi Lou), and Terri. Matt was very interested in Terri, and at one point a "bidding war" broke out when Matt gave her a tip and she looked at Mark and said, "thank you." It should be noted at this point that, despite "extravagant" tipping, neither Mark or Matt ever went out on a date with her.
Tuddi Toots had an impressive comfort food menu, and the round tables were just the right size for four friends and their food. We generally ordered nachos, and occasionally shared. Sometimes we left as a group, but as I recall, Mark and I generally left last, doing the obligatory, desperate "swirly" from our table to the area in front of the dance floor, past the bar and finally outside and to our respective vehicles. To this day, a "swirly" is a sweep around an establishment (although its generally a store!)
That's all for today. I hope you enjoyed my brief romp through the 80's!
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to!
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