There is nary a Siena College student that attended from the late 70’s to mid-1990’s that hasn’t had a visit to Dapper’s in Watervliet.

For sure, many have made the left onto Spring Street, just south of the Siena campus down the dark, steep hill to the bottom.  And there, on the corner, across from the freight train tracks sat “Dap's”

Some of us would hitch a ride any way we could, others were lucky enough to have a car (although many were in search of a driver when it came time to head to Dap's).  But it usually wasn’t the trip down the hill that was the exciting part, it was usually the trip back up.

Many have been stranded by friends, stayed behind in the hopes of making some new acquaintances.  When it worked, all was well, when it didn’t… many have found themselves at 4am, having little choice but to start the long trek up Spring Street on foot.

Often times, you’d get lucky and another Siena student would spot you, have room in their car and stop to give you a lift.  But many have made the almost exactly 2 mile trip back to campus exclusively on foot.  Sometimes taking a break to admire the calm and tranquility of the Schyler Meadow Golf Course.  It’s rumored that some have actually stopped a little longer that a few minutes and made their own impressions on the Schyler Meadow greens.

Let it be clear, that Dapper's was nothing to look at.  An essentially square brick building, with two ways in and two ways out, and usually a single bouncer watching both doors to help ensure the bulk of the Siena Community would not be shut out of the fun.

Beer slides in the back room, sponsored by the Rugby team, often after taking a swig from the famous Rugby pig.  A plastic piggy bank that has had numerous iterations throughout the years.

I have vivid, cringe-worthy recollections of naked beer slides one evening where I saw precious body parts nearly torn off as they flopped between tables strung together to ensure a long runway.  That night, like most nights, the runway could never be long enough, which resulted in many a rugby player rolling off the table onto the floor - already strewn with glass from broken beer bottles.

The men’s room was small to be sure, but space was maximized with the installation of 5 foot aluminum trough in lieu of urinals.

On Friday and Saturday nights it was elbow-to-elbow inside, with a constant flow of people entering and exiting.  It was this continuous flow of people in and out, based on where they were in the course of their night that spawned the creation of the “Dap Lap”

Dapper's had the front bar room complete with pool table and jukebox, but it was the backroom, with a small window in the wall where you if you were lucky and spent enough time making friends the bartenders (Tommy? Jeff?) you could get them to pass a beer through to you, it was that backroom with a much larger overall capacity than the front room that was the real reason for the Dap lap.

On many a weekend night, many people would start in the bar room and make their way through the crowd into the backroom and continue looping around, back to front, front to back to see the new crop of people that had come in and to spend time chatting with people they know and catching up on the events of the night and the week.  It was social media before social media.

So here it is, the website Dapper's never had…. Why not share your Dapper's story and any photos so we may post them and share the many fond memories of Siena and Dapper's.