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Growing in Kinston, huh...
Back in the 70's, Lyman Grant owned his bar on the Neuse River. A whorehouse, casino,(illegal, unless you had the Sheriff in your back pocket) and a place to drink - all rolled in one. The Marine Corp began forbidding Marines from coming to Kinston due to the many cases of VD!!!
Remember the days of the speakeasies? People are happier when they make their own way, with no Government intrusion, and things run along just fine. The Government always f u c k s up whatever it gets its hands on. Just look around in this city! Almost half its population is drawing a check. Whether its welfare or retirement or disabilty. This is a dead-end retirement city where people come to live and stick one foot in the grave. Worse, they want to impose the lifeless lifestyle on those in the prime of their lives, young enough to be their grandchildren! The young people who do stay here are mostly welfare-moms, because this is the ideal place to suck up the trough!
How can we continue all the giveaway programs our economy when no one is working and paying any taxes?!
Remember Big Boy's? No, before it was that? Young people came out to hang out up and down the Magic Mile! Sure there were fights and loud noise, but...
We were much happier back then, than we are in this "safe", sterilized society imposed upon us today!
These days, all that if left is a boarded-up shell building...
In the 80's, before we had the internet, we had to get out and either find something to brighten our blues, or make our own fun!! The mall was THE SPOT on Friday and Saturday nights! The wicked-cool Sound Shop, JC Penneys and Belk, the arcade!
THE ARCADE ACTUALLY HAD VIDEO GAMES THAT STIMULATED OUR BRAIN, AND DIDN'T COST an arm and a leg to play! In contrast to the Take Two arcade, which is so bright inside you cannot even see the video game screens! There is no attendant working there, so if you lose your quarter, you're SOL! Actually, you don't see anyone in there, unless you're psychic and can see ghosts.
I'm told people would come all the way from Raleigh - THE STATE CAPITOL - just to cruise our mall after 9 at night! Just GREAT for city businesses that were on Vernon Avenue then! Young people were seen congregating EVERYWHERE! Wonderful 80's music was heard everywhere!
Remember the Sportlanes bowling alley on HWY 70?... We had fewer businesses then, but they did much more business than our proliferation of business today!
In sad contrast to today, when if two or more young people are caught in a parking lot after dark, the cops run run them off.
Sure, with progress comes loud noise, but what you do is consistently punish those who step out of line. Fights and vice and bad people are inevitable with the hustle and bustle of a thriving city. They proliferate when you got crooked lawyers and pansy judges who don't care about justice. Be firm, and intolerant of crime, while at the same time letting nightlife shine and the good times roll!
Ironically, in 1988, when Kinston was named "All-American City", was the year it was struck it's death blow! Vernon Park mall was strong-armed by city government into adopting it's no-cruising policy, and the crowds slowly made the exodus to New Promised Lands.
By 1994, it was becoming painfully obvious the crowds in the mall had thinned out like the receding hairline of an 80-year-old man.
Cancer
