Dave's Hot Dogs

Dave's Hot Dogs         216 North Main Street

In the mid 1970's there seem to be a surge of new student hangouts, none of which were hurting for patronage. Directly across the street from the infamous Mr. Fooz came Dave's Hot Dogs that had the right trifecta of student bait - food, beer, and entertainment.

One of the big deals about Dave's was the truly BIG 24 foot square television screen.  As you can imagine it was pretty popular for Monday night football, but during the daytime you were likely to catch the then-current sitcom "Happy Days", movies, or even a soap opera.  They had cable tv (yeah, that was a big deal then) and would post the daily show listings in the front window.

Dave's served hot dogs, of course, but also sandwiches, french fries, sodas, and beer (like Stroh's, Miller, and Schlitz)  While you munched and slurped you could shoot a game of pool, or try your luck on the pinball machines.

The owner and namesake of this fun place was David Mondy Jr. who was an avid golfer, and who went on to own and operate the New River Junction at the McCoy Falls, a fantastic tubing place on the New River.  Sadly, Dave passed away last fall at the much-too-young age of 56.

The Alamo

I honestly don't even remember this place, although as the ad says it opened in February 1973.  Can anyone help me out with this one?

Cheap cars, cheap gas

Doc Robert's Shell

Another reason to miss the 1970's was transportation.   Before the big imposing building known as Kent Square arrived, you had downtown gas stations selling petrol for 29 cents a gallon (look close beneath the hanging Shell sign).  This was Doc Roberts place on the corner of Lee and South Main.

Just up the block was Heavener Chevrolet where I bought my black VW Beetle, seen in an earlier post, for a pittance.  It cost less than $4.00 to fill up the tank from dead empty.  This building is now part of the town municipal buildings between Clay and Miller Streets.

Heavener Chevrolet 

Rec Center

I didn't frequent this place so I can't tell you much about it, other than that they hosted a yearly crafts fair which was pretty cool.  I think it's the same crafts fair that was in the ballroom at Squires, and that now shows up at the University Mall.

The Rec Center was on Draper Road.

Parade

Not sure what parade this might have been, but the picture is from 1970 or 1971.    This Mustang full of beauties is passing by Globe Records and Roses.  Anyone know who the girls are?

Hippie Food

Hippies smoked grass and ate nuts and berries, right?  Or was it the other way around?  Whichever it was, their needs for the latter were filled primarily by two groovy stores in town, one called Eats and the other was Frog Hollow.  

Eats started out on College Avenue, accessed through Fringe Benefit and located above Neilys Bookstore, and was about the size of someone's bedroom.  In 1974 it was purchased by Stan Davis and is still owned and run by him today (they are now on Main Street across from Prices Fork Road).  When they left their College Ave location they moved to two different spots on North Main Street, then a short time on South Main, and now at their current spot.

Frog Hollow began on Progress Street in the big building across from the fire station.  Later, they moved to the Barrel Mall behind Appalachian Outfitters.

Both places were quite popular among the natural foods crowd, and featured foods like natural peanut butter, honey, raw nuts, cheeses, granola, dried fruits, freshly ground flour .... much of which was sold in bulk.  They also carried vitamins, herbs, teas, and soaps.