Where did you hang out as a teenager?

[Big Cuddly Bear]

I was listening to the song "Walmart Parking Lot", and I laughed at the idea of actually hanging out there.... but then I thought about where my friends all hung out - myself included - we hung out at the local Burger King until we could figure out what to do for the night. But sometimes we would just hang out there for the whole night.

How about you?

This was even after we had cars.

 

[phorsenuf]

I was listening to the song "Walmart Parking Lot", and I laughed at the idea of actually hanging out there.... but then I thought about where my friends all hung out - myself included - we hung out at the local Burger King until we could figure out what to do for the night. But sometimes we would just hang out there for the whole night.

How about you?

This was even after we had cars.

Either at a friends basement or a place we carved out in the woods.

 

[NAB]

Parking lot of a coffee shop.

The moved it to a bar and back to the coffee shop when we were old enough. It was in a plaza that had an arcade so we went back and forth.

All the workers in both places know us well. I remember them making me a huge chocolate dipped donut for my 18th birthday.

 

[EMom]

If it wasn't a date night or a night to go dancing, etc., we went "riding around," which consisted of loading 2-4 girls in a car and driving the same circuit through town. In our case, it was really the next town over, as we preferred the boys there. You could only drive so long on one tank of gas, so we'd have to give it a rest periodically. There were 2 favorite spots, close together. One was the Sonic, but we could only stay there so long......Can't hang around all night just because you ordered cheese tater tots and a Coke. But...and it's a big old but....We only parked on ONE side. The cool side. Families parked on the entrance side and teens parked on the exit side. No exceptions or you were a stone cold loser.

But the biggest hangout was what we called "the hill." It was a mound of dirt next to a convenience store that allowed us to park our cars and just hang out and visit. We kept business flowing to the convenience store, so they didn't mind us. It was the place to see everyone and be seen. Lord only knows how much gas we ran through back then....especially the guys with those HUGE trucks up on HUGE tires.

If we got truly bored, we'd go mud dogging in the HUGE trucks with the HUGE tires. But that was always risky, as the truck you were in might get stuck and have to be carried out of the mud by some equally muddy guy. Trying to sneak in and get the mud off your shoes and get your clothes washed before your mama saw 3 pounds of mud on them took some effort and skill.

 

[Buckalew11]

 

[johnsontrio]

I remember the summer I turned sixteen
And that old jalopy Daddy gave to me
It had holes in the floor and just a 305
But I didn't care 'cause I could finally drive
There wasn't much to do in my hometown
So every weekend night, we would all go down:

[Chorus:]
There were freaks and hippies in my high school
Football players all tryin' to be cool
And everybody scramblin' to hide their beer
When the cops drove by 'til the coast was clear
Kids fallin' in and out of love
On the hood of Chevys, in the beds of trucks
We were stumblin' our way through life 'til our senior year
But man we sure did learn a lot
In that Wal-Mart parking lot

She had long blond hair and sea-green eyes
The most beautiful thing I'd ever seen in my life
But I was young and dumb and didn't have a line
And all I could say was, "Can I call ya' sometime?"
She just said no and walked away
And that was the first time I felt my heart break

[Repeat Chorus]

Yeah, we all did a lot of livin'
It was small-town teenage heaven

[Repeat Chorus]

Well I had my first kiss, my first love
Got my *** kicked but I got back up
Lost my way, found it again
Had one long buzz and a dozen best friends
In that Wal-Mart parking lot
In that Wal-Mart parking lot

We did a lot of driving as well, gas was cheap back then....

We hung out lots of different places, Pizza Hut on game nights, the Dunkin Donuts, the Ag Farm . We didn't have a WalMart back then... Wish our kids had some place to hang out.... nothing going on around here for a teenager... nothing good that is!

 

[autumnpalm]

I was a serious ballet student so when I was a teenager, I spent most of my time at the school. Our main hangout was the dressing room or in the hallways between studios. Sometimes even maintenance closets or costuming rooms. Sometimes we would find an empty studio and a few of my friends could play the piano and we would just mess around singing and dancing.

