MJ's Pub and Golf Center

ANALYSIS: This is the first installment into the Bingotown night life. This will mostly be a selection of the local pubs, bars, taverns, saloons, churches and other establishments that may serve alcohol to all us Krack Staff Komrades, and their friends alike. The KSKs have all been hitting the bottle for quite some time, yet they never seem to get any good at it. For example, one time, on a spectator bus trip to Port Jervis, your webmaster, Josh "Nougat Moneyshot" Oryhon consumed an entire bottle of Hot Damn! Schnapps andproceeded to puke 19 times right in the back of the damn bus. To this day, h estill can't turn down a shot of it from Willy when we're all at Corky's. In another "Will he ever learn?" story, Jason "Greatgoogilymoogily" Weston at a party at his own house, attempted to do shots with Jason "Meat" Donlin, and proceeded to puke all over the backyard. Shoot forward to the year 2002, at the Northern Lights - Weston and Meat took some shots again, but this time, Mr. Weston saved the vomit for the bathroom. A weak performance, but to his credit, he washed the vomit down with 1.4 million beers and some Spot Diner. Talk about not learning from past drinking mistakes. Jason "Meat" Donlin has been puking on the State Street ramp ever since Mark "China" Wheldon and Mike "Big Daddy" Cooke taught him how to drink back in high school. Just two weeks ago, Meat puked eleventeen thousand and six times on it. Aiight, this little intro shows that we know how to party down in Binghamton, but we're no good at it. So without further ado, I introduce you to the Guide to Binghamton, NY Nightlife section of the Page, a place to learn where we're getting shitfaced and who we're getting shitfaced with.

I'm going to dedicate this first installment to a Bar that has come and gone, but created many memories, and also destroyed many brain cells. This is a bar called MJ's, located just on the outskirts of the downtown Binghamton drinking scene, but right in the heart of Krack Staff Komrade land. MJ's was a dirty place, it smelled bad, was cold in the winter, hot in the summer, the toilets didn't flush, and there were holes in the wall, but it was the perfect environment for under-age rowdiness. MJ's was the underage mecca for Bingo's youth who didn't want to go to the IceHouse on that particular evening to drink. Thursday Night Trivia was legendary back in the earlier college days, with $1 bud cans flowing like wine, Jon Pasqual on the DJ 1-2 1-2, and plenty of music you normally hate, but love when you're drunk off your asshole. The original MJ's crew consisted of, but not limited to: Jason "Meat" Donlin, Mike "Big Daddy" Cooke, Mark "China" Wheldon, Jarrod "Bum Knee" Koch, and countless others. These people were some alcoholics if there ever were. Mike would drive with his eyes closed, holding the wheel with his knee after he had one case too many Budweisers. A rather large bar tab would go to the winners of trivia, so there was plenty of cheating going on.

Monday nights brought Wing Night, which was regularly attended by Corey 'Fuck You" Dyman, who would get rowdy drunk, eat dozens upon dozens of wings, and beat the living Jesus out of Meat. Monday is also where the younger crowd got their start, by just ordering wings and soda, then working up to wings and beer, an excellent strategy.

One night, Jason "Pete" Weston showed up at MJ's for Thursday Trivia, and it was on - a whole new crew of assholes to drink and cheat with. Weston brought much hilarity to the joint, and a tradition between Meat and Pete that survives to the day was born. If you've ever seen them do it, it's annoying, but you have to learn to live with it. They call it "The High Elbows", brought about by Christian and Timmy from Road Rules: Season 2. Meat and Pete mock this by raising a glass, raising an elbow and screaming (maybe a mumbled scream) to the tune of this: "Swing your beer, blah blah blah (elbow shrug), blah blah, HIGH SCHOOL!" Pretty annoying huh? Well if you don't like it, BOLLOCKS. Meat and Pete went on to continue the friendship they had years (voice cracking, nose running, tears flowing) ago, so if anything is anything, they owe it all to MJ's.

The years go by, the drinks flow, good times are are had, such as Jarrod "Binghamton Hockey All Star Hockey" Koch's 21st birthday, which was a vicious romp through the world of alcohol, and debauchery, involving so many KSKss and friends of KSKs - you're probably related to at least 10 of them. Another great MJ's memory was Josh' 21st birthday, referenced in other sections of the Page, so I won't go into details, but it was a hell of a good time.

RATING: Had MJ's still been around I would rate it a full 5 out of 5 Irish Car Bombs: great times, great friends, good food, and the ability to trash the place and not be noticed . The crowd was varied from White Supremacists to high-society black folk, with underage drinkers, middle class Joes, athletes, bachelor parties and everyone else in between.

Now, where it used to be, MJ's stands as a shell for Raymos 2; an overpriced, no-girl-going-to, holier-than-thou-bar. Sad.

EPILOGUE: Let it be known that this is not by far the end of us revisiting MJ' bar, there is just way too much to write about in one little article. In the future, you'll see an entire Cast of Characters list, more stories, pictures and so on. Feel free to post in the Guestbook, or the Model Citizen Interactive Short Story section o reven drop JoshO an email.