“You’re the next contestant on ‘We’re Taking Your Money,’” joked Nick Morgan, night clerk at 7-Eleven and a Mount Pleasant resident.

“I love my job. I just try to make it a fun experience for people to come here.”

Morgan worked from 10 p.m. Friday until noon Saturday. He spends a lot of that time entertaining the customers.

With country music playing in the background, Morgan, 31, helped 72 customers between midnight and 1 a.m. Saturday. He said around this time of the night, he sees one customer every 45 seconds, on average.

Morgan has worked at 7-Eleven, 302 W. Broomfield St., since December 2007 and knew many people by name.

“A lot of my customers are away from home for the first time. I like to make everyone feel like home here,” he said.

Gladstone senior Damon Paul and Lincoln Park junior Katie Dupree came to the store a little after midnight to splurge on a couple Slurpees.

They visit the store around the same time about once a week, Paul said.

“(Morgan’s) entertaining. He makes it fun to come here,” Dupree said. “Let’s be honest, he’s the reason we come.”

Some of his late-night regulars include Central Michigan University custodians or people just getting off work.

Morgan considers himself a bartender to those students who are not 21 years old yet, and listens to their problems.

“I sell Slurpees and shoot the bull,” he said. “I’m their bartender.”

Close this window or return to “24 Hours in Mount Pleasant.”

Not that he minded.

“What better job can you ask for than getting people drunk, having a good time and listening to music?” he said. “It’s usually a pretty good time when people are having fun.”

The Hillsdale alumnus has worked at O’Kelly’s Bar and Grill for about a year.

He kept a smile on his face as he served the local residents, students and alumni who crowded the bar, 2000 S. Mission St.

“Sometimes, there’s that one person who can really make your night a little bit worse than what you wanted to, but you just gotta keep smiling,” he said. “We’re in the service industry — you gotta make people happy.”

While his nights are long and fast-paced, he said they are fun, and Homecoming particularly brought back a lot of friends and familiar faces.

Nieswender and the other bartenders stepped around each other behind the bar with practiced, care, deftly pouring beers, shots and drinks.

He said in five minutes, he might pour 40 tequila shots, 20 Johnny Vegas’s and 40 Bud Lights.

O’Kelly’s owner John Hunter said he hired Nieswender after getting to know him as a regular customer.

“He’s been part of our family, our group here and he’s been great,” Hunter said. “Jared’s a very down-to-earth guy, he’s very social with customers and that’s a good thing. He comes to work ready to go all the time.”

Bartenders must be the life of a party and Jared has that, he said.

Nieswender even met his girlfriend through O’Kelly’s.

“It’s funny how the world goes around,” Hunter said.

Close this window or return to “24 Hours in Mount Pleasant.”

An hour with Chippewa Cab Driver Timothy Jackson covers an assortment of clientele and all of town, from the Soaring Eagle Casino, 6800 Soaring Eagle Blvd., to the Wayside, 2000 S. Mission St., and everything in between.

Local cabs generally work on a dispatch basis. At night, when dispatches slow down, cab drivers know it is time to head to the bars.

“It’s like the best way of transport up here,” said 2007 alumna Jessie Beannick. “Either $2 or $2,000, if you wanna drive.”

Jackson has many interesting stories from working in a college town.

A cold night last winter, he had two girls offer to flash him or kiss him for a ride. He told them he would rather have the money, but another man walking buy paid the girls the $5 they needed for a cab ride.

“There’s people that’ll do anything for a ride — just odd things, and then people will buy food for you and take you to drive-thrus,” Jackson said.

One student who Jackson has not picked up is his daughter — a Central Michigan University sophomore.

“She doesn’t want to be seen with me — or I don’t know, but she’s never called,” Jackson said.

When Jackson finishes his eight-hour shift, it will be 6 a.m., and he will have added more stories to his large collection.

“It’s an interesting job,” he said.

“There are a lot of funny characters that come through here this time of night,” she said.

CMU alumni in town for Homecoming even enjoy coming back to a familiar place.

East Grand Rapids resident and 1995 alumnus Dan Fuller he said Lil’ Chef is a must-stop.

