Results 1 to 10 of 10
-
07-13-2016, 10:48 PM #1
They're all gone.
Okay this thread is for the older members of scf, I was bored and I like to research things when that happens. I decided to look up all my old stomping grounds when I lived on Staten Island from my late teens to early twenties, all of the rock clubs I used to frequent. I have to say it was pretty disheartening, all of them except for one was out of business. I will name them and I will try my best to give a little background.
1 the century inn, this was the rock club I used to frequent the most and I always went with the crowd from pathmark where I used to work, the house band was a group called flossie and I always had a great time there. Sadly it went under in the 80's but it was bought out and is now a german restaurant called Killmyer's.
2 the rock palace this club was where I went when I wanted to see different bands and meet different people, I didn't go there often but I will say they usually had good bands.
3 the swiss chalet, this was a small bar in great kills which was only a mile from my house which was great because I could walk there and didn't have to worry about drinking and driving, the bands were usually 3 piece bands but they were open 7 nights a week and it was a decent hometown bar where I could chill with my neighborhood friends.
4 the factory and later snoopy's, this was a bigger club and they used to get some decent name bands there, I saw the joe perry project there after aerosmith broke up, rick derringer also played there and I also saw the good rats.
There were 2 places that I used to go to in manhattan when I was feeling froggy, cbgb's and the bottom line which was springsteens breakout venue, unfortunately they also went under.
I would like to hear from other members whether or not your local haunts are still around or have they suffered the same fate as mine, just feeling nostalgic as I get into my mid 50's. Thanks for your response in advance Steve.
-
-
07-13-2016, 11:31 PM #2
Stereo stores.
I used to love hanging out at stereo/tv stores. Especially those that focused on stereo equipment. Turntables, cassette decks, receivers, and separate tuners, and car stereos.
I spent hours hanging out at a place called Listen Up. Especially as I started to drive in the late 70s. It was amazing how long it took me to pick out the right deck for my 79 VW Rabbit, haha.
Now it's Car Toys with screens, phones, and more phones.
A few places I hung out at as a kid;
Cinderella City! A huge indoor mall, at least for it's day. Built in what was then the south part of Denver, it had all the latest stuff inside back then. No roller coasters or anything like that, but a huge indoor video game place, fountains, and multi levels. I worked there at a shoe store before they tore it down about 20 years ago.
Celebrity Sports Center! They had 80 bowling lanes, an olympic sized indoor/outdoor pool with huge slide, and hundreds of pinball and video games. At one point they even had bumper cars inside. I spent a ton of time there my first 18 years or so before I moved away for school.
And just down the street from that was the Cooper Theatre. A huge orange round building. Star Wars premiered there, as did all the big movies of the 60s & 70s. And I think into the 80s.
No clubs or bars for me, sorry.
-
07-13-2016, 11:35 PM #3
Thanks for the reply, it is so sad when the places we used to go to and love go out.
-
-
07-14-2016, 12:00 AM #4
Hey, no sweat Spuds. Cool topic.
For me though, and I think a lot of fellow people from Denver, nothing will ever come close to Mile High Stadium.
As much as we've come to love the new (er) at the moment un-named stadium, so many of us still pine for the old place they decided to rebuild it;
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/th...or-tailgaters/
Even when long gone, some things are still hard to let go of, haha.
-
07-14-2016, 07:20 AM #5
I also grew up in Staten Island and a hue one for me in my high school days was The Wave club. I remember some great nights there. Also as a young whipper snapper used a "ahem" ID to get into L'amours which was a huge spot for rock groups. And of course I am sure SPuds you got to experience CBGB. All though it was not the pinnacle when I checked it out it was still history.
-
-
07-14-2016, 09:33 AM #6
The Wave club and L'amours came after my clubbing days were pretty much over, I took my future wife to cbgb's in the early 90's and I remember her freaking out about the bathroom stalls having no doors on them, having only had to use the Men's room which was pretty disgusting in itself I took her word for it about the ladies room. I forgot to mention one other club where I saw Dee Snider and twisted sister that was the paramount also out of business.
