Today, my culinary odyssey series takes off with my first destination, Wheelwright. I am taking as fairly loose definition of both "Wheelwright" and "eating out." You'll soon see what I mean. Click the link here to see the introduction of this series and see how I will be organizing it. Time to begin.
- Wheelwright Clubhouse pizzeria, TO: I remember when I was a young kid about going up to the Wheelwright clubhouse on a Saturday night to get a cheese pizza, then eating it a home with a root beer while watching Matinee at the Bijou on KET. This was a series recreating an actual movie-going experience from the early twentieth century. It had the cartoon, serial, and feature film just how they would've been shown in the theatre, sometimes including the newsreel and promotional films, too. Once, I stayed in the car so I wouldn't be seen by someone whose birthday party I wasn't allowed to attend wouldn't see me, but they did anyway. We stopped going after a time, and I thought the place had closed down. Apparently, they had actually moved to a building next to the Wheelwright High School, and I only found out about it recently. I even went off campus a few times to go in there to pick something up for others, but I never actually ate there myself. The clubhouse would lie abandoned for a few years before being torn down, leaving a vacant lot. A few years ago, a kiddie park and walking tract finally replace it. The second building burned down, but was rebuilt. The pizza place did eventually close, and the place is currently a Mexican restaurant which I don't plan on eating at.
- Bypro Dairy Bar, TO: Some summers, after I had went swimming, we would bet ice cream for a treat. Sometimes it was a custard from here. I got tired of them after a while. The last time I ate one, probably when I was about ten or eleven, I got a little sick soon afterwards. Never had one there again. However, the place was still open 2003. After the flood that took out my old home, we got some food there that first night while staying elsewhere. Although it is under new management, the place is still open all these decades later. It is probably the oldest place still open that will be included in this series.
- [Hall's Community Market, TO]: For a brief time in the early 80s, this grocery store used to have a Slushpuppy machine. I loved slushies when I was a kid (kinda still do), and I would get one almost every week. Usually cherry or strawberry I think. I occasionally tried other flavors, usually when my favorites were out. I hated the blue raspberry abomination for the first time there. How anyone would want raspberries to be blue when there is a perfectly good blue berry out there, namely blueberry, is beyond me. Unfortunately, the machine would frequently break down or be out of flavorings. The machine was ultimately taken out, I think. I stopped getting them about the same time I stopped going into local stores for fear of embarrassment in meeting any of my classmates. The market is still open, with new owners. I don't think they have any slushie machines anymore.
- Osborne Elementary School, DI: This is a stretch, but I ate there, sort of. When I started kindergarten, I would lunch at the school. By first grade though, my mom found out that I wasn't eating most of the meals most of the time. I was a very picky eater when I was a kid. I would end up taking my own lunch. At least some of my friends did too, so I didn't feel too picked on, although a few kids did because of my limited lunch choices. I continued bringing my lunch throughout grade school, although my friends stopped before eighth grade, making me the odd one out. I would occasionally buy concessions at recess, mostly shushes, but they stopped that practice. Ultimately, they brought in vending machines, which I never used. The school was closed a few years ago due to consolidation. The buildings remain empty to this day. {Note: I never ate lunch at Wheelwright High, as they looked even less appetizing than those at Osborne. I never had anything from the vending machines or the concessions stands either. I did get some free promotional snacks, as well as buying the occasional sells item. I did have a leftover piece of cake the last week of school from an event I didn't attend, but that was it. The school was closed for consolidation a few years after I graduated and two of the buildings were torn down. That second high school was alter consolidated a number of years ago.}
- Unknown pizza place, TO or DEL (I can't remember which): While staying at another place after the 2003 flood, we got a pizza from somewhere. I don't know where. The best candidate was Jan and Ben's, now Fat Daddy's. Nothing else to say about it.
- Second unknown pizza place at Price, TO: I mentioned this one in last year's comic book series. A restaurant opened up across the road from a friend's house in Price, and they also sold comic books. I bought two comics there, but I can't remember if we actually got food there. I think they were just using a store-bought kit instead of fresh. Anyway, we only stopped there the one time. The place didn't last long. The building has been vacant for years, if not decades. My friend would go on to go to two other high schools, (the first one, a private school, shut down after his first two years there) and he would move out of the area. Haven't seen, and barely heard of him, in a very long time.
That ends today's post. Next week, we head to Martin, where we start to see more established fining spots.
