Places you used to go

Eyebrowsbv31

Eyebrowsbv31

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Aw man, as a kid there was a place called Wet Willies Waterpark just south of STL we'd go to at least 50-60 times a summer. Only 3 solid concrete slides it was usually packed and looking back on it incredibly dangerous. It closed down probably 10-12 years ago...and I recently stumbled upon this series of crazy pictures of the remains of the place:

http://www.negative-g.com/WetWillys/Wet-Willys-1.htm (hit the "next" button)

It's amazing how things you remember as pristine and awesome can go from that to Chernobyl in less than a decade. Anyone else have anything like this in their areas?
 
There's a water park called Wild Waters like 10 minutes away from my house. I've probably been there 3 times in the last 8 years, if even that. I have plenty of memories of it from when I was young, though, including a fat lady falling on top of me. It's still open, too. Doubt I'll go there any time soon though.

Eyebrows, those pics are awesome. Just sayin'.
 
Oh dude, that sucks.

The only thing remotely similar that happened to me is when I used to go to Spain regularly for holiday. We owned an apartment out there, and we would eat at a restaurant called "Pizza Nostra" twice every week we went. Best pizzas ever.

I went to the apartment about 2 years ago. And Pizza Nostra had closed down! Boarded up and everything...

WHAT THE HELL MAN?!!!
 
I used to participate in improv comedy at my local bowling alley, hosted byThe Cellar Dwellers . I must say this was so much fun to go down to and hang out. Like I said, I used to participate...and I made people laugh! Yes, I had to balls to go on stage (not really a stage) and perform unknowingly and walk away with laughter and smiles in the crowd. Sometimes there were crickets.

515388535_22edee0fca_o.jpg

Can you tell I was holding alcohol?
 
There was this great sandwich place in my neighborhood that was owned by this cool guy that would watch me rollerblade outside the store when nobody else was in the restaurant besides me and my dad. Around the time I was in 6th grade, I noticed an old man in a bowler hat sitting in the restaurant nearly every day around dinner time, and after 4 or 5 months, the shop suddenly closed. It's since reopened under ownership of this weird Asian couple, and the only thing I've heard about the guy was that he was pressured to sell his restaurant and franchise, and he didn't want to. Rumor is he left and went insane months later, and I haven't gone rollerblading since /sadface
 
Eyebrows, I totally get what you're getting at. And that place looks like it would be raaaaad to visit now (well, before they tore it down) or back then. As far as waterparks go, I used to go to Sunsplash a lot when I was a kid. My mom worked catering there during the summer so that we, her children, could get in free (instead of paying $15 admission). Little known fact, it's the waterpark they used for the "Waterloo" in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. What now!?!

Also, when I was a kid, 8-10 years old, we would go to visit my cousins in Portland. We used to go to this old arcade that was in a theater. You paid like $3 for all day admission and all the games were free. They showed movies in two theaters, while all the cabinets were in the hollowed out area of two other theatres. Sodas, hot dogs and popcorn were all 25 cents and we would spend like 10+ hours there from open to close. I remember thinking that this place was frickin' Valhalla. We would leave at closing time, 12 am, into a main street in downtown Portland. This was where I encountered my first drunk, crazy, homeless person. Looking back, I'm surprised my aunt and uncle would let us go there and not pick us up. Went back when I was a teenager and the place was still cool. 100's of cabinets from the late 70s up through more recent games of the time, 90s. But I noticed the state of disrepair too. The smell of decades old soda spills and...possibly pee.

Looking around for what the place was, I think it might have been the Avalon Theatre. But I'm not 100% sure.
 
I'm not sure if this really qualifies but....

From elementary to high school there was a large civil war reenactment every year at a state park about 30 minutes from my house. We went every year, and I loved the civil war. They had something like 200-300 participants every year, including an entire battery of canon (10-12 guns) plus 2 whole calvary companies. It was a hell of a lot of fun to go to. Sadly, they stopped doing it a few years ago. Ran out of money I guess. Disappointing though. I loved going to that reenactment.
 
Used to go to this smaller movie theater when I was younger. Think the place is closed down now.
We didn't go there a lot, but it was a memorable experience whenever we went. They had great arcade cabinents in the lobby. Unique ones, too. Super Mario Bros. arcade, hell yeah (and not that Players Choice crap, either...this was the real deal).

Anyway, someone told me the theater we were in was the same one where they caught Lee Harvey Oswald. I'll be damned...I look behind and up and what do I see but a large JFK face mural painted on the theater wall where i'm watching Critters 2, He-Man, or The Garbage Pail Kids. Kinda cool.

Critters 2 is the best Critters, btw
 
There was this small forest next to a dump full of broken cars and other cool stuff for a young boy to play with. We build little shacks in the forest and played with the cars. Now they are both gone and there are somekind of huge warehouses these days.
 
Longo_2_guns said:
There's a water park called Wild Waters like 10 minutes away from my house. I've probably been there 3 times in the last 8 years, if even that. I have plenty of memories of it from when I was young, though, including a fat lady falling on top of me. It's still open, too. Doubt I'll go there any time soon though.

Eyebrows, those pics are awesome. Just sayin'.
Click to expand...
I used to splash around to a place called wild water works and it was that much cooler than yours because of the extra alliteration!
 
TheNesMan said:
Longo_2_guns said:
There's a water park called Wild Waters like 10 minutes away from my house. I've probably been there 3 times in the last 8 years, if even that. I have plenty of memories of it from when I was young, though, including a fat lady falling on top of me. It's still open, too. Doubt I'll go there any time soon though.

Eyebrows, those pics are awesome. Just sayin'.
Click to expand...
I used to splash around to a place called wild water works and it was that much cooler than yours because of the extra alliteration!
Click to expand...

I used to dive about in a place called Wet & Wild, until Six Flags bought and renamed it Hurricane Harbor.
Once it was bought out by the competition, it would never again be as wet or as wild. (._. )

but, it wasn't all bad. A mini water park was built right next door to it... odd come to think of it. I mean, why build a water park next to another, more popular water park?
Anyway, the name of the place? NOURH2O (in our h²o)
Texas: Lowest high school graduation rate in the nation, helluva clever theme park names.
 
We used to go to a place called "Golfland Sunsplash". When I first went there, the place sort of stood out because it was a three story castle with a giant water slide next to the freeway. The castle itself was the arcade center and we used to go there all the time to play the arcades there. Last time I went there the newer arcades cost $1.75 to play. So I'm guessing that's why arcades died off.
 
I didn't noticed the bumper boats because we mainly go there for the arcades but we didn't do any swimming there. For swimming we used to go to "Big Surf".

So which part of Arizona did you grew up in, Bret?
 
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