The Retired Men’s Social Club offers an intriguing glimpse into Seaside’s past – and soul food too.

It’s a Friday night in winter. The weather outside is mild, but inside it’s frisky and warm. Fried catfish and cornmeal-coated shrimp drop onto styrofoam clamshells with collard greens, bacon-laden beans and homemade potato salad.

Michelle’s Soul Food has taken over the kitchen of the Retired Men’s Social Club, as it does every Friday, to dish out food cooked from the heart.

Most of the dozen or so patrons have come here, to a small, squat building on Seaside’s north side, for a meal. But a few older men huddled up at the bar have an air of history about them.

On another Friday in February, Ethel Bailey tends bar. A handful of eaters dig into Southern food; three customers gather at the bar. “We don’t get out and party like we used to,” Bailey says. “Back in the day, this place was a full house.”

Johnny Wilson, the club’s business manager, joins us. “It used to be so full on Friday, it was hard to come in,” he says.

That was back in the ’70s, when Wilson was stationed at Moffett Field near San Jose and would come down now and then on weekends. He moved to the Monterey Peninsula in 2007.

Three months later, Wilson is back at the club with Bill Bradford, the club’s recently elected president. Wilson shows me an old, typewritten history of the club’s first 34 years, which he dug out of the files in the club’s storage closet.

According to that history, 10 charter members founded the club in 1958. “Its main purpose was camaraderie among the members, their family and the community,” it reads. Activities were limited for several years. Then things picked up.

“We don’t get out and party like we used to.”

“In 1974, the club became very active in organizing and participating in numerous programs for the benefit of the Seaside and Monterey Peninsula communities,” the history continues. That same year, club leaders bought their own building at the intersection of Del Monte Avenue and Fremont Boulevard. Shortly after, a group of like-minded women formed a partner club, the Ladies Auxiliary.

Bradford says he was first stationed in the area in 1960 for basic training at Fort Ord. But he didn’t come to the club until he was reassigned to the area in 1976, just as Jimmy Carter entered the White House. “[It was] all the way live,” Bradford says, then laughs. “All the way live. That’s what kept me coming back.”

Wilson pulls out a stack of framed photos, old images of local politicos passing through. There’s a young Sam Farr and Leon Panetta, and former longtime county Sheriff Bud Cook.

“Oh, they’d come through here if they expected to get into office,” Bradford says. “We had everybody up in here.”

Wilson then holds up a picture of Dick Gregory. I ask who that is.

“You don’t know who Dick Gregory is?” Bradford says.

“He’s a comedian, then he became an activist,” Wilson chimes in.

“I can tell you haven’t been on this earth too long,” Bradford adds.

For several years after its 1974 renaissance, the club was a major player in the local community, with members including high-ranking military, doctors, city workers and sheriff’s deputies.

The club’s rules for membership have changed over the years, though the name hasn’t. Around the time the Army closed Fort Ord in the mid-1990s, the Ladies Auxiliary merged with the club. Now one needn’t be a man, or retired, to become a member. Some years, it’s been mostly women holding office.

The club is also largely made up of black members. Bradford says that’s not by design. “It was pretty well mixed there for awhile, but it just ended up that way,” he says.

Looking back, he gets nostalgic. “The best memories I have here are the people,” he says. “We had some characters, and we really had those that were down to earth. Everybody was involved in something, but then you had those who loved to sit back and play pinochle all day. It would get on your nerves.”

He describes gambling nights with cards and roulette, or a smoky dance floor as Marvin Gaye’s “How Sweet it Is” plays. “That’s what the club was here for, to come down and enjoy yourself,” he says. “We never had a serious argument in here, we never had any fighting, or swearing and all that kind of stuff. That was something we would not put up with in here.”

Those days were more than 20 years ago. But the club maintains its community spirit: It still gives local students scholarships every year and holds various charity events. And with Michelle’s Soul Food every Friday, the place comes to life with flavor and old friends.

There’s been talk about bringing some of the parties back, Bradford adds.

“I have plans,” he says, “to get this place going.”

Michelle’s Soul Food at the Retired Men’s Social Club, Fridays noon-8pm, 2087 Del Monte Blvd., Seaside. 601-2295. Club also opens 3pm Saturday, and some Sundays for events.