I had to think about this for a minute. Before we were of the drinking age, my high school pals and I seemed to drive around a lot, just to get away from home and out from under the watchful eyes of our parents. Like many young adults, we went down to Lakeview Park and hung out. If we were hungry, we would hit the Burger King on Route 58 (which is still there) or the Hardees on Oberlin Avenue.
It was during one of those visits to Hardees that we were briefly bullied by some older kids that were there; just some minor menacing and implied violence – but nothing really happened. Which reminds me that in Lorain, each of the public schools had their 'own' hangout. The McDonald's on West Erie was under Lorain High's domain; Admiral King had the Burger King. I'm not sure where the Southview kids hung out. But you stayed on your own turf.
When we were old enough to drink (3.2 beer) in our senior year, we usually went to DiSimones in the same shopping strip as Willow Hardware. Sometimes we went to Tommy's Rec in Amherst. One time for laughs we went into Super's Tavern (just a short walk from DiSimones), which was a much older crowd of hard drinkers. We didn't fit in at all and had to skedaddle.
Anyway, this is all leading up to an interesting article about Avon Lake teens which ran in the June 1, 1966 edition of the Journal. Staff Writer Eleanor Gottschalk interviewed a nice group of Avon Lake High School students to find out "what made them tick." It's a great story in which the kids share their thoughts about their teachers, their opinions about their city, and their desire for a place to "hang out."
I briefly worked for Eleanor Gottschalk when she ran the Lorain County Times back in the early Eighties.
ReplyDeleteI didn't graduate until the late 80's so we didn't have any 3.2 beer options, but being an eastsider and LHS student meant we mostly hung out at the Mile Long Pier, Lakeview, McDonalds on West Erie or Hole-in the-Wall Beach. Once we started roaming outside of the city, we would hang out at the Midway Mall of course, but there were a couple night clubs that had "teen nights" on Sunday nights during the summer. Some of those places were Uncle Vic's in Elyria, Cadillac Beach in Ridgeville, Magilla's in Sandusky or Huron (i believe you wrote a post about this building one time and i recognized it) and I believe there was one called the Mining Company in Brookpark. I feel like kids back then were much more creative at finding things to do than they are today or I'm just turning into my parents.
ReplyDeleteOver in Pennsyltucky, some (never, ever me) used to drive to Ohio for 3.2 beer once they reach 18 years. We had *no* place to congregate except church and the near-weekly skool dance. If you didn't drive, you were stuck. If you did drive and had strict parents, like mine, you were stuck. If you rode your bike, it was on the highway to get anywhere interesting, and you were taking your life into your hands doing so.
ReplyDeleteThe comment about the shirt-tail made me smile. My kids were shocked when I told them of all the dress-code restrictions during my skool-years.
I graduated from high school in 1966, and don't remember any lack of things to do. (I'm from the other side of Cleveland.) We lived very near the lake and had a beach club, which was the hangout in the summer. In high school, we produced our own dances. Those and the various appearances by our favorite bands - the Tree Stumps (Michael Stanley) and the Mods (morphed into the Choir and the Raspberries) - provided ample opportunities for socializing. Of course, you had to have a car, as Don mentioned.
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