Williamson: I went to Williamson a few times was a little kid to see my doctor here. Not sure why my doctor was in another state, but who cares. It wasn't until the Southside Mall opened up in South Williamson, Kentucky that we started going back there on a regular basis. This stopped soon after I opened Booknotes, for various reasons that I will mention. Now, to begin.
- Dairy Queen, DI: This was a frequent stop before actually going into downtown for my mom. Basically for coffee and the restroom. I thought it was a Hardee's but she said it was a DQ, so I am going with that. Technically, we were in South Williamson, not Williamson. (In fact, all of these locations were in South Williamson.) I would only go in if we had relatives shopping with us. Once, they were having a breakfast, while I had fries I didn't really want. Well, some ketchup fell down onto my shirt. My white shirt. We tried to get it off, but it didn't really work. My first stop downtown was JC Penny's, where I got a new white shirt and I wore it out of there. Once the stores starting going out downtown, we stopped visiting the DQ, usually with mom getting her coffee in Pikeville before we drove on. Many of the businesses just outside of Williamson's flood wall got hit hard in the recent flooding. While some, like Walmart, reopened quickly, I don't know about DQ and the other restaurants, including the local LJS, the only one I could've eaten at but didn't. Because of this uncertainty, I'm listing this as red.
- Rax, DI: A few times, usually when we went shopping with relatives, we ate a quick lunch here before going back to Pikeville. I hadn't started to appreciate Rax, so I usually just had fries. This Rax was one of the first to close, as well as one of the first businesses to leave the mall. I can't remember anything going into the building or if it was torn down.
- Diner/ice cream shop and snack store, DI/technically TO: The mall had these to places side by side. In fact, they were owned by the same family at one time. I would usually get a bag of popcorn to snack on while shopping, saving some to eat the next day, even though it had gotten somewhat stale. I would occasionally get some candy or other treat as well. This stopped by the mid-90s. I only went to the diner once, for Superman ice cream. Normally, it had three colors (red, yellow, and blue) with each one being a different flavor. This may have been just tri-colored vanilla. This last time I went to this mall, about ten years ago, I don't think either spot was occupied, but this may have changed since then.
- [Kmart lunch counter: This one is tricky. I distinctly remember sitting at a Kmart counter while waiting for a cousin to finish looking at clothes. I am not sure if I had anything, but it was probably just some pop if I did. Now, I don't know if the Southside Kmart had a lunch counter or if it was anywhere near the clothing section. The one at Coal Run did have it that way. However, we would rarely have brought anyone with us when shopping so close to home, and we almost never went to Kmart in the 80s when this would've occurred. (I only started really shopping there in the 90s.) I'm putting it here just because it seemed to fit. This Kmart would close, only to be replaced by a Magic Mart when it moved from its own building years later. It would soon close as well.]
- [Kroger dining area: Another memory without a precise location. I know I waited in a dining area while others were at the restroom in a large supermarket. I doubt I had anything. I don't remember the actual store, but this was the most likely candidate, unless it was a place we didn't go to quite as often. This Kroger was one of the first in the region to close. Not sure what took its place.]
Norton: The area includes both Pound (which I have been in) and Wise (which I don't think I've been in). I remember going here a few times every few years from the 70s to early 90s, but I don't remember eating out much. We either ate somewhere else later, or we just didn't have anything major that I can't remember. I do remember some places, starting in the late 90s, where we did eat out.
- Arby's, DI: We ate here once or twice. I had the chicken sandwich, natch. We stopped going here mostly because it was in the first shopping center we hit. After many of the top stores closed there, it just didn't make sense to backtrack to eat here.
- Burger King, DI: In the mid-2010s, my mom heard about some new stores that had opened up, so we decided to finally go back to Norton to check them out. It was about April 10, the Saturday of Hillbilly Days. It had snowed a little that morning, the latest in the season that I can remember over the past few years. It would continue through the late morning, but it didn't lay. We shopped at a few places, picking up some things that weren't being sold locally. We decided to eat at BK. The center where it was located was mostly empty after stores like Walmart left. Magic Mart and Ingles grocery were the biggest draws. The restaurant was mostly empty, with mainly preteens hanging around playing a mobile game, probably Pokémon Go as it had just debuted. My mom had one of the short-lived hot dogs, and she almost immediately regretted her decision. Although both Magic Mart and Ingles have closed there, I'm not sure what has replaced them, but the BK is still open I think.
After that first trip back, we didn't eat at Norton again. We either ate somewhere else (as seen in a future post), or I would heat up a frozen meal at the store. So many places had closed, that the trips were short enough to open the store only two or so hours late. We haven't been back to Norton since 2019, although that will be changing very soon. Come back next Wednesday as I tackle the next two places, Whitesburg and Hazard. However, this Saturday has a bonus post, as I update the "My Comic Book Journey" series from last year. A lot has happened since I finished that series, and I need to address those changes. See you there.
No comments:
Post a Comment