Posted on 08/23/2016 7:32:32 PM PDT by RightGeek
Such brand recognition and that mid-century modern vibe. I think it would resuscitate well, in the right hands. Small, overnight stay hotels are still popping up everywhere along interstates. Furnish the rooms with good-looking but durable, 50’s look furnishings, maybe even aqua tile in the baths. But, the restaurant would be the focal point.
I knew the first Howard Johnson in Quincy, MA. Had their clams many times. I’m a big “belly clam” lover, but I endured their strips. The flavor and scent were really good.
Sorry to see the end of an era.
Stuckeys is still around, still has over 100 locations.
www.stuckeys.com
Vanished from the west coast 25 years ago.
Made the best sub sandwiches.
Ponderosa Steakhouse is still around, I was at one in Florida a few months ago.
Howard Johnson’s was too expensive for our blood. Somehow I sent in 50 cents for a Howard Johnson’s Happy Clown record, a 7” 33RPM vinyl record. All I remember is that it had the Mexican Hat Dance on it.
But my best moment in a Howard Johnson’s was after I married my wife in Canada, and we went over the border in Niagara Falls and went to the Howard Johnson’s on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge.
Of course we stayed in their motels at times.
Stan Freberg wrote a commercial jingle for Robert Hall that stuck with me for the last fifty years. It was to the tune of Oh, Tannenbaum.
Oh, Robert Hall,
Oh, Robert Hall,
Oh, How we love your
parking lot...
...sale.
I heard that in Puerto Rican slang, "hojo" (hoy-oh) refers to a certain body orfice.
I also remember the Hot Shoppes restaurants which were the beginning of the Marriott empire.
Montgomery Wards, Caldor, Bradlees, Zayre, Hills, Richway, Nichols, Cooks, Woolco, Woolworth, GC Murphy, Best, Service Merchandise, TG&Y, Hechinger, are among the many regional and national retailers catering to the middle class in the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s that were destroyed by the WalMart juggernaut. Would we as a county be better off today if the antitrust laws has been used to break up mega retailers, resulting in more competition? Certainly the consolidation of the industry destroyed hundreds of thousands of jobs.
I have an old recipe book of their sodas & shakes.
Rachael Ray always mentions that’s the one she worked in growing up! But don’t hold that against HoJo, ha.
I thought you meant Zzyzyx, lol. It’s in California.
"(Insert authentic frontier gibberish)"
Makes one wanna sing, "It's a Sign of the Times" by Petula Clark!
Oh Lord...My 38 year old son, when he was 6 wanted to go to Fudrucker’s...He yelled out, “Dad!!! Let’s go to Mudf*cker’s!!!!”
I don’t think he knew what he’d said when everybody looked shocked and then started laughing....
ah yes, I remember most of those.
I remember Zayre was called Towers before it was Zayre.
I remember Woolworth’s and other 5 and dime stores, such as JJ Newberry. Are there any 5 and dime stores of any kind left? I doubt it.
You can buy those buns still in Connecticut. “New England Style” rolls, sometimes called clam rolls.
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