Welcome to IV, where the real education begins....

First day of school at UCSB, Fall 1983. Once I settled in a bit, I grabbed my bike and started riding on the bike path through the center of campus, passing Storke Tower, etc.
At the edge of campus, I noticed an overpass. Intrigued, I sped up and passed through it....and found myself in a whole new world.

I found myself riding, not on a bike path anymore, but in the middle of a real street. There were a few cars, but mostly bicycles, bicycles, and more bicycles being ridden all over the street. Just like those old pictures of Beijing, China. Cars crossing Pardall were stopped, waiting as if for a train to pass, while the stream of bicycles zoomed by.

On the left, there was the Delta Tau Delta frat house. I didn't really deal with frats much, but I mention this one because
a. I and about 4 other guys did an "air guitar" gig there in Spring 1984
b. A roommate of mine actually joined them (but kept on living with us....maybe the house was full or something). Anyway....

On the right, there was a planter full of cactuses. (The county removed it within a few months, citing liability if someone fell into it and got pricked...) and a dead Taco Bell.
(In late Spring of 1984, the TB was torn down and replaced with a Subway sandwich shop, a (pre-Starbucks) coffee shop, an ice-cream store, and a Chinese restaurant that served dishes such as "Beef Isla Vista" and "Shrimp UCSB".)

Pizza
College students lived on two things, pizza and beer.There were four places to get pizza:

• Domino's. Mostly for freshmen who didn't know any better.
• Pizza Bob's. Jock/frat boy hangout that served (allegedly) watered-down beer. Delivery hours were somewhat limited (about an hour earlier than the other places on this list). Now the place is (I think) a coffee shop, last time I was in IV (late 2004)
• Perry's. Surfer-type hangout on Pardall. They served pan pizza cut into square slices. (This was part of a small chain, with stores in Inglewood and Redondo Beach(?), perhaps other places as well.The IV Perry's also tried to get into the post office business, by opening a contract postal station after the official IV Post office closed....that cost them goodwill as people got mad that they couldn't buy stamps during all open hours. (There's a funny cartoon in the Daily Nexus about Perry's foray into the postal business). They closed down sometime after that.
• Woodstocks. IMHO the best pizza in IV. Still going strong.
  

Restaurants

• The Habit. Served decent, if a bit greasy, burgers and fried pies. There was another one in Downtown Goleta, and now there is a whole chain of them as far south as Encino. In early 86, the IV branch shut down and became "McBurleys", selling overpriced food ($3 for a simple burger?) and beer. McBurleys was rumored to be run by one of the more well-heeled frats, perhaps with a good helping of parental funds...In a few years, it became a coffeeshop or some other type of restaurant.
• Borsodi's. Your quintessential hippy coffee shop. They probably did poetry readings there too. Not my scene so I never went inside. (This was also the IV stop for the Green Tortoise bus on its LA-SF run)
• Baba's Falafel: Before I got to UCSB, I didn't even know what a falafel was. The dining commons served what they called falafels, but were really just balls of bland tofu. Yuck. Baba's turned me on to a whole new world of Middle Eastern cuisine....sort of. The little stand was replaced by a strip mall in 1987. Baba's was there for a while, then moved (on campus?). Freebird's moved in, looked good, but I never got to try it.
• Pappagallos. Italian? Never ate there, but I do remember their pink neon sign beaming into my room all night, during their summer of 1985....
• There was also a Mexican place near the tip of the Embarcadero loop, never did get a chance to try it out.
• The Egghead. Served omelets and breakfast. Never went there
• New York Hero House. Sub sandwiches. Never went there either
• There was another really tiny breakfast-only place as well, called the "Blue Dolphin". Apparently it was quite good, because there were often lines out the door...
• Andrea's/Sam's to Go/Gerties: a few other names that come to mind. I remember trying to go to Gerties one evening and found that they closed early...never went
• back....