“Every homecoming that I am up here, I come to Lil’ Chef,” he said. “I used to live in Emmons and we always went to Lil’ Chef, McDonald’s or Taco Bell, but you have to come to Lil Chef.”

For some, Lil’ Chef is a place to soak up the alcohol in their stomachs.

Grand Rapids resident Casey Kubiak said he visits Lil’ Chef every time he is in Mount Pleasant.

“Well, we just came from a kegger at my brother’s place, and this is the perfect place to come,” he said. “I don’t know any place else to come eat when I’m drunk.”

Weber said one of the most challenging things about working in the early morning is keeping the floor dry, but the customers keep her in good spirits.

“There is a lot of spilled water during this time,” she said. “Most of the people we get in here at this time make it fun, though.”

For nurses at Central Michigan Community Hospital, 1221 South Drive, 4 a.m. falls in the middle of the work day.

“I’ve worked midnights since I was 16,” said Shelley Campbell, a registered nurse who works in the Family Birthing Center. “I really enjoy the relationship you have with night staff. It’s more of a team effort together.”

Campbell has worked at CMCH for 14 years, working in geriatrics before coming to the birthing center, or OB, as it is known around the hospital, which is short for “obstetrics.”

The unit can have anywhere from 12 babies to none, which nurse Jane Heckart said can result in a “long night.”

“But it doesn’t happen very often,” she said.

The new birthing center opened in August 2008. The center has private rooms for families and rooms with private bathrooms and infant warmers in each room.

Campbell said even though the schedule is different than most people’s, the workload and job never changes, no matter what time of day it is.

“You’ve got everything here you’ve got in the middle of the day,” she said. “It’s just quite often a calmer, less frenzied kind of work.

“Same work, just different atmosphere.”

Close this window or return to “24 Hours in Mount Pleasant.”

Before turning in for the night, Sand Lake sophomore Ron Lewis and two friends decided to take a smoke break outside of Kesseler Hall.

“I have been smoking since I was 18,” he said.

Lewis said he was out spending Friday night celebrating CMU’s Homecoming Weekend and tends to come out every few hours to smoke because of his addiction.

Sometimes he even finds himself craving for a cigarette in class.

“I smoke because I’m addicted,” Lewis said. “I can be sitting in class and I would just be thinking about how bad I want a cigarette.”

Lewis has tried to quit smoking once before, and said that all he could think about during that time was cigarettes and pressure from his friends did not help.

“I quit for a week, but I have friends who basically fed me cigarettes and would always offer me one — I gave in to peer pressure,” Lewis said.

Close this window or return to “24 Hours in Mount Pleasant.”

Manager Lorrie Dunlap said the store is busiest with morning customers, who filter through the store between 5:30 a.m. and 11 a.m.

Mount Pleasant resident Norman Christensen and his wife sat down for doughnuts and coffee before a shopping trip.

“(Robaire’s has) a tremendous reputation,” Christensen said. “They’ve been around for a long time.”

Although Robaire’s opens at 5 a.m. every day except Sunday, deliveries to area businesses begin around 3 a.m., and bakers work in the evenings sometimes until midnight or later, said owner Dina Désormes.

Local bars purchase bread, gas stations purchase doughnuts and the store delivers to businesses in Mount Pleasant, Clare, Farwell and other area cities and counties, she said.

Cakes are also a big seller, Dunlap said. Robaire’s has two decorators for cakes, cookies and other items.

The shop makes about 150 dozen daily, Désormes said.

Désormes loves working at Robaire’s, and it shows.

“You have to love it ­­— otherwise, forget it,” she said. “It’s a labor of love.”

Her favorite part of Robaire’s is the customers, as well as the work environment.

“In the back, it’s more like a family,” Désormes said. “We depend on each other.”

When some people were just getting up to go to work — or some college students just getting to bed after a long night — the men wearing the blue badge were just ending their 24-hour shift.

At 6 a.m. Saturday, Sgt. Michael Dunham and Officer Doug Lobsinger of the Mount Pleasant Fire Department began last-minute paperwork and final clean-up before the next shift started at 8 a.m.

