I was trying to think of romantic dates to go on with my wife, and I came up with a brilliant idea: I should take her out to Shakey’s Pizza. That was our standard destination back in the 1970s, go out to Shakey’s, sit in a booth with a pineapple pizza and a diet coke, and talk for hours. Yeah, that’s the ticket, an evening of nostalgia and sentiment and good memories.
One problem, though. When we weren’t looking, the entire chain shriveled up and died. There’s a cluster of them still alive in Southern California, and apparently they’re thriving in the Philippines, but none in Minnesota, and only one left in Washington state, in Pasco. Near as I can tell even the old location in Kent, WA has been replaced with a Chuck E. Cheese. I guess I’ll just sit at home, looking dour. See, this is why old people have a reputation for crankiness.
What do the teenagers do nowadays on a Saturday night? What did you do, once upon a time?
I use to go to the Local Friendly Game Store a lot. They come and go, but I’m currently without one. There’s a store in the mall, but it’s painfully mainstream in feel, rather than mom & pop.
I grew up in the mall arcade era. Prior to them being all ticket games for garbage redeemables. Spent way too much time in the local Gold Mine arcade, begging the attendant for free plays when my $5 allowance ran out. Yes $5 dollars!!!
Even worked there for a couple years after high school.
In the 80’s I’d go to Shakeys for the buffet. So much food I should not have eaten. Chicken, fries, pizza. Did not do it often but when I did I ate too much.
I recall going to a Shakeys in SoCal, near the UCLA campus (late 60’s?) when they were having a “Roadrunner” film festival. Beep beep!
Shakeys is certainly aptly named for SoCal.
Don’t despair, you can still get domino’s pizza; where the cardboard box tastes a good as the contents. And, you have the added bonus of your purchase funding the murderous catholic cult!
But, seriously, we used to go to Shakey’s pizza in So. California in the late 1960s. It was pretty good.
When I was a teen there had been a local DJ who was sad that there weren’t any options for teens and young adults that didn’t involve drinking. As a response he opened a dry dance club that was wildly popular, with a heady mixture of late 80s pop and teenage hormones. Fun times.
@hackworth: Good on that DJ.
Spent much time hanging at the mall, especially sitting out front watching cars drive by like a wanna be muscle car parade. Then when I got my own car I would parade in front of the same mall. No idea what that was all about in retrospect. Mall had a Gold Mine arcade I think.
Also spent time partying under bridges, various woodsy areas, and other kids’ houses until the obligatory appearance of deputies to chase us all off. Weekly cycle.
In the 1970s all I could afford was to hang out over the road from the chip shop. Fortunately there were girls who did the same.
Turkish Pizza place. Surprisingly lively with political discussion due to the copious amounts of coffee that would get consumed past midnight.
I also have no idea how we managed to know where the parties were at before the web and social media. Usually some kid’s parents were out of town and invited only a few of their friends over then suddenly half the high school shows up and crowds that part of the neighborhood with parked cars. Also…no GPS!
The A & W Root Beer on Lem Turner Road in Lake Forest, Jacksonville is where my little gang of friends went after school. Five or six of us crammed into a car. Long gone, of course.
Embarrassing confession: Saturday night was Youth Group at the fundy church I belonged to. Afterwards, we’d head to McDonald’s with whoever had borrowed Mom and Dad’s car that evening. Or sometimes Apache Burger at Six Points, which I note is still in business 50 years later (any other Etobicoke kids out there?).
When I was a teen hanging out at the mall was the big thing and i had one just within walking distance so I spent a lot of time there. When I first moved into the area teens hung out at the school sometimes. They had parking, tables and you could use the vending machines for a couple of hours after school. This was the start of the school paranoia era though and this quickly died. They started posting a teacher to make sure the students didn’t violate a long list of rules and the teens quickly avoided it.
Now days for a lot a stream of direct messages has replaced calling or meeting with friends. They have grown up being able to contact their friends via cell phone 24 hours a day and don’t see the point of meeting in person unless there is something to do.
We went to Society for Creative Ancharonism (SCA) events. But, then, we met at the first one I went to. My wife had been active in the SCA since the second ever event.
My dear late wife loved Shakey’s pizza, especially the Mojo potatoes. She was from Egypt, and coming to America there was little American food she liked, but Shakey’s was the exception. It was the usual go-to destination on her birthday.
I always got the Portuguese Linguica.
In some places, the laptop has killed hangouts. People who camped out using the wifi with small purchases has some placing putting time limits on hanging out. Small tables and hard, uncomfortable chairs are becoming common in some places.
The solution is clear. Road trip!
What’s the expression – you can’t go back?
Phooey – I thought I had a gotcha on our esteemed host, but it turns out pineapple-on-pizza dates from 1962 (in Canada, but it’s too late to close the border now).
Honestly, I have no idea where teens are meant to hang out safely these days. All the third spaces are dying, becoming adults-only, or in the case of online spaces, have predatory business practices as well as actual child predators. It’s tragic.
Never been to a Shakey’s, however, I’ve spent a lot of time playing Zappa, so this immediately reminded me of The Blue Light:
Oh well, you travel to bars
You also go to Winchell’s Doughnuts
And hang out with the Highway Patrol
Sometimes you’ll go to a pizza place
You go to Shakey’s to get that
American kind of pizza
That has the ugly, waxey, fake yellow
Kind of cheese on the top
Maybe you’ll go to Straw Hat Pizza
To get all those artificial ingredients
That never belonged on a pizza in the first place
But the white people really like it
Like Rich Woods mostly outside the chippy or down the rec (recreation ground), the Covered Market, a ‘youth’ disco, occasionally a pub. Later church youth group, pubs, peoples’ houses, pubs, very occasionally an ‘American’ burger place, pubs.
Pierce R. Butler@21: “it’s too late to close the border now”
The Orange Man-Baby Führer is busy working on that.
I used to go to Shakey’s with a friend in the 70’s. We’d get a large pizza and a pitcher of beer. Finish off the large pizza and get a medium as a chaser. Now two slices is about my limit.
I had a nothing burger…
My friends Tom and Holly used to perform at a Shakey’s in our college town of Columbia, Mo. He would play piano and she would sing. I would spectate.
In high school, I would go to friends’ houses to hang out. Local drive-in restaurants were popular places to be, but I didn’t care for them.
There are Shakey’s in Japan–I sometimes visit the ones in Shinjuku, Tokyo and Utsunomiya, Tochigi. My Japanese wife likes the potatoes, I like the MayoCorn and Burger (hamburger, cheese, fresh tomato and lettuce put on after it has cooked, dill pickle flavoring) Pizzas.
Start a new tradition of trying local, non-chain, pizza(/vegan burger/kebab) places!
I find something nice about the atmosphere in non-chain places (and in supporting local businesses). And if your new tradition includes a good amount of trying new places, then an old one closing down still might be a disappointment, but it can’t end the tradition.
I was stationed at Clark AB, Philippines in the late 80’s. I enjoyed Filipino food but longed for a good pizza. When I worked Town Patrol there was a Shakey’s Pizza nearby. I’d go there for dinner and watch David Letterman’s show. When you’re thousands of miles from home, it was a welcome treat.
Oh man, that brings back memories! The Shakey’s here in Augusta GA ws our families go-to destination for birthdays and other kid-related celebrations. We would watch them making pizzas then go watch black and white comedy shorts or sing along t the songs the projected on the screen. Great times and much better pizza than Chuck E Cheese, at least in my recollection. Of course, pre-teen me probably didn’t have the most sophisticated palate when it came to pizza.