Long Long Gone
As I was thinking about generally nothing during a meeting I really didn't belong in today, i started thinking about places and things that have gone, but I knew I liked, at least at the time.
One thing was, growing up in a couple of small towns, we didn't have the chains that we have on every street corner today. Growing up in Texas, any town that wants to call itself a town had to have a Dairy Queen. This is nothing special, but it was probably the first chain restaurant that I could recognize, along with Kentucky Fried Chicken. We would have to travel to Dallas or San Antonio to find McDonald's or IHOP, both of which would be a treat when my grandparents took me there for a meal.
Really, the first burger place chain that I can remember (besides the afore mentioned DQ) in my hometown was Burger Chef. This was in Nacogdoches and years before Burger King would move into this college town. The funny thing is although it was a chain, I never saw another one. They had the first kids meal that I knew of that came in a special box that had games and perforated areas in the light cardboard that you would have to follow the instructions to make an airplane or something.
When we moved to Conroe, there was a Sambo's. It was a coffee shop chain. Conroe now has an IHOP and a Denny's and tons more, but at the time it was a Kettle, now closed, and Sambo's which went through a name change and became Village Inn. This was because Sambo's name was considered offensive to African Americans. When I was young, I didn't quite understand why, because my grandparents actually had a copy of the book, Little Black Sambo, and I never thought much of it - not realizing that the character was black, just that he was a little boy who outsmarted the tigers and made them run so fast that they turned into butter for his pancakes. Why wouldn't you name a pancake joint after that?
Alright, it was really kind of stupid. Still, the book lived next to The Pokey Little Puppy and the one about the Scuffy the tugboat for a long time. I just wasn't taught about why people found it offensive until years later. it seems strange that they would name something that.
Less offensive was the Scooby Doo Pizza Time Theater. This was a short-lived restaurant in the northern part of Houston, and I don't know if they ever had another one. They played classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons, and the whole restaurant had a Scooby theme. The activity area, complete with video games and skee ball, was dressed up as the Laff-a-Lympics. One of the interesting elements was a full, old time Wurlitzer pipe organ in the center. Otherwise, there was costumed characters dropping by occasionally. this was prior to Chucky Cheese.
Once the restaurant closed, the costumes moved to Hanna-Barbera Land, a few miles north, a whole theme park for built on the characters, where you could run into Fred Flintstone and George Jetson, both silent, on the same street. Once I had a driver's license, I went down to apply for a job as a costumed character, but I was already too tall to be a Smurf, or any other character there. Hanna-Barbera land failed because there was nothing for adults to do there. They closed down a few years later, and now the space is Splashtown waterpark.
Lastly, there was Ferrell's. There was one in Houston and Dallas. It was one of the first theme restaurants that I can think of. It was all based on a 1900's style ice cream parlor and had some of the best ice cream desserts I can think of. The waiters all came around and sang happy birthday in a barbershop style. They would also bang a large drum and go about the restaurant. Apparently there are still a few surviving Farrell's in southern California. I just remember making a few special trips when my birthday came around. Perhaps some birthday in the future I can go back to one.
One thing was, growing up in a couple of small towns, we didn't have the chains that we have on every street corner today. Growing up in Texas, any town that wants to call itself a town had to have a Dairy Queen. This is nothing special, but it was probably the first chain restaurant that I could recognize, along with Kentucky Fried Chicken. We would have to travel to Dallas or San Antonio to find McDonald's or IHOP, both of which would be a treat when my grandparents took me there for a meal.
Really, the first burger place chain that I can remember (besides the afore mentioned DQ) in my hometown was Burger Chef. This was in Nacogdoches and years before Burger King would move into this college town. The funny thing is although it was a chain, I never saw another one. They had the first kids meal that I knew of that came in a special box that had games and perforated areas in the light cardboard that you would have to follow the instructions to make an airplane or something.
When we moved to Conroe, there was a Sambo's. It was a coffee shop chain. Conroe now has an IHOP and a Denny's and tons more, but at the time it was a Kettle, now closed, and Sambo's which went through a name change and became Village Inn. This was because Sambo's name was considered offensive to African Americans. When I was young, I didn't quite understand why, because my grandparents actually had a copy of the book, Little Black Sambo, and I never thought much of it - not realizing that the character was black, just that he was a little boy who outsmarted the tigers and made them run so fast that they turned into butter for his pancakes. Why wouldn't you name a pancake joint after that?
Alright, it was really kind of stupid. Still, the book lived next to The Pokey Little Puppy and the one about the Scuffy the tugboat for a long time. I just wasn't taught about why people found it offensive until years later. it seems strange that they would name something that.
Less offensive was the Scooby Doo Pizza Time Theater. This was a short-lived restaurant in the northern part of Houston, and I don't know if they ever had another one. They played classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons, and the whole restaurant had a Scooby theme. The activity area, complete with video games and skee ball, was dressed up as the Laff-a-Lympics. One of the interesting elements was a full, old time Wurlitzer pipe organ in the center. Otherwise, there was costumed characters dropping by occasionally. this was prior to Chucky Cheese.
Once the restaurant closed, the costumes moved to Hanna-Barbera Land, a few miles north, a whole theme park for built on the characters, where you could run into Fred Flintstone and George Jetson, both silent, on the same street. Once I had a driver's license, I went down to apply for a job as a costumed character, but I was already too tall to be a Smurf, or any other character there. Hanna-Barbera land failed because there was nothing for adults to do there. They closed down a few years later, and now the space is Splashtown waterpark.
Lastly, there was Ferrell's. There was one in Houston and Dallas. It was one of the first theme restaurants that I can think of. It was all based on a 1900's style ice cream parlor and had some of the best ice cream desserts I can think of. The waiters all came around and sang happy birthday in a barbershop style. They would also bang a large drum and go about the restaurant. Apparently there are still a few surviving Farrell's in southern California. I just remember making a few special trips when my birthday came around. Perhaps some birthday in the future I can go back to one.