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(11/13/00 2:26am)
Sunday Dec. 7, 1941, Eb Henson, 24, was quietly lying on his back in his bunk at IU trying to memorize lines for a play. His serene reading was interrupted -- shouts of "Turn on the radio! Turn on the radio!" thundered through the halls. With frantic curiosity, students jumped off their beds, stopped writing their homework assignments, ceased talking to friends and hurriedly rushed to the main lounge to listen.\n"I remember the moment clearly," Henson said. "All pandemonium broke loose. Japan had just attacked Pearl Harbor."\nLooking back 59 years later, Henson remembers how everyone around him felt they were listening to a sports game.\n"War was so alien to us," Henson said. "We felt it was a football game and they made their first touchdown but we were going to strike back and drive them out to victory."\nPositive it would settle in a couple of hours, Henson, mesmerized by the sound of bombs dropping one after another, sat still and listened attentively. He and many other men gathered in North Hall thought that in the fourth quarter, the Americans would charge down the playing field and end the war games. \nThis was their thinking at the start of World War II. Little did they realize this football game would last four years. \nLittle did Henson realize this game would directly affect three years of his life.\n"A lot of fellows volunteered right away," Henson said. "But (IU) President Wells made an announcement saying that those who were in school should stay until the end of the semester and complete their courses."\nEvery man age 18-21 was given a draft number, and Henson was told when his number was going to come up.\n"Wells also said that a draft would be coming soon and that we would be notified within ample time when we would be taken into the service," Henson said. "I knew that my number wasn't until after the semester, so I decided to stay at IU until I was called."\nThrough qualifying as an instructor for camping, scouting, riflery, swimming, various athletics, life saving, canoeing and rowing before his military service, Henson was on the road to surpass many limits within the Navy and later in life. \n"Some people think that they had four years stolen from their life, but I look at it as experiences that would never have happened to me otherwise. I'm going to be 78 in January," Henson said. "Three years is a small period in my life. It's a blink of an eye."\nLooking through Henson's past, one is able to see why three years is but a millisecond in a life filled with hours upon hours of constant aspirations that demanded accomplishment.\n"Life is not a dress rehearsal," Henson said."You go through it once, so enjoy every moment you can because you can't go back. That's why I live life and face life knowing I can't relive it."\n \nTales of Old IU\nHenson's journey began his freshman year at IU. Among his memories he recalls the tradition of burying Jawn Purdue's body in a wooden coffin next to a bon fire as part of the celebration before the Purdue-Indiana game.\n"Six of my buddies decided that it would be funny to resurrect old Purdue's body," Henson said. "So we dug him up and began a merry funeral procession through campus. We went through the commons and then to the girls' dorms with a following of 30 or more men."\nAt one point Henson climbed into the coffin and assumed the role of Old Jawn himself.\n"I feel sad sometimes because we did a lot of fun things that have fallen to the wayside," he said. "Students may remember a prom or a dance, but they are so busy with classes nowadays. I think it's a tragedy. We may have been a little outlandish. But it makes for great laughs when you look back."\nHenson also participated in the "Battle over Freshman Walk." This is also no longer a tradition at IU. The walkway that cuts through Dunn Meadow was known as the territory the sophomores had claimed. That did not last long with Henson and his freshman friends who brought paint to the sidewalk and wrote 'Freshman Walk' in big letters while chasing off the sophomores.\n"I think my freshman class was a feisty bunch," Henson said. "Maybe it was because we knew we would be drafted and had become cocky."\nHenson was called to war where he quickly moved up in the ranks and ended up being the first naval officer to enter Japan after the peace treaty had been signed. After WWII, Henson finished his studies at IU and moved on to create bigger goals for himself.\nIn Belize, Henson caught snakes and scorpions and dived into underwater caves in search of mastodon bones. He hiked through all the jungles in South America. He wrestled alligators in the jungles of Cuba and Florida. Henson was also the first man to give Jacques Cousteau's invention the Aqua-Lung a test run for a movie with MGM studios. \n"Failure has never been a part of my vocabulary," Henson said. "I learned from the Navy 'a good, well-organized retreat is sometimes the best advancement.'" \nWhile these concurred adventures all related to his athletic ability, Henson is also very aware of the arts.\n"We are on our 51st anniversary of the Pioneer Playhouse in Danville, Ky.," said Henson who is the director of the playhouse. "It is the oldest outdoor theater in the nation, and we have had famous actors graduate from our program."\nAmong Henson's well-known students are actor John Travolta, who attended the playhouse at age 15. Jim Varney, best known for his role as Ernest, attended the camp at age 18 and Lee Majors, who became the Six Million Dollar Man, was 15 when he participated in productions.\n"We are very well-known in New York and Hollywood as the finest place to come learn the theater during the summer," said Henson.\nBy no means has Henson "settled down." In fact, he might have just begun his most challenging venture right at home in Danville.\n"I have kept a diary since I was twelve years old," Henson said. "About three years ago I got out all that I had written, started reading it and decided to write my memoirs. I am currently in the process of finishing them."\nAbove all, Henson has strived to make every day of his life not a dress rehearsal, but rather a Broadway debut.
