Old K-mart at Lindebergh & 270...

Pethead wrote:

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Anyone who knows me knows I don't remember years or dates. But I'd guess the A&W went out of business in the late 60's. I remember walking there and lugging two empty glass jugs about a mile and a half with my friends to bring root beer home by my mom's orders. At that time we only had one car and most local shopping was on foot and sometimes dragging the Western Flyer behind us.
I would get 15¢ to pick the two jugs of ice cold root beer. I always spent my 15¢ on (what seemed like) a giant frosty mug of ice cold root beer that we had to drink on the premises. They had car hops and the aluminum trays with the rubber skid things on the tray so the car windows wouldn't get scratched up. Many mugs disappeared from there and reappeared in many kitchen cabinets around Florissant. I don't think I knew anyone who didn't have a set of at least 4 mugs to drink our A&W from.
Thanks for stirring up some fond memories Orion!
There was also a space in our cabinet that housed the Dogs N' Sudz mugs. All these years have passed and now I'm coming clean for the whole family. LOL
Dogs N' Sudz was in Hazelwood on Lindbergh around where the Village Chinese restaurant is now.

A&W closed in 1979 or 1980

JustJoeinFlo wrote:

Pethead, there used to be a slot car track just like you speak of at Paul and Shackelford in the little strip mall near St. Ferdinand. It didn't last very long and these was just 2-3 years ago.
Talking about Grandview what about the water slide where the storage place is now. Or how about the other waterlside that was at Lindebergh and Halls Ferry, I always heard someone got killed at that one.
Need more things for the kids to do. I guess I mean 12-16 years old.
So once again, I guess we have the water parks to replace those, Par_tee replaces Putt-Putt, still nothing to replace the arcades. I guess that's what XBOX, PS, etc are there for.

I remember there being a movie theater in Grandview, about where the Schnucks is today. There was also a JC Penny's (I think an Outlet), Fashion Gal, Little Ceasers, and a Drug Store at the corner between where the doctors off is/was and the insurance place is.

So I still take it nobody knows what is going on in the OLD K-mart site?

JustJoeinFlo wrote:

So I still take it nobody knows what is going on in the OLD K-mart site?

that is what it looks like to me

About the old driving range off Dunn Road by Gradview... when i used to know some friends who lived in the apartments down there, we would always run through the creek there. the creek changed into the open sewer stream that goes through the Perronies area. They closed down the range in the very late 90's. No one bothered picking up the leftover balls that were on the field, so me and my friends always collected them, and hit them onto the field from the far back of the range. You could get some major distance with those things haha.

it was probably for the better that they put sewer drains in the creek. When the sewer area started, there was a main underground hub about the size of a house, probably bigger. I stayed away from the underground happenings that were going on there. A lot of corruption with the teenage world of Florissant has many years of indentation in that place (spray painting n such).

The hill on the side of the Grandview Taco Bell was the Wet Willys. That was fairly close to the highway. There was always talk of Eagan never wanting those kinds of attractions in Florissant. It may have had something to do with the competition of Bangert and the upbringing of Koch Park Waterpark. This was all before my time though.

I remember the Schnucks where the Walgreens is now. It was smaller, but it had this nice sit down restaurant there. It had that rural diner kind of feel to it. Thats why I enjoyed it so much. There were other locations that had that as well, but that withered in the 90's.

I did have fond memories of Discovery Zone and the Chuck-e-Cheese/Showbiz Pizza on Target drive (along with the other things you USED to do on that street). The relocation of the Target and the closing of the Halls Ferry theater really did it to the Chuck-e-Cheese. Couldnt tell you what happened with Discovery Zone. Guess lack of interest.

They have so many things like that in South County and St. Charles county such as Swing around fun town. I have doubts that something like that could open here today. You have too many people from the Southeast part of Norco that travel North of 270 and ruin the party.

Florissant still has a few things for the kids to do. We have enough parks to feed everyone and then some. We have a couple of bowling alleys, Par-tee, the recreation facilities, and the St. Louis Mills attractions in the sister town of Hazelwood. We are also one of the only towns to have a decently organized skate park.

Florissant has lost a lot of stuff in the last 10 to 15 years as well. No more DZ or CEC, not really any theater (lost the dollar shows as well), besides day camps, summer activities are pretty scarce for kids, Roller Rinks have now become deceased in Norco (besides the one on the Rock Road) and most nice families have to put up with the uptight city departments in town.

All due respect to the senior community in Florissant, I just think you folks are getting WAYYY too much attention around here. Lets open a few things for kids and families. Besides VOF and fall festival, it gets real boring here.

Years later ...

I remember taking my bike to the IGA and buying baseball cards for $0.25. The dino in front of Sinclair's. The five and dime store selling rabbit feet on pegs. The Kmart, wasn't there a grocery store on the other side with conveyor belts taking your bags outside for pickup? I remember Village Square and meeting Patches the Clown there. The drive in with a glowing ball on top of a radio tower. The Jacks or Better and its crunchy floor. The Arby's, when they sold real roast beef, and its giant neon sign.

Good times.

Things change, whether for good or for bad and that is just the way it goes. Some "fond" memories are nice.
Sure there were a lot of cool things back in the 40's 50's 60's 70' 80's, 90's. You can go back further and say that people use to get to ride horses everywhere and now we have to drive a good distance out into the countryside and pay a hefty fee to ride a horse.

But to be honest, I like today better.
Things I don't miss:
- Really bad dentistry and dental care
- Although littering is still pretty bad, until the big anti-littering campaign in the 60's it was much worse
- Vehicles in terrible states of condition - I rarely see a car blowing blue smoke out the tailpipe these days but back the the 50's and 60's it was quite common to see vehicles blowing out large amounts of smoke. And bald crappy tires were the norm so it was a very common sight to see people changing flats.

The list goes on and on.

I like modern conveniences.
Sure we have lost a lot of really wonderful things. Every generation loses things to the march of time.

It is fun to be retrospective and reminisce or laugh about the many wonderful things that we lost.
That is one of the great things about being human.

But honestly, we had a lot of really bad things that have improved over the many decades AND we have a lot of new things that are just wonderful.
We are all sitting at computers and talking to one another. That is just one example.

All these new things bring their own challenges but I would rather be here than back somewhere in the past.

Fossils wrote:

Things change, whether for good or for bad and that is just the way it goes. Some "fond" memories are nice.
Sure there were a lot of cool things back in the 40's 50's 60's 70' 80's, 90's. You can go back further and say that people use to get to ride horses everywhere and now we have to drive a good distance out into the countryside and pay a hefty fee to ride a horse.
But to be honest, I like today better.
Things I don't miss:
- Really bad dentistry and dental care
- Although littering is still pretty bad, until the big anti-littering campaign in the 60's it was much worse
- Vehicles in terrible states of condition - I rarely see a car blowing blue smoke out the tailpipe these days but back the the 50's and 60's it was quite common to see vehicles blowing out large amounts of smoke. And bald crappy tires were the norm so it was a very common sight to see people changing flats.
The list goes on and on.
I like modern conveniences.
Sure we have lost a lot of really wonderful things. Every generation loses things to the march of time.
It is fun to be retrospective and reminisce or laugh about the many wonderful things that we lost.
That is one of the great things about being human.
But honestly, we had a lot of really bad things that have improved over the many decades AND we have a lot of new things that are just wonderful.
We are all sitting at computers and talking to one another. That is just one example.
All these new things bring their own challenges but I would rather be here than back somewhere in the past.

Amen!