A Very Sveden House Christmas

While combing through thrift store vinyl, I was surprised to find this little gem in excellent condition....

I guess it used to be a thing for businesses to put out Christmas albums. I also own a "True Value Hardware" Christmas album (not to brag or anything) and I've seen a KFC Christmas album. They're out there.

My childhood memories of Sveden House are pretty foggy. I remember liking the way it looked inside. I was totally clueless about Scandinavian culture but it made me think of "medieval times" or something.  The concept of "All you can eat" just seemed so incredible and you can believe that the handful of times I got to go there I ate way too much.

So there isn't a year on this album anywhere but Sveden House was around since the 60s and this seems from that era. Now please enjoy some cheery holiday sounds of the Sveden House Chorale singing "There's Always Another Potato" !   Happy Holidays!

I scored this booth seat from the Kopper Top

Actually now that I have it I'm not totally sure what I'm gonna do with it but when I saw the lot of them out on the curb it was a "holy shit" moment and I just thought at least one needed to be saved!

I often think of the Kopper Top around Christmas time actually. It used to be a tradition of mine to make friends go there with me during the holidays because the place used to go NUTS with decorations! I mean like every surface seemed to be covered with something Christmassy. 

New owners will soon transform this place into a new bar called "Pour House" according to the worker I talked to there.

Piles of whatnot everywhere. Now I wish I would have looked for a booth table.

Holiday Memories of Downtown Grand Rapids

Starting the holiday season with this cool little video I found. Lots of charming imagery of downtown Christmas times from the past while local folks share their memories.  Maybe a little more "cute" than the kind of things I normally post here but Christmas is a very cute time...

Olde tyme video stores of GR

Renting movies from video stores has been a favorite activity for a good part of my life. The recent news that the last of Blockbuster's stores will close seemed to make official the ending of the video store era.

Of course I enjoy Netflix. I watch a ton of stuff online for sure but there's something about browsing the aisles of a video store that will always seem so right.

I used to frequent the Blockbuster on Leonard, attached to the side of Ralph's grocery. The layout was different from most of them, kinda maze-like. It seemed particularly old-school to me. The building has been abandoned for a few years now. I think Ralph's is using it for storage.

...Allow me a moment to brag that when Eastown Blockbuster closed down, I snagged their copy of Revenge Of The Nerds 1 and 2 for $5! So that's a win I guess-- but I will kind of miss that place and really I'll miss a ton of different places that used to be around Grand Rapids that are no more. It's maybe a little ironic that quite a few of the smaller chains were most likely driven out of business by Blockbuster.

Some friends and I were trying to brainstorm a list of local video stores we could remember:

-Video Palace
-Video Tyme
-Video Master
-Eye On Video
-Hollywood Video
-Crazy Larry's and Believe In Music both rented video
-Meijer and Rite Aid used to have a rental section
-Magnum Opus
-My Video Shoppe
-Hypnotic Eye
-And of course Blockbuster

...I am sure the list is missing some! 

As of 2013 the only video rental that I know of still around Grand Rapids is Family Video....

On this particular night, the Spice Girls movie "Spice World" was showing on all the monitors inside, which enjoyably  heightened the time