(10/26/00 7:13am)
The mother's motions are delicate and graceful as she picks up a can of carrots from an aisle in Kroger. Her curly brown hair twirls and springs off her shoulders encompassing her small round face with big brown eyes that mesmerize every passerby. The daughter wears a flowing ankle-length blue flowered skirt with a white T-shirt and short blonde hair. Her eyes sink into her face, and her thin crimson lips rarely speak. \nOr maybe the mother has long straight black hair, is 5-foot-4 with a pear-shaped body. Her eyes melt with all other features to give her a perfectly indistinguishable oval face. She is at a McDonald's drive-thru ordering a Quarter Pounder with cheese meal. Diet Coke. The daughter's stringy brown hair is loosely held away from her face by a blue elastic band. She has Umbro black shorts on with white trim and a gray IU T-shirt. She orders fries and a Sprite.\nBoth women could be anyone, anywhere. They are neighbors, friends, mothers, classmates, daughters, co-workers and wives. They are the people that you might interact with daily or that you might simply murmur a hello in passing. They participate in after-school sports, eat dinner together and go to the movies.\nBut there's one thing that you don't know and cannot see from the outside, and that's why they chose to be anonymous. And although no one is carrying a broom or wearing a black pointy hat, these women have been defined by society as witches. Witches whose unique religion would make Oct. 31 their most important holiday.\nEmily and Jessica are followers of Wicca, a neo-pagan religion that marks the beginning of the new year on Halloween.\n"The holiday is Samhain, and it is when the veil is most thin between our world and the spirit world," says 15-year-old Jessica.\n"It represents new life and death, allowing us to remember our ancestors that have passed before us," says Emily, a mother of two, who has practiced neo-paganism since she was a small girl. "It is easier for us to commune with the spirits on this day."\nAlthough Halloween is a holiday commercialized by costumes and treats, its tradition stems from an old English practice in which children went door to door begging for 'soul cakes' to feed the wandering spirits.\n"I'll go get candy with my friends," Jessica says. "I'll wear jeans and a T-shirt to go trick or treating just because I don't feel like dressing up this year, but I like celebrating it as 'Halloween' with my friends too (not Samhain)."\nJessica and Emily will celebrate their New Year, but it will not be visible to many.\n"Their beliefs are tied to an alternate states of consciousness," says Marty Laubach, a graduate student in sociology, who is studying neo-paganism. "They believe in a God but not in the Christian God or Jesus. They break their god down so that there are many different faces and aspects of their main god. They also have a goddess of equal status. Their religion celebrates eight Sabbats, the most important being the celtic holiday of Samhain because it represents the dead and the living, a cycle."\nLaubach says on Samhain wiccans believe that the souls of the dead are free to roam among the living. Most practitioners want to honor the dead on Halloween. A typical Halloween event for some wiccans might be having dinner with an extra plate and seat at the table for the spirits. The meal would be followed by a personalized ritual. \nEmily and Jessica are unsure of what they will do this year, but they do have a temple that honors their god and goddess where their rituals are usually held.\n"I was in Tawain once and saw this little oriental doll in a shop. There were many of them but this one spoke to me. What was unusual was that her head was broken," Emily says. "The goddess has many different faces. So now the doll is on the altar in the temple with her head next to her representing many different aspects of the goddess."\nTemples and sites of rituals are personal and connections vary from one wiccan's preference to another's.\n"I like the fact that I can feel it whenever I want to. I don't have to go to an organized place," Jessica says. "It comes to me in nature, I can feel the spirits all around me sometimes. It's a gust of wind, the smell of flowers. It's anything directly related to the universe."\nWiccans believe that all systems on the planet are interconnected, all is one. When one imbalance is caused in one area, the whole system is thrown out of balance. Acts of evil cause imbalances, and the work of witchcraft is toward balance and harmony.\n"The worst aspect of the religion is that the term has been greatly misused in the past," Laubach says. "Wiccans want to reclaim the term and honor the death of the witches burned during the inquisition because they were not evil people. To many wiccans the Burning Times, where many were persecuted because of their religion, is viewed by them as the Holocaust is to the Jewish people."\n"I want to stress that we are not Satan and do not practice satanic rituals," Jessica says.\nLaura Humpf, a senior majoring in psychology and a practicing wiccan, agrees.\n"The biggest misconception is black magic and Satan," Humpf says. "We don't not believe in Satan. We believe that life is great and creation and destruction are part of the natural cycles. It's a witches creed 'if it harm none do what you will.' Another thing people overlook is that if someone is practicing black magic we believe that whatever you do returns to you threefold. So if you were to curse someone you would get cursed three times."\nEven though Humpf has not been discriminated against on campus because of her beliefs, she does think a lot of people are still apprehensive. \n"We look like everyone else on campus. I mean, we have a life and do normal things so no one has ever really come up to me out of the blue and said something malicious," Humpf says. "But there are those people that automatically connect you with witches and evil."\nOn the other hand, Jessica only tells people she trusts about her beliefs. \n"I think my generation is more understanding, but I did have a boyfriend in sixth grade who came over to the house and saw my altar in my room with the pentagram," Jessica says. "He told me I was going to hell and then told my whole class that I was worshipping the devil."\nSince then Emily has been protective of her children, telling them to be very careful who they tell and asking them to cover their altars in their room when friends come over. \n"I don't want myself or my daughter to be identified because I work in a straight environment and people get very very paranoid," Emily says. "There is that fear in people that we are doing something dark and inappropriate. It's actually ignorance and it makes it unsafe. It's sad but when people can't accept us and are ignorant. I can't take a chance with my family."\nEmily and Jessica's names were changed to protect identity.
