MILLEDGEVILLE — It’s 2 p.m. on a weekday, and Marilyn Long comes to work and takes her place behind the bar where she waits for her first customers of the day to drop in.

Through the front window looking out toward state Route 40, she sees a car slow down and turn in to the driveway of Wally’s Playce, where she’s worked early afternoons for the past seven years.

If she recognizes the car, she knows who’s behind the wheel and that’s her cue to grab a can of beer from the cooler or mix a drink and have it ready before the car door closes and the bar door opens. She even remembers where they like to sit, and that’s where she puts the drink.

It’s a familiar routine for the bar manager at Wally’s, and she’s a familiar face to the regulars who stop by to bend an elbow and bend her ear.

For Marilyn and the folks she serves, it’s their happy Playce.

While Long’s a pro at pouring a drink and setting up the suds, it’s the routine she appreciates— the people she meets, the regulars who stop by, the stories she hears. She’s at home behind the bar, and she makes her customers feel at home, too.

Wally’s is the latest in a long line of jobs in the service industry for Marilyn, and while her seven years at the same job is worth raising a glass to, that’s just the tip of the ice cube.

Marilyn has been in the food and drink business for nearly 50 years.

Most of that time has been spent behind the bar and in front of customers, and close to home, with the Milledgeville native working mostly in Carroll and Whiteside counties. She’s poured more drinks than she can count, and there’s not much she hasn’t seen or heard. But those decades of experience have given her a gift of gab that helps her strike up conversations with just about anyone who warms a bar stool or pulls up a chair.

She won’t reveal her exact age, other than to say that she’s in her 80s, but that hasn’t stifled her stamina. She can still stay on her feet the whole time she’s on the clock —and that’s even after she had to take a year off nearly a decade ago for hip surgery.

“I like the people, and I like to be busy,” Long said. “It keeps me going, the customers keep me going. And I like my boss. They’re all good people. It gives me joy. I have my customers who come every day.”

Long tends to Wally’s early shifts: She’s there when the place opens at 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday until 6, from noon to 4 p.m. on Friday and from noon to 6 p.m. every other Saturday.

Long’s command of the bar, along with the respect she commands, has earned her the nickname “‘Ma” with both customers and staff. She’s even got a drink named after her: the Filthy Marilyn — a strong concoction of lemon juice, 7up, Seagram’s 7, dark cherry cocktail juice and a cherry. It’s only been her special drink for a few years, after learning about it from a visiting mixologist.

“I’ve been making a lot of those lately. It’s nice. I make them strong for everyone but me.”

While she’s become a familiar face at the Playce, Marilyn is no stranger to being recognized. Through the years, she’s also worked at Rhandy’s in Lanark, Spare Time Bowling Alley and Lucky Strike Lanes in Milledgeville (now The Other Bar), The Homestead in Sterling (recently where Candlelight Inn was in town), The Mill Wheel Tavern in Milledgeville, Manny’s in Freeport and Fulton, and 28 years working four nights a week at Sievert’s in Mount Carroll.

Long worked at Sievert’s throughout most of her time there while also working at Elkay in Lanark; she would drive from Lanark to Mount Carroll in her work uniform and change at Sievert’s.

“When I was young, I wanted to be an owner of a bar and a restaurant,” Long said. “It’s just never happened, but I’ve worked waitress jobs.”

Long came to Wally’s in 2018, not long after general manager Ken Duncan opened the place – named for Duncan’s stepfather Wally Mennenga. Long brought her wealth of bartending experience with her – a skill set that’s made “Ma” a favorite with customers, who treat her like family, bringing her Christmas and birthday gifts. She’s even got a fan club of sorts: the Friday Friends Club.

Duncan remembers being a kid and seeing Long when she worked at Sievert’s — and it would have been hard to miss her. She only missed one day of work during he nearly 30 years there; and she hasn’t missed a day at Wally’s yet.

“That’s just the work ethic she has,” Duncan said. “Everybody loves Marilyn. People come from all around to see Marilyn. At Christmas time, people will bring her gifts; one end of the bar was once piled with gifts for Marilyn. She’s a sweet lady.”

It’s not often that Long sees a former regular from her Sievert’s days at Wally’s, but everyone once in a while some will stop in. Having seen thousands of faces from behind the bar through the years, she doesn’t remember everyone she’s met — but they remember her. Recently, a group of four-wheelers stopped by, and “they came in and one of them said, ‘I remember you,’” Long said. “They were from Amboy. They came back. Great people.”

Times have changed since Long started in the business in the 1970s. There wren’t as many brands of beer back then as there are today, especially with craft varieties, and there are always new cocktail recipes. If one comes up that Marilyn doesn’t know, she’ll ask the customer what’s in it. Another change she’s seen: smoke-free bars.

Long didn’t have her first drink until well into her tenure at Sievert’s, a refreshing sloe gin fizz cocktail, she recalled, with sloe gin, lemon juice, simple syrup and club soda. Another big change in the bar business since her early days is the drinking age, which was 19 in Illinois from 1973 to 1980, when it changed to 21.

When Long was in high school, Illinois’ drinking laws were unique: It was 18 for women and 21 for men until 1961, when it become 21 for both, and then reduced 12 years later.

“I can remember when I was 18, they would ask me to buy booze for them,” Long said. “My dad would have killed me if I had a drink.”

Marilyn isn’t the only attraction at Wally’s: Duncan had a large collection of empty pop cans from the 1980s and ’90s — popular brands, off-brands, Aldi store cans and even the yellow with black cans of generic beer sold at Eagle Foods — cleaned and hot glued to one of the walls. The display often sparks memories and conversations among customers. They can even be a challenge, with customers tasked with figuring out the total number of cans, finding the lone beer can in the bunch, locating the one can displayed upside town, and finding all 49 state-themed 7up cans, and then figuring out which state is missing.

Winners of the pop can challenge earn a kiss from the bartender, at their discretion of course.

“I always tell my staff: ‘Why do people come to a bar? If they just wanted to drink, they’d go by a 30-pack, sit in their garage and drink,” Duncan said. “They come here for camaraderie, conversation and entertainment. They come to the bar for the social environment. She’s ‘Ma’ to everyone.”

Kenny Stanley of Coleta is one of Long’s regulars. Long said her favorite memory of Stanley was a time when he brought her sweet corn — and Marilyn? She’s his favorite of Wally’s bartenders.

“It’s close to home. There’s friendly people here. I like my booze. This is a good place, and it has to do with the atmosphere. I can come in here and I can tease a lot of people. I’d rather go here than any other bar,” he said.

Duncan has come to appreciate not just the skills Marilyn brings to his business, but her terrific personality, friendly smile, and her caring and trustworthiness, he said.

“She found her home here, that’s for sure,” Duncan said. “She has a home here as long as she wants it.”

And Long is happy to have found it: “This is my home away from home,” she said. “I like people. They bring joy to me. That’s my life. They make my life.”

Wally’s Playce, 6 S. Washington St. in Milledgeville, is open from 2 p.m. to midnight Monday through Thursday, noon to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday, and noon to 10 p.m. Sunday. Find it on Facebook for more information.