A snack bar with six decades of memories
Chelsea Eakin
Issue date: 10/12/07 Section: Features
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When John Joseph ran the Spa, he knew more students by their first names than anyone else on campus.
Those who frequented the original Joseph Family Spa located in Miller Library-and there were many-recall a warm and welcoming scene reminiscent of "Cheers," where everybody knew your name and what you ordered. "It was tough to go in there and just get a coffee without seeing and chatting with someone, but that was its endearing characteristic, too, it oozed 'friendly,'" Pat Sweeney '78 says.
In its early years, the Spa was the hub of campus. Sharing its space with the nation's smallest college bookstore on the southwest corner of the Miller Street when most of the administration was in the library, the snack bar saw steady business brought in by faculty, staff and students throughout the day.
Originally opened by the College, the Spa was handed over to local Army veteran Joseph Joseph and his partner, Gubby Carter Sr. in 1947. When Joe died of war wounds in 1954, his brother John Joseph took charge. John, joined by brother Pete in 1960, owned and managed the Spa for 31 years during what most would say was the snack bar's "heyday"-from 1947 until 1985 when the Spa relocated to the new Cotter Student Union and Dining Services took over the operation.
"Bixler, who was the President at the time, used to come in every day and walk about the Spa and he knew all the freshmen and would shake their hands," John, now 87 and still living in the area, recalls. "He knew some of their families, too." It was not uncommon for faculty and students to mingle and strike up conversation. In the Spa, the categories of professor, staff and student were stripped-everyone was a "Spa Rat," as frequenters were called.
"Often, the Colby Eight men's singing group would make surprise visits to the Spa to sing which was a lot of fun," remembers Bob Woodbury '78. "I remember government professors joining tables in the Spa, especially Sandy Maisel, Chip Hauss and Albert Mavrinac."
John remembers a perpetual game of bridge being played from morning to night. Professor Emeritus C.W. Bassett remembers both faculty and students taking part in these games. "Quaint as it may sound, we would play bridge between classes, particularly with Ed Witham, an English professor. He was colorful. And a wildly erratic bidder,"?College Editor Stephen Collins '74 says. Its location in the Street made the Spa "both very convenient and very dangerous," Professor of Philosophy Daniel Cohen '75 says. "It was convenient because you could go over to the library to study and it was easy to take a coffee break when needed. But it was dangerous because a lot of the time, when I went over to the library to study, I'd drop off my books at a table, and then go down to the Spa to get a cup of coffee...only to end up spending the rest of the night there talking, never getting around to any studying! It was a great hang-out."
The Spa was also dangerous because John let his customers run a tab until they graduated. "It was just a black book, and they just kept adding," John says. Students would write down their expenses in the black book and add to them over time. "Most of the kids were good at paying it; we only lost like two or three percent." He remembers a student who graduated without paying his bill of $21.50. "I never wrote him a letter, but he didn't have any money. He went to Florida and became a horse trainer and thirty years after he left I got a check for $21.50." The Josephs would also lend students money for laundry, cigarettes, candy, paying rent or covering emergencies. They were even known for bailing students out of jail every once in a while.
One of the most beloved traditions at the Spa was the cowbell. "Whenever anyone came in to pay they had a cowbell hung there and they'd ring the bell and holler 'so and so paid the bill,'" Jon Joseph, John's nephew, says. And everyone would cheer. The bell started as a small hand-bell and eventually worked its way up to a large locomotive bell, which John still has in his home.
John always had Colby students or family working for him. "I never fired anybody. I had reason to, but I didn't," he laughs. John is proud that many of his student workers are now "very successful and donors to the College." "It shows their work ethic," he says. John recalls one student worker who went on to become a top lawyer and donated a large amount to the College-"he said he wouldn't have done it if it hadn't have been for me."
"They presented an oasis for students," Janice Kassman, special assistant to the president for external affairs, says of the Josephs. "The family is beloved; they were very kind to students." In many ways, John Joseph was like a surrogate father for students. He remembers students asking him for advice when they were in trouble. "Colby kids are wonderful kids," John says. "45 years and I never got in an argument with a student. I never took a sick day; I never missed a day of school either."