(10/26/00 4:00am)
The mother's motions are delicate and graceful as she picks up a can of carrots from an aisle in Kroger. Her curly brown hair twirls and springs off her shoulders encompassing her small round face with big brown eyes that mesmerize every passerby. The daughter wears a flowing ankle-length blue flowered skirt with a white T-shirt and short blonde hair. Her eyes sink into her face, and her thin crimson lips rarely speak. \nOr maybe the mother has long straight black hair, is 5-foot-4 with a pear-shaped body. Her eyes melt with all other features to give her a perfectly indistinguishable oval face. She is at a McDonald's drive-thru ordering a Quarter Pounder with cheese meal. Diet Coke. The daughter's stringy brown hair is loosely held away from her face by a blue elastic band. She has Umbro black shorts on with white trim and a gray IU T-shirt. She orders fries and a Sprite.\nBoth women could be anyone, anywhere. They are neighbors, friends, mothers, classmates, daughters, co-workers and wives. They are the people that you might interact with daily or that you might simply murmur a hello in passing. They participate in after-school sports, eat dinner together and go to the movies.\nBut there's one thing that you don't know and cannot see from the outside, and that's why they chose to be anonymous. And although no one is carrying a broom or wearing a black pointy hat, these women have been defined by society as witches. Witches whose unique religion would make Oct. 31 their most important holiday.\nEmily and Jessica are followers of Wicca, a neo-pagan religion that marks the beginning of the new year on Halloween.\n"The holiday is Samhain, and it is when the veil is most thin between our world and the spirit world," says 15-year-old Jessica.\n"It represents new life and death, allowing us to remember our ancestors that have passed before us," says Emily, a mother of two, who has practiced neo-paganism since she was a small girl. "It is easier for us to commune with the spirits on this day."\nAlthough Halloween is a holiday commercialized by costumes and treats, its tradition stems from an old English practice in which children went door to door begging for 'soul cakes' to feed the wandering spirits.\n"I'll go get candy with my friends," Jessica says. "I'll wear jeans and a T-shirt to go trick or treating just because I don't feel like dressing up this year, but I like celebrating it as 'Halloween' with my friends too (not Samhain)."\nJessica and Emily will celebrate their New Year, but it will not be visible to many.\n"Their beliefs are tied to an alternate states of consciousness," says Marty Laubach, a graduate student in sociology, who is studying neo-paganism. "They believe in a God but not in the Christian God or Jesus. They break their god down so that there are many different faces and aspects of their main god. They also have a goddess of equal status. Their religion celebrates eight Sabbats, the most important being the celtic holiday of Samhain because it represents the dead and the living, a cycle."\nLaubach says on Samhain wiccans believe that the souls of the dead are free to roam among the living. Most practitioners want to honor the dead on Halloween. A typical Halloween event for some wiccans might be having dinner with an extra plate and seat at the table for the spirits. The meal would be followed by a personalized ritual. \nEmily and Jessica are unsure of what they will do this year, but they do have a temple that honors their god and goddess where their rituals are usually held.\n"I was in Tawain once and saw this little oriental doll in a shop. There were many of them but this one spoke to me. What was unusual was that her head was broken," Emily says. "The goddess has many different faces. So now the doll is on the altar in the temple with her head next to her representing many different aspects of the goddess."\nTemples and sites of rituals are personal and connections vary from one wiccan's preference to another's.\n"I like the fact that I can feel it whenever I want to. I don't have to go to an organized place," Jessica says. "It comes to me in nature, I can feel the spirits all around me sometimes. It's a gust of wind, the smell of flowers. It's anything directly related to the universe."\nWiccans believe that all systems on the planet are interconnected, all is one. When one imbalance is caused in one area, the whole system is thrown out of balance. Acts of evil cause imbalances, and the work of witchcraft is toward balance and harmony.\n"The worst aspect of the religion is that the term has been greatly misused in the past," Laubach says. "Wiccans want to reclaim the term and honor the death of the witches burned during the inquisition because they were not evil people. To many wiccans the Burning Times, where many were persecuted because of their religion, is viewed by them as the Holocaust is to the Jewish people."\n"I want to stress that we are not Satan and do not practice satanic rituals," Jessica says.\nLaura Humpf, a senior majoring in psychology and a practicing wiccan, agrees.\n"The biggest misconception is black magic and Satan," Humpf says. "We don't not believe in Satan. We believe that life is great and creation and destruction are part of the natural cycles. It's a witches creed 'if it harm none do what you will.' Another thing people overlook is that if someone is practicing black magic we believe that whatever you do returns to you threefold. So if you were to curse someone you would get cursed three times."\nEven though Humpf has not been discriminated against on campus because of her beliefs, she does think a lot of people are still apprehensive. \n"We look like everyone else on campus. I mean, we have a life and do normal things so no one has ever really come up to me out of the blue and said something malicious," Humpf says. "But there are those people that automatically connect you with witches and evil."\nOn the other hand, Jessica only tells people she trusts about her beliefs. \n"I think my generation is more understanding, but I did have a boyfriend in sixth grade who came over to the house and saw my altar in my room with the pentagram," Jessica says. "He told me I was going to hell and then told my whole class that I was worshipping the devil."\nSince then Emily has been protective of her children, telling them to be very careful who they tell and asking them to cover their altars in their room when friends come over. \n"I don't want myself or my daughter to be identified because I work in a straight environment and people get very very paranoid," Emily says. "There is that fear in people that we are doing something dark and inappropriate. It's actually ignorance and it makes it unsafe. It's sad but when people can't accept us and are ignorant. I can't take a chance with my family."\nEmily and Jessica's names were changed to protect identity.
