Missing from Long Island (Smithtown, Coram: theatres, department store, food)

[hotkarl]

Originally Posted by I_Love_LI_but

Well, it was much more important to knock it down and start a Pep Boys Auto Supply Store!

(I don't know WHY Nunley's actually closed, but I think it may have been that it was a family business with nobody to pass it down to and they didn't find a buyer.)

I've been told it also had to do with being up against millions of dollars in safety upgrades.
Those rides were from the year of the flood, and in desperate need of repair/replacement. That also tied into the liability insurance which was an enormous amount of money.
I really miss that place.

[sean sean sean sean]

Originally Posted by dman72

Hanging out in parking lots goes on everywhere in the US. In all honesty, there isn't anything really unique about LI, but our own experiences are unique to each of us. Kids in Europe hang out in Pedestrian Malls in their towns...same thing really.

The Endless Night: Hanging Out in Cars with Boys, and Girls

The place was Wantagh, on Long Island, but this was as much an American rite of suburban adolescence as it was a local one. It's re-enacted on almost any given night in any town where an abundance of cars and acres of asphalt are readily available to the young and the restless. A parking lot may be an ugly, utilitarian place, but to the American teenager it can be irresistibly attractive, a blacktop oasis safe from parents and teachers.

[sean sean sean sean]

Originally Posted by I_Love_LI_but

Nunley's Amusement Park on Sunrise Hwy. in Baldwin! They must have had the tiniest roller coaster in the world and their carousel was gorgeous.

I also vaguely remember my grandparents taking me to another amusement park on LI that I think was called Jolly Roger's.

Nunleys! That's a good one, I went there on the last day it was open....loved that place.

Jolly Rogers was way before my time, but I know it was on the corner of Hempstead Turnpike and Hicksville Road in Plainedge, where Taco Bell and Ace Hardware are now.

[dman72]

Originally Posted by sean sean sean sean

The Endless Night: Hanging Out in Cars with Boys, and Girls

The place was Wantagh, on Long Island, but this was as much an American rite of suburban adolescence as it was a local one. It's re-enacted on almost any given night in any town where an abundance of cars and acres of asphalt are readily available to the young and the restless. A parking lot may be an ugly, utilitarian place, but to the American teenager it can be irresistibly attractive, a blacktop oasis safe from parents and teachers.

My friends and I had a penchant for empty industrial parks back in the day...less police interference. I remember one industrial park get together where there were hundreds of kids.

I never once thought we were doing anything original, but they were still good times.

[I_Love_LI_but]

Originally Posted by dman72

My friends and I had a penchant for empty industrial parks back in the day...less police interference. I remember one industrial park get together where there were hundreds of kids.

I never once thought we were doing anything original, but they were still good times.

Freeport "Industrials" were good.

[hotkarl]

Originally Posted by I_Love_LI_but

Freeport "Industrials" were good.

We must be from similar "neck of the woods"...
Freeport Industrial was one of my haunts back in the day.

[Lancet71]

What about the original Country Fair on Rt112 in Medford? The little plane rides behind Church's chicken in Coram on Middle Country Rd.

[Johninwestbury]

Originally Posted by S.I.B.

I miss the funky flea markets like Busy Bee in Massapequa and the one that popped up in the old LI Arena in Commack. You could find the weirdest stuff there...

Busy Bee was my favorite!

[atypicalLIer]

Originally Posted by sean sean sean sean

The Endless Night: Hanging Out in Cars with Boys, and Girls

The place was Wantagh, on Long Island, but this was as much an American rite of suburban adolescence as it was a local one. It's re-enacted on almost any given night in any town where an abundance of cars and acres of asphalt are readily available to the young and the restless. A parking lot may be an ugly, utilitarian place, but to the American teenager it can be irresistibly attractive, a blacktop oasis safe from parents and teachers.

Denizens of the night, we crawled the turnpike in tweaked muscle cars with their rear ends lifted, differentials painted and radios blaring. A stop at Hot Rod Burger King in Bethpage was mandatory. It was there that we would convene and determine that evening's events over colas and fries.

There were trips to the Westbury Drive In or haunting the local watering holes. There were great beer blasts down at ToBay parking lot; car trunks utilized as coolers until the cops showed up and we all bugged out. Endless summer nights were sometimes punctuated by the screams of an unsuspecting victim as we let loose icey streams of water from an old, gravity-fed fire extinguisher.

No matter what the course the night followed, we would end up back in a parking lot, chugging down what was left of the beers, telling war stories and fish tales of that evening's misadventures.

I wouldn't mind stepping into a time machine and reliving one of those nights. My inner child is screaming to be set free

[atypicalLIer]

Originally Posted by Johninwestbury

Busy Bee was my favorite!

I worked in Tri County.