The 1962 Oracle was dedicated to John Joseph "whose loyalty to Colby College, marked by unending generosity, vitality, and unparalleled friendliness, has endeared him to all who have known him." That same year he received the Blue Key Award, the highest nonscholastic honor at the College. In 1976 John received a Colby Brick, rarely given to a nonalumnus, for his service to the College, and in 1981 Pete received one as well.
In 1978, the Spa was relocated to the basement of Roberts Union and merged with the new addition of a Pub that had opened three years earlier. "It wasn't as communal at that end of campus, the library was right in the middle," John says. "The library was a drop-in business." The move away from the center of campus and the introduction of alcohol changed the atmosphere of the Spa. Bassett, still a professor at the time, stopped visiting the Spa in the evenings as often, knowing students would be drinking. The black book and the cowbell remained, but the constant flow of customers had died down.
Seven years later the snack bar was moved to the new Cotter Student Union. John Joseph retired as owner and manager and Dining Services started running the show. "They showed me the new building-it was two floors and I didn't like the set-up," John remembers. "It went from a personal business with face to face interacting with students to something a lot less personal. Credit went up and the person behind the counter didn't get a chance to know the students." Its location, though more central to campus than Roberts', was still out of the way because it was upstairs. In its first years in Cotter, the Spa started to lose money and John was asked to come back, but he wasn't interested in returning. However, the Joseph family association with the College didn't end there. The family's vending machine business, started in the '50s, continues today.
The Spa became the Joseph Family Spa when it was dedicated to the family upon the completion of Cotter Union. As part of the dedication, the Alumni Association gave John, Pete and their wives Mary and Barbara the Colby "C" Club Family of the Year Award. The famous black book was cemented into the cornerstone of the building-"We forgave all the bills that were left." A plaque was hung in honor of the Josephs, and a new one is currently being made that matches the décor of the architecture in the Pulver Pavilion.
THE SPA TODAY
Though the new Spa in Pulver is a far cry from the original, the snack bar is once again in a central location accessible to faculty, staff and students. "It has provided a wonderful space for the entire community to gather," Varun Avasthi, director of dining services, says. "We don't have the issue where in the past the Spa was off the main track. You used to pass right down and unless you had reason to go up the stairs you had no reason to really go. Now it's in the main thoroughfare."
"It's going really well," Jon Joseph, who works in the current Spa, says. "I worked for the old Spa also and the business is just booming." Most of the business is during Thursday, Friday and Saturday late nights.
John Joseph has mixed feelings about the new space. "This is extravagant, it lacks for nothing," he says, though this isn't necessarily a good thing. "The guy behind the counter won't be able to get to know every kid around." Al Joseph, John's brother and Jon's father, recognizes that the space is different but is optimistic. "I think this one is going to be nice...if the people behind the counter get to know the kids-that's important. You can't line them up and treat them like recruits or cattle." Jon has already met a ton of kids who know him, and he's working on remembering their names.
"I like the Spa the way it is," Jon says. He suggests that "having a sign saying the Joseph Family would be nice...some students know [who the Josephs are] because of their parents, but I'd say 90 percent don't."
Students can use one of their 21 meal credits per week (the meal plan week runs Friday through Thursday) in the Spa, and Saturday and Sunday students can get breakfast in the Spa from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Dana and Foss open at 10 a.m. on weekends and if you swipe your card before 11 a.m. in any location then you can brunch again before the dining halls close for lunch (3 p.m. for Dana and 2 p.m. for Foss).
Many people miss the old staple sandwiches of the Spa, several of which were invented by students. This past week dining services started selling some old favorites for a limited time, among them the Colby Eight, a cheeseburger with a fried egg, and the SkitchWich, a grilled tuna fish, cheese and pickle sandwich invented by a veteran of the Korean Conflict who John fondly remembers as a "crazy trouble maker."
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