On Wednesday, Marisa came up with a list of "10 Bars We're Scared To Enter." The key phrase there is "Scared To Enter." It doesn't mean the places we selected are necessarily shady (I have been to seven places on the list) or bad (The Pump is one of best new bars in the city). It simply means that for some absurd reason or another we were "scared" to go inside them. Basically, it was your typical slightly satirical, tongue-in-cheek, TLO-style post... which means a bunch of uninformed readers who stumbled across the post on Facebook took it way too seriously.
I'm pretty sure most of those people live in and around the Midwest City area. We received the following email from the owner of Jamaica Joe's:
Marisa posted about bars she was scared to enter....I am the owner of Jamaica Joes and would like her to come by and check it out..I bet I change her mind...it offends me highly..the pics posted are from years ago also..I am one of the nicest places in the metro area for pool and drinks and food
Yep, you heard it here first... Jamaica's Joes.... is one of the nicest places.... in the Metro... for drinks and food. I think we know... the next place to send Louis... for a food review.
We also got a lot of hateful and mean comments from fans and regulars of the Midwest City dive, Booger Red's. This kind of touched of nerve, because I actually have a bunch of fond memories of that place. In my early 20s, I lived in the working class neighborhood right behind Boogers and it became a regular stopping point for me, my best friend, Josh, and my roommate, Andy.
Typically, we'd hit it up every Wednesday for Karaoke / Lady's Night, and then late at night on Fridays or Saturdays when returning home from a night in Bricktown. The place was a true dive! It was dirty, trashy and, in all honesty, did look like a scary place to enter. It was also fun as hell.
To appease all the Booger's regulars and fans, I thought I would wax nostalgic and share some of my favorite memories of the place. This is a little more personal and sad than my typical posts on this site, so Mom, if you're still reading this, stop now...
1. The time Josh and I got jumped in the parking lot...
I can't remember the specific details all too well (this may be a theme), but Josh and I stopped by Booger's after watching the Ohio State - Miami National Championship Game. Josh started hitting on some girl who was there with her boyfriend. That pissed the boyfriend off, so he and his buddy's left the bar and decided to wait for me and Josh to leave so they could jump us in the parking lot. Fun! The skirmish didn't last long. One of the bouncers – who I'm pretty sure was a former inmate – ran outside and broke up the fight pretty quick. Other than getting sucker punched and a torn t-shirt, I was fine.
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2. The night we invented a new Cotton Eyed Joe dance
Booger's had a small dance floor and played a typical rotation of dive bar dance tunes – Electric Slide, Cha Cha Slide, Strokin. One night I was really drunk and Cotton Eyed Joe came on. The song has its own special dance, but I just ran out on the floor and started do-si-do around in circles with everyone. Then, like it was torn from the script of a bad movie, other people ran onto the floor and started do-si-do'ing. A new tradition was born!
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3. The time I paid a "bouncer" $5 to kick out my under-age ex-girlfriend
I was dating some 20-year-old girl who lived way out on Memorial and MacArthur. We broke up, and then a couple of weeks later she pulled a Stacey from Wayne's World and showed up at Boogers with a bunch of friends. WTF? It was awkward. I handled the situation like a classy professional. I walked up to the bouncer, gave him $5 and said "See that girl over there. She has a fake ID." He then kicked her and her friends out of the bar. I should probably mention the girl became a stripper (seriously) not long after that. It was probably my fault.
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4. "It's A Good Day To Die"
When I got the idea for this tacky, somewhat awkward post, I asked Andy and Josh if they had any suggestions. Andy said:
Okay, I don't think it exactly went down like that. There was this super hot girl who was a semi-regular at the bar. One night, I built up enough liquid courage to talk to her, and ended up playing darts with her, a few friends and her male cousin who looked like he was one of the founding members of House of Pain. I didn't know too much about the girl, so I asked her cousin if she was single. He says something like "She is, but if anyone lays a hand on her I'll kill them." My response was "Well, I guess it's a good day to die." I don't know why that was the first thing to come to mind, but the guy didn't kill me, and as Al Eschbach would say, the rest his history.
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5. The time we partied with Jethro Tull
One night we were at Booger's and these old men were behind the bar pouring their own drinks. I asked the bartender Rhonda, a very nice blue-collar woman in her 40s who was probably already a grandma, what was going on.
She's like "That's Jethro Tull!"
I'm like "Who's he?"
"They're a band! They were playing a concert at Rose State!"
And that's how I learned about Jethro Tull. It was actually kind of cool. They were buying everyone free drinks and having about as much fun as a group of 50-something ex-rock stars who play the flute could have at a Midwest City bar.
Also, one thing I remember about this is going home that night, pulling up Morpheus or Lime Wire or whatever and seeing that Jethro Tull was the "Band of the Month." It t'was a summoning!
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6. "Hey Jude"
Wednesday night was Booger's busiest night. They had karaoke and lady's drank free Natural Light until midnight. Probably because we were the only people there who tipped him, the karaoke guy would usually let us get a big group together and sing "Hey Jude," the greatest sing along song of all time, to close the night.
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7. The time we watched some guy karate chop a person in the face...
I'll let Andy explain this one, too:
Hmmn. Maybe you should be scared to enter Booger Red's
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In all seriousness, I love dive bars like Booger Reds. Sure, they may look a little shady on the outside, but the inside is what matters. Walk in, and you're likely to find nice, good-hearted, alcoholics and a group of annoying 22-year-olds enjoying life. You'll never know what will happen or what memories will be made. Here's to you Boogers! I may have to come out and see you again!