Entertainment and clubs

• At least the first year, there was a lot of griping about the lack of nightlife, as opposed to LA or some bigger place. Of course, there were clubs in Downtown Santa Barbara, but those were mostly 21 and up (and carded).You'd also need a car, a friend with a car, or $20 for a cab ride back to campus (in these pre-Bill's Bus days). But in time, a few things opened up in IV:
• The Library. Somewhere on Pardall. I think this was a 21+ place, so I never dealt with it (it was gone by the time I turned 21)
• The Graduate. Opened in the old Bank of America building in Spring(?) 1985. Did both 21+ and 18+ events, something for everybody. Fun to go out with friends once in a while. Eventually became a UCSB lecture hall after stints as a brewpub, a dance studio/gym, and who knows what else...
• Magic Lantern Theaters: Fall 1983 was the last of their existance as a movie theater. I remember seeing a couple of flix with friends (Strange Brew and National Lampoon's Vacation, I think)...tickets were very cheap and the theater was still empty. They went out of business shortly after that and were taken over by UCSB for use as lecture halls. (Campus groups could also show movies there, or in a number of the other on-campus lecture halls, as fundraisers).
  

• Video Madness/Side Pocket. In the James Ventura building on Pardall. Had good crowds even after the video game craze died down. Side Pocket was the adjoining pool hall. Now a small liquor store and a bar (the "Study Hall", at least last time I was up there in late 2004)
• Bank Arcade. In the old B of A building. Games mostly in poor condition, went out of business in Fall 1983.
• Video Hideway. One or two "geeks" who worked in the UCSB Computer Lab set up a little arcade near the Six Pack Shop in Spring 1986. Free games for about a week, then ridiculously low prices (10 games for a buck or something). Over the summer, the geeks took it home to Santa Clara, and went into business there.

Music
There were two record stores (anyone still remember when record stores sold....well, records???)

• Morninglory. Best for used records. (I was too poor/cheap to buy new ones). Also sold concert tickets. For a while you could rent CD's, but the copyright people put a stop to that.
• Leopolds. Just across the street. Mostly new records, small selection of used stuff.  After a couple of years, turned into a surfwear shop.

Books

•  IV Bookstore. Handy alternative to the UCSB bookstore (sometimes IV would have books that UCSB didn't have, and vice versa). Usually cheaper on textbooks by $1-2.
• Merlins. Near the IV Foot Patrol. Used bookstore smelling of pipe smoke. Little of academic interest, but ok for grabbing a cheap novel or two for that long bus ride home...

Groceries/Beer

• IV Market and Pruitt's / Dave's Market. Two small supermarkets. I lived in the dorms so didn't really do too much grocery shopping, but often bought snacks, fruit, coke, etc. for those late night study sessions.
• IV Food Co-op. Hippied-out place, sold exotic stuff such as ginseng root beer. Prices high unless you joined. Also the only place for miles where you could buy single floppy disks (a whole box cost up to $50 in a lot of places back then!) 
• International Market. I had a lot of Asian friends, so I got to know this place well. Cheap ramen noodles and beer (when they didn't lose their license for serving underage). I think this place changed hands at least once; when it did, my roommate (Vietnamese) quit going there. "The people act ugly and rip you off" he said....
• Six Pack Shop/Lloyd's Liquors. Another place for the kids' beer runs!

Services

• Dougs Bougs.VW repair shop. Moved to Milpas in late 83 or early 84. There was some environmental dust-up regarding a leaking underground fuel tank, if I recall correctly. Another car repair joint took its place...
• Kinko's. The original (really, this is where that whole chain got started). Sometimes, course "readers" (books made up of copies of articles) needed for classes had to be purchased here. (This got them in trouble with our friends the copyright police!)
• The Alternative. Another copy shop, right next door to Kinkos. Also a source for course readers.
• IV Bike Rental. Moved from Embarcadero (Del Norte?) to Pardall at some point....
• Bank of America ATM's. Of course the real bank (rebuilt from the 70's riots) had closed some time ago. They did have a couple of ATM's open in IV though.
• IV Bike Repair. Fixed bikes, also had tools chained to a rack outside for do-it-yourselfers. (Most students took advantage of the on-campus bike shop, with cheaper prices. You needed a student id to use that shop, though).
• St Athanasius Church: Greek Orthodox. During the long hot summer of 1985, I toyed with the idea of going to one of their services. Never made it though. That fall, though, I did join a Baptist church off Milpas, though....

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