(09/18/00 6:07am)
Over their hearts were yellow ribbons on their Sunday clothes. Next to the ribbon, some had a yellow heart with the name 'Jill' written in script in navy blue, and some had a small red IU pin. Everyone was at the First United Methodist Church on Fourth Street not only out of faith but for Jill Behrman. Sunday, Jill turned 20 years old, and friends, family and even some strangers gathered to celebrate her birthday.\n"We are throwing a big party, and the guest of honor cannot be with us," Pastor Howard Boles said. \nJill Behrman, who had just finished her freshman year at IU, has been missing since May 31, after what was once a routine bike ride through Bloomington.\n"But we will celebrate as if she is here because deep in my heart I believe one of two things," Boles said. "The first possibility is that Jill is there somewhere and she knows that today is her birthday and she wonders what we are doing to mark that special day, and the other is that she is here in spirit and we need to be real honest and say this. We don't know which is the case, but in either circumstance we are going to celebrate because one way or another she is here."\nA large display of yellow roses shines in front of Ladies First, a choir group, that has begun the birthday celebration by forming a semicircle around the pulpit. The 200 people at the church silently look ahead.\nBrian Behrman is in the third pew.\n "A lot of times it feels like a dream," Brian said. "It feels like it's not really happening. This isn't something that would happen to us, in this town, to my family. You hear it in the news, but you think this doesn't happen to you, but it did and that's what makes it hit home to me.\n"My parents had called me (at work) the night before and said, 'Where's Jill?' I don't know, but she has a lot of friends. She's probably just out doing something with them. It was really weird, but it wasn't. It was just weird that her bike wasn't home, but I didn't think much of it because it was summer time, it was only midnight ' not that late."\nPastor Boles once again addresses the congregation as the choir quietly walks to their pews with their heads bowed. \n"My roommate called me at work and left a message with my boss because she couldn't find me," Brian said. "She said it was very important, so I called him back, and he said 'I didn't want to leave you this message, but your parents just called, and Jill still hasn't come home.' That's when it really hit me. So I called mom at work. No answer. Then dad at work. No answer. Then I realized that they would be home so I called there, and the phone rang and rang and rang, and no one ever picked up. Eventually I got a hold of my dad on his cell phone, and he was driving around in his car on routes he knew that Jill would ride on."\nThe pastor has drawn attention to a white, 5-inch wide candle. He says it's like candles that would probably be placed on Jill's cake before she got ready to blow them out and make a wish. This particular candle marks the gift of the day, he said, and much like its lasting flame it signifies the ways in which Jill continues to touch people's lives.\n"I remember it was 11-ish, I'm in tears. I mean, this is a major problem. They can't find my sister. I look up at my manager and say 'They can't find my sister; I've got to go.' I spent that day with my dad in his car just driving around. We drove along (Ind.) 45 probably back and forth toward Unionville six times that day. We went out to Lake Lemon a couple of times and got home at 4.\n"One of my friends had heard about what happened, came over and he and I went to the Student Building, scanned a picture of her and went out putting up fliers. By then she had been gone for 24 hours."\nStanding in the middle of the church, the pastor describes the impact the Behrmans have had on others. He describes how their strength has been an inspiration. He describes how their perseverance has guided them. He describes how their tears touched them. And he describes how his ministry is richer for knowing them and standing together in the uncertainty of these days. Heads are bowed, and a small prayer of hope is whispered. A moment of silence is given for individual prayers.