It's 1975 and two guys from Springfield anticipate hip culture and disposable income among students in the pioneer valley,.....

.....so they graft their food services resume's onto the sleepy conservative town of Northampton, Mass - and Fitzwilly's was born. I remember the names, Fitzwilly,s Gatsby's, Bennigan's, ...theme bars with young staff invoking the post hip beatniks to come to the center of town to drink and run fast. No cigars or stuffed ashtrays next to a package of Kents and VO and soda. No polyester; just denim and a thumbs down on disco attire as well.

But around the corner on Route 5 was Sheehan's Bar; a staple among the hard drinking - world war II set that came back to work in the small factories in Easthampton. Sheehan's was fun given discernable tension on occasion between "longhairs" and regulars. If you closed Sheehans and happen to sport a pony tail; then the regulars knew you were an ex vet from the Vietnam conflict; you weren't harrassed. The fresh faces migrating from U-Mass and Amherst college were another thing. The "girls" - Smith and Holyoke wouldn't venture in: it wasn't a place for females.



Sheehans' has given way to Eileen Fisher - she obviously bested old man Sheehan in the divorce.