Longmont Memories
Longmont Things that are NO MORE...sigh...
(taken from a Facebook note I started.)
1.) Furr's Cafeteria: chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and cream gravy, followed by millionare pie and tapioca...oh, how I miss it.
2.) 1 2 3 Theater on North Main: I remember sitting in awe, watching Star Wars for the very first time, with Karen, and Lisa and Randy Thompson. The best was the night Meighan and I went to see Pinnochio and the Prince of Darkness or some such, and we were the ONLY ones in the theater. We got a little crazy running up and down the aisles, draping ourselves over the tops of the seats, and peeking behind the screen. I scored my life-sized, Tom Hanks "Burbs" cutout that night. It was hidden, but I found it and made it mine. Twenty-some years later, it's hanging in my suburban garage.
3.) Camenisch Dairy Farms: Remember the life-sized cow sign and the hot Camenish girls? Oh, wait, I WAS a hot Camenish girl. I think the candy cane striped jackets were what gave us the edge over the lame-o Dairy Queen girls.
4.) Roll-o-Rena: I wonder how many teen pregnancies followed the all-night skate parties? I hated the freakin' Snowball Dance. Nothing worse than being the only girl who didn't get picked.
5.) Horizon Park Mall: I remember that they had a world-record breaking, gargantuan sheetcake at the grand opening. It had, like, 400 cakes all put together. Wow!
6.) Skaggs: Yosemite Sam's last great gig.
7.) TG&Y: I can't tell you how many Sea Monkeys I bought there.
8.) Eaker's: Source of my first, and only, string bikini. Oh, to be 13 again. I think I was with Cindy Harvey when I bought it.
9.) Main Street: Oh, sure, it's still there, but you can't cruise it anymore. Remember that guys in the LFC trucks would drive all the way from Wyoming to cruise Longmont? We were SO cool!
10.) Cafe Marnie: Best breakfast place EVER! I miss sitting in the grape arbor, eating a small southern breakfast with that killer gravy, then scarfing down a piece of their amazing coffeecake. I wish they'd reopen. I'd be the first through the door.
11.) The Hygiene Cafe: I think the secret to their burgers was never cleaning the grill. What Hygiene Elementary student didn't dream of being rewarded with a trip to the cafe? At least Clark's is still there. Remember they'd give you a free Tootsie Pop if your wrapper had an Indian on it? The teachers let me get candy cigarettes there. So un-PC! I've been fighting that addiction for years!
12.) The Rose: A short-lived, schmancy restaurant, just north of the Armadillo, that Meighan took me to for my 14th birthday. Thanks again, Meighan!
13.) Bananas: An awsome restaurant that was themed around, what else, bananas. They had a sister restaurant in Boulder which is now Casa Alvarez. The best item on the menu was the pile o' onion rings. Those things were each as big as my head, and I have a really big head!
14.) The old children's library: It's all updated now, and has moved to the new part of the building, but I LOVED those foam-filled, technicolor, lounging chairs and remember fighting tooth and nail to get to read in the clawfooted bathtub.
15.) Joslin's: Not only a great store, but I worked there so I got the discount and dibs on the sales items.
16.) The birdhouses around Longmont High School: The school's still there, but they pulled down those "decorative" concrete circles that surrounded the upper floor. Recent students have missed out on the joy of six inches of bird crap coating the sidewalk, as well as the dead and dying baby birds that fell or got pushed out. Spring must be so boring at LHS now.
17.) The Drive In: We had one off of 17th. I remember dropping the back of the old, woody station wagon, and trying to stay awake through a 007 Double-Feature...Moonraker
18.) Longmont Lanes: Didn't Mike Mathias work there? I loved high school PE, when we actually got bussed over to bowl! Those were the days.
19.) The giant field behind my parents' house on Anhawa: Now it's upper-end houses. Yuck! I know Jeremy Gregory, Brooks Ramsey, Meighan Riley Kerr, Cindy and Mike Harvey, and many others have fond memories of running around between the hundreds of giant hay loaves that created an awesome, natural maze. And the corn! So scary to sneak out in the middle of the night and stalk each other in the stalks, especially the night that I made everyone watch Children of the Corn before heading out. Ed Cook and Chris Rainey, weren't you in on that one?