\n"I remember I couldn't sleep very well and woke up at around 5 a.m. I got up, took a shower, ate some breakfast and took a flier I had and went to Kinko's to get a bunch of copies made. I went to small gas stations and just spent the day putting up fliers."\nThe a capella group Straight No Chaser, whose members are also friends of the Behrmans, begins a light rhythmic song. 'When you're weak, I will hold you/when you cry, I'll be your tears…'\n"The last time I spoke to her she came to my softball game. I play on my church team, and she and I were talking after the game about me taking her out to dinner because she was going to leave to go to camp as a counselor. So, we were talking about when would be a good time to get dinner, just the two of us, and the last thing I said to her was 'OK, I'll call and talk to you later,' and she said 'OK, see you later,' and that's the last thing I said to her."\nJunior Brian Kelly moves forward and begins a solo of "Amazing Grace." \n"Amazing grace/how sweet the sound/that saved a wretch like me/I once was lost/but now I'm found…"\n"One time I don't know how this happened, but we ended up in an argument. We were on the bus back home from elementary school and I got really upset, and I had the key to the house," Brian said with a small laugh. "I was in sixth grade, and she was in fourth. When the bus stopped, I ran out and left her locked outside for an hour. I don't even remember what the argument stems from, but that's one of the things I really remember."\nThe singing stops, and everyone is reminded they are here with mixed feelings to celebrate the life of a very special person on the day of her birth. And that they are still waiting for news of her whereabouts. \n"Jill is very athletic and is in good shape. On her bike, it would have been really hard to stop her unless you're someone she knows, which makes me believe it might have been someone she knows. But there's always a possibility because when she rode she wore a radio. I told her it wasn't safe because you can't hear anything but anyways, maybe she was sitting on the side of the road, fixing her bike or something and had her back toward the person.\n"It's hard to say exactly what happened. It could have been someone she knows, and it could have been someone she didn't know, and that's everybody in the world," Brian said. "My assumption is that it's somebody she didn't know, because it's hard for me to believe that someone she knew would do something like that."\nEveryone is asked to stand up and holds hands to form a circle of friends as a moment of prayer is shared.\n"The hardest thing is not knowing where she is, not seeing her, not being able to talk to her for over three months. Like I said we were best friends, and this is the longest I've gone without talking to her or seeing her."\nAs the service finishes, members take small prayer notes they wrote before the service and tie them to a yellow string attached to a bright yellow balloon. \nA father embraces his weeping daughter; a friend wipes tears rolling down his cheek; a woman offers some words of encouragement as she takes another tissue out of her pocket. It might seem odd that people with red watery eyes and runny noses have gathered to sing "Happy Birthday" outside a church, but today it is quite appropriate. After all, this is a celebration for a very special birthday girl.\n"I think about her a whole lot. I still carry her senior picture in my wallet, and it's not the most recent of pictures. But that doesn't matter to me.That's the only way I can see her unless I want to look at a sign that says 'missing' in big bold letters while I'm looking at it, and that isn't always the way I want to see her face. I think about her every day. Every day, every hour, at least once, all the time."\nThe crystal blue sky is splashed with yellow balloons that take with them the hope of many.\nThere is a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for Jill Behrman's disappearance. Call 349-3313 or (800) 937-3448.