Other than that, I really only hung around friends' houses and maybe a coffee shop or two.

 

[momof1princess]

we cruised the main drag in our little town, until the police department set up checkpoints and started ticketing if you passed more than 3 times. before that, kids cruised the mall parking lot, but the police put a stop to that too. after the main street became basically off limits, we started hanging out at each other's houses, sometimes we'd go to burger king and eat and hang out until we decided what movie to go to. there was really nothing else to do.

 

[simba20]

In college I hung out at Wal-Mart. Oh man, it's 2 a.m. Still up? Okay, head out to WM with your roomie in your PJs.....it was a small town.

In high school, it all depended on who I was hanging out with. I was a cheerleader, and every Friday (football season) we wore our uniforms to school for the day. So my best friend and I would go tot he mall for about an hour after school just to show off our uniformsand then return home to our respective homes (or just go home with each other) to get ready for the game.

There was always driving out to the beach too. It was a good quiet 20 minute drive and a great way to listen to your favorite cassette (remember those) and try to read between the lines of your favorite song/group's songs.

There was also the mossy covered double lined oak row entrance to the yacht club. Technically you shouldn;t have been able to get down the drive, but since the clubhouse was waaaaaaay back on the water, no one paid attention to what kids were doing amongst the oaks and woods.

Then there was downtown. Okay, I grew up in Savannah, GA. So anytime you wanted to give somebody a fright you'd take them on a ghost tour (walking and personalized of ocurse) of downtown Savannah. Also there was River Street.

Hmm guess I was an outdoorsy nature girl, with the exception of Fridays at the mall.

 

[jpmandan]

We cruised the Ocean Springs, MS front beach on weekends.

 

[mrodgers]

Do you all really want to know?

No, there are children on this board, thus I won't tell.

Other than that, Burger King up at the mall or there were 2 parking lots down town on either end of the main drag. You would float back and forth during your cruising stopping for some time at each.

 

[Starbrite]

The local Roller Rink parking lot. We were too cool to actually go inside.

 

[emma'smom]

Louie's Bookstore Cafe on Charles Street in Baltimore


We thought we were sooo cool wearing our funky clothes and drinking over-priced coffee....

This was in the days before Starbucks and Barnes and Noble....

We were hip! =)

 

[MomofKatie]

My friends didn't really "hang out" a lot- we all worked at the same place, so we saw each other for 4-5 hrs a night, 3-4 nights a week at the store. When we went out on weekends, we usually either went to a midnight movie at the local mall or into the city (ATL) and danced at gay dance clubs. This was in the very early 80's, and most gay clubs didn't card at the door. Looking back, it's hard to believe we were just 16/17 and driving into Midtown from the suburbs and hanging out at adult nightclubs.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I was in theatre and we were allowed to stay in the auditorium while waiting for rehearsals or set construction to start (and that would go until we were all ready to drop) so during shows that was the place. Other than that:

Penny Lane coffee shop
Perkins
Dennys
Scott Carpenter Park (after the sun went down and the little kids had gone home). We would sit on the swings, or up in the top of the big rocket climbing thing and just chat away.

 

[shortbun]

Frisch's parking lot, all night, muscle cars.

 

[kimblebee]

Either at the burger joint that let me and a friend share a fake ID or at the gas station where she worked. I drank a lot of Long Island Iced Teas that summer.

 

[indimom]

Cruising the "square" in our downtown area or playing pool at the bowling alley. We didn't worry about second hand smoke back then! I swear "Friends in Low Places" it permanently tattooed in my brain.

 

[Angelhalo]

Home.

 

[golfgal]

We cruised the main drag and then everyone gathered in the Menards parking lot (like a Home Depot). Sometimes we would go to movies, in the fall we went to the high school football games. We didn't hang out at people's houses much, not sure why.