FINAL CALLING: One of the Last Howard Johnson's Restaurant in Lake Placid, New York Closing!

(I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THESE PICTURES)

It is a sad day in the saga of what is known as the Howard Johnson's Restaurant and Motor Lodge chain. Earlier this week, the owner's of the third to the last location in Lake Placid, NY is closing at the end of the month after nearly 60 years in business.

One point in the 1970's, there were over a 1,000 HOJO restaurants and over 500 Motor Lodge locations in the country!

Howard Johnson in Mad Men:

As Mad Men is a television series on the AMC network set in the traditional business world of the 1960's, and the sixth episode of the fifth season is called " Far Away Places", where Don and his wife take a trip to a Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge. 

Its great how the production team of the show matches this individual scene so well to an old ad showing a man in a suit pulling up to that famous orange chapel.

The location of what was once a Howard Johnson's Restaurant that is now a Regency Inn & Suites, this location was used in the scenes of the taping of the Mad Men episode.

What Remains:

What is known now as the last two original HOJO locations in the country!

Lake George, New York

Bangor, Maine

If anyone has any questions, comments, or stories, feel free to post below

Thank you for reading.

Childhood Memories: Zany Brainy

Any true 90's child can vouch for Zany Brainy when it is brought up in conversation, growing up in the Chicago Suburbs right before the millennium, I had a chance to visit these stores frequently before they closed in 2001. Zany Brainy was a chain of children's toy stores that was owned by FAO Schwarz. Zany Brainy sold educational toys and merchandise aimed for children ages 4-12 and each store held daily events and concerts for local area artists and programs. 

Glendale, NY

The chain of stores was started in 1991 by David Schlessinger, who had also started the long gone chain of book stores, Encore Books, years before. The only CEO Zany Brainy had was Thomas Vellios. A rival company, Noodle Kidoodle, was acquired by them in 2000, and later, the chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy May 15, 2001, as they faced financial difficulties since the buying Noodle Kidoodle.

At the time, the chain had 187 stores nationwide.

By the end of 2001, the Zany Brainy chain was no more, all there assets had sold off and all the stores closed.

Old Noodle Kidoodle Stock document

Zany Brainy website?

As Zany Brainy didn't work out too well, only lasting 10 years, at time CEO, Thomas Vellios and founder David Schlessinger, found the Five Below discount chain in October of 2002, with the first store opening in Wayne, Pennsylvania. 

The bright colors, big shapes, and playful atmosphere was missed by many kids as the doors of the chain closed at the end of 2001. I miss the stores, its been 14 years, but I spent many times with family at the stores and have some great things so remember them by.

Please feel free to leave comments and questions, as  well as stories below

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Mall Madness: The Board Game

Mall Madness is a shopping mall- themed board game that was released by Milton Bradley in 1988, at the height of the 80's shopping splurge and the creation of the stereotypical socio-economic class of women high on shopping power and characterized by there colloquial Southern California dialect, known as Valleyspeak, and brought on by vapid materialism. 

Valley Girl, the film from 1983 starring Nicolas Cage and Deborah Foreman 

The board game was made primarily for teen girls, ages ranging from 11 to 16, and in 1989, an electronic version of the game was released. In 1996, the game was re-designed and again in 2004.

The game has a three- dimensional board made to look like a mall with two stories and had 18 stores (Much like most malls have today!), they were very vague, each names end in either "store", or "shop". The object of the game is to be the first to purchased six items from another players shopping list and get back to the parking lot. 

A very interesting concept, there have been more ridiculous games made before, this one is very cool and now considered a collectors item if in good shape, not missing any pieces, its 80s and its rare.   

What looks like to be the German version of the game?

The latest version of the game

If anyone has any questions or comments, feel free to post below.

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