The Grove

I was stuck in Downers Grove working in our office there for a couple of days, so that got me thinking about a bar I used to hang out in my twenties. Back when I was at the height of my softball playing days I was on two teams that were sponsored by a bar called the Grove. Which meant, that I would spend two separate week nights of summer evenings hoisting drinks at the dive of all dives.

The Grove is located on Kean Avenue in Willow Springs. To say it was seedy is not doing the place justice. It is located across the street from a cemetery and next to a horse stable. The place was never crowded. It usually had the same old bar flies bellied up to the bar drinking their Old Style.

We were sponsored by the place simply because Troy, the guy who ran the Peace Frogs knew the owner. As much as it indeed was a dive, it did have some advantages. As the place was never crowded we pretty much had the run of the place. We controlled the jukebox, the dartboard and the pool table. The drinks were pretty cheap and the bar loved us simply because we brought a crowd into the place. I mean on nights our teams played their profits were 10x better then on other nights.

On top of the team itself coming to the bar, girlfriends and other friends of the team would show up. I mean some nights we would pack the place and it would actually be buzzing as our posse would drink, bullshit and play some darts. I have a lot of good and some not so good memories from the grove.

One of my favorite memories was the night of my twenty second birthday. My twenty first birthday was spent on Rush Street drinking the night away. For my twenty second I was at the Grove after a softball game. The bartender put twenty two shots of Rumpelmans on the bar and light them all. I blew them out and the shots were passed around and consumed by the members of my team and friends.

Another favorite memory was when this old haggard Grove regular decided to hit on Dell. We were playing darts that night and after we finished Dell went to the bar to order some drinks. There the bar fly took one long drag off of her Pall Mall sized Dell and up and said in the most sultry voice she could muster, “So, you play darts, huh.” I don’t think Dell acted on her advances.

I also have some not so good memories. One of which was when “Gator” the asshole bartender came to the pool table we were about to use and put out a line of coke right on it and proceeded to snort it. Or the huge dog that the owner had. I once made the mistake of leaving a burrito at the table as I was went to the bar to order a beer. I looked over and saw this giant dog inhale the burrito in one bite. I would have hated to clean up that dog’s mess the next day.

Most nights though were uneventful. We hung out and knocked back a couple of cold ones and relived the game we had just played. It was a great time in my life in that no one was married, no one had kids, we were all young and we could all drink on a Tuesday night and not have to worry about getting up the next day. Sure the Grove was seedy, but it was our bar. It was a vessel for all of us to hang out at. As my friends and I get older and we now have adult lives with adult responsibilities we see less and less of each other. So, I guess that is why when I remember those nights spent at the Grove I look back at them with fondness.