The Shop

In honor of Purdue's homecoming I wanted to share some of my favorite pictures of my home at Purdue... the Chocolate Shop. I miss this place more than you can even imagine because it truly was more of a part of my college experience than anything else. I started working there at the beginning of my Junior year, and worked up until the week before my job in Chicago started. The hardest part of graduating from Purdue was leaving Harry's and my family that I had made there.

Everybody thought for sure that I would be down for Homecoming. Dan and I had talked about it, but decided that I would much rather go visit during Christmas break, on a Sunday, because those were my most favorite days to spend at the Shop.


Joe definitely took care of me while I was in college. We had a lot of fun at Harry's. I just never really had good experiences when he was serving me through the window in the back room. Yikes!


I love this man. Laine is one of the funniest people I know and working a shift with him was always pretty intimidating, but always so much fun.


My favorite Pal, Neilo. I really miss serving him Bud Lights on ice early in the afternoons. And, I always appreciated that he had a wind down Monday... 3 beer limit on those nights.

My absolute favorite shifts were Sunday afternoons. We usually weren't slammed so I got to visit with all the regulars and my friends would come in to keep us company. Then when the shift ended I usually stayed, had a couple "shifties" and watched Sunday night football or baseball. The regulars became my family and The Shop became my home. I found myself going there when good things happened, when bad things happened, and always before I left town for a couple days or just got back into Lafayette. When Dan and I got engaged it was the first place I stopped after leaving the airport. When I got offered a job I had my celebratory drink at Harry's with my favorites. It was a part of my college experience that I could never replace.


Harry's has my FAVORITE juke box in the world. It honestly is the best collection of music anywhere. Everybody always knew when I had put money into the juke box because I always played the same songs, and they were fantastic! K9's juke box picks were always the same too, and always something fun to dance to.


Dillon has even made it into Harry's. He was more interested in all the Tv's, but we had to take them there the day after Graduation so he could check the place out.


I always took the family to Harry's when they visited. This day we cheered on the Bengals big time.


I asked a guy dressed as a horse during Grand Prix Breakfast Club if I could borrow his head for a little bit. I put it on and the guy says to me, "I'm sorry if it smells a little like puke." Oh my goodness, only at Purdue.


I was a bar slide champion. This was a fantastic Tuesday night last Spring. All I remember is Aaron and I made a lot of money that night!


Same Tuesday Night... Up on the bar dancing to YMCA with the rest of the staff. And yes, I made it to class the next day!


Happy New Year! After working the day shift for the basketball game on New Year's Day, I started drinking the left over champagne even before all the money was counted. This ended up being such a fun night, going through about 4 bottles of champagne, eating shrimp, and taking a trip downtown to see Frankenstein with Neilo. Those bottles of champagne were my Favorite shifty ever.


Here we are, celebrating my graduation... with champage of course!

Hail Purdue, And Go Ugly Early!