Actually it was my birthday party (and another friend), Earl owed me a RE brokers commission. I cut a deal with him for a 50% discount for the party, with which I think he made the rest of the money to pay me.

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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.’”

The story I was talking about was when a bunch of performers from back in the day were there. They had 3 birthday cakes and sang to him at the end of the night. It was right after he found out he had pancreatic cancer.

If that's the same one, you did have a hell of a party.

OH, lol

The guy had some amazing stories. When Monday came I went to a meeting at Halsted and Chicago ave. River West Plaza Offices. I was working with the developer and he was an older guy who was a little hippy, he asked me what I did over the weekend. Told him about Earl...and he was shocked that Earl. As Earl never called himself, "The Earl of Old Town:, I only heard the term come Monday morning and then started looking up stuff about him and his place.

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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.’”

Curtis Mathes ... great place for a weekend VCR rental about the size and weight of a VW bug ... nearly the price, too.

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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

There was a John's Garage in Ford City.

I have a feeling the owners of Suzie's at Montrose and Elston may have commissioned the same architecture firm. There are probably still 100 of these shacks on the South Side and SW burbs as well.

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

Highland Superstore.

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Not a mult.

Suzie's has a pretty good milkshake. Plenty of strange flavors. Suzie herself is kind of a crabass. One day I'm actually going to order the Confused Chicken.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

There was one on the north side of Wheaton, by da Jewels.

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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

Builders Square

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Blockbuster

these conversations invariably lead to Riverview

I'm still pissed Kiddieland couldn't keep it together

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Family businesses...

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I was in middle school at the time and a lot of kids would ditch school to go hang out at Old Chicago in Bolingbrook.

Didn't take too long before the truant officers wised up and roamed the park trying to bust kids. They had their work cut out for them because every school around came to Old Chicago for field trips - there used to be at least 10 school buses in that parking lot on any given day!

However, some of us were "legal" because back then, the Bolingbrook School District had 4 "Tracks" - A, B, C & D. At any one time, one of the "tracks" was off for a 3 week break while the other three were in school. Each track rotated after 9 weeks for the 12 week total semester cycle. It was very weird but that's the way it was.

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"This is Chicago, my friend. Anything can happen."

Topp's Department Store
Service Merchandise
J Riggin's
Musicland

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“Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”- JD Vance
“My god, what an !diot.”- JD Vance tweet on Trump
“I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy”- JD Vance

I went to Kiddie and Old Chicago, just kind of remember it sucking. Thinking Great America opened around the same time, maybe a few years later and the log ride at Great America was a fave!

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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.’”

Yep. The smoke from the fire cancelled a no-hitter I had going through the 5th inning in EP little league. Fucking Polk Brothers.

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Wags was great. Another restaurant that I thought was out of business completely was the Ground Round, but it turns out there is still one or two up in Wisconsin.

I know its not Chicago, but Wisconsin is basically Chicago North, right? You guys remember The Gobbler?

http://www.lileks.com/institute/motel/

Maurice Lennel was... eh. Never thought the cookies were that good. You only went there because there would be buckets of free cookies.

Musicland was okay. Was always a bigger fan of Rolling Stones in Norridge.

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Did anyone mention Santa's Village?
That place was the baby puke capital of the western world.
Went there round about 2000. Walked past the quarter pitch at about 10 am and there was the biggest pile of puke I've ever seen in my life. I remember it being unique cause I was thinking who eats corn before 10 am.
Ended the day on the pirate ship. Walked to the main entrance past the quarter pitch at about 6 PM. The pile of unique puke was still there.
That place smelled like vomit and animal piss. Its only redeeming quality was the polar dome. Fun place to play hockey.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

I think its an animal park thing now, so probably hasn't improved much. And yeah, I always remembered it as white trash kiddieland.

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We had a Shopper's Fair in Kankakee. Don't know if there were any in Chicago. But they were a midwest regional store; Iowa and Indiana. Their jingle was, "Shopper's Fair, Shopper's Fair, Shopper's Fair for discounts." I remember they had a sweet toy section. Closed down sometime in the mid-late 70s.

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We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.- Eric Hoffer

Man how old are you? I keep going ba j and forth somewhere between 132 and 40.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

I believe he was born in the 19 oughts.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMvpP9Rq3t4

You're welcome.

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Just chillin' like Garret Quillin.

Got some play on B96 as the bowdlerized "Short Short Man." I thought it was just about rejecting guys who were short.

My favorite confluence of classic B96 and the internet archiving everything is The "Booty Call" Lyric Project, dedicated to decoding the lyrics of Fast Eddie and DJ Sneak's "Booty Call," which apparently got no airplay outside of Chicago because no one else I've ever talked to about all things '90s has had a fucking clue what I'm on about with this booty call thing.

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holy shit...first of all the gallery of regrettable food is awesome
second, i got to the Gobbler through that site (same guy obv)
i would have LOVED to gone there. and dropped acid

US Steel.

Ben Franklins Dog and Sudds

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https://www.backroadspubandgrill.com

Now I'm really confused. US Steel and Dog N Suds are both still around.

What qualifies as extinct?

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Remind my mom of that place everytime she says something to my niece about being clean and washing her hands.

"You mean when you let us lick the huge pole of ice that every touched and licked all day!" How gross was that thing!

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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.’”