Column: Becoming a Townie

By Chris Chiapuzio

I’m not from Stevens Point. I had visited for long weekends at the Holidome with my family. I came down a few times with my Northland Pines classmates to watch our Eagles beat SPASH in hockey.

That’s all I knew about Stevens Point…the Holidome, SPASH hockey, and Happy Joe’s pizza.

I spent my senior year abroad, and when my mom told me I had been accepted and enrolled at UWSP, I was not happy. I wanted to go to Madison. She said UWSP was closer to home, and she had “forgotten” to forward my application to UW Madison.

After a few tantrums and a million eye rolls later (the eye rolls that only a 17-year-old-know-it-all can perform), I officially became a Pointer in 1988.

We Pointers pretty much stuck to the campus side of town. We crossed streets on campus without looking for oncoming cars. Heck, we even crossed Division St without looking for cars. We were college students…and we owned Point for about nine months every year. We went to house parties, often cutting through yards on our way to (and more so from) those parties.

We frequented Ella’s, Bruiser’s, and Partner’s, and if we were really feeling wild, maybe a quick stop at Papa Joe’s on the way back to the dorms.

We rented a college house on Briggs Street in 1990. Six girls, one bathroom, and a landlord that only cared about our cash. That was fine. We thought we were ‘da bombs. We would check in on our neighbor, Aggie. We never knew her back story, but we would run to the store if she needed something. A biker family owned the house across the street.

We thought it was pretty cool when their friends would come over, and they’d all head out on their Harleys, wearing matching jackets with patches that read, “Only the Lonely”.

Yep, as Pointers, we brought so much to this little hick town. We brought in money, no doubt. We brought fun. We brought education. This town died every summer when we all went home. Point only came back to life when we came back in September.

Or so I thought.

Towards the end of my senior year, I somehow ended up at Frank & Ernie’s on Second Street. I think we stopped there because some of my college friends from South Africa liked the place. It was an OK place; cheap drinks, great food, and some crazy Polish guy behind the bar. It became a regular after-house-party hangout.

When I graduated, I didn’t have a job lined up. I didn’t want to go home, and I got a crazy cheap rent rate for the summer at that house on Briggs. I needed a job. I asked Frank (of Frank & Ernie’s) if I could apply for the summer. I guess that story involves a pitcher of Chuckleheads and a dance on the bar, I’m not 100 percent sure. But I got the job.

That first summer, I can’t tell you how many times I was asked “who are you from home?”

What the heck did that even mean? But they all knew I wasn’t from here.

The summer of 1992 was a lot of fun. I met some real, honest-to-goodness townies. Only the Lonely came in one day as a group. I will never forget that day. I was freaking out; I pulled out plastic cups, because this was a motorcycle gang, and who knows what could happen? Mickey made it clear, he did not drink from plastic. That was the first day of a very long friendship.

I went to a friend’s house, and they had a turtle hanging from a tree in the back yard. Why? For turtle soup, of course.

I went to my first Polish wedding. I had never been to anything like that. It was crazy to me that they invited families, not guests. The food was amazing, and Frank almost made me throw up with how fast he could spin me in a polka.

I met the Riverjumpers. They were a pretty cool group. I met the girls that hung with the Riverjumpers. They were even cooler. They welcomed me. They named me Dish. It has stuck to this day.

I even played on my first softball league ever that summer. When Tim “Shoe” Sullivan traded me to Barrell Inn for a bag of Beer Nuts, that was the end of my softball career. But not my friendships.

I finally learned Aggie’s backstory. Had I known that back when, I would have been even kinder to her. She was actually a pretty amazing lady. A little eccentric, but I will never forget her.

I met some characters, too. Some crazy guy who claimed to be a sports writer. I swear that guy never combed his hair, and would turn his t-shirt inside out so he didn’t have to wash it. To this day, I still love that guy.

I met the Georges, and still see Junior once in a while. We can still banter about the Lions versus the Packers.

I didn’t know they lived just two doors down from that house on Briggs. God rest George’s soul. He was a great man. And Dick Jones. He actually introduced himself as “Dick Jones, Stevens Point, Wisconsin.”

And I met my husband. We’ve been married almost 22 years now. I married into a big extended family, which is pretty cool. I will not say whether or not I consider this clan to be characters. I will say, I fit in, and I’m glad they’re my family. My sister-in-law now lives in the biker house. Pretty cool.

I have another Point family. That crazy Polish guy from Frank & Ernie’s is one of my best friends. As are his wife and kids (and their spouses and kids). Again, no comments on being characters, but I’m so happy they’ve always accepted me as part of their family, too. I’m truly blessed.

I’ve had a few jobs since that first one. I waited table at Southpoint. Great place, great food, and Ed is another character. I love that man. I tended bar at Big Todd’s for a while. I worked at WIZD when Pat Shanahan, Jim Schuh, Scotty Krueger and Oz were in the booth.

I worked at Sentry, and now at Steel King. Not what I expected to do with an advertising degree, but I love the company.

I learned that Point does not go into hibernation in the summer. We have church picnics, music festivals, movies in the park and summer sports leagues. I love the farmer’s market on the Square. I love summer days at Lake Emily, bonfires with friends, and outdoor weddings at Iverson. Brewer buses, polka fests, cookouts, and Riverfront.

Point actually comes alive in the summer.

Something has changed in the last 26 years. I avoid the campus side of town from September through May. It irritates me to no end that those college kids cross the street without even looking. Same with the Square. And when I see a group cutting through yards on a Friday night, I have to fight the urge to yell out the window that there are sidewalks.

I’ll be forever grateful, though, for the university. It does bring a lot of diversity and opportunity to our little town. I guess I’ve lived the best of both worlds.

Perhaps Mom knew best…I can’t imagine that I would have found a new “home” in Madison.

When someone asks me now “who I am from home”, I know what that means.

From home, I’m Chris Lee from Eagle River. But now, I’m Chris “The Dish” Chiapuzio from Stevens Point. I’m not sure exactly when it happened, but I’m a Townie, and proud of it!

Chiapuzio can be reached at [email protected].