The Marchese Blue Light Pub is the only place of its kind on campus and Colby’s only space specifically made for social drinking. This pub echoes social landscapes already established, on a much larger scale, at colleges located in the city. Here at Colby, there is a unique drinking culture created by the school’s location, isolation, and spatial constructions. However, the pub offers students a comfortable social drinking place that is reminiscent of what they term “the real world.” Also, because the pub’s bar is accessible to only upperclassmen above the age of twenty-one, the pub is a symbol of students’ transition into adulthood; the pub carries with it an air of hierarchy and exclusivity. Students at Colby long for a change in their oftentimes monotonous drinking habits and routines, and the pub offers exactly that.
Diana, a junior at Colby and my personal guide, pushes through the crowd and finds two chairs at the bar and sits down. She greets the bartender, a frizzy-haired woman with a giant smile, in a Sodexo uniform, and they seem to know each other well. Diana introduces me and lets me know that Cheryl knows all the students by name, both junior and seniors, that visit the Pub. I tell Cheryl that I’m writing a paper about the pub and she hurriedly responds, “Well make me sound nice!” She goes on to gush about how much she loves her job before she runs off to pour another drink order. Cheryl’s welcoming gestures, combined with the pub’s small size and dimly lit tables, makes it a comfortable space.
The pub is reminiscent of a small-town bar where everyone knows each other’s names. I imagine that this type of familiarity can only be accomplished at a small college like Colby, and my suspicions are always confirmed when I hear tour guides boasting of the friendliness and familiarity on the campus. I can understand why the pub is crowded even on this Wednesday night. Diana knows I’m studying the landscape around me and comments, “See, this is why I love it here! There aren’t always the same bartenders, but they always know our names or at least try to learn who we are. You don’t really get this close to any of the other workers at Colby. Something about the pub makes people bond.” Diana is right about the fact that, as students, we don’t oftentimes form close relationships with the workers who serve us food or clean our dorms. However, the pub’s small atmosphere seems to foster that kind of close relationship. Cheryl asks Diana how the end of her basketball season went and then, again, scurries off to serve up a Rum and Coke.
As my interviews soon showed, the Pub offers students a comfortable space for social drinking on campus; a space that is unique on Colby’s campus. Unlike what I originally thought, the pub’s exclusivity does not foster hostile feelings between upperclassmen and underclassmen. In fact, the slight air of mystery seems to heighten students’ excitement and curiosity. Colby students eagerly await the day when they will turn twenty-one and visit that mysterious space that they were first introduced to as prospective students. The pub’s small, dimly lit space fosters camaraderie and forms friendships between students and workers. Although the drinks are definitely more expensive than the large amounts of cheap alcohol students could by from the supermarket, students seem eager to get their first taste of what drinking cultures are like in “the real world.” The pub is a unique landscape at Colby College, specifically carved out and designed to foster social drinking; a skill that most students at Colby are strangers to. Overall, the space is relaxed and welcoming. As I turn to leave, we tip the bartender and Cheryl yells out, “Come back soon, Jess!”