Farewell To An Old Friend

When I was a kid growing up in the mean streets of Garland, we spent most of our summers at Wet 'N Wild. Obviously if we had a Wet 'N Wild the streets weren't that mean, but that's besides the point. The point is, probably a good four summers of my formative years were spent at Wet 'N Wild, every work day. It shaped my childhood; this is where I got my first experience with the Arcade, felt the power of Street Fighter II, and checked out hot girls for the first time. It was an important part of my childhood.

Which means if was very painful when it was closed down, the pieces sold off, the park paved over and made into a Carmax.

(I mean seriously...a fucking Carmax? A used car lot? That's the best we could do with that? I'll never forgive the city of Garland for not purchasing that and turning it into a City Park. What a boon would that have been to the city! They would have had the coolest city owned water park by far in the great state of Texas! It would have been a great tourist attraction and boon to a city that desperately needed it at the time. That decision was the veritable definition of penny wise, pound foolish. Assholes.)

Anyway, that was one of the sadder moments of my life, when I knew an important part of my past was lost forever, and while there would be other water parks and other good times, I would always look on that spot wistfully, remembering a time when things were different and undoubtably better.

The same thing happened to me yesterday when I found out that Rocky's had gone out of business.

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I lived in The Gables Valley Ranch--on the northwest corner of Valley Ranch & Macarthur--for right at five years. On the northeast corner was a small strip mall, with one of the stores being Rocky's Bar & Grill. Of course, it was really just Rocky's Sports Bar.

We loved Rocky's from the start. My best friend Kyle lived about 5 blocks north of there, and several of my friends at Quorum (my first job) also lived in the immediate area. Soon Jared was living in the area, and then Sam spent his stint living with me. It quickly became "our spot". Didn't want to drive to Dallas? Didn't feel like dressing up? Wanted to catch a game that wasn't on regular TV? Needed a drink after a long, shitty day at work? We went to Rocky's. It was our Cheers, our MacLaren's. It was our bar.

There were so many great things about Rocky's (yes my friends, it's time):

! For a while, they had the best mozarelle sticks in the world. I mean it: in the WORLD. I didn't eat Mozarelle sticks until I had them at Rocky's. They were amazing. Their sliders were also legendary.
! At one point, they purchased the store next door to them and turned it into a game room. They had 3 pool tables, shuffleboard, several video poker/memorization games--Marc & Julie were suprisingly good at the porn "What is different from these pictures" game, I'll let you draw your own conclusions there ;-P --and even a ping pong table. This was truly Rocky's Golden Age: the mozarelle sticks were awesome, the game room was bumping, and this was the point where we were just becoming regulars.
! The TV's were of excellent quality, and well disperesed throughout the bar.
! The people there were very interesting. You had all walks of life there: locals who wanted a close place to get a drink, alcoholics, college kids from UNT who heard they could get booze there, weirdos from God knows where. The wait staff was very entertaining; you had all types, from "smoking hot" to "dumb beyond belief" to "oh my God you're certifiably insane" to "cute and bubbly". Irving PD would stop in all the time, so it was safe, but were never looking to bust anyone--more on that later--so it was all good.

Most important, however, was that Rocky's had karaoke. Often. It has been well documented that Kyle is the Karaoke Naze, the undisputed King of Karaoke in our circle of friends. It was here that Kyle established himself as the King of Karaoke in all of Irving; the best came to Rocky's, and that isn't a joke. There were always good singers karaokeing at Rocky's; it had earned a reputation on Thursday and Friday nights amongst the karaoke crowd that this was a place to go. However, in spite of the surprising amount of talent, it was still a fun place to sing. The bad drunk singer was still welcome there, and everyone got the same treatment. Kyle and the KJ--Markham--were soon on a first name basis, and he went from having lists of his favorite--of which there were many--songs and their codes written down, to eventually be replaced by lists of his favorite songs and their codes stored in his Blackberry. And yes, I was there for most of those times. Kyle and I have karaoked at many places throughout DFW, but none come close to the greatness of Rocky's.

I remember one time that is worth noting because in this story is what I am sure are the seeds of Rocky's demise. Kyle and I walked in one day, and found that they were having $2 wells--obviously, an excellent bargain. Off we went. Soon, a large crowd entered and sat down next to us--easily 8 to 10 people. Now, I will kiss anyone's ass if any of these kids were over 18. Some of them were 17, and I wouldn't be surprised if some were 16. What's worse, they looked like kids--tiny, thin, dressed like freshman in college, way too proud/excited to be here, that kind of thing. The most telling part, however, was that in spite of the fact that it was $2 wells, they still ordered the college staple: the pitcher of beer. God only knows what brand. Kyle and I immediately started laughing and making fun of them.

Well, fortunately for the kids, they were sitting by the TV, farthest away from the door. This was fortunate because soon the Irving PD stopped by to say hi. It was hilarious; the kids were literally FROZEN with fear. They stopped talking, stopped drinking, and were looking EVERYWHERE but the entrance to the restaurant. Kyle and I, of course, laughed and made fun of them even more. However, it was obvious that the popo was not here to bust anyone; he chatted with the bouncer for a few minutes, and left, assuredly noticing the minors but never giving them a second glance or thought.

Obviously, such a flagrant disregard for the law can only go on for so long, and this was FAR from the first time that we'd shared the bar with kids that age. Eventually, you're either going to get a hard-nosed cop, or someone is going to call TABC and complain. Rocky's was doing too much business to go under because of money; Kyle and I tried to go in March--in the middle of the NCAA tourney--and were shocked to find a sign on the door saying they were closed because their wait staff was on Spring Break. Obviously this was bullshit--a sports bar does not close during tourney time--and Jared confirmed our worst fears yesterday; Rocky's was indeed, gone.

Like with Wet 'N Wild, there will be other establishments that I frequent. Some of them might even be nicer places, with cheaper drinks. They might have better microphones for karaoke, and be better ventilated. They might not have to shut down their game room after a year because of zoning issues. However, I'm older now. Kyle's going to be a father in a matter of days. Sam is all but married. Jared and I live on opposite sides of town. My coworkers live in East Texas, and while they are nice people, I'll never have friends here like I did back in the Quorum/Lockheed days, and those people are now scattered throughout the city, some even the country.

In other words, there will be other places, but nowhere like Rocky's. Another part of my past has passed away, much to my sadness, and life will move on, never to be the same again.