There used to be a gas station (Shell, IIRC) right next to I-5, basically just a driveway apron onto the shoulder of the freeway somewhere between the Cowlitz and Napavine. I remember stopping there once or twice on our numerous family trips from Portland to Seattle. I think it was there into the late '70s or early '80s. Kind of odd for a 70mph freeway.
There used to be a single traffic light on I-90, in Wallace Idaho, as late as 1979. The traffic light is still there, but the freeway is a few blocks away.
Santa’s Village (opened before Disneyland!) and POP (Pacific Ocean Park). I remember that the roller coaster used to occasionally derail and send the cars into the ocean. It’s not mentioned in the Wiki, but I notice that there were a bunch of accidents on the Venice Pier, so maybe that’s where that rumor started.
Riverview amusement park in Chicago. I was still very young when it closed, but it remains an enchanted wonderland in my mind. It had a long and storied history.
Studebaker. Again something that has been gone since I was very young, but it nearly killed my hometown when they pulled out . Nearly every business in town either supplied them or depended on the generous paychecks of their employees for survival. It took many years for the community to recover.
Kugler’s Beach on Barron Lake in Niles, MI. The tavern where they used to have bands and had dances for years was closed when Muhammed Ali bought property on the lake and didn’t like the noise from the music. The beach itself, though, endured until about 2010 when the land was sold to real estate developers.
A memory from my younger days: the Terrace in Toronto. I was often there in my early teens.
The Terrace was an ice skating rink, a curling rink, and a roller rink, all under one roof. In my early teens, it was a popular spot. Since we could all ice skate, and few of us curled, the roller rink was our place to try something new. It was great to get out with your buddies and roller skate, but when the rink announcer said, “This next is a couples skate…” well, maybe you’d like to look for a young lady to accompany you.
I think the first experience any of us had to the opposite sex in anything other than a classmate context was at the Terrace roller rink. If we wanted to keep skating during couples skates, we had to approach a young lady, ask her (and hope she didn’t say No), and hold her hand during the skate. Of course, we always said “thank you” afterward. This surprised some of the girls, but as shy, awkward boys in their early teens (and despite the bravado put on by some of us, we were all shy, awkward boys), it meant a great deal when a young lady accepted your invitation for a few turns around the rink. So you were polite, and tried to be a gentleman.
That was a long time ago, but they were good times. I believe that the site that once was home to the Terrace is condos now, but the memories remain.