Thursday night

From ClemsonWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Thursday night is the biggest evening for trade in the downtown night spot circuit, a long-standing pattern for Clemson students dating to at least the mid-1970s. As early as 1979, The Tiger made reference to the pre-Friday night social pattern in entertainment articles.

Part of the reason that Thursday nights arose as the premiere Clemson party night can certainly be traced to the fact that until the 1980s, Clemson had very few public nightspots to pick from, barely a half dozen within walking distance in 1979. In 1970, there were but three - the Study Hall, the Red Carpet Lounge, and the (at the time) very small and more-locally-populated Esso Club. Lester's Tiger Den at the junction of the 123 Bypass and US 76 also skewed local. (The Tiger Tavern lounge in the Clemson House doesn't enter into it - this contributor cannot remember anyone ever going there. It was more of a diner with a jukebox hangout, fondly remembered by locals.) We were a "suitcase college", and outside of football season, many students opted to head home after classes on Friday as the entertainment options of the day were limited, and thus they would go out on Thursday night before blowing town.

Even with the development of a much more diverse entertainment scene in the 1980s, the Thursday night go-downtown tradition was too thoroughly entrenched, and remains in place to the present day.