posted
Oh yeah... All summer long on the boardwalks, beaches, arcades. Long Branch really nose dived after the pier burned down. All of the stores, bars, etc starting dying off. What a shame. I used to ride my bike through Oceanport/Long Branch to go swimming in West End off of Ocean Ave, the Windmill... Ahhh the memories. It was really nice in the 80s.
quote:Originally posted by jdocster: Oh yeah... All summer long on the boardwalks, beaches, arcades. Long Branch really nose dived after the pier burned down. All of the stores, bars, etc starting dying off. What a shame. I used to ride my bike through Oceanport/Long Branch to go swimming in West End off of Ocean Ave, the Windmill... Ahhh the memories. It was really nice in the 80s.
sounds like you were at "the pit". that was the dead end street located between the movie theater and the windmill on the ocean side of ocean ave. many a night i spent there.
i remember that day vividly. my friends and i were hanging out at my boys house, drinking, smoking weed, and laying around in his pool. then all of the sudden one of my friends comes running into the backyard screaming about all of the smoke billowing from the beach. we lived about 2 blocks off of north end beach and about a 1/2 mile north of the pier and we could see the smoke clear as hell(plus it was a nice warm summer day) although at the time we had no idea what was going on. that was the beginning of the end for a long time for that part of town. now it's all gone. they have rebuilt that whole area now, though it took 20 yrs, but now it's all ritzy and super expensive. there will never be another place like that again in jersey. i miss it a lot.
that second vid makes me want to cry. sooooo many memories from that whole area. my first kiss. fishing off the pier. jumping off the boardwalk into the ocean. the arcades. skating all around. skating down the water slide after it closed. too much more stuff to mention.
posted
This one time, my friends and I heard that there was a dead body, so we spent a day walking out into the woods, avoiding trains and bullies, and learning a lot about ourselves in the meanwhile... oh hang on, that was Stand By Me.
I lived in a tiny little town of 200 people, so we had to make our own fun. During my pre teens there was an old factory that we used to fool around in, it was great fun, incredibly dangerous of course - so dangerous that one day poor Ben Madden fell through the 2nd level floor and broke both legs. Goes without saying we never were allowed back there again.
By the time I was a teenager, most of the other kids families had moved away and I pretty much just had my younger brother and sister to hang out with, which wasn't much fun.
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quote: quote:Originally posted by jdocster: Oh yeah... All summer long on the boardwalks, beaches, arcades. Long Branch really nose dived after the pier burned down. All of the stores, bars, etc starting dying off. What a shame. I used to ride my bike through Oceanport/Long Branch to go swimming in West End off of Ocean Ave, the Windmill... Ahhh the memories. It was really nice in the 80s.
sounds like you were at "the pit". that was the dead end street located between the movie theater and the windmill on the ocean side of ocean ave. many a night i spent there.
i remember that day vividly. my friends and i were hanging out at my boys house, drinking, smoking weed, and laying around in his pool. then all of the sudden one of my friends comes running into the backyard screaming about all of the smoke billowing from the beach. we lived about 2 blocks off of north end beach and about a 1/2 mile north of the pier and we could see the smoke clear as hell(plus it was a nice warm summer day) although at the time we had no idea what was going on. that was the beginning of the end for a long time for that part of town. now it's all gone. they have rebuilt that whole area now, though it took 20 yrs, but now it's all ritzy and super expensive. there will never be another place like that again in jersey. i miss it a lot.
that second vid makes me want to cry. sooooo many memories from that whole area. my first kiss. fishing off the pier. jumping off the boardwalk into the ocean. the arcades. skating all around. skating down the water slide after it closed. too much more stuff to mention.
Yup, the pit! I haven't heard that name in years. Everyone used to go down to the beach and party. Then, the cops would make us move down the beach, then, they would come back later and make us move again. Bonfires and beers on the beach and then pigging out at the Windmill. We really are lucky we got to live in the 80s. Kids today missed the whole show. What a shame...
- jdocster Posts: 2729 | From: Kansas City, MO "At the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance" | Registered: Apr 2007 | Site Updates: 9
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The restaurant where I worked @ night sometimes - not really a hang out, but I was there more than I would have liked - LOL.
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posted
The skating rink was huge back in the 70's so hung out there a lot. Chewy sweettarts and suicide drink was a must.
Then the arcades came along and turned out to be a great memory. Im sure most can relate to that.
Then, like Nostalgic for the 80s mentioned, the Mall. We had 3 different malls locally. 2 are gone and 1 is still thriving that opened in 1974.
Then came cars. Cruising on Noland Rd. It was happening. Cars lining the entire road just hanging out cruising. Fun stuff
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posted
Great pics. - Thanks! I've seen various articles on '80's Malls online in the past couple of years, but that link was definitely the most comprehensive.
As a self-proclaimed "mall rat" back in the '80's, a couple of observations re: the pics.:
Wow - that huge store with all the tapes/CD's is amazing; being a big music fan, I remember stores like that - great selection...you could literally wander around a store like that for hours. It's too bad that these days those dedicated music stores have all gone by the wayside. The last store in my area that was dedicated to new & used CD's closed a couple of years ago. Now, you have to go online to buy any CD's.
These pics. remind me of how bad hairstyles were in the '80's - for both women & men. Well, at least I had hair during that time - LOL.
Fashion wasn't much better either - at least not as displayed by these mall-goers in the pics. Even the extras on "Miami Vice" dressed better than most of these people - LOL.
I'm amazed at how much time I spent (wasted?!) going to the mall. I can't imagine spending any time there now - not that there are a lot of malls in my are anymore. I would consider it boring these days.
That being said, there is definitely some bittersweet nostalgia related to going to these malls during the '80's era. Here are a couple of articles about some Malls that used to be huge in the '80's & '90's in the Baltimore MD/Washington D.C. area - where I grew up; but are now being closed down:
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gordongecko. things that stuck out to me in all those picks were the hair styles, the standing ashtrays which are rarely seen indoors anymore, the picture in front of the SEARS(the guy with the long hair in the denim looked just like me, I had to look at it closely to see if it was me or not, yeah it was that close) and the little kid with the mullet and the GIANT coke.
Nostalgic, I looked at your links. I know Times change but its a bummer that something as iconic as The "Mall" were to us in our childhoods, has taken such a beating.
[ 16. October 2016, 18:18: Message edited by: TerdNthePoolGGB ]
Posts: 1989 | From: The deep end | Registered: Jun 2011 | Site Updates: 14
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posted
I used to have long-ish hair in the '80's as well. I don't miss the "mullet" hairstyles from that era. I can't think of an uglier hairstyle in existence - those looked even worse than the "big" hair that a lot of women had during this time period - LOL.
quote:Originally posted by TerdNthePoolGGB: Nostalgic, I looked at your links. I know Times change but its a bummer that something as iconic as The "Mall" were to us in our childhoods, has taken such a beating.
Yes, I know exactly what you mean. Re: the first link I posted, that was about the closing of the "White Flint" Mall in Montgomery County, MD. I remember going there as a kid/teen & young adult back in the '80's & '90's - it had a nice movie theater, an excellent food court, a glass elevator in the middle of the mall, and later ('90's) a massive Border's Books within the mall itself (Border's has itself gone out of business around 2010).
The second article I posted is interesting as well, since it discussed the Economics behind exactly why Malls were closing in recent years. I know it mentioned that online sales don't make a big difference, but I disagree. I've noticed that I myself will purchase things online instead of having to go shopping @ retail stores, and I'm sure others feel the same way.
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