Andrews Inn

Andrews Inn second anniversary party under Thom and Jeremy's ownership, Bryan Murphey performing, 1981. Photo by Jeremy Youst. Collection of Andrews Inn Oral History Project.

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Photo by Evie Lovett

One night, Saturday night, disco's going, Rodney had been up on his box dancing, all made up and dressed up, and I learned to appreciate that—that was an education for me because my feeling was the drag queens—I had a little bit of a push back in myself when I first knew this was to be happening and was a ritual. And then I was being asked to do the makeup. It was something I had to work with. But then eventually I found that she, in that role, enabled others to be more comfortable with who they are. By that outrageousness, I saw it with Dartmouth students who would come down, it served a very important purpose. But that night, eight townspeople with baseball bats came in through the front door into the lobby in attack mode. It hadn't happened much, but it happened that night. And Rodney, in his own inimitable way, came out just at this tense moment and looked at the group—I was there, I didn't know what was going to happen—looked at the group and said. "We don't bite. We suck." Everybody in the place laughed. And these people turned and walked out the door. — Thom Herman