For Old Dukies Only

[dukepsy1963]

Anyone remember the Blue Light, East Campus, Toddle House, Maola's, or that place where you read comics with your pizza? Just curious?

[duke74]

Anyone remember the Blue Light, East Campus, Toddle House, Maola's, or that place where you read comics with your pizza? Just curious?

Bat's? The Ivy Room?

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Bat's? The Ivy Room?

That was Bat's, aka Anna Maria's. Bat died several years ago and the place is long gone. But "spag with balls!" will live on forever!

[willywoody]

dang it's an oldies thread and BAT's is in it! it closed after my freshmen year but i went twice. what a joint.

[Stray Gator]

I was a frequent customer at Bat's for Anna's veal parmagiana, ice-cold PBRs, and comic books--and often enjoyed talking sports with Bat when he wasn't serenading the house or on the phone with his bookie; I ran into Bat and Anna and their daughter at La Guardia several years after I graduated, and was amazed at how well they remembered individual students in our circle of friends. Mayola's was a small, traditional NC restaurant around the corner from Bat's, and was about the only place within walking distance from East Campus for a freshman to take a date for a regular sit-down dinner on special occasions like Homecoming or Joe College Weekend. (For more informal dates, especially with girls from up north, the Ivy Room a block closer to East Campus was a decent option, though what they charged for "imported beer" and tried to pass off as a corned beef sandwich was criminal.) The Toddle House was across the street from Mayola's, and was the post-midnight destination of choice--actually there was no other post-midnight choice, unless you had a car and could navigate to Honey's without getting arrested--for hungry drunks; after 2 a.m., it was like walking into a Fellini film, populated by a motley assortment of jocks, Greeks, hippies, rednecks, bums, and characters from the local underworld. Good times...

[dkbaseball]

Mayola's was the frat hangout. Closed circa 1970, replaced by University Grill.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

Mayola's was the frat hangout. Closed circa 1970, replaced by University Grill.

Mayola's was on Gregson. Anotherthyme took over the old Mayola's location, not University Grill. The UG was on Main St. Spent many hours at the UG. Got to know George, the owner and his dad Mr. Jimmy, pretty well... George was a groomsman in my wedding. The UG is something else now, too. Sawyer and Moore was also on Main St. not far from the UG.. a great store which carried all sorts of things.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

Do you remember Tops? It was a hamburger joint on the corner near East. Maybe you got your shirts done at the Jack Rabbit. How about the Donut Dinette near East... very small place, but fabulous donuts.

[Jim3k]

How about the Donut Dinette near East... very small place, but fabulous donuts.

Yeah, but it had a whites only policy, not to mention odd pricing: 1 donut for 7 cents, two for 15 cents. Of course, you got to watch the donuts floating in the fryer lake with the baker gingerly trying to keep from burning himself from the spatter.

[sbpollo]

Does anyone remember the pizza place off East where the owner was wheelchair-bound? It's the only za place where the cheese was so hot, it blistered the roof of my mouth on every first bite.

[devildeac]

Does anyone remember the pizza place off East where the owner was wheelchair-bound? It's the only za place where the cheese was so hot, it blistered the roof of my mouth on every first bite.

Pizza Palace.

[Indoor66]

Pizza Palace.

Pizza Palace of Durham was on Chapel Hill Street, just down (west) from Amos 'n Andy's. About a block and a half east was The Palms - where Parris intersected Chapel Hill St. A little further east was the movie theater that was torn down and became Home Savings & Loan.

How about the Criterion Theater? Remember that? Showed the skin flicks.

[devildeac]

Pizza Palace of Durham was on Chapel Hill Street, just down (west) from Amos 'n Andy's. About a block and a half east was The Palms - where Parris intersected Chapel Hill St. A little further east was the movie theater that was torn down and became Home Savings & Loan.

How about the Criterion Theater? Remember that? Showed the skin flicks.

The PP must have moved in the 70's as the PP I remember was on Hillsborough(I think), about a block or two off East Campus, where Vin Rouge is now(I think) and across or just down the street from what is now Elmo's Diner.

Never heard of the Criterion(and even if I had and admitted it, I know too many folks on DBR who would report me )

[Indoor66]

The PP must have moved in the 70's as the PP I remember was on Hillsborough(I think), about a block or two off East Campus, where Vin Rouge is now(I think) and across or just down the street from what is now Elmo's Diner.

