You Grew Up in Rhode Island During the 1960s * If...

                                                                                                * ...or maybe earlier.

...you cried when Salty Brine's collie Jeff died.
...you remember when Art Lake and Salty Brine had dark hair.
...you remember Sara Wye, Franz Laubert, Mort Blender, Bunny North, and Jay Kroll.
...you remember Jack Comley and Dick Pace doing talk radio on WJAR.
...you remember the Outlet Company at Christmastime: Toyland in the basement and the Christmas windows.
...you smile wistfully when you think of the names Shepards, Woolworths, Grants, Newberry's, Woolworth's, Peerless, Gladdings, and City Hall Hardware.
...you remember Newberry's downtown (and in East Greenwich, and in Newport on Thames Street).
...you remember before they turned Westminster Street into a mall.
...you remember when Kmart was still Kresge's.
...you bought all your books at Read-All or the Paperback Bookstore on Weybosset Street.
...before you went home from a trip downtown you bought some fruit or groceries from the Market Basket.
...you once ate at the Ming Garden, Luke's, or the Waldorf Cafeteria.
...you remember when it was the Sheraton Biltmore.
...you were assured by classmates that the Industrial National Bank building was the same one as in the opening of the Superman TV series.
...you remember when they used to show all the Disney films at the Majestic Theater.
...you remember the RKO Albee, the Loew's State, and the Strand.
...your mom wouldn't let you go near the Strand 'cause they showed "dirty movies."
...you remember that neat paperback bookstore cattycorner from the Outlet having so many books and rock posters that the cashier had to sit up in a little booth.
...being bussed to the Rhode Island Philharmonic once a year for a special concert for schoolchildren.
...you remember when that big pyramid that became Apex went up in Pawtucket.
...you remember when WPRI was WPRO.
...you remember neighborhood bakeries and all the great pastries they carried: lemon squares, New Yorkers, cornets, zeppoles, and sfogliatelles.
...you know what a hermit is (and it's not a strange old guy who lives alone in the woods).
...you remember when Garden City was just about the only shopping center out in that direction.
...you remember when Garden City was just about the only thing out there besides farms and houses and how at Christmastime when they put up their light display you could drive to the top of Laurel Hill Avenue and see it shining like a beacon in the distance.
...heck, you remember the coal tipple that used to be on the north side of Sakonasset Road at what's now the "back end" of Garden City.
...you remember Child World and Brodsky's.
...your parents would threaten to "send you to Sakonasset" when you were particularly bad.
...your mother would say, when you made her crazy, "You're going to drive me to Howard!"
...you remember Reservoir Avenue when it was only two lanes.
...you remember driving north to Massachusetts before there was an interstate, on Routes 1 and 128, or maybe out Route 6 to the Cape, or up 146.
...you have fond memories of Rocky Point, Crescent Park, and Jolly Cholly's out in North Attleboro, MA.
...you remember when Rhode Island Mall was Midland Mall.
...heck, you remember when Midland Mall opened.
...(before I-295 was even there).
...you remember the junkyard that used to be across from Fiore Pontiac (and you wondered if the old trade-ins went there).
...you used to love the Cranston Drive-In.
...you wondered if they gave out free samples at the Eclipse syrup plant.
...you remember free parking at the beach.
...your mom grocery shopped at Almacs, Stop and Shop, Finast, or the A&P.
...heck, when your mom shopped at a neighborhood supermarket like Food Town.
...you remember Warwick Shopper's World, Niantic Mills, Nyanza, and the Ben Franklin Store.
...your parents still referred to Warwick Shopper's World and Ann & Hope as "mill outlets" and going to one of these stores was "going to the mill."
...your parents still referred to the airport as "Hillsgrove."
...you remember when the section of Cranston at the intersection of Park Avenue and Gansett Avenue was called "the Speedway."
...you know what a "superette" and a "spa" were (and that the latter had nothing to do with health clubs).
...you remember when Bald Hill Road was almost all farms.
...you remember the big old buildings in downtown Newport waterfront before they remodeled it.
...you remember when there wasn't a McDonald's in Rhode Island.
...you remember Burger Chef and Jeff.
...you bought a small Del's Lemonade for only a dime, Hershey bars for 10 cents, popsicles a nickel, and penny candy—for a penny!
...you remember going to Stamp's Farm for eggs and Highland Orchards for apples.
...you passed the Narragansett Brewery on your way downtown—and people were working there.
...you remember the old trolley barn on Cranston Street.
...one of the big landmarks on Post Road was the Scholes roller rink.
...every time a hurricane was forecast your mom and dad or grandparents would immediately talk about the Hurricane of ‘38.
...heck, they'd take you downtown to show you the high-water plaque on the Providence Journal-Bulletin building.
...you remember Trifari and Coro being two of the biggest employers in town.
...instead of getting your chickens from the supermarket, your mom or dad went to the chicken man in Silver Lake.
...your parents took you to the Slater Zoo.
...you remember Bosco and Maypo.
...you remember being taken to see the brilliant Calart's Christmas display.
...you remember the big rivalry between Old Stone Bank and Citizens Bank—especially between the kids who had savings accounts with either bank in school, pink envelopes versus green.
...the moment you drove out of Rhode Island no one had coffee milk or coffee ice cream any longer.
...you still have nightmares about "Choo-Choo" on the Railroad Salvage commercials.