So the time flew by, but where was all of it spent?
Well, according to the Whiffenpoofs:
“To the tables down at Mory’s
To the place where Louie dwells
To the dear old Temple bar
We love so well–“
Four years ago you came to Old Blue. Broadway was a dull, uninspired street — hardly the rocking, miniature Fifth Avenue it is today. In that long stretch of time since September 1998, the Class of ’02 latched onto some patches of grass and crumbling bricks, memories of spots in Yale and New Haven that will see them through their post-Yale years. The theater buffs will miss the Cabaret and the Dramat. The hockey players will miss Ingalls Rink. The musically-inclined will miss Byers Hall and Battell Chapel.
Someone, somewhere, will miss the dining halls.
You said goodbye to Krauszer’s, “the unofficial Yale all-nighter’s pit-stop.” You saw the Yale Co-op go bankrupt, even though it never had to pay Yale tuition, room and board. For three years, there was Naples, where, like the pizza parlors in Mama Italia, you could drink long before you were 18, let alone 21. This year, you watched your shrine to weekend debauchery lose its liquor license the same year many of you finally were old enough to drink legally.
“I heard that TGI Friday’s is moving in. That really sucks,” Christopher Herbert ’02 said. “[There is no] good pizza on campus anymore.”
While most graduating seniors seem to prefer Naples to New Haven’s countless other pizza joints, some, like Amanda Farris ’02, said Naples lost its luster when it lost its liquor.
“[It would help] to have beer there to improve [the] atmosphere,” Farris said.
Reportedly one of Jodie Foster’s favorite hang-outs during her Yale years, Anchor Bar provided welcome relief for many thirsty senior-year evenings.
“I would have to say the spot I am going to miss most from senior year is Anchor Bar,” Patrick Lank ’02 said. “Going in there three to four nights a week, greeted by the friendly waiter Eric who already knew all of our regular drinks, was a welcome break from the terrible ‘Senior Essay Semester.'”
Another favorite imbibing spot was Mory’s, the little white house next to Toad’s, the watering-hole that really felt as prestigious as the Ivy League itself. Getting in was simple: get to know a Mory’s member and dress to kill, or at least to comply with the club’s fancy-schmancy regulations: coat and tie, or the equivalent. Once in, 15 dollars let you drink from one of the notorious gilded cups.
And while finishing a cup at Anchor, or even Naples, did not require any response more musical than someone burping, at Mory’s, tradition demanded the Mory’s song.
For non-alcoholic refreshments, you went for milkshakes at the Educated Burgher. When the Yankee Doodle celebrated their 50-year anniversary week, there were 15-cent cherry Cokes.
You saw — or, actually, didn’t see — Whimsels disappear over Spring Break and could not have cared less. But the whisper of a legend named Ashley’s hangs in the air. When Ashley’s ice cream parlor left Broadway in 1999, ice cream merged with crepes to form Whimsels. The shop opened in late 2000 on the former Y Haircutters site. Now, as the seniors leave, there is a hole in the world of York, a street with more turnovers than the Yale football team, with 25 restaurants and stores coming and leaving in a 10-year period.
While Subway and Bruegger’s survive in other parts of New Haven (the closest on Chapel and Whitney streets, respectively), they suffered the same fate as homegrown shops like Broadway Pizza, The Daily Cafe, David’s Cookies and now Whimsels in the Broadway/York district.
Other places have closed as well over the past year. Some have moved away. Kaye’s Art Supply left its normal Chapel Street location. The Middle Eastern staple Alexandria Cafe & Restaurant on Crown St. is relocating and shrinking considerably.
The memories of seniors who spent countless hours and money at the old restaurants, delis and cafes linger.
The one York Street staple that never leaves, the Flower Lady, may never stop haunting your nightmares with her high-pitched sales call.
For some, La Casa and Slifka — along with the African, Asian, and Native American cultural centers — provided students with on-campus meeting places to share common bonds and celebrate their unique, diverse heritages.
But all of you celebrated the University’s Tercentennial with inordinate amounts of time at the Yale Bowl, all of which culminated in the Game, where Harvard took the title but not our spirit. Luckily, you had the chance to rush the field your sophomore year when the Bulldogs chased away the Cantabs. During the 2000-01 season, seniors were also fortunate enough to witness the miracle weekend of men’s hockey, where fans inundated the ice to celebrate the men’s unexpected sweep of Harvard and Brown, an event that allowed the team to secure a spot in the playoffs.
Outside of on-campus locations and local eateries — and drink-eries — seniors will miss other parts of New Haven as well, particularly the 426-acre East Rock Park.
Farris, who will attend the Yale Forestry School next year, said the two-mile trip down Orange St. helped her put her Yale experience in perspective.
“After showing my parents all around the usual places, I took my [them] to the top of East Rock,” Farris said. “From there, the sky and possibilities look much bigger once you get off the academic treadmill.”
Mostly, however, seniors will miss their favorite spots because they played host to the beginnings of many lasting friendships.
“I’ll miss Cross Campus and Old Campus because of how it teems with people,” Herbert said.
Like Herbert, Farris said it was the people she met who gave her favorite places significance.
“It’s plain that the people at Yale make our education what it is,” Farris said. “Of course there’s the whole top-notch academics thing, but how much of that am I going to remember next week?”