“This was like, ‘Oh, let’s go out the night before, and also have the entire next day.’”

Pat Riley, co-owner of Harper’s, said his bar started getting crowded with students and other patrons at about 10 p.m. and eventually reached full capacity on the night before MSU’s snow
day.

He said he expected the trend of students interested in going out to continue into the rest of the week because of the excitement caused by the storm.

“It’s already starting again — I believe we’ll be at capacity (Wednesday) too,” Riley said.

Other bars in the area noticed an increase in customers because of the imminent snow day as well, said Joe Bell, owner of The Peanut Barrel, 521 E. Grand River Ave.

“We were a little bit better than usual — it was steady busy, and considering the weather, that’s pretty cool,” Bell said.

Bell said The Peanut Barrel was less crowded than it was when MSU had an official snow day in 1978.

He said the cause of the slightly decreased interest in going out on an “impromptu Friday night” might be attributed to harder class schedules on the students’ part.

“It might be that time of the semester where they can have one night out but not two,” Bell said.
“Maybe schoolwork is more difficult (than it was).”

One other deterrent for some students who didn’t go out might have been the winter weather itself, said psychology junior Lyndsay Kramer, in an e-mail.

“It was irresponsible for people to have gone out Tuesday night, because I know how bad the roads were,” Kramer said.

“My roommate and I went to the store around 8 (p.m.), and it was already getting bad then.”
Even so, the heavy snow was not enough to deter many excited students as they hit the bar scene
with friends to celebrate the snow and the cancellations.

“There were strangers hugging each other, screaming across the streets and stuff like that,” Huff said.

“Everyone was excited and happy.”