heh I lived near near there for a time - in Collegiate Arms.
That's the place!! I guess I lived there in 1988. They renovated the place in December that year. New carpet, new windows, new furniture. So imagine coming home after Christmas Break, and there's no windows in your apartment and it's snowing.
Across from mcdonalds is Sharkies with all the pool tables, and the 6-pack shop. Herlochers...doesn't ring a bell.
Sharkies, that's it. Herlocher is the owner (of most of town, actually). It used to just have his name on it. Used to be just one floor. Used to be really quiet. But you could go in and get a dark beer and a boat of pretzels and mustard for like $2.
And Backdoor...do you mean The DarkHorse (formerly known as The Surf Club formerly known as....something else... I forget)? I don't remember anything getting torn down by the phyrst, there's only about a block of stuff there (Uncle Eli's), Tinderbox gifts, small art school. It keeps changing. Usually for the worse.
The Smurf Club. They used to have plastic mugs that gave you discounted beer on thursdays. My dad and his friend and I went there too. Dad's friend was recently divorced, and really appreciated the coeds.
Anyway, if you left the Phyrst, and turn left out the door, there's an alley on the left where you can go down to where Smurf Club used to be (and the back door to Vesuvios). The parking garage will be on your right as you head down this alley. There used to be a bar on the left, near the top of the hill, across from the garage. I think they tore it down while I was there, which would mean before 1989. It was a little 2 room dive, where I used to go watch a standup singer named Beth, part of the best college town band ever, Ticapoo Brain. She had sung with Chris Mincer before, as part of Bookends.
Since I'm getting a little sentimental, I'll describe Playland for those that have never been. It was the perfect combination of games, great sounds and odd smells. It was dark, disgustingly dirty, and incredibly smokey. 3 rooms, each one on a higher level, of various classics and the latest games.
Hold on now! I remember Playland has having 5 rooms. There was the room on the alley where you could enter, from across the parking lot. There was one of those coin guys on the right, and a bathroom straight ahead on the other side of a bank of machines. Battle Zone was on the right. On either side of this room were one or two stairs up to the rooms on the mid level. In the right room was Lunar Lander. The left room was the biggest room, with all the pinballs, and the Gauntlet machine, The other coin guy was here. Then there were stairs up to another pair of rooms and the door to College Ave. All I remember up here was the Paperboy machine. Maybe DigDug.
I can smell the smoke. I remember once I was watching this guy play Guantle II. He was really good that guy. I set my backpack down against the machine. When I left I forgot my backpack. Something like 6 hours later I remembered it, so I ran back to Playland. I was sort of panicked, because I had a new HP calculator in it, which had cost a lot of money for a starving college studen in 1986. It was like $150. When I got there, there was still a crowd around the Gaunlet machine, so no one had noticed that the backpack had been unattended. Phew!
Bob
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Topic: Playland going out of business. AUCTION ! (Read 3588 times)
