In my senior year (1973) I lived in one of the two upstairs apartments in a house at 813 Shelden, where the Jimmy John’s parking lot is now and laundry was in the basement of the house next door where Jimmy John’s is now.  Bookworm was a paint store. The guys downstairs were friends from high school and one of them was restoring a 1941, 12-cylinder Lincoln Zephyr in the garage. One of our favorite things to do was to go down to the Copper Country Bakery for some éclairs.

Gary Kaatz ‘73

I attended Tech in the Seventies during the Disco Craze. I was an avid dancer and enjoyed spending my evening on Shelden bouncing back and forth between Mikes (on the East end of Downtown I believe now housing the Keweenaw Title Company) and the Longshot Bar (in the 400 block?). The Longshot had a sunken dance floor and Mikes had a heck of light show. The Longshot held a Dance Contest shortly after the release of the movie “Saturday Night Fever”. My partner and I took second place. We won a copy of the movie sound track. I still have that album, but my turntables are long gone.

John P. Taylor ’81

The number one destination would have to be Tony’s Redwing Lounge. About 9 or 9:30 in the house where I lived the cry would be heard “Tonys anyone?”  Then the rush to the cars would commence.

Chuck Laurila ME ’59

Where did I use to go? Well The Library of course. (and a few other bars.)

Steve Reynolds ‘75

I had three favorite spots on Shelden Avenue back in the mid-1950′s:

1) Andy’s Teen Center. This was upstairs from Andy’s restaurant (pasties were pretty good there). The Teen Center was always crowded on the weekends with local “ditas,” and there were lots of polkas played.

2) WHDF studio in the Douglas Houghton Hotel. I used to like to hang with the DJ “Johnnie O.”  I think his last name was Oakvic, or something similar. He might have been the DJ who started the “Blue Skirt Waltz” rage, but I do not know that for a fact.

3) The Lode Theater, for the movies, although I preferred the balcony at the Kerredge in Hancock.

Art Wildblood ’59
St. Augustine, FL

A group of us Tech seniors lived in the west wing of the Douglas Hotel in 63-64. We had a large common room we redecorated during the fall. Across the hotel on Sheldon street was a paint store (Dutch Boy?) that supplied us our paint and wall paper. Best of all it employed a young lady named Nancy who was extremely helpful and cute. Being the boldest of the group I took it upon myself to become our spokesman and spent a good deal of time with her picking out the just the right colors and paper.  By December, I had a date. I continued to date her until the end of summer term. No, it didn’t end in a proposal or anything after I left Tech, but for my senior year, I did have dates. More than a lot of guys could say.

Steve Pribish ’64

Sheldon Avenue has changed. As late as the 70′s you could buy gas just before entering the street from College Avenue. We had an account there for our truck at St. Al’s. Before I had a car we would walk to the Lode for the movies, sometimes twice in the same week. Groceries came from the Central Market, and our favorite place for pizza was the Ambassador. I think I drank more beer on Sheldon Avenue before I was 21 than after. The Isle Royal bar was a favorite because we could go in as a group and order by the pitcher and if at least one of us was legal, that was all that was necessary. The Sears and Penny’s stores were sources for a lot of clothing and hardware. I still have the wheel barrow I bought at Montgomery Wards, and most of the tools in my box came from the Sears store.

The bridge has always been an attraction and I could not count how many times I’ve been over it. No matter how many times I saw it go up and down, if I were downtown when I heard the horn, every attempt was made to watch. It is an engineering marvel. When the better movie was at the Pic or we had seen the one at the Lode, we would walk across. It was not fun to wait for it to go up in inclement weather but we did wait on more than one occasion. I think I remember best how riding on the lower level grating threw my tandem bicycle around a bit more than was comfortable. I have to say; though, that it really has not looked right since it was painted something other than the silver.

Gregory Switek ‘72

Hot fudge brownie sundaes at the Big Boy or the Ambassador for a sandwich.

Debbie Hamm ‘78

I was a student at MT in pursuit of a degree in mechanical engineering and graduated in 1961. There were interesting memories of night time adventures to some of the local refreshment establishments. The ones that I remember were the Library. Dog House, City Bar, and the Ambassador Bar. The City Bar was popular since a glass was 10 cents. Also, there were ones in Hancock that I recall. Two that come to mind were the Pizza place and the Golden Peasant (Brass Duck). The Ambassador Bar on Sheldon was special to me since it was just down the hill from my apartment. It was a quiet place back then. It was owned by an interesting gentleman named Bernie Von Duett (sp). His son was a Russian History Professor at MT and made history very interesting to me during a period of my life when history to this engineer was not the highest on my priority list. Stopping at the Ambassador was a place that consisted of having a cold one in this quiet atmosphere, enjoying the murals of the Elfs making beer and playing cards and listening to Bernie talk of days of old. As I recall he stated that the bar was a tavern with the impressive back bar and booths that were individually curtained and was open during prohibition. The story was that revenue agents could only investigate a specific address during a raid and that many taverns had a different address for the basement, first floor, second and third floors. Thus, any announcement of a raid could easily be handled by a transfer of patrons to a different story and of course nobody was home at the selected address. The Ambassador was a little different. Bernie stated that whenever the establishment got word of a raid by revenue agents, the patrons were instructed to use the fire escape chute that would slide them into the portage canal shoreline. I still enjoy stopping at the Ambassador since it still has some of that old time atmosphere along with good food and a can of that old fire brewed beer.

Walter Mattson ‘61

We believe it was the Vandette family who owned the Ambassador in 1961. Check out these additional details on the murals! 

As Freshman in 1972, we were given a MTU mug provided by Ed Haas & Company. Still have mine in my MTU bookcase.  Mugs were part of an orientation/registration packet.

John Van Huis BSCE Civil Engineering ’76

Alright, everyone: that’s your challenge for next time. What’s your favorite piece of Tech memorabilia? I bought a simple grey and black t-shirt right after I was accepted to my PhD program in 2006. That was the same trip I bought my house in Hancock. It’s seen better days, but it’s still my favorite. –Kevin