Flooding and fireworks effected local nightlife, bust or bang …
— Earlier flooding by the Stillwater bridge meant that, essentially, Houlton was shut down for several days. Both Guv’s Place and the Cajun Club closed early a few times, spurred mostly by the fact that few customers could get there. Another place that had such a problem was the Valley House banquet facility, although they noted — oddly — that the recent detour because of construction on the new Stillwater bridge was not as much of a worry. That detour, which diverted Hwy. 35 traffic around on County Roads V and E, meant that cars could not go directly from Houlton to the Valley House, but needed to head east and then most of the way to Hudson, then north again. Still, their staff said it was not that big a hassle.
— Blame it on the fireworks across the river? A young man was heard on Second Street in Hudson to say, “We’re in Stillwater, aren’t we?” Just like a patron at the Smilin’ Moose who said erroneously about Pudge’s Bar, “that’s five miles south of here.”
— Just in time for the Fourth of July, Dick’s bar and grill began serving Capital brewery drink, which had a logo of a large dome on it. It has now arrived much later than any prohibition era vote that might have taken place under such a dome, which is good because Dick’s advertises itself as being open continuously since 1860.
— A customer at Dick’s who works nights in St. Paul said that the fireworks shooting there, including people at each other — which probably were purchased in the Hudson area — got so rowdy that the cops essentially threw up their hands for lack of ability to get it under control and left these hardened criminals have at it.
— This caused me to say offhand to one of my bartender friends on the hill, with tongue in cheek: “Did you hear that Beer Can Island was blown up? But there was so much alcohol to be found, that it put out the flames.” He responded, “I thought Beer Can Island was underwater because of the flooding!” Back at ya.
— On recent weekends, three busloads of theme-party dancers strutted their stuff all at once at Dick’s, and at the opposite end near the former More-4 parking lot, two buses parked, meaning you had to walk a ways to shake your booty!
— Some of the almost-double-wide tractor trailers that late on a recent weekend were filtering through downtown Hudson on their way back to Interstate 94, reminded me of the good old days when there were dozens of these coming from the summer mega-concerts in Somerset. Particularly in my memory, was the Sevendust huge bus with band imagery plastered all over the side that left a motel on The Hill and made its way to the freeway headed toward Milwaukee for another show. And as long as we are on the subject of vehicles promoting things, has anyone else noticed the long gone, or so we thought, recent reappearance on the late-night scene of Packer flags affixed to driver’s side windows? Or the small stringed instrument being strummed by a taxi cab driver outside of the Smilin’ Moose to “drum” up business? Or the Packer-like signs on propped up on the windows of the local lodge’s dedicated taxi service?
— With the river flooding closing up things right and left, did you notice that early on, when the city closed down the northbound left turn lane on the Main Drag heading away from the Dairy Queen intersection, two of the first three cones on the south end of the detour were knocked over? Apparently, some gawkers cannot be stopped. On a related note, a bartender at Dick’s said that as a double-edged-sword type of scenario, if he’s flooded out and can’t get to work so will be most of the downtown. Yes, he lives on First Street but no, as a full disclaimer, he added he lives on the second floor.
— There also has been construction aplenty on streets near the bar zone, but not enough so you couldn’t park a tiny little red sports car. There was one so small that it could be seen legally parked in the same stall as a pair of orange road-work drums, which took up ten feet of space themselves.
— And at the Blackout Night at Dick’s, there was this very wordy promo: “Our annual turn the lights down and out so you can put your glow on while dancing to the DJ.” When attending, I was wondering if my Smilin’ Moose wristband conflicted with the glowsticks around the lower arm that they were handing out. I also saw a woman making the northward trek up Second Street, past Stonetap, sporting her glowstick like a headband. I also saw a crew of dancers in the dark wearing T-shirts that said sickkick, apparently a partial reference to the soccer World Cup. (I could see them because the shirts were white).
— In another fashion feature, bartender Jessie was working while wearing shades after being back from near the sunny Equator, where she didn’t do a lot of sunning, rather loads of volunteer service work (and not behind a bar). The shades were so coolly big that she had to wear them at the tip of her nose to see to rinse the dishes. And, on the Fourth, one of the servers had a large top-hat decorated in red, white and blue colors, which was only topped by a co-worker’s take on a Raspberry Beret.
— Also at Buffalo Wild Wings, a decorated board almost the length of a soccer goal (OK that’s a bit of an exaggeration) had the head holes cut out like a pillory so people could stick there own in and be photographed. Two thoughts: If you are a member of the Brazilian team that suffered an embarrassing loss, is your posing mandatory? And, is it true that if you’ve headed too many soccer balls and your head is embarrassingly swollen, are you barred from striking a pose (OK I’m kidding).
— A guy approached me during Booster Days, who I at first thought was a member of that club, then found otherwise. He had a novel story idea he thought I had the special where-with-all to pursue: a certain version of UFOs are real! He then told me at length about an allegedly secret government plot called Dreadnaught, which involves a mega-ship a mile or so in length that is unsinkable. This vessel, he said, was dispatched to aid in the conflict involving Syria, or was it that other country with a like-sounding name that was invaded by Russia over its independence?
— Speaking of Booster Days, the overflow after their bands finished into the Smilin’ Moose was huge. The number of people at the Kozy Korner beanbag toss tournament, part of their sixth anniversary celebration, also was one for the books.
— You can see weird vehicles in Hudson after hours, but none moreso than one that looked an extra-long golf cart, quickly crossing the Main Drag about two blocks north of the Smilin’ Moose. Also passing by was a car with literally dozens of foot-long flame decals decorating the sides.