I remember. For us, it was Skate Grove in Middle Island, New York.
This meme actually fails to convey three elements that were key to the experience — flashing lights, crowds of kids and The J. Geils Band blasting on the speakers.
Source: “I Love the 80’s” on Facebook
My parents took me and my siblings to the “Opryland” amusement park in Nashville, TN around … 1981 or so; I would have been about nine years old. It was part of a family vacation that took us from Long Island, New York through two mountain ranges — I saw the Blue Ridge Mountains for the first time (though certainly not the last), and the Great Smoky Mountains. (That, by itself, seemed like traveling to fantastic new dimension to a young kid.)
But Opryland was a blast. I’m surprised I’ve never heard it mentioned by anyone I knew since I saw it over 40 years ago. (And I’ve been friends with quite a few Southerners.) The shot below is one of the few public domain photos I could find of the park itself (and it dates from the mid-1970’s).
My parents were excited about a stage show called “The Grand Ole Opry;” the theme of the amusement park was … historical country music, or something. That wasn’t of much interest to a kid, but I had a blast with rides like The Log Flume, the Skyride and those Tin Lizzie antique cars on the safety track. (Somewhere there’s a family photo of nine-year-old me happily “driving” one.)
As it turns out, there actually are a lot of people who remember Opryland if you look for them online. There’s an official Facebook page, with tons of photos and links, along with this documentary from Nashville Public Television.
The “Grand Ole Opry” lives on as a live stage performance series and a radio show, but Opryland closed in 1997. It really is missed by a lot of people. Take a look at some of the comments on the Facebook page — this place had a hell of a loyal fanbase.
Photo credit: Chris Faulkner, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Seriously, if you’re a horror fan and you’ve somehow missed the television adaptation of Guillermo del Toro’s “The Strain” (2014-2017), then you don’t know what you’re missing.
Louis Gossett Jr. passed away last week at the age of 87. While everyone else is remembering him for “An Officer and A Gentleman” (1982), we 80’s sci-fi kids are remembering him for 1985’s “Enemy Mine.”
I am linking here to Vintage Movie Trailers on Youtube, by the way.
This picture inspires pure nostalgia for 1980’s rural suburbia. I swear there is something so cool about the wood paneling and thick carpet.
Note the game console. I still remember talking with rapt interest with other kids about which Atari cartridges their family had.
This was taken at North Carolina’s Outer Banks in 1994. Pictured at right is the indomitable, inimitable, irreplaceable Dave Kline, of Mary Washington College fame. (Yes, his fashion sense was legendary.)
Who is the goofy guy at left? I have no idea.
Anyway, what a trip that was. I’m sure I’m not the only one of my dormmates who remembers it fondly.
When I was sixteen years old and working at McDonald’s, we would throw cheese at the break room ceiling like this. We tried other foods too (we had high hopes for the pickles), but I think cheese was the only reliable standby. Good times.
Actually … I might have been younger when I worked there. I would have been able to drive back and forth with a driver’s permit at sixteen, if memory serves? And McDonald’s had a van that picked up the younger employees who couldn’t drive.
Play this song with your eyes closed, and it transports you right back to the 80’s. Hey, it’s a lot easier than what they did in “Avengers: Endgame” (2019).
The Wiz might be something only my fellow New Yorkers will remember — it was a regional electronics chain in the metropolitan area. Get a load of that electric typewriter for just $99.00.
Though everyone in my Long Island neighborhood saw commercials like this on TV, there weren’t any Wiz locations near us. That territory had been firmly staked out by the far older P. C. Richard and Sons, The Wiz’ competitor.
Be warned — the jingle here is an earworm.
Here’s just a nifty newspaper advertisement for WOR-TV Channel 9’s annual Thanksgiving monster movie marathon — about which I’ve posted once or twice before.
I actually remember nearly all of this lineup from watching in the 1980’s! The three big-gorilla flicks came first, in glorious black and white, with the Godzilla entries after. (The only movie below that doesn’t ring a bell for me is “Godzilla vs. The Bionic Monster.” I must have missed that one.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 