I "grew up" at Chester Street in Champaign and when I was 19-21 I would spend EVERY weekend there. We would dance until 1 AM (the bar closing time back then) and then stand outside until 1:30 or until the cops made us move. I spent more New Years Eves there than I care to admit and I threw up in the toilets more times than I care to admit while I was doing a MASSIVE amount of underage drinking (BOTTOM stamp anyone???). We would drink Zima, Bacardi Silver, and Blue Fuckers every weekend and let's not forget $1.50 night....we used to drive down from Bloomington for that shit!
10 years have passed since I first walked through those doors and I went back last weekend and I realized NOTHING has changed. The twinks are still dancing on the speakers, the kids are still drinking, Tom is STILL the manager, and most of the staff hasn't changed much either even though I think Tom has fired all of them at least a dozen times. It was almost surreal looking at all the new cliques and putting their "roles" with the roles played by my friends and I years ago. I'm not 20 anymore so the trip to C Street wasn't followed by a trip to Perkins but instead was followed by a massive hangover the next day. C Street helped me become who I am today and I still have many of the friends I met back then, but I'm glad I'm not a 19 year old C Street kid anymore!