20.) Northeast Jr. High: Okay, it's still here, too, but it's been renamed "Heritage Middle School" and it doesn't carry the same sense of threat that it used to when it was just US and THEM.
2.) 1 2 3 Theater on North Main: I remember sitting in awe, watching Star Wars for the very first time, with Karen, and Lisa and Randy Thompson. The best was the night Meighan and I went to see Pinnochio and the Prince of Darkness or some such, and we were the ONLY ones in the theater. We got a little crazy running up and down the aisles, draping ourselves over the tops of the seats, and peeking behind the screen. I scored my life-sized, Tom Hanks "Burbs" cutout that night. It was hidden, but I found it and made it mine. Twenty-some years later, it's hanging in my suburban garage.
3.) Camenisch Dairy Farms: Remember the life-sized cow sign and the hot Camenish girls? Oh, wait, I WAS a hot Camenish girl. I think the candy cane striped jackets were what gave us the edge over the lame-o Dairy Queen girls.
4.) Roll-o-Rena: I wonder how many teen pregnancies followed the all-night skate parties? I hated the freakin' Snowball Dance. Nothing worse than being the only girl who didn't get picked.
5.) Horizon Park Mall: I remember that they had a world-record breaking, gargantuan sheetcake at the grand opening. It had, like, 400 cakes all put together. Wow!
6.) Skaggs: Yosemite Sam's last great gig.
7.) TG&Y: I can't tell you how many Sea Monkeys I bought there.
8.) Eaker's: Source of my first, and only, string bikini. Oh, to be 13 again. I think I was with Cindy Harvey when I bought it.
9.) Main Street: Oh, sure, it's still there, but you can't cruise it anymore. Remember that guys in the LFC trucks would drive all the way from Wyoming to cruise Longmont? We were SO cool!
10.) Cafe Marnie: Best breakfast place EVER! I miss sitting in the grape arbor, eating a small southern breakfast with that killer gravy, then scarfing down a piece of their amazing coffeecake. I wish they'd reopen. I'd be the first through the door.
11.) The Hygiene Cafe: I think the secret to their burgers was never cleaning the grill. What Hygiene Elementary student didn't dream of being rewarded with a trip to the cafe? At least Clark's is still there. Remember they'd give you a free Tootsie Pop if your wrapper had an Indian on it? The teachers let me get candy cigarettes there. So un-PC! I've been fighting that addiction for years!
12.) The Rose: A short-lived, schmancy restaurant, just north of the Armadillo, that Meighan took me to for my 14th birthday. Thanks again, Meighan!
13.) Bananas: An awsome restaurant that was themed around, what else, bananas. They had a sister restaurant in Boulder which is now Casa Alvarez. The best item on the menu was the pile o' onion rings. Those things were each as big as my head, and I have a really big head!
14.) The old children's library: It's all updated now, and has moved to the new part of the building, but I LOVED those foam-filled, technicolor, lounging chairs and remember fighting tooth and nail to get to read in the clawfooted bathtub.
15.) Joslin's: Not only a great store, but I worked there so I got the discount and dibs on the sales items.
16.) The birdhouses around Longmont High School: The school's still there, but they pulled down those "decorative" concrete circles that surrounded the upper floor. Recent students have missed out on the joy of six inches of bird crap coating the sidewalk, as well as the dead and dying baby birds that fell or got pushed out. Spring must be so boring at LHS now.
17.) The Drive In: We had one off of 17th. I remember dropping the back of the old, woody station wagon, and trying to stay awake through a 007 Double-Feature...Moonraker
18.) Longmont Lanes: Didn't Mike Mathias work there? I loved high school PE, when we actually got bussed over to bowl! Those were the days.
19.) The giant field behind my parents' house on Anhawa: Now it's upper-end houses. Yuck! I know Jeremy Gregory, Brooks Ramsey, Meighan Riley Kerr, Cindy and Mike Harvey, and many others have fond memories of running around between the hundreds of giant hay loaves that created an awesome, natural maze. And the corn! So scary to sneak out in the middle of the night and stalk each other in the stalks, especially the night that I made everyone watch Children of the Corn before heading out. Ed Cook and Chris Rainey, weren't you in on that one?
20.) Northeast Jr. High: Okay, it's still here, too, but it's been renamed "Heritage Middle School" and it doesn't carry the same sense of threat that it used to when it was just US and THEM.