Never heard of the Criterion(and even if I had and admitted it, I know too many folks on DBR who would report me )

That was a different Pizza Palace.

[dukepsy1963]

I don't recall "skin flicks," but I do remember that it had great foreign films...that, I guess, were a little less inhibited than the other fare available at the time. Maybe that was my excuse for going.

I do recall great foreign films (twice a week: Wednesdays and Saturdays, I think) shown by the Union in Page. The audiences were great...very savvy (faculty and student mix).
When the Rank film logo came up, for example, the audience would howl. Tame by today's standards.

The early Peter Sellers fillms were especially well-attended. Many good British films as I recall.

[devildeac]

That was a different Pizza Palace.

That helps explain the discrepancy/confusion.

[Brian913]

Does anyone remember the pizza place off East where the owner was wheelchair-bound? It's the only za place where the cheese was so hot, it blistered the roof of my mouth on every first bite.

Pizza Palace.

Pizza Palace of Durham was on Chapel Hill Street, just down (west) from Amos 'n Andy's. About a block and a half east was The Palms - where Parris intersected Chapel Hill St. A little further east was the movie theater that was torn down and became Home Savings & Loan.

How about the Criterion Theater? Remember that? Showed the skin flicks.

The PP must have moved in the 70's as the PP I remember was on Hillsborough(I think), about a block or two off East Campus, where Vin Rouge is now(I think) and across or just down the street from what is now Elmo's Diner.

Never heard of the Criterion(and even if I had and admitted it, I know too many folks on DBR who would report me )

That was a different Pizza Palace.

That helps explain the discrepancy/confusion.

Only 5 years late in replying. The "Pizza Palace" was on Hillsborough (with the owner in a wheelchair." "George's Pizza Palace" was downtown.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Never heard of the Criterion (and even if I had and admitted it, I know too many folks on DBR who would report me )

Duek74 says: Ahhh...the "Crit". Of course I only heard about it.

You're both liars!

Don't remember the Crit. We always went to the drive in theater (The Skyway?) to see skin flicks.

[Olympic Fan]

You guys are both right about the Crit ... when I first came to Duke, it was an art house that showed foreign films. I took my first date at Duke to see Alphaville at the Crit.

The changeover from art house to porn house was kind of gradual. The transition were a series of racy foreign films -- I Am Curious Yellow broke box office records there. It was soon after that that the theater switched to porn.

I do remember the x-rated drive-in -- out highway 751 -- where we were taken as freshmen to see porn (my first porn experience). I can still remember the double feature -- Love Camp No. 7 and Hot Spurs. A few years ago, I was looking through a catalogue of camp films and saw both titles. I ordered them on VCR ... it was hilarous seeing what passed for porn in the late 1960s -- except for the extended plots, either film could be shown on Cinemax after Dark today.

I too have fond memories of some of those eateries you guys have been talking about. I spent a lot of time in Mayolas -- the bookie Frankie (who claimed to be a Duke grad) was always in the first booth by the wall, nursing a Schlitz. Bats was awesome (definitely order the chicken parm) ... but give the Ivy Room more credit. I had a roommate from New York who said it was the best deli South of Philly (and, this was in the late '60s). Did New York delis serve fried chicken with honey on the side?

Also more props for Amos and Andy's -- absolutely the best hot dog place I've ever eaten. Man, I'd kill for two with chili and slaw ...

Also, the original Bullocks (about where Morgan's Dodge is now) ... and what was the name of the small place where the ballpark is now located -- a cafeteria style joint where you could get one meat and three sides for 85 cents and add a one-scoop cone for a nickel? The best Southern-style cooking in the world.

Also, does anybody else remember the weekly Saturday midnight showings of Bedazzled ... long before Rocky Horror caught on, it was a Duke tradition.

[dukepsy1963]

Some of you must remember the "chow men"... They would come around to the arches around 10:30 or so with sandwiches, apples, milk, cookies, and other tidbits for us "starving" young men. I can still hear them call out, "Chow Man!" Then you would hear thumping of guys heading down the stairs to avoid the rush.
A favorite question was, "did the chow man come already?" How sad if you missed him. A day without munching on something he brought was a bummer... ah me yet again...

BTW. I have not thought about this stuff in a long, long time. Fond memories...but as my younger wife says, "that was a long, long time ago, honey!" (She also says that when I swap Navy stories with some guy.) But I say, "Not to me, sweetie, not to me...."