....closed Sunday. The location at the corner on Libby and Broad was a late night haunt for members of my frat in the early '60's. Three of them lived in a house directly behind the restaurant on Libby Ave. I remember going over there one Sunday afternoon to visit the occupants and finding them a bit hung over and lounging in the living room where a pyramid of more than 60 empty beer cans(a tribute to a fine Saturday night party) stretched toward the ceiling. While I was there, the minister from one of the local churches dropped by to invite the boys to attend services. He didn't stay long.
For years, I would drop by Bills when I got to Richmond to relive memories of great times as an undergrad. The three guys who lived behind the restaurant were definitely "colorful". Bobby Dinges was an original if there ever was one. A big, heavy teddy bear (think John Candy with blond curly hair) he was (and, I hope still is although I haven't seen him since the late "60's) the funniest person I have ever known. Like LKN and myself, he was a "Winchester boy" and the only one of six of us in my freshman class who had a car. He was a master of the "dramatic entrance" ...he'd burst into our dorm room in a sort of rhymic cadence, similar to that later used by Jackie Gleason on his television show, walk over to LKN's desk to stare at her picture, then express some lewd wish regarding LKN's very pretty girlfriend of the time. He'd then turn to me and announce in grand fashion his latest plan for accumulating immense wealth after graduation. ie, one day it was "Frank, I've got it figured out, I know how I'm gonna make my first million, I'm gonna be a Hospital Administrator!" LKN then announced, "Dinges, you're gonna need a hospital administrator if you don't get out of here and let us study!" Bobby was most famous for coming into Doc Lavender's 9:30 French class at 10:00 and knocking books off desks as he tried to navigate his immense girth to his seat in the middle of the back row. Doc was livid and sreamed, "Mr. Dinges! How dare you come into my classroom this late. Do you know that it takes me three cups of coffee every morning to come over here and face this disrespectful class!"(some of the guys in the class would occaisionally throw those exploding paper wads at the blackboard when his back was turned, Doc had been on two ships that were torpedoed in WW2). Unfazed, Dinges replied, "I know how you feel, Doc, I was on my fourth cup when I decided to come over."
The other two guys in that house were Roy Baker Priest, son of Ivy Baker Priest the Secretary of the Treasury and brother to Kathy Baker Priest who was the pretty girl in bibs who announced the next act on Hee Haw for many seasons. Another sister was on "The Munsters". Priest's mother was married to a Hollywood producer. Somehow, Roy swiped a page of tear away forms that were used to make ID cards for Treasury Agents from his mother's headquarters and made very nice phony IDs for some of the frat guys. Roy's favorite way to end the evening after a date was to take off his trousers after coming in from a date at two in the morning and walking over to Bills in dress shirt, tie, weegans with garter socks and boxer shorts and sit at the counter for his late night snack before turning in. Roy transferred to Southern Cal his junior year to be closer to his family and was killed in a canoeing accident the summer after his senior year. Clayton Nobles, the third roommate, was a dead ringer for the then undiscovered John Baluchi in the face(dark hair with heavy eyebrows), but was trimly built. Clayton was the best dancer in the frat, a master of the beach style shag dancing. When I last talked to him he was in real estate at Virginia Beach
So, a lot of good memories from undergrad days have lost their shrine. I don't know where Bobby Dinges is today, I'd like to think that he is running some big city hospital.
This post was edited on 9/17 8:41 AM by tarrantula
For years, I would drop by Bills when I got to Richmond to relive memories of great times as an undergrad. The three guys who lived behind the restaurant were definitely "colorful". Bobby Dinges was an original if there ever was one. A big, heavy teddy bear (think John Candy with blond curly hair) he was (and, I hope still is although I haven't seen him since the late "60's) the funniest person I have ever known. Like LKN and myself, he was a "Winchester boy" and the only one of six of us in my freshman class who had a car. He was a master of the "dramatic entrance" ...he'd burst into our dorm room in a sort of rhymic cadence, similar to that later used by Jackie Gleason on his television show, walk over to LKN's desk to stare at her picture, then express some lewd wish regarding LKN's very pretty girlfriend of the time. He'd then turn to me and announce in grand fashion his latest plan for accumulating immense wealth after graduation. ie, one day it was "Frank, I've got it figured out, I know how I'm gonna make my first million, I'm gonna be a Hospital Administrator!" LKN then announced, "Dinges, you're gonna need a hospital administrator if you don't get out of here and let us study!" Bobby was most famous for coming into Doc Lavender's 9:30 French class at 10:00 and knocking books off desks as he tried to navigate his immense girth to his seat in the middle of the back row. Doc was livid and sreamed, "Mr. Dinges! How dare you come into my classroom this late. Do you know that it takes me three cups of coffee every morning to come over here and face this disrespectful class!"(some of the guys in the class would occaisionally throw those exploding paper wads at the blackboard when his back was turned, Doc had been on two ships that were torpedoed in WW2). Unfazed, Dinges replied, "I know how you feel, Doc, I was on my fourth cup when I decided to come over."
The other two guys in that house were Roy Baker Priest, son of Ivy Baker Priest the Secretary of the Treasury and brother to Kathy Baker Priest who was the pretty girl in bibs who announced the next act on Hee Haw for many seasons. Another sister was on "The Munsters". Priest's mother was married to a Hollywood producer. Somehow, Roy swiped a page of tear away forms that were used to make ID cards for Treasury Agents from his mother's headquarters and made very nice phony IDs for some of the frat guys. Roy's favorite way to end the evening after a date was to take off his trousers after coming in from a date at two in the morning and walking over to Bills in dress shirt, tie, weegans with garter socks and boxer shorts and sit at the counter for his late night snack before turning in. Roy transferred to Southern Cal his junior year to be closer to his family and was killed in a canoeing accident the summer after his senior year. Clayton Nobles, the third roommate, was a dead ringer for the then undiscovered John Baluchi in the face(dark hair with heavy eyebrows), but was trimly built. Clayton was the best dancer in the frat, a master of the beach style shag dancing. When I last talked to him he was in real estate at Virginia Beach
So, a lot of good memories from undergrad days have lost their shrine. I don't know where Bobby Dinges is today, I'd like to think that he is running some big city hospital.
This post was edited on 9/17 8:41 AM by tarrantula