Memories

Dweeze posted on some of the things he misses in Iowa City. I'd like to add to the list:

THE TOYS
City Park used to be full of wooden forts and castles, one of them had a tornado slide and a bridge, another was a two-story tower with a metal thing in the middle that I suspect was supposed to be a fake telescope but we inevitably turned into a fake machine gun for defending the tower. It also used to have a ferris wheel. Mercer used to have a real fire engine with it's wheels sunk into the ground. Now . . . open grassy spaces for kids to run around aimlessly and complain they're bored, interspersed by a few comparatively lame-ass swings and tiny slides. Whee. I presume the fear of litigation from kids climbing and swinging and inevitably falling all over the things, and possibly the idea some kid would want to eat the tower rather than climb on it (WTF?) and thus get poisoned by the preservatives. Splinters, too. Dang lawyers.

MODA AMERICANA
You could get the most off-the wall clothes there in my college years. From alternative crap to long, skin-tight silk skirts. I had a source for my alternative wear that didn't involve the term "resale."

ROCKY ROCCOCO'S PIZZA ON THE PED MALL
It's 2 am, the bars are closed, you're a little toasty, and you want munchies. Nothing better than their deep dish slices. There's other pizza-by-the-slice places, but they don't have near the amount of gooey cheese. It was a zoo, granted, but I miss the slice.

COLLEGE STREET CLUB
It was a typical underage-drinking, noisy, college-kid-filled dance bar. We've got lots of them still. But it was our bar, we knew everyone who worked there and got, um, perks. Want to hear a song? We could get played immediately and repeatedly. A line and a cover charge? I don't think so. $1 shots were not a couple of finger's worth of liquor in shot glasses, they filled a regular drink glass. We could drink all night on $4, something crucial when you're working your minimum-wage way through school. Somebody asks you to dance, or wants to buy you a drink? Make the rounds and between all the people you know, someone can give you their life history. Effectively weeds out the creeps. See someone you think is hot? Make the rounds again, because they inevitably knew someone you did and you can get an intro. We didn't mind it was filled with noisy college kids, 'cause we were the noisy college kids. At my age I couldn't go back there even if it was still open, but come to think of it, there's really no dance bar that does really welcome people in their late 20's and 30's. I miss that. And if Dweeze can miss the Red Stallion, this can count.

THE AIRLINER, BUSHNELL'S TURTLE, PEARSON'S DRUG STORE
The end of an era. I'm sorry, you're going to make the drug store into a video rental place, but keep the soda fountain? WTF were they thinking? It was an old-fashioned, cement-thick shake and awesome sandwich soda fountain. The Airliner had been a staple since some world war or another, an old-fashioned wood-soaked bar with history and character and good pizza. Bushnell's Turtle had those awesome stained-glass windows, and incredible food and a kicking name. We've taken our character and tossed it for another franchise. Yippee. What's next, Hamburg Inn, the Mill, Joe's Place? Come on.

THE ABBEY INN
Ever wonder why there's a statue of a monk in front of the Heartland Inn in Coralville? You know, right by the chinese restaurant. That's because it used to be the Abbey. The place to stay on prom night. It also had a tad more character than the cheap brick box that's the Heartland.

MAZZIO'S PIZZA
After junior high dances. Yep.


I also miss the parking lots. Yes, we used to have them. Places to actually put your car. Right outside the building. It particularly gnaws at me that we gave up a nicely-sized, conveniently-located parking lot that now sits right under the University of Iowa storage shed laser center.

There's a couple more things I need to pick my brain about - that restaurant that used to be in front of the Abbey, before it was the chinese place or the place before that. I liked the food, but the name escapes me. Or the clothing store across from the Pentacrest by Enzler's where you could get the nicer obscure stuff. Not Seifert's, which used to be roughly where Summit is now and I bought my very first grown-up winter coat. But the other one. And wasn't it the place that had the fortune-telling machine in it kind of like the one in Big? Okay, I'm definitely showing my age.