We always hung out at a Fox's Pizza. We also hung out at a place called the Family Fun Arcade. There were actually a couple pizza places we hung out at.
On the weekends...everyone cruised town....everyone in my town ...had pretty cool cars for a small town....so we either cruised around in someone's car...or we walked downtown and would see who was cruising around.
I remember we use to hang out at Joe's Drive-In...which was a Tastee Freeze. They had a pavillion there....I can remember me and my girlfriends would just go sit on the picnic tables...and within minutes groups of guys always showed up...we had so much fun then.
Another thing we use to do was...go to the Country Garden 6-pack for Nachos.
I loved growing up in a small town...everyone there knew me and my family. I remember even when I was out of school and I lived on my own, when I went out with guys...I use to always take them back to my hometown to meet my family and friends...so we could hang out together...
we always were getting together on Friday nights to watch movies that we rented from the video store...or we played Pictionary...or we watched Friday Night Videos and ordered pizzas ...and we would blast the radio everywhere we went.
I miss all of that.
I really love my life...and to me it gets better all the time...because I have a great group of friends...and now I am excited because I am going to make my friends do all the things that I have been wanting to do forever...but I was new to my area and it took awhile to gather up a good group of people to do things with...but now that I have that....I plan to make the best out of it...and do the things I did when I was younger.
Tomorrow night a group of us are going on a picnic and we are making mountain pies.....I haven't done that since I was a kid...I can hardly wait.
Does anyone like to still do the things they did as a kid, and do you have friends that will act goofy with you???
Posted by MotleyRulz (Member # 3598) on :
Mall Arcade (I'd be a millionaire if I had the quarters I gave Kung Fu Master and Double Dragon in the 80s)
Movie Theater
High School Football Field
My Dad's Business
Posted by Jessie the Sunflower Goddess (Member # 1877) on :
Motely I think we could be twins because those are like the exact same things I was going to say. Except at the arcade I did a driving game all of the time and ski ball, which I still partake in with my son now and again.
What kind of business did/does your dad have?
My dad has a body shop and towing service.
Posted by bandit (Member # 6296) on :
We lived in an outskirt of an village.In other words,we hang out wherever the girls were at any moment
Take care.
Posted by 80'sRocked (Member # 6979) on :
We also hung out at arcades. Also at the beach and wherever there was a live band. But mostly we just drove around and got into trouble. Posted by MotleyRulz (Member # 3598) on :
My dad owned his own engineering business. He retired and sold the business back in 2000 but still helps the new owner out part-time because he gets bored. Yeah I forgot about the driving games who could forget Pole Position. The car would blow up from the smallest of things.....
Posted by xchazx (Member # 7158) on :
hung out at the beach at night drinking and skating and getting into trouble. also hung out at the arcades on the boardwalk. favorite games at the time were 720, time pilot, and robotron. alot of time we hung out at my friends house because his parents let us do what we wanted, within reason. plus he had a huge backyard with a large skate ramp we built so that was kind of the hangout for a while.
also, wherever we knew the girls were going to be.
Posted by Ali_with_an_i (Member # 27) on :
We hung out at arcades, and the mall. We were always out doing something. Now kids have game consoles at home, and the internet. In a way they are missing out even though they have more stuff then we did.
Posted by 80'sRocked (Member # 6979) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ali_with_an_i: We were always out doing something. Now kids have game consoles at home, and the internet. In a way they are missing out even though they have more stuff then we did.
They are missing out BIG TIME. Kids rarely play out-doors anymore, at least from what I see. Video games are great, but why would you want to be cooped up inside all day. What a waste. It's also a shame the way arcades vanished. Nothing like a good arcade to hang out in. Posted by xchazx (Member # 7158) on :
quote:Originally posted by 80'sRocked: </font><blockquote><font size="1" face=""Century Gothic", Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face=""Century Gothic", Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by Ali_with_an_i: We were always out doing something. Now kids have game consoles at home, and the internet. In a way they are missing out even though they have more stuff then we did. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face=""Century Gothic", Verdana, Arial">They are missing out BIG TIME. Kids rarely play out-doors anymore, at least from what I see. Video games are great, but why would you want to be cooped up inside all day. What a waste. It's also a shame the way arcades vanished. Nothing like a good arcade to hang out in.
one of my biggest disappointments now is the loss of the arcade. i know every generation has their memories of things they miss from the past, but i think even just reading these replies shows that the arcade was a great place to hang out and be social.
now i'm just sounding like an old codger.
