SOUTHWORDS
September 1972
Deep End has new name only
by Lynn M
Remember how you couldn't wait for the weekend so you could go to the Deep End? Remember how you ran home Friday night to re-tease your hair or put on your chinos? Well, maybe the Deep End is gone . . .but Papa Jo's is here!
"Where did the Deep End go," you ask. It all started when the so-called "greasers" made it hard for the so-called "freaks" to be there. So the freaks found a place of their own and the Deep End was left for the greasers. Soon the Deep End was losing business.
As time went on, the groups got worse and the kids got younger and younger. Suddenly, it was gone! Someone else took it over and transformed it into Papa Jo's. The manager, it seems (I couldn't locate him when I was there), is a young teacher from Maine West.
Oh, the changes he's made. Now, if you walk into the place, you can get food, if you can see to eat it; dance, if you can find the space; or just listen to the music, if and when they have good groups.
But let's face it. The fancy sign, the new front, they don't change the fact that it's the Deep End with a new face. Sure, it'll get more money from the food service. They'll be able to keep the place looking nice. As time goes on they might even find some good groups. But who's going to go there?
Most kids don't want to mess around with these little groups. They want to hear Chicago or Moody Blues. If anyone wants to hear music, they can turn on the radio. The only people left are, of course, the members of the junior high.
The opinions of the place that I've heard so far haven't been good.
"When I was there, two groups were playing. The second one was pretty good, but everything would have been better than the first. They were the biggest bunch of 'fags' I ever saw," said Debbie M '73.
"They have a lot of tables, a dancing area about the size of a watch, and a bar in the back. It's so dark in there, people probably lose themselves," said Jim W '73.
Catching bits of conversation from the parents in the neighborhood, I find they still think of it as the sore spot in Park Ridge. Mr. Otto Kohler, social science department chairman refers to it as "that place."
If the past is any indication, we'd better wish good luck to Papa Jo's. It's going to need it.