Ribs are gifts from heaven. Once I was minding my own business driving to the library where cdc and I volunteer but I had my haunted radio on. I take all my dining suggestions from my radio. Doesn’t everyone? This song came on and I lost control of the car and it turned into Jesse’s of it’s own accord.JI have to drive right past Jesse’s Jesse is mennonite, married with like four adorable kids but I still wanna be Jesse’s girl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYkbTyHXwbs
I think Woolworth’s lunch counters, at least my experience was, were pretty much uniform in their menu and presentation. I grew up on the west coast and the many different locations I visited on occasion all had the same egg salad recipe on white bread with a handful of plain potato chips and a coke. I understand some of the meatloaf sandwiches were different; a regional characteristic? The occasional lunch counter dining was a real treat for me as an independent teen and I thought it was rather sofisticated that people would actually eat lunch out of the office.
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Hey, maybe we met and didn’t know it!
If you went to Green Acres, you must remember House of Chang. That was the go-to, default, no other Chinese place will do for my grandparents. Very Americanized Chinese food in what I remember as an enormous setting. I’ve never found any photos of the place, only a picture of a matchbook. If there is a menu that exists I would LOVE to have it.
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I was thinking about this last night and remembered a blog that I check on regularly had a post on 5&10 lunch counters and how they evolved.
Jan Whittaker maintains this blog and if one was looking for memory food and dining experiences, this would be the place to start. She also writes about tearooms and department store history. Worth a look if you have some time.
@shrinkrap you may like this too!
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I don’t specifically remember it being at the Green Acres mall, but I remember a Chinese restaurant we used to go to regularly, and my little brother was so disruptive, they kept changing our table further and further back. Maybe you were there that night!
My favorite, or at least most cherished dish , was the ribs in the foil pouch, with what assume was Chinese lettering. We got one rib, if we were lucky. I’ve been trying to duplicate them ever since.
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It was just outside the mall, a large stand alone building near Toys R Us and that large bank I can’t remember the name of.
It’s just as likely that you encountered 6 year old me, asking for one of those paper umbrellas for my drink, like I was a movie star at some swanky Polynesian vacation spot. Egg roll, fried rice, and a 7-Up with an umbrella 
Good times.
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YES those foil pouches! I know what you mean about the ribs. They had a flavor and texture that was fantastic. And in our house they were doled out rather carefully as well.
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I think I can remember a Dime savings bank there. So strange I remember the bank. Bank trips were interesting because of all those gears, etc in the doors, and the ritual of getting into a safe deposit box. In retrospect, I can’t imagine what was in there; maybe a credit card!. I also remember those booklets you could save your coins in.
Credit cards were not really something we talked about, but at some point I knew there was one. I think Bloomingdale’s! I seem to recall my mom saying I could use it when I was in college. I don’t think I ever figured out how.
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This made my think of my fascination with the pneumatic tubes at my local bank when I was a child. I don’t think I’ve seen one in operation in thirty years.
Apparently they are still in operation:
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I’ve used pneumatic tubes at my bank, and elsewhere in the last 7-10 years, but I would have been scared to put any hard won “real ID’s” in there.
Garfinkel’s Department Store (expensive) in DC had those tubes.
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I loved that independent feeling too. My mom always made sure I had money for lunch and even more fun an after school snack.
Ooo I remember those booklets. I have a safety deposit box. When my SO and I first got it he put a chewie rawhide strip in the box for our doxie. There was a reason I loved my SO.
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When working in a hospital, I loved the feeling of finality. Put that sucker in a tube, hit the button, and DONE! All your troubles wisked away!
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OMG Gouz! Yes, grandma loved to shop there. I really miss the Queens/Nassau county of my childhood.
Sometimes we would go out to LI to “go visiting”, which basically show up unannounced with an Entenmann’s cake or box of donuts at a relative’s house. Gouz was a frequent stop on the way back.
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I can understand not wanting to send your personal drivers lisence into a tube to an invisible person at the other end. But at my local bank you put it in the tube and I can see her. And talk to her… Small town.
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So did Marshall Field’s in Chicago.
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Ooo I just remembered Howard Johnson’s. My parents used to take me there but I was not a fan of the fried clams. Oddly I wanted a chopped steak no gravy cooked rare please. Later my SO and I used to hit the H J in Homestead Fl sometimes for breakfast but mostly for a late night ice cream soda. Could go for one of those about now.
Drive in theaters! Anyone eat the food offered there? My SO worked at the snack bar at a drive in theater and he did not recommend the hamburgers. Any that did not sell went back into the gravy for the next day. And on and on. I stuck to popcorn. Well we would bring pizza beer soda hoagies etc. Our dogs were well behaved and they got to come too. Lawn chairs in the summer and those little car heaters for colder nights, I remember once going to a triple horror feature and when I paid I was handed a soft plastic shrunken head which I did not expect. Hey I didn’t drop it.
