BEMUS POINT, New York, USA - Shirley Adams sent along the photo below, taken when she and her daughter stopped by Bemus on their pontoon boat this past week.
Looks pretty cleaned up from what I remember, but then when I was there years ago, it was almost always dark - and/or my eyesight was impaired by some beverage. (Schlitz beer, most likely...)
Surf Club, July 2010
The Surf Club was almost always part of my up-lake bar travels that usually included Snug Harbor. I once frequented a saloon known as the Mar-Mar, but found it had a lot of bikers holding down bar stools. And they had little patience for skinny 19-year-olds.
The Mar-Mar did get some class music acts from time to time, though, including The Shadows of Night, singing their classic, Gloria.
Other than the Mar-Mar, Snug Harbor and the Surf Club, I can't recall any other joints we hit regularly, except for the SeeZurh House, which had cheaper beer than most.
Here in Valois, there is a place down the road (which also fills with bikers on the weekend) known as Big Johnson's. It's not the Surf Club, but seems to evince much of the same culture as we saw 40+ years ago in Bemus. And on Friday nights, there's karaoke for the brave, or incredibly hammered. Both are in large supply. And no, I haven't been singing there. Yet.
My wife's second cousin rated a mention on the bar's outside billboard after he got married this past weekend to a local girl.
You can't get more famous than that around here.
You can't get more famous than that around here.
Big Johnson's, Hector, NY
