Thursday Three time!

The tradition continues at Possumblog.

This week we again delve into the places of our childhood for the “Halcyon Days of Yore Edition” of the Axis of Weevil Thursday Three!

Take a moment and journey back to your childhood and answer the following three questions (ably supplied by an actual college professor) by either leaving you answer in the comments below or a link to your blog.

Tell us about how it was when you were growing up—what was your--

1) Favorite restaurant.

This is pretty easy- I loved going to Big Boy to eat, for two reasons, though the franchise we frequented was Azar's, not Bob's. First, I almost only got to go there when I was out on a trip with my dad and it was just the two of us. Big Boy was his favorite place for a Brawny Lad sandwich and so when we were out, we often stopped there for a late supper or desert. Desert was the second reason I loved Big Boy, I loved the Hot Fudge Brownie sundae. It was a square cut stack of chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream, coated with hot fudge and a big dollop of whipped cream. That desert was my favorite, and that and a Big Boy comic book made for a real treat when I was a kid.

2) Place to spend time, but not money.

Tougher question than the first one and my answer isn't just one single place but rather, my favorite place to be when I was a kid was anywhere I could go on my bicycle. I loved being able to go places on my bike and summertime usually meant getting out and going someplace when the chores were done. There was a park in Fort Wayne, Shoaff Park that hugged the bank of the St Joe river and in the park there were trails to ride and a tiny pond with fish to irritate with a pole, a hook and some Bacos Bits as bait. Later, when we lived in central Indiana, there was a concrete bridge out in the country where the water flowed over instead of under when the rains came and that was a favorite summertime haunt. If the water was high it was fun to speed up down the hill and ride through the water making big sprays, when the water was low, it was a pretty dandy place for an afternoon swim.

and

3) Place to go that DID cost to get into.

The Fort Wayne coliseum, in the winter time, to see the USAC midget racing, indoors! This was usually a birthday trip bacause the winter indoor midget series came to our home town twice each winter. This was exciting stuff, watching heros from the Indianapolis 500 starting lineup competing in front engined, alcohol burning midgets battling it out on a Sunday afternoon on a racetrack the size of the hockey rink. It was loud, the fuel fumes gathered in the rafters and made my eyes burn and I got to see Roger Ward, Parnelli Jones, Mel Kenyon, Al Unser and many other race car heros bang wheels right in front of my seat. Apparently, racing in Fort Wayne continues indoors, I found these pictures from the 2003 Rumble. Check out the pictures, I told you it was exciting!