Posted by cindymancini (Member # 679) on :
The mall was definitely a major hang out. My Mom would drop me and my girlfriends off and we'd spend the day walking around looking at clothes, makeup and jewelery! We loved stores like Spencer's and The Rainbow Shop, which was all stickers and personalized little items.
We would try to talk to boys or hang out in the Food Court or Dino's pizza and have a bite to eat. Oh yeah, the other place we would spend a good amount of time, at least I did, was in the record store. It was called Gallery of Sound. It was VERY New Wave inside. Everything was red black and white. I can still remember being totally excited as I flipped through all the vinyl or wax, if you will, and would look at the "big pictures" on the covers of my favorite artists like Madonna, Cyndi Lauper and Stacey Q. Hahaha !
I remember when everything switched to cassette and cassingle. That was cool too but I missed getting that big picture to look at!
Other than that, I was outside constantly. It was all about riding my bike, making up dance routines with my friends, having slumber parties, renting movies and just hanging out. I loved my childhood and being a teenager was even better!!!
I can honestly say I'm glad I grew up when I did. It was amazing !!
Posted by Valley (Member # 1322) on :
As a young kid it was the pool and 'Cheap Thrills' Arcade. Actually the pool had Donkey Kong, Galaga, and Centipede so that worked and they also had refrigerated Reese's Cups....totally awesome!
I didn't play football in high school, so it was fun to go chat with the 'freshman crop' during the games, sometimes I didn't even know the score until the game was over. My winter was filled with hoops and the spring was baseball. I actually played those sports, so the chatting was unfortunately at a minimum during the games. Though we did congregate at Godfather's Pizza after the games. Wow..those were fun times.
Posted by jdocster (Member # 5752) on :
We hung out at the mall, the arcade at the mall, movie theaters, friends houses, A military base in my home town, the "teen" club on base, lots of fishing too, a lot of dirt biking.
I miss all of it. I really HATE to see the malls closing everywhere...
Posted by ISIS (Member # 1780) on :
Going to a Mall was something we did at Christmas with the Home Ec Club on a bus...because there were no malls anywhere near where I lived...just a few plazas.
I remember we did go to the Plaza alot to Thrift Drug...and we would spray each other with all the perfume samples.
We hung out at the bowling alley on Saturdays.
The Roller Rink was actually the number 1 hang out. I went almost every friday and saturday night. I loved roller skating.
I remember my cousin and I went to a dance at the roller rink when we were in high school....everyone danced in their socks...we totally made our own dance up to the song "Flesh for Fantasy". That was so much fun.
We use to play tennis down at the park where the community pool was....there was an "older" guy who was my neighbor's nephew and he played tennis alot at that court....we use to go there just to check him out. I think older back then was...he was 19 or 20 and I was 16!
Posted by jimpickens (Member # 5801) on :
On the hill behind my house spent the whole day target shooting.
Posted by Stitch Groover (Member # 2895) on :
Because I grew up in a tiny little town (200 people), there wasn't anywhere for us to hang out, so my brother and I had to make our own fun at home.
The nearest big town (where most of my school friends lived) was 20 minutes away, and even if we were able to get into town there still wasn't a lot to do. There was no cinema until 1996, most kids were forbidden to go into the arcades because the tough kids would hang out there and smoke... there wasn't even an icecream shop.
It's much better for the kids now... the cinema is great, it has it's own arcade, plus there are skate ramps, youth clubs and lots of safe hang out joints with good supervision.
Posted by jdocster (Member # 5752) on :
quote:Originally posted by xchazx: hung out at the beach at night drinking and skating and getting into trouble. also hung out at the arcades on the boardwalk. favorite games at the time were 720, time pilot, and robotron. alot of time we hung out at my friends house because his parents let us do what we wanted, within reason. plus he had a huge backyard with a large skate ramp we built so that was kind of the hangout for a while.
also, wherever we knew the girls were going to be.
xchazx,
Sounds a lot like me growing up on the Jersey shore. Did you hang out in Long Branch, Asbury Park, Belmar or were you North or South of there?