-
07-15-2016, 06:11 PM #7
I live in Dayton, OH and can only think of a few but here ya go:
1. Tommys Bar - I use to go in here when I was 18 and 19,its more a biker bar but good people. I never once got carded there and the owner even use to come in once in a while and one night I was sitting there drinking beer and eating Cassanos pizza that he had ordered for the whole bar. It is now a boarded up vacant building.
2. Stadium Stuff baseball card shop - my buddys dad use to own this shop and I spent a good part of my adolescence and teenage years here just hanging out talking sports and busting the newest products. My buddys dad took a full time job at GM and ended closing the shop. He later turned it in to a thrift/junk shop after GM moved his job to Mexico but now he is working for the City of Dayton and it is once again closed. He still owns the building but the only thing there are the two apartments he rents out in the back and upstairs.
3. Captain Bogeys - miniature golf/ arcade/bumper boats/batting cages, great place to kill a dat as a kid and teenager. It is completely gone now, bulldozed it over back in the late 90's.
4. Amber Rose Restaurant - worked here from the time I was 16 until 19. Looking back best job I ever had. Kind of a lower upscale dining restaurant. Loved the people I worked with and after work wed close the blinds and have a few cocktails on the house. This place is still going but I haven't been back in years. Last time I was in there was just for dinner with my now ex wife.
-
-
07-15-2016, 08:46 PM #8
Sounds like a couple of cool places, the jobs we had when we were in our teens were always the best, maybe not the work but the co workers were usually cool. I remember one year I was working at a place called rock bottom kind of like a cvs we rented out the circle line on Halloween and cruised around the New York harbor for 3 hours with an open bar and a dj plus a costume party, great times and I would give up a year of my life to do it again.
-
07-25-2016, 03:16 PM #9
This past week I went up to Michigan's Upper Peninsula for the first time in 20 years. My dad grew up there and we used to go up for a week every summer. After his parents died we never really had a reason to go back. So my wife and I thought a drive up and a couple days there would be a nice stopover between seeing my family in the Lower Peninsula and her family in Minnesota.
Parkside Restaurant: long gone. After my grandfather retired from the copper mines, he did some backyard raspberry farming and sold them to the Parkside for their tarts and pies. Its former building is empty after another restaurant in its place failed. Fortunately, a lot of other shops and restaurants along 5th Street are still operating-- Copper World and Calumet Mercantile are still kicking. I bought a shirt at Copper World that I'm wearing right now, actually, and I have a giant bag of taffy from Mercantile at home.
Copper Kettle: Another restaurant that's gone, and an insurance agency is in its place.
A couple of the older motels are gone. One is now a snowmobile/ATV dealer, the other is still running but under a different name.
Pamida: A department store bought up by Shopko. Speaking of which, Shopko's current logo just doesn't look right to me. It's bland and generic.
Fraki's Grocery was sold off and shut down.
Woolworth's: out. Dollar General: in.
There used to be a small grocery store or party store that had really good pasties in downtown Calumet, but for the life of me I can't think of who it was. I remember the look of it from the outside, the Michigan Lotto sign in the window, bot I can't remember the name or exact location. Fortunately, the pasties at Pat's Foods were quite good.
On the plus side, downtown Houghton still has Suomi Restaurant, and Hancock still has the Kaleva Cafe-- even though it's under new ownership and has been completely renovated to where I didn't recognize it upon entering. Suomi though still has everything down to the exact same paper placemats from my last time there.
That said, it's still great to visit. The stores may have changed, but the history and scenery are still there. And many of the new places are just fine (My pound of coffee from Keweenaw Coffee Works is excellent).Last edited by *censored*; 07-25-2016 at 03:21 PM.
-
07-25-2016, 04:12 PM #10
It seems like a lot of places survived and the new places seem like decent replacements. I left staten island in December of 2000 and haven't been back since, I am wanting to go back to see how much it has changed in 16 years.
-