A (quasi-official) Weekend Singles thread

The "Mike's Bar" that you remember was probably "Mike's Grill," a great place to get a mongo-sized cheeseburger and a separate paper plate mounded up with made-in-house french fries. This place was on North Main Street, right across the street from the mall on campus, a few doors up from the Modern Barber Shop (haircut $4, shampoo $4, shave $4).

Our Daily Bread was very good. I used to go there at lunchtime to get a bowl of soup and day-old bread. I don't think they're open any more, though. The London Underground is definitely after your time. Gilley's was doing vegetarian breakfast and lunch and gourmet coffee along with ice cream when I was there...I used to crave their hummus pita, but it was so full of garlic and onions I could never slip one by my wife.

I'd come in the door and she'd say "You've been to Gilley's!" She could smell the hummus from across the room.

You're right. I was thinking of Mike's Grill. I remember getting a haircut at the Modern Barber Shop many times. I also did laundry at Cook's for a while when the machines on campus were just too busy and too unreliable.

I was in Blacksburg with my friend around Christmas of '05, and we had a late breakfast at Gilley's. I remember having a big plate of pancakes. He told me that Gilley's had become something of a left-wing joint, and we joked that I was probably the only conservative to eat there that day.

When I was there, I was on the meal plan in the dorms most of the time, and I was too frugal to spend much money eating at the local spots that most people remember. I always enjoyed shopping at a place called "Blue Ridge Outdoors" or something like that. It was an outdoor shop on that little road that was perpendicular to the Mall. I was pretty strongly into outdoor stuff back then, and they were a good shop. I remember an arts and engineering supply place called "Mish Mish." I think I still have a drawing triangle with their name on it. There was a little Christian bookstore on the road past the post office. In my Virginia Tech days, I was a very dedicated churchgoer.

For my first two or three times voting, I voted in that post office. At that time, Tennessee was pretty strict about how absentee ballots were handled, and I had to find someone official to do all kinds of witnessing. One of the officials who could witness was a postmaster of any post office, so I always went there to vote. He would witness that my ballot was empty, witness that I was allowed to vote in private, and witness that I showed him the sealed envelope into which I had placed the ballot. Only after all of that assurance would Tennessee accept that I had really cast a valid absentee vote. My first presidential vote was a vote for Ronald Reagan, and I cast that vote from the Blacksburg post office.

Bill

Hey stout, if you’ve got all the details for the Singles ping list, that would be great.

I guess this makes it official, GOP_Raider will be your host for the singles thread Friday evening. You may want to clear your calendars and day planners, I do have something a little different planned at least on Friday.

See you all Friday.

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