Your excerpt from Wikipedia, and the earlier post by BoneAppetite, also quoting Wikipedia, got me looking up the article, and I recommend the entire entry to others: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Johnson’s
I’ll join the crew of former HoJo’s customers who have missed the place for years. Clam strips, cone-shaped ice cream, topping off their cones, their unique toasted-bread style of hot dog bun, etc. The wiki article details the oil embargo of the 1970s as a turning point, where we all cut back on our traveling and vacationing, the rise of bare-bones fast food outlets like McDonalds that got our business, efforts to cut corners to survive, and the inevitable corporate intrigue of the various companies buying and selling Howard Johnsons core businesses or parts of them. Another time, I will regale you with my memories of playing a role in the community theater group’s version of that “classic” play, “Murder At the Howard Johnson’s.” I wish I could travel to Lake George NY “for old times’ sake.”
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