Lyons Corner House tea and Horn & Hardart coffee

[Christiern]

Am I the only one here who misses Lyons Corner Houses? Afternoon tea and thinly sliced toast with marmalade--the longing for it never left me.

I also have a sinking feeling when I think of Horn & Hardart--they had the best coffee around and going there was a bit of an adventure. When I first came here and was, literally, penniless, I used to go to H&H, fill one of their very thick cups with hot water, and stir in some ketchup. I think it kept me alive for awhile.

What do you miss?

[Dave Garrett]

I miss lunch counters at corner drugstores. Fond memories of the one in my parents' neighborhood when I was a small child - always a good place for a grilled cheese sandwich and a Coke.

I highly recommend the book Going, Going, Gone: Vanishing Americana for a long litany of many similar things which were once commonplace and integral parts of daily life but are now long gone - the section on the Automat even mentions the ketchup-in-hot-water trick. I've heard this repeated so many times that I always wondered if it was apocryphal, but you're the first person I've encountered who's actually done it.

[seeline]

One of my aunts (who frequented the H&H in Center City Philadelphia when she was younger) told me that she and her friends always said that the initials really stood for "Hasty & Horrible."

[Free For All]

I love the PDQ Bach piece for "Horn and Hardart".

My family used to drive to Howard Johnson's to enjoy the fried clams and ice cream (pre-Baskin Robbins). Also have memories of going to the local Dairy Queen on hot summer nights (for Mr. Mistys and Peanut Buster Parfaits). There was also a competing "generic" place called "Dairy Creme" a few blocks away. Not as good, but much cheaper.

Also, I remember a place at the local college's student union my friends and I used to stop at after school for corn dogs.

Now that I'm thinking about it, there was also a "Corner Sundry" in my hometown where you could get various things like sodas and malts (it was also my main source for comic books!). I remember getting a "Green River" soda which was like a major sugar fix. Also, the local cafe where you could get old-fashioned malts, burgers and fries.

Man, once I start looking through the memories there's a ton of stuff to remember!

Edited March 10, 2008 by Free For All

[Christiern]

That was Concerto for Horn and Hardart, one of many wonderful pieces by P.D.Q. Bach. One of s legs was shorter than the other, as I recall, which is why his music was difficult to dance to.

The coffee really was good at H&H, and that company saved my life again when I went to Philadelphia. Down but not out in NYC (in 1958) I had $10 and asked the Greyhound ticket agent if it would get me to another large city. "Three bucks will take you to Philly," he said. I bought the ticket, found a $5-a-week-room in center city and a day-old Horn & Hardart outlet for bread that had reached its official time limit, but still tasted fresh. My last $2 went to such bread. H&H will forever rank high in my book (literally, as it turns out).

Yes, I miss the drug store counters, too.

[Teasing the Korean]

There were a bunch of 1950s-era storefronts in Central Square in Cambridge, MA, that lasted well into the 1990s. Central Square ended up being renovated in the late 1990s. In the early 90s, I used to go to a lunch counter there that was a virtual time capsule: Checkered tile, formica countertop, spinning bar stools, ceiling fans. I would order a grilled cheese sandwich with potato chips, pickle, and a coke. The whole thing cost $1.99. It was like stepping back in time. I believe this place was a casualty of the renovations but perhaps StereoJack or someone from that area can confirm.

[Big Al]

What timing. We were over at my folks house Saturday night looking at slides from the years 1965 thru 1973. This time period encapsulates my parents wedding ('65), my birth ('70), and my sister's birth ('72). The first house I remember being in was in those pictures. I've lived in Arlington my whole life, and every now and then I have a chance to drive by the old house on my way to work. It's kinda sad how things have changed, and not for the better. Granted it wasn't ever a great area of town to begin with, but at least back then I could feel safe walking around at night. Can't do that now.

I miss the old Park Plaza. It's still there, but all the stores/storefronts from that time period is gone: the Skillerns drugstore where I bought my first record; the bowling alley where I learned to bowl and where I was in my first league. There was another plaza across the street that had a movie theater where my dad took me to see Bugs Bunny Superstar, a shoe store that had a full-scale replica of an old fire engine that my sister and I would play on while we were waiting for our turn to be fitted for shoes.

Across the other street from the Park Plaza was the old Safeway where we went grocery shopping and next to it was a clothing store that had pinball machines in the lobby.

I miss going to work with my dad in the summer, he was a salesman for Sun Electric and we'd hit the various garages, have lunch together, and have a great time. I miss coming home after school to watch "Battle of the Planets" and mom was always there.

I miss the creek that still runs behind the old house. Actually it's a drainage ditch, but we called it our creek. Me & my friends would have races thru the brush on either side of the ditch leading out to the street. The tunnel under the street had one hole that led up to someone's backyard! I'll never forget May 1979 when we had a huge flood where the level of the ditch rose up to backyard level (about ten feet); bear in mind, the ditch was usually empty except for when it rained.

My God, I could go on.....