The Sewer

If you passed by Book Strings & Things and hung a left into the alley you'd find a door leading to a unique sub shop with an unlikely name ...... The Sewer.

Poor T. Marshall Hahn, always getting harassed

The Sewer was the brainchild of a guy named Garth, along with his merry band of hippie friends who lived commune style out in the Ellett Valley area.   Garth scraped together $350 and proposed opening this place that would stay open way into the night, quite often up until 3 a.m.   At the time nothing else in town was open this late.

Sitting around in the living room of the old farmhouse they kicked around names.  Fellow flower-child Ken suggested "Ditch Works", but when the name "Sewer" was suggested it was instantly accepted.  After all, there was a near constant stream of water running across the floor.  Remember, Stroubles Creek flows under those buildings.

So in December of 1971 The Sewer opened it's doors.  For a mere $1.50 you could get a beast of a hoagie with turkey, ham, salami, roast beef, bologna, american and swiss cheeses, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, onion, Italian dressing, salt, pepper, and mustard.  Enough for two meals, easily.

Thanks to the tireless work of Garth, Doug, Ken, Paul, Bill, Joe, Anita and Barbara, there was no such thing as insatiable munchies in the early 70's in downtown Blacksburg.

The only surviving mural left at The Sewer

The Blue Bug

This is just an update to the June 2012 post about our police force's addition to their fleet of vehicles.  Probably should have been called Herbie the Love Police (or even Herbie the Love Fuzz).  Anyway, after stumbling onto this picture today we now know when this thing was puttering around town ..... it was the Spring of 1972.