It’s true what they say — you can never really go home. And not just because as we get older, it’s harder to recapture the joyful feelings of our youth, sometimes there’s literally not a place to go back to.
1.
“DZ Discovery Zone, where I can be a kid ON MY OWN. I had several birthday parties there.”
2.
“Does anyone remember the little cafeteria they had inside of K-Marts? I remember going shopping with my Mom while my siblings were at school, and we stopped there for lunch a couple of times. Then they remodeled and put in a counter to buy popcorn and an Icee.”
3.
“I worked at KB Toys when Razor scooters first came out. They were insanely popular, and people would fight for them. Pretty sure I was wearing JNCO jeans to work at the time, really dating myself with that comment. I remember getting to know some of the Barbie Doll, Matchbox, and Star Wars figurine collectors after a while, too. Lots of good memories.”
4.
“The Wendy’s salad bar. As a teen, I ate this almost every week.”
5.
“Action Park in New Jersey. An ‘amusement park’ so dangerous they made a documentary about it!”
6.
“Waldenbooks. I used to love going there to get the monthly Sweet Valley High and Babysitters Club books. Afterwards, I’d walk to Thrifty to get my triple scoop chocolate ice cream.”
7.
“Ponderosa and its mirror image, Bonanza! Wouldn’t touch ‘em with a 9-ft fork now, but boy did I love a buffet with pudding on it as a child.”
8.
“I loved the old-school Radio Shack. Not the one that was trying to compete with modern electronics stores, but when they were like an electronics hardware store. So many interesting components that I had no clue what they were used for.”
9.
“Candlestick Park! Coldest I have ever been was at a daytime Giants game in June. I was wearing a ski parka that was too warm to actually ski in, and it was so miserable we had to leave before the game was over. So many great memories of Candlestick.”
10.
“Pleasure Island at Walt Disney World!”
11.
“I loved me some Showbiz Pizza! I hated Chuck E. Cheese. When I was a kid, the Showbiz in town was supposed to close temporarily for a remodel or something and never reopened. It then opened as a Chuck E. Cheese. I will be 46 in a couple of weeks and still don’t like Chuck E. Cheese!”
12.
“Circuit City! Where service is (was) state of the art!”
13.
“Flintstone’s Bedrock City. Only went once as a little. Seemed cool.”
14.
“Sears. I used to wander off and sit on the John Deere riding mower and pretend to drive until my Mother spotted me.”
15.
“Tower Records was the coolest place in the world. The kids need to know.”
16.
“Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour. Still traumatized from the full marching band for my childhood birthday parties.”
17.
“I grew up in Nashville. Our family had season tickets to Opryland for years and years — so many out-of-town relatives and friends came to stay with us and go there. It was a fun place, with shows, food, rides, all kinds of entertainment, and it was beautiful, too — trees, flowers, all sorts of landscaped splendor. And it really celebrated Nashville’s musical heritage. I got married and we moved away from Nashville for my husband’s job, so we were gone for several years. Imagine my horror when I heard that they had torn down Opryland, only to replace it with a big, ugly outlet mall in the middle of a big, ugly parking lot. Kind of emblematic of America as a whole: music shows, games, rides, scenery, all sorts of family fun, replaced by shopping.”
18.
“I went to CBGB many times, even played there back when I was in a band. Still such a shame that it’s gone.”
19.
“I grew up in the middle of nowhere, so on Friday nights, the drive-in movie theater was the place to be. Our parents would all put lawn chairs in the back of their trucks or out next to the cars, and us kids would run around and hit the snack shack for pizzas and popcorn.”
20.
“Ben Franklin Five and Dimes. RIP musty smelling aisles of wonder :(“
21.
“Leapin’ Lizards. An indoor amusement center in the Chicago suburbs. Man, I miss the ’90s :(“
22.
“The old Yankee Stadium. They should have kept the original. The history that place had was so significant, and it was one of the few original baseball stadiums still standing. It should have been restored and preserved.”
23.
“Astroworld in Houston, TX. Went there when I was a kid the last summer it was open.”
24.
“Fry’s Electronics! Loved that they all had different themes.”
And finally, every ’90s kid’s favorite weekend pastime:
25.
“My fam would go to Blockbuster on Friday and pick out some movies for the evening, or for the week for us kids. We rented so much in my later years, we’d go in during the day, watch our picks with dinner, and then my parents would get bored and go back to the store around 10 pm to rent more, haha. They were always getting freebies, too. Also buying used DVDs and Blu-rays. It’s how I got some of my more obscure titles.”
Were any long-lost memories unlocked for you? Or were any of your favorite former go-tos not mentioned in this list? Let me know in the comments!
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