Ah yes, Drakes. I remeber it well. I started going there long before I was a Commie High student. Quiet afternoons spent blowing too much money on comics at the Eye of Agamoto (not Dave's Comics, folks, I am talking way back when...) then sitting in a booth at Drakes reading them while enjoying a fresh limeade. Those were the days... Later, in my misspent high school days, I shared the unique honor of being officially "banned for life" from Drakes with fellow Community student Paul Schubach. We had superglued an ashtray, cigarette, napkins, silverware, plates and teacups to the wall of our booth in a stunningly lifelike and gravity defying recreation of the meal we had just enjoyed. Our attempt at surrealism was not appreciated, and we were cast out of Drakes for all eternity. In truth, we were still welcome at Drakes, though not at the same time. I think Paul may have even briefly worked there as a dish dog. Ah, and who can forget the great controversy when some poor misguided fools decided that Truman Tibbles (R.I.P.) was a homophobe, and that they should protest outside of Drakes! He threw some girls out for sitting in a booth without ordering anything, and they decided he had thrown them out for being dykes. Poor old Mr. Tibbles was pretty unaware of his surroundings, let alone the existence of lesbians. Hell, he had referred to Paul's girlfriend as "boy" for about a year while she worked there as he couldn't quite grasp the concept of a girl with short hair. Anyways, there was a counter protest of embittered lesbian former Drakes employees, pissed off at the utter stupidity of accusing Truman Tibbles of being prejudiced against something he was unaware of. I can still remember their brilliant protest chant... "Don't matter if you're straight or gay, Truman hates you anyway!" Heh, now there is some real Drakes history for you. Yeah, I was pretty sad when I heard that they were shutting Drakes down. Lot of memories in that place. Oh well, not like I'm in Ann Arbor to enjoy it these days. Still...too bad it closed. -Richard Valdes Class of '89


joe- are you doing a drakes page? do you remember me? i've had purple hair for the last 8 years (tall, skinny, white, and a dodd-forum girl too,) moved to san francisco 7 years ago (though still visit alot,) and worked at drakes from... '90 until truman died. i did the estate sale with mike yee... and either you or chris ashe got the tea menu-bubble i wanted instead of the grapeaide menu bubble i got. i could talk your ear off about stories if you want, and in lieu of eleanor's crappy decision to sell the store to breuger's bagel outlet, have been wanting do do a book or something to commemorate/celebrate the olive-green and black legacy we knew as drake's. i quit smoking a few years back, so i guess if it was still around and i still lived in a2, i couldn't hang there as i did anway, but it and mr.t are sorely missed. i'm a designer out in san francisco now, working at fox motocross. lemme know if you want any contributions, i'd love to be a part of it.
:) nina