Now I have the 'Peter Gunn Theme' in my head.

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Does Hostess count? The extinction of "Suzy Q's" is a crime.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

No. Maurice Lenell however, does.

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I don't remember half the time if I'm hiding or I'm lost

That is a great site, Sam. Used to go here as well all the time as a yute.

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I was one of the last customers of the one on Harlem. On a WGN newsreport of the final day my arm is prominently featured carrying out about 6 cookie tins.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

That was you?!?

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I don't remember half the time if I'm hiding or I'm lost

Service Merchandise, McDade's and First Distributors.
All stores who published catalogs and carried all kinds of goods.

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Host of the weekly "We Fish ASA" podcast
Weekly columnist for the Northwest Herald
Bi-monthly columnist for Illinois Outdoor News magazine
Former host of The Outdoors Experience on WIND and The Great Outdoors on CLTV
http://www.wefishasa.com

My mom took my brother and I to the one in Carol Stream. Sometimes, there would be a clown making balloon animals for the kids. It's now a Red Apple.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

Handy Andy

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

Zofia's bar/restaurant across from St. Adalbert's cemetery.

Which was down the block from Cock Robin.

Down a fur piece from Tastee Hastee.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

there was something magical about service merchandise when you were a kid. watching dad pay for his shit then having to go to the back and stand there for the 5-10mins for your stuff to come down the conveyor belt was a strangely more personal way of getting your goods rather impersonally, something definitely lost on the current amazon.com generation.

looking at that craigslostchicago list i'm reminded of quite a few places (i even vaguely remember silo existing for 6-12 months when i was a kid) but the two that got me thinking were rose records and uncle fun.

with rose records i remember going to the one down schaumburg road towards the "party in the back end" of the mecca (cuz at least from my perspective in elk grove, it was totally business up front with woodfield and the commercial areas closer to me) because rose records was a proper ticketmaster outlet before the internet rose up to take everything over. the one time i was there to get some ticket for some mid-late 90s concert i remember looking through their used CDs and seeing a $3 cd by an artist named "small dick man" (complete with a logo of a female hand gesture implying a tiny dong), and i really really really should have bought it because i've never been able to dig up anything about this mysterious musical artist known to the 90s as "small dick man", which is fairly surprising given that the internet eventually showed up to archive all human information and there's nobody out there who's ever said "yeah i used to know this asshole who tried to start up a musical career as 'small dick man' and holy shit he was bad"

as for uncle fun, circa 2012-13 i had a friend's wife suggest to me that i go apply for a job there because "they'll be on your wavelength" (read: i'm a joke and they're a joke shop) so i went there and applied for the open job and suffice to say that didn't exactly work out, so i got my vintage 1985 "more fun than you bargianed for" sticker and they got to close within a year or a year and a half tops. the employees were dismissive little yuppie broodlings who didn't seem to like me for some odd reason so i reckon this is apropos.



OHHHH.... i get it now. aha. that totally explains the asshole yuppie foot soldiers to a T. i had no chance.

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It looks like you can still buy Maurice lenell cookies.

We had a tastee freez near my house as a kid. I'd get cheese fries and a Boston Shake. I can't find anyplace that makes them now.

those cookies were disgusting. they were stale like 5 minutes after coming out of the oven . could use them for paperweights

Peaches
Rose Records

+1 for Wag's.

First time there, got this weird thing called "chicken fingers" ... what the hell would that even be? As I recall, it was lovely; not sure i ever ordered anything but that there ever again.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Sorry, you are incorrect.

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Woolworths also had a place you could eat.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

Wasn't it Hastee Tastee? That was a walkup hot dog stand, right? On Milwaukee Avenue?

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My mother took us a couple times a year. It was my go-to place for Hardy Boy books and GI Joe stuff.

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

Flipside
Tower Records

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

don't think so, but that was a long time ago.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Crown Books

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

Bizarre Bazaar on Wells was pretty great as a teenager. I remember going to Irv's back in the early '90's when I got promoted and needed to wear a suit everyday. Double-breasted suits, paisley ties, braces/suspenders, oh my!

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

My former friend Dave Kane worked at Cut Rate Toys. I say former because he snubbed me on Facebook and in real life at Lucky Magee's. I also think the old Jewish guy who I rented office space to in Skokie may have done those shitty ads.

Also, I have a good Animal Kingdom story. Chelveston the Duck used to live there in between his appearances on the Ray Raynor Show. A guy I know named Tom Barnach was responsible for delivering him to and picking him up from 2501 W. Bradley Place. One day Barnach put Chelveston in the back of the van in his little cage and began heading back to Animal Kingdom. I don't know if he was high or drunk or what, but he was driving like a nut and the cage was sliding all over. When he arrived at the pet store, Chelveston was dead.

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Freedom is our Strength.

It was inconviently located. No wonder it's out of business.

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Freedom is our Strength.

I borrowed many items from that place.

Almost as good as buying a floor drain and at the checkout, the manager insists they dont sell the floor drain I picked up in the bin and he let me take it for free.

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Bizzare was a great place! That was the end of the Wells St era.

I did a deal with a guy on Lincoln Ave almost 15 years ago, very old guy with a long white beard named Earl. Told me he had a place on Wells at one time and it was the hottest place in Chicago. Googled up some info on it and it seems Earl did have the bad ass place at one time.

The Earl of Old Town
[url]
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1999 ... go-history[/url]

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Was a Wilmette thing and I am sure every town had their own version, but we had Dog Ear records, might have been a chain?

Albums, black concert t shirts, posters! They rented VHS tapes as well, and although not at that point yet, head shop materials.

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Earl Pionke. The Earl of Old Town. My mother's first boyfriend when she was a young kid was partners with Earl in a bar. Earl was a contemporary of my mom, but he had a longtime girlfriend who was about my age. I'm pretty sure they lived in Pullman when he died. Sharon was a pretty good looker in her day. I think she may have worked at Sterch's. Sterch's is gone now too, isn't it? Add that one to the list.

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Freedom is our Strength.

So was I (Rockford). We were a good match.

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley