Posted on 08/23/2016 7:32:32 PM PDT by RightGeek
BANGOR, Maine The closing of one of the last two Howard Johnson restaurants in a couple of weeks will mark the end of its fried clam strips, ice cream and other menu staples that nourished baby boomers and leave the once-proud restaurant chain teetering on the brink of extinction.
The slice of roadside Americana will no longer be served up in Bangor after Sept. 6.
For waitress Kathe Jewett, it's the only job she's held since starting work when the restaurant opened in 1966.
"It's bittersweet, but it's nothing to be sad about," the 68-year-old Jewett insisted Tuesday during a break from serving customers. "I've been here for 50 years and it's time."
The closing will leave only one Howard Johnson restaurant, in Lake George, New York.
[More nostalgia and pictures at the link]
(Excerpt) Read more at wral.com ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Webb_Restaurants
I just ate at one a year or 2 ago.
First I had heard of them.
We went as a family on Sundays. Remember the kids menu —had the Blue Boy special —hamburger patty, mashed potatoes and peas. Great rolls went with it. And for dessert —chocolate ice cream with almonds —my favorite!! they had the BEST ice cream. I think that meal cost 99 cents.
There is a Pizza Inn in Christiansburg Va. We eat there quite a bit with the elderly aunt. She always tries to order the “small buffet”.
There was an A&W in the student union at Virginia Tech a few years back
I worked part-time at the one in Sioux City.
Get them this book, then take them to this restaurant. (Closed, now, of course) Girlfriend's family owned the restaurant chain.
I know of one in Salt Lake City.
Good gosh, made me feel that way as I was writing it. What is it about that kind of thing? Was it a time in our lives when we felt completely safe, or what?
LOL, I drove past that restaurant almost daily. My girlfriend, now my wife, lived in Whittier and I lived in West Garden Grove. I think I remember eating at one in Anaheim.
Yes and no.
Dollar stores are purely trash.
Murphy’s and Woolworth’s were nice but cheap shops.
Course it could be just the trashy selfish lackadaisical attitude prevalent today...the dollar stores are smaller, and junk is all over the floor that so-called “workers” don’t bother to clean up. Might’ve been the same at the old stores if they survived to now.
“I will always remember the back of the station wagon...no seat belts, the seats folded down flat...all of us in the back in our pajamas with blankets. The street lights above the road flashing by as I looked up...the glare of headlights of oncoming cars filling the inside of the car with fleeting light. I would awake, everyone asleep, I would look ahead and see my father driving through the night, like a machine, driving, the car droning...droning on through the endless and wonderful night of my childhood. I felt so content and safe in that car”
—
What a lovely memory.
Same with us,although there were only seven,not eight,and it was my kids an the back,not me.
.
I like Maine. Been there. But not real convenient.
But you got me thinking. Maybe next summer.
Great memory.
Reminds me of this clip from National Lampoon’s Vacation 1983:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv_XGZ6Chwk
"When I die, I want to go peacefully and in my sleep like my grandfather, not screaming, kicking and yelling like the passengers in the car he was driving!"
Thank You!
Next time I’m in the area I will make a point of stopping there.
When I was younger pizza, or eating out at all, was a rare treat for us po folks.
I have a few nice memories of the family going to the Pizza Inn.
I took my first date to eat at the Inn.
It’s a very popular place, close to downtown. I think they even have a sign on I-81 near the Hwy 8 exit(where the former Muslim school is located)
“Are there any 5 and dime stores of any kind left? I doubt it.”
Dollar stores (Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Family Dollar) are the closest thing to the old 5 and dime.
Yeah...damnit.
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