- jdocster
Posted by Willow (Member # 4953) on :
Growing up my family didn't have a lot of money. So I mainly hung at at my best friends house and she mine. But every once in a while we hung out at the arcade or went to the movies.
Posted by tony78201 (Member # 7499) on :
at the malls. I lived a few blocks from a mall called westlakes, and I'd go straight to Hastings, and get the latest cassette singles..lol
Posted by 80's_wild_child (Member # 7503) on :
aracade in the mall(fashion square mall).
Posted by Pyromantic (Member # 7658) on :
I was an arcade junkie..so usually anywhere that had a few arcade games..I was there with a pocket-full of quarters. I remember some of my favorite machines to play were games like: Splatterhouse, Punch-Out, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter II, Dragon's Lair...ect. Basically anything that had alot of action to it. I also loved to play the whack-a-mole or Skee-ball games.
But if I wasn't at the arcade, I was out and about practicing my other passion when I was a kid...BMX'ing. I must have gone through darn near 100 BMX bikes when I was a kid just because I always trashed them attempting the most brutal stunts....ahh yes, the good ole broken, bruised, and sore days.
Posted by annier (Member # 3305) on :
Most weekends were spent in Trocadero (Leicester Sq)where we would be very loud and usually get chucked out eventually.
After school me and my best friend would go to her cousin's house in the hope his friends were there....sad or what. LOL
Posted by Mr. Jack Burton (Member # 4673) on :
On my friends front wall. No bull. We'd hang out there all Summer 7or8 of us. Only time we'd leave the wall was to A) Go to the shop for Coke or an Ice Cream. B) Have a hot date C) Got called for dinner D) Played footie..
Ahhhhh, great times.. I loved that wall.. Posted by EleanorJune (Member # 7024) on :
I basically hung out at practice. I was given a choice by my parents to either play sports or get a job. I played sports! During swimming we hung out at my house after practice, during hockey at Angela's house, lacross at the field, the rest were in the summer to wherever there was a pool to cool down in!
Posted by xchazx (Member # 7158) on :
quote:Originally posted by jdocster: </font><blockquote><font size="1" face=""Century Gothic", Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face=""Century Gothic", Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by xchazx: hung out at the beach at night drinking and skating and getting into trouble. also hung out at the arcades on the boardwalk. favorite games at the time were 720, time pilot, and robotron. alot of time we hung out at my friends house because his parents let us do what we wanted, within reason. plus he had a huge backyard with a large skate ramp we built so that was kind of the hangout for a while.
also, wherever we knew the girls were going to be. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face=""Century Gothic", Verdana, Arial">xchazx,
Sounds a lot like me growing up on the Jersey shore. Did you hang out in Long Branch, Asbury Park, Belmar or were you North or South of there?
- jdocster
moved to long branch from jersey city when i was 2 in 1972. spent my whole life there and hanging at the beaches in north long branch, west end, monmouth beach, bradley beach, avon, belmar, and point pleasant. wherever we wanted to go really.
long branch was happening in the 80's before the pier burnt down. spent a lot of time at "kids world" getting into shenanigans.
Posted by jdocster (Member # 5752) on :
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.
[ 15. January 2009, 12:17: Message edited by: jdocster ]
Posted by xchazx (Member # 7158) on :
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.
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.
Posted by jdocster (Member # 5752) on :
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 Posted by Nostalgic for the '80's (Member # 37454) on :
'80's hang-outs:
The Mall(s)
Movie theater(s)
The restaurant where I worked @ night sometimes - not really a hang out, but I was there more than I would have liked - LOL.
Posted by TerdNthePoolGGB (Member # 9818) on :
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
Posted by gordongecko (Member # 4685) on :
Hey guys, came across this today. Some great pictures of malls in the 80s. Enjoy!
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:
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 ]
Posted by Nostalgic for the '80's (Member # 37454) on :
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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