(09/14/00 9:15am)
The line of students snakes down the street and around the corner. As they get ready to enter the bar, it's easy to see why it is the second largest in Indiana. It's not even the weekend yet, and tonight 17 Kilroy's Sports bartenders will serve 1,500 people. \nIn a corner of the bar, Sports bartender Justin Morgan rhythmically mixes drinks. If his hands were to stop for a moment, you could get a glimpse of a bartender's wound. A bite mark scars the upper part of his right wrist. \nThe wound is a reminder of a typical situation on this typical night of bartending at Kilroy's.\n"Two guys started punching each other and for some reason the staff didn't get there or didn't see it. So I took off my apron and jumped over the bar with another bartender," Morgan, a junior, says. "As I was holding down one of the guys, he bit me." \nThe average bar fight usually flares because a guy looks at someone the wrong way, or two guys bump into each other trying to get through the crowd. \n"It's actually really hard not to bump into someone because it's always so crowded," Morgan says. "When I was working as a server I must have dropped about $100 worth of liquor just from people bumping into me."\nTonight three feet of wood separate the nearest customer from Morgan. \nA group of girls walk toward the corner bar. \n"Hello ladies, can I get you something tonight?" says Morgan.\nThey order six tequila shots and two amaretto sours, a Captain and Coke and three individual pitchers of Long Island Iced Tea. As Morgan prepares the shots, a man asks for drinks and is asked politely to wait one minute. Two hands turn four bottles of liquor upside down at the same time into a pitcher of ice, three times. \nHe prepares three other drinks and puts lemon on the shots. Two minutes later, he collects money from the girls, gives them change back and takes the next order ' all while laboring under the gaze of eight more customers leaning on the bar.\n"What most people don't understand is that the job is very demanding," Morgan says. "I mean, it's fun and I love it, but when there are 50 people all waiting for drinks at the same time, you can get stressed out."\nMorgan started working for Yogi's but got fired because he missed a mandatory meeting with excise police. \n"I know all my friends make fun of me because of it," Morgan says. \nHe headed to Kilroy's Sports, 319 N. Walnut St., and applied a little more than a year ago. \n"You have to start off as a server and then you can be moved up to a bartender," Morgan says. "I've been bartending now for the past seven months." \nAnd do people actually tell bartenders their stories? Morgan says that most people do talk to him and that's how a bartender builds a regular clientele. \n"Usually there are more regulars during the day, but I have about 40 to 50," Morgan says. "I see them as soon as they walk in the door, and before they get to the bar, I have their drink ready for them. I also try and get to them first if I'm really busy. They always come in and tip me very well."\nAlong with the conversational aspect of the job, Morgan says he likes introducing people to new drinks and the different liquors.\n"I think one of my favorite parts of the job is teaching people how to drink," Morgan says. "When I was living in Sigma Pi, I drank just to get drunk. But now I drink to appreciate the liquor, and I want other people to learn that. So when time allows I tell people about the different types of brands they can get."\nUnfortunately, on a busy night, there's no time for a lesson on which vodka tastes better with which fruit juice. It's just taking the orders, making the drinks and moving on to the next person.\n"Some bartenders will take the time and talk to a girl, but I'm supporting myself at school." Morgan says. "So I treat it like a job and try to move on quickly,"\nMorgan says that every bartender can tell when a girl is interested. \n"She usually ends up giving you a huge tip. I mean major overtipping." \nJanet Jackson's "Black Cat" starts playing at the stroke of midnight as the door closes for a while. The bar is too packed. \n"I think the worst thing is when you're really busy and someone waves their money at you or hits your arm with it," Morgan says. "That's really frustrating because you see them, you acknowledge them but you can only make drinks so fast."\nMorgan says most people are nice about it but sometimes people forget that you're actually working a job. The biggest bar faux pas? Not knowing what you want. \n"I mean, we're not trying to be mean, but if we have eight people waiting for drinks and you come up and have no idea what you want, we have to move on to the next person," he says.\nThe last person is served close to 3 a.m., and the bar is cleared. Servers begin doing their clean up work and reach home at about 5 a.m. \n"I'm up for a couple hours after work so that's when I usually study," says Morgan, a business student.\nThe next day begins with a difficult wake up at 3 p.m. and classes until 7 p.m. Then back to Kilroy's at 8 p.m., where Morgan gets ready for another packed house.
(09/14/00 4:00am)
The line of students snakes down the street and around the corner. As they get ready to enter the bar, it's easy to see why it is the second largest in Indiana. It's not even the weekend yet, and tonight 17 Kilroy's Sports bartenders will serve 1,500 people. \nIn a corner of the bar, Sports bartender Justin Morgan rhythmically mixes drinks. If his hands were to stop for a moment, you could get a glimpse of a bartender's wound. A bite mark scars the upper part of his right wrist. \nThe wound is a reminder of a typical situation on this typical night of bartending at Kilroy's.\n"Two guys started punching each other and for some reason the staff didn't get there or didn't see it. So I took off my apron and jumped over the bar with another bartender," Morgan, a junior, says. "As I was holding down one of the guys, he bit me." \nThe average bar fight usually flares because a guy looks at someone the wrong way, or two guys bump into each other trying to get through the crowd. \n"It's actually really hard not to bump into someone because it's always so crowded," Morgan says. "When I was working as a server I must have dropped about $100 worth of liquor just from people bumping into me."\nTonight three feet of wood separate the nearest customer from Morgan. \nA group of girls walk toward the corner bar. \n"Hello ladies, can I get you something tonight?" says Morgan.\nThey order six tequila shots and two amaretto sours, a Captain and Coke and three individual pitchers of Long Island Iced Tea. As Morgan prepares the shots, a man asks for drinks and is asked politely to wait one minute. Two hands turn four bottles of liquor upside down at the same time into a pitcher of ice, three times. \nHe prepares three other drinks and puts lemon on the shots. Two minutes later, he collects money from the girls, gives them change back and takes the next order ' all while laboring under the gaze of eight more customers leaning on the bar.\n"What most people don't understand is that the job is very demanding," Morgan says. "I mean, it's fun and I love it, but when there are 50 people all waiting for drinks at the same time, you can get stressed out."\nMorgan started working for Yogi's but got fired because he missed a mandatory meeting with excise police. \n"I know all my friends make fun of me because of it," Morgan says. \nHe headed to Kilroy's Sports, 319 N. Walnut St., and applied a little more than a year ago. \n"You have to start off as a server and then you can be moved up to a bartender," Morgan says. "I've been bartending now for the past seven months." \nAnd do people actually tell bartenders their stories? Morgan says that most people do talk to him and that's how a bartender builds a regular clientele. \n"Usually there are more regulars during the day, but I have about 40 to 50," Morgan says. "I see them as soon as they walk in the door, and before they get to the bar, I have their drink ready for them. I also try and get to them first if I'm really busy. They always come in and tip me very well."\nAlong with the conversational aspect of the job, Morgan says he likes introducing people to new drinks and the different liquors.\n"I think one of my favorite parts of the job is teaching people how to drink," Morgan says. "When I was living in Sigma Pi, I drank just to get drunk. But now I drink to appreciate the liquor, and I want other people to learn that. So when time allows I tell people about the different types of brands they can get."\nUnfortunately, on a busy night, there's no time for a lesson on which vodka tastes better with which fruit juice. It's just taking the orders, making the drinks and moving on to the next person.\n"Some bartenders will take the time and talk to a girl, but I'm supporting myself at school." Morgan says. "So I treat it like a job and try to move on quickly,"\nMorgan says that every bartender can tell when a girl is interested. \n"She usually ends up giving you a huge tip. I mean major overtipping." \nJanet Jackson's "Black Cat" starts playing at the stroke of midnight as the door closes for a while. The bar is too packed. \n"I think the worst thing is when you're really busy and someone waves their money at you or hits your arm with it," Morgan says. "That's really frustrating because you see them, you acknowledge them but you can only make drinks so fast."\nMorgan says most people are nice about it but sometimes people forget that you're actually working a job. The biggest bar faux pas? Not knowing what you want. \n"I mean, we're not trying to be mean, but if we have eight people waiting for drinks and you come up and have no idea what you want, we have to move on to the next person," he says.\nThe last person is served close to 3 a.m., and the bar is cleared. Servers begin doing their clean up work and reach home at about 5 a.m. \n"I'm up for a couple hours after work so that's when I usually study," says Morgan, a business student.\nThe next day begins with a difficult wake up at 3 p.m. and classes until 7 p.m. Then back to Kilroy's at 8 p.m., where Morgan gets ready for another packed house.