Everyone at Iowa State wants to find a place they can feel comfortable; a place they can feel like they belong. I had a place like that once. It was a place I loved to go and fraternize with my friends and fellow students. That place is no longer in existence, though, because they closed down Hunky Dory’s.

Hunky Dory’s, for all of you who don’t know, was a nightclub next to Highway 30. It had a great drink special – $5 for all the beer you could drink from seven to midnight. But it was more than a place to drink beer, it was a place for friends to meet and discuss school and have a good time. Hunky’s was primarily a bar for Ag. students, but students of all majors and backgrounds came there.

Everyone has their own favorite place to socialize, and now the students who frequented Hunky Dory’s no longer have one. Some people frequent bars on Welch Ave. and some frequent the bars on Main Street. The point is that everyone needs a place they can call their own whether they are an Ag. student who loved Hunky Dory’s, like myself, or a student who hangs out at the Santa Fe Coffeehouse.

Hunky Dory’s was a place I could go to once a week and relax. It was a true test for students to see if they could have fun all night long and still make it to their 8 a.m. class the next morning.

It was also a place where I could meet women and show off my dancing skills. Yes, I can dance, but as you see by my mug shot I am not the best looking guy on campus.

Dancing, though, is one of the things I can do very well. And since I don’t look like Tom Cruise (even though I’ve been told I’m about the same height) I have to use my dancing skills to get nice young ladies to talk to me. It also gives me a slight advantage over my friends that can’t or didn’t dance very much. Trust me, you can’t do the pretzel to Nelly unless you are either really good or really drunk.

Ever since Hunky Dory’s closed back in July, I’ve tried to find a place where I would feel comfortable and drink a beer with my fellow students. I am just like everyone else, trying to see where I come into the picture at Iowa State even though I am now a senior.

Yes, Hunky Dory’s was filled with Ag. students, but business majors, sorority girls and everyone in-between also frequented the nightclub. I met a lot of these people at Hunky’s, mainly because I danced with a lot of women and most of them were not Ag. students. What surprised me is that everyone seems to complain about how Iowa State is still considered to be a great school for agriculture. That is because we are a great school for agriculture. Students complain how Iowa State is filled with all of these “hicks” but they don’t realize these so-called hicks are the people who go out and feed the world.

For some Ag. students Hunky’s was a place where they were not a minority and treated disrespectful because they wear a cowboy hat.

They could see other students from their classes and discuss the professor’s way of teaching and assignments, just like other students do at other places around Ames. Ag. students are just like everyone else on campus except they are following a path that leads to an uncertain future. Some students will go back to the family farm and try to keep it going. They may or may not be successful with it, though, with the corporate farms increasing and the family farms declining.

So now, since the favorite Ag. student hangout has closed, the students are without a place they can feel like they belong, much like some of them feel like when at Iowa State.

My father went here 30 years ago. when it was a great time to be an Ag. student. It still is now, even though some students forget or don’t realize how important agriculture is to this campus, this state, our country and the world. With no nightclub to claim as their own, Ag. students feel they are losing ground just like they are at Iowa State.

So my next drink will be in memory of Hunky Dory’s, a place where a small town kid could feel like he belonged.

Wesley Griffin is a senior in agricultural education from Grand River.