A eulogy for the Boat Club
Jacqueline Browder
Happily Ever After
Although the ultimate fate of the Boat Club has yet to be determined, it is only fitting that such a hallowed part of the Notre Dame experience receive a proper farewell in light of recent excise events. So, before the music turns off and the lights turn on for good, let us take a moment to remember that place we fondly referred to as "The Boat."
The Boat Club was, in its simplest terms, a place where the pitchers ran cheap, the love ran high and morals ran deceivingly low. It was a place where everyone knew our names — and subsequently forgot them 20 minutes later. It was a place of loves found, loves lost and loves just plain forgotten. It was a place where we could lose our wallets, our wits and sometimes, even our lunch.
There it was, on the corner of Hill Street — two floors of morally casual, alcohol induced, nightly commotion. And we loved every minute of it. For many of us, it was our initial invitation into the South Bend nightlife. We had heard about it, wondered about it and often talked about it, but we could not fully understand all that was the Boat Club until we experienced it. After all, you always remember your first (bar).
Everyone possessing a plastic coated, mostly legible piece of identification (no matter whose identity it happened to be) could become a part of the Boat Club subculture. And once we were in, we never turned back. We couldn't. It was too crowded. Only a Kelly green shirt and a football game could bring a student body together as well and with such consistency.
The Boat Club not only provided us with a place to go, it gave us things to do. Darts, karaoke and billiards were always at our slightly numb fingertips. The game of cups became an art form, providing hours of exhilarating entertainment for those of us who spent the better part of our daylight hours studying Dostoevsky and forming chemical compounds.
It could all be ours for a mere $5. Many of us even remember the days when $5 could not only get you in, but quench your thirst all evening long. And upon leaving, there was always that certain Boat Club scent that followed us home, only to be washed away by that welcoming and very necessary shower the next morning.
Unfortunately, if the Boat Club goes, it may in fact wreak havoc on the social lives of many Notre Dame students. We may have lost our most significant social arena, as the Boat Club was arguably the best and most utilized place for the men and women of the Notre Dame community to meet and mate. Forget Date Week — it's often been said that if they sent the entire campus to the Boat Club for an evening, no one would ever complain about gender relations under the Dome again.
Jacqueline Browder is a senior American studies major and journalism minor. Her column appears every other Wednesday. You may contact her at jbrowder@nd.edu.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Viewpoint Stories for Wednesday, February 5, 2003
