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7 years 4 months ago
- Posts: 525
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Ventures - my parents shopped here for furniture and toys for me. This turned into an Ames in my area, and now it's Food 4 Less.
Eagle Country Market - My aunt used to work in the bakery at one of these stores. I loved the atmosphere of the store - it's not cold and uninviting like today's grocery stores. Plus, on the weekends, there were tons of tables set up with food to sample.
Service Merchandise - ahh, the memories. So many appliances, exercise equipment, and cool gadgetry to play with and get hurt on! I once bumped my head on some exercise equipment while playing with my cousin. This store had everything - but food. They even had nice jewelry! And TONS of toys!
Handy Andy - A hardware store full of nicks and ends - nails, pipes, etc. All for a young girl to shuffle through and enjoy.
Hardees - Still here. I remember their kiddie meals and their kid room filled with plastic colorful balls. Also their yummy breakfast sausage sandwich.
Blockbuster Videos - of course it's still in business, but I fondly remember the days where I could go in and rent Berenstain Bears videos and N64 games to play over the weekend. My parents rented movies using their Blockbuster card, and later on I would get cool Pokemon stickers from their Pokemon machine.
Racing Rapids in Gurnee, Illinois - my family used to go there every summer to ride the Lazy River, the go-cart course, the Bumper Boats, the Intertube Slide, and the big, scary water slides. So much fun - they even had an arcade and a snack bar where I could eat delicious nachos covered in cheese.
Cubs - recently converted to Ultra Foods, I used to remember the big cargo shelves and large portions of food that the store used to sell. I also remember the Crayola day each year before school started in August. The kids would get to bury their hands in bins of crayons and get to learn how crayons are made, then get to take a free crayon box home (and some other cool school supplies, at that).
Petland - where I would get my fresh supply of fish when they died every few months. AWWW the cute puppies and kitties were adorable! It's still here in my town, but I have not been to it in years.
Personally Yours - a cool store down the street from my house that sold holiday greeting cards, yard statues, knick knacks, candy, figurines, stuffed animals, and Beanie Babies in later years. It has been changed into a candle store and will be demolished at the end of this summer.
Haunted Trails - Not really a store, but I went here a lot. Still alive and thriving! It's like Chuck E. Cheese, where you can play games to win tickets, and then exchange the tickets for cool prizes. But it's better than Chuck E. Cheese's. It does not have any of the (sometimes) annoying Chuck E. Cheese characters, it has a miniature golf course, two go-cart courses, batting cages, a nickel arcade, and very good cheesy pizza (as good as Chuckee's, and probably better). Inside the place they not only have games, but also a lazer tag obstacle course and the Bone Shaker (a ride where you can get into a round sitting areas and spin around really fast. I love that place!
Subdock - a Subway type of restaurant by our house. Dad would walk there sometimes to get us really good sub sandwiches. Since then, it's been replaced by an ice cream place, and then by a Mexican restaurant. Both went out of business only months after they opened.
Toys R Us - Used to be the best toy store ever. What happened to you, Toys R Us? I remember the fond times I used to see Sega and Nintendo games on the shelves, competing furiously against one another. And the huge Barbie section was to die for, before it gradually became smaller and smaller.
And, of course, Montgomery Wards. I still have a 19 inch TV from that place that still works fine - a Signature 3000. I also have old Rudolph bags from there. Fond memories.
And I also visited other places such as Marshall Field's, Carson's, McDonalds (when they had outdoor playgrounds), Burger King, Gamestop, Best Buy, Barnes and Nobles, Walmart, K-Mart, Target, Circuit City, etc. but these above are highlights.
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