Dunham and Lobsinger work 24-hour shifts every third day, which can take its toll after awhile.

“You spend 121 days away from your family,” Lobsinger said. “We spend more time together on a shift than we do with our wives.”

Saturday morning was pretty quiet, but they would be ready to go at a moment’s notice, with their boots and equipment placed just a couple of feet away from the fire engines.

“As soon as the bell drops, it’s time to go to work,” Dunham said.

From the time the alarm rings, Dunham said they try to be out of the station in about a minute. To help, a yellow plastic twisty slide is used now instead of a fire pole.

But, for now, they just prepared to clean the equipment to ready the fire hall for the next few who would start the routine all over again.

“If you keep the equipment clean, it shows the community you appreciate what they provide for you,” Dunham said.

Cleaning usually entails washing the red fire engine and washing down the floors, which can take about an hour.

Despite the peace around the station, Dunham and Lobsinger have seen their share of unique calls.

They have been called to rescue a kid out of a tree and free a puppy from under a car seat.

“If someone needs help and they don’t know who to call, we get called for it,” Dunham said.

Close this window or return to “24 Hours in Mount Pleasant.”

She taught her “children” the same belief.

“I always loved to cook, and (students and I) would all plan a meal out and go shopping. At the end, everybody had their belly full and food was leftover. It was fun,” the Beddow/Thorpe Hall custodian said.

Aho, a Mount Pleasant resident, worked the 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. shift Saturday and has worked at Central Michigan University for 22 years. For the past three years, she has taught a cooking class for some residents in the hall.

Aho began teaching because students cannot live off of ravioli, she said.

“I panicked at first, like, ‘What am I doing?’ and I realized everything I picked up in the grocery store was something to talk about,” she said.

For Aho, there is always something to say, especially to this age group, because she remembers life being exciting.

“They are not just a bunch of 18-year-old college students — they really are our future,” she said.

Her most memorable moment started as a joke. She and a student applied to the game show “Deal or No Deal.” After two months of preparing, they submitted their application video. Aho was moved, although they did not get a call back.

“I was so touched by the work and time they put into it. My heart was so big,” she said.

At 5 feet tall, Aho does not think she stands out, and she sometimes falters with procrastination and keeping in touch with friends.

But she said she still stays inspired by her faith in God and believes everyone has a purpose.

“Some people have a gift of singing and some have gift for cleaning. It’s all important and it’s all hand-picked,” she said.

Close this window or return to “24 Hours in Mount Pleasant.”

Some ran, some walked, and all had their own reasons for racing and their own goals in the run, which started and ended in front of Finch Fieldhouse.

But all were there in support of Special Olympics Michigan, which received all money made from the race.

Mount Pleasant residents Rhonda Ostrowsky and Monica Brunetti, as well as Shepherd resident Mary DeGraw, said they specifically came out in support of Special Olympics.
They were having fun with the race and the plastic megaphones they were handed beforehand.

“We’re walking and heckling,” said Ostrowsky, Brunetti’s daily walking partner. “Monica and I walk every morning. And Mary’s out in Shepherd walking to the bar.”

Ostrowsky said she and Brunetti walk three to four miles every day, so the 3.1 mile race was nothing out of the ordinary for them.

The volunteers working at the race were not about to let the competitors have all the fun.

Alpena sophomore Andrea Bruski and a friend, who were working at the “Spirit Table,” handing out beads and megaphones, led racers in a Turbo Kick dance-aerobic warmup before the race.

“We’re with the spirit table, so we’re trying to get people excited, and keep them warmed up,” Bruski said. “It’s also a great way to promote Turbo Kick at the SAC.”

Some competitors were taking the race much more seriously.

“I’m training for a marathon, so this is just a start,” said Alma resident Tracy Beadlescomb, who has been training for the Grand Rapids Marathon on Oct. 18 since August.

Her friend, Alma resident Shirlee Finch, completed the Iron Man triathlon in August, and said 5K races are just part of her weekly routine.

“I go every weekend,” Finch said. “(Racing) gives me something to do.”

Close this window or return to “24 Hours in Mount Pleasant.”