Column: ‘My City Was Gone’

By Mark Colrud

As I’m a old-timer who likes to recall his past, I was going through many tunes I liked on YouTube.

One of my favorites was the Pretenders doing a tune that Chrissie Hynde wrote, called “My City Was Gone”…it makes me realize how true that really is when I think of Stevens Point and Plover.

I was born and graduated high school in Point but moved away many years ago due to work requirements but always found time to return to my favorite city, Stevens Point.

Each and every time that I return it seems that there’s been changes and if you ask most old timer’s they’ll tell you that change is hard to go through.

The real sadness to me are the places that were so important in our past. Bill’s Pizza (why did you move? We liked the old place with the aroma of Italian cookery being made), Wanta’s Bowling Alley, of which I still have a craving for a roast beef sandwich. Then some of my favorite Bistro’s for a great dinner out like Mickey’s (drunken chicken pizza still rocks), Hot Fish Shop (double order of shrimp, please!) and Bernard’s Supper Club (which always made me feel like I was in Munich or somewhere in Bavaria).

Now…I don’t know about you, but I really miss those 18-year-old beer bars. Great places like Romie’s (would get caught up on the latest townie news), Brat Barn, Pour House and Little Joe’s. The only way a person can see any of these places is through pictures or some rare video from that era.

As for Plover…I was the third police officer hired there, and worked for a year or so before deciding that it was not truly meant for me. Today, the area around Plover is foreign and I’m not familiar with all the new business that went up.

All in all…I still love Point and Plover and love coming back as much as possible…. providing my GPS is still working.

If you get on YouTube…listen to the Pretenders doing “My City Was Gone” and while listening tell me that the aroma of Bill’s Pizza roast beef or a Big Ern’s Roast beef start wafting through the air.