Fall 2023 43 OSU SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND ARCHIVES; KARL MAASDAM 9 WELL-LOVED WATERING HOLES A half-century has passed since Greg Little, ’73, earned his business degree at Oregon State, squeezing in schoolwork around visits to Corvallis watering holes like the Oregon Museum, Mother’s Mattress Factory andTavern,Lum Lee’s, Lamplighter, Goofy’s Tavern and the Beaver Hut. He notes that those last two were actually the same place — a bar sufficiently identity-challenged that it transitioned from Beaver Hut to Goofy’s and back, but with a strong North Star: a 10-tiny-beers-for-a-dollar special known as “Dimers.” (Dimers were so popularthatyou could also find them at Mother’s.) Less than two years after graduating, Little put his extracurricular studies to entrepreneurial use when he helped launch his own tavern, Squirrel’s, located at the corner of Southwest Second Street and Monroe Avenue. (Little got the nickname Squirrel as a sideline-chattering high school football player.) All these decades later, he is uniquely placed to talk about the tradition of Corvallis’ much-visited, well-loved bars. “We became known as the ‘downtown learning center,’” he said of Squirrel’s. “A lot of graduate students, they became regular customers.You could find your prof there, ask him questions and get information and not have to go to school per se.That’s always been kind offun for us, having that rapport with that little bit older student.” Once upon a time, Squirrel’s was part of a Corvallis bar scene that included Little’s college-era haunts plus other locales like the Night Deposit, the Class Reunion, the Peacock, Nendel’s, Don’s Den, Toa Yuen, the Stein Tavern, Murphy’s Tavern (in Southtown), Price’s Tavern and the Thunderbird Lounge. ThePeacockremainsadowntownfixture, and Murphy’s relocated to downtown a few years ago, but all the other old stalwarts are gone — a testament to how hard it can be to run an enduring drinking establishment even in a college town. “Things have definitelychanged.We still do quite a bit of beer, but others have gone to a lot of seltzers and ciders,” Little said.“I’ve got a fewmoreyears forsure. I just like the idea of a community gathering spot.” —STEVE LUNDEBERG, ’85 Nº to see a woman in 1920s-era attire wandering the building. Soon people began to wonder ifthis could be Ida Kidder,who had lived in Waldo during the turn of the 20th century. Tiah Edmunson-Morton is an archivist at OSU Special Collections and Archives, and previously o" ered a ghost tour around campus that included Waldo Hall lore. She said longterm building residents have passed down stories for years. “These definitely are good stories even if the facts behind them are a little shaky,” she said. As to why Ida Kidder ended up being the figure most associated with the haunting, she speculates it was easy to cast her as a friendly ghost. “The mythology round her really solidified as maternal, caretaker, etc., and that made her an attractive, benevolent ghost,”shesaid.“Becausewhile people like to be scared, they also like to be comforted.” In 2010, after the infusion of stimulus money from the state, Waldo’s fourth floorwas renovated and reopened as new o! ce space.The conveniently creepy and dusty spot is now bright and lively once more. Aduviri, who saw the apparition before the remodel took place, says he hasn’t seen anything since. But, he adds, he also has made a point never again to visit the o! ce late at night. —THERESA HOGUE ڿ Some speculate that the ghost of Ida Kidder watches over Waldo. ↗The one-ofa-kind Greg Little at Squirrel’s.
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