Remembering Late Nights in Iowa City at The Mill

PHOTO: TIM SCHOON/UI OFFICE OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION The bar and restaurant was an Iowa City institution since opening in 1962.

Thank you for sharing this beautifully written eulogy for The Mill [“Thirteen Ways of Looking at The Mill,” winter 2022–23]. Each vignette brought back vivid memories of my med school days (and nights) in Iowa City. We had a loose rule that if you weren't at The Mill by 10 p.m. on Thursday, then you were studying too hard and not to be trusted. This was very impactful for me, and I suspect that I'm not alone.

Bob Walker (76MD)
Hull, Massachusetts

Pete Nelson’s (79MFA) recollections of The Mill brought back some long-dormant memories of my time tending bar in Iowa City in the early ’70s. The Shamrock was a neighborhood bar, a shot and a beer kind of place on South Gilbert about five blocks from The Mill.

Nelson spoke of Brother John and Whale and their biker band of brothers, who were mostly skilled tradesmen, capable of discussing anything from rebuilding a Harley to Leon Festinger’s (40MA, 42PhD) theory of cognitive dissonance. They were regulars at The Mill and at the Shamrock, scary looking, but loyal friends and customers.

Fifty years doesn’t feel so long ago.

Thomas Carter (74BA)
Bettendorf, Iowa

I worked at The Mill from 1970 through 1975. I sang, waited tables, bartended—whatever owner Keith Dempster needed. I was the last person to sing at the old Mill and the first person to sing at the new Mill (the one that recently closed). I’m the guy who carded Jane Smiley (75MA, 76MFA, 78PhD) and wound up marrying her and having a son who is now 30. I thought this story captured it perfectly. It took me back to after-hours parties in smoke-filled rooms.

Stephen Mortensen (72BFA)
Carmel-by-the-Sea, California

I worked as a waitress at The Mill from 1981 to around 1986. Besides the Iowa Writers’ Workshop folks, there were film and photography grad students who met there regularly. I remember sitting at the bar with Susan Kirchman (75BFA, 80MA, 84MFA) and Jan Ballard (73BA, 81BFA) after a shift. We all got jobs in the late ’80s teaching. We hadn’t a clue we would make it back then, but we were hopeful.

I met my best friend, David Goodwin, at The Mill. He walked in, and I remember knowing he would be a significant person in my life. When I returned for his memorial service in 2009, I felt wafted on the love and condolences I received from many old Mill friends who knew I’d show up. I wish I’d been at Keith Dempster’s service. Part of being a waitress at The Mill was learning to walk backwards out the door when Dempster was talking at you. He barely stopped to take a breath.

I really loved and miss my time there. I’ve never found such an exceptional group of creatives as I did in Iowa.

Linda Bourassa (80MA, 87MFA)
Chagrin Falls, Ohio

As one of those waitresses, I loved this description! I loved those people. It was always said that one had to be working on an MFA to be a waitress and a PhD to be a bartender. Those Mill peeps got me through a lot of hard times. So many memories. I got that MFA and a tenured position at a major university. I think that The Mill helped make me tough enough to succeed.

Susan Kirchman (75BFA, 80MA, 84MFA)
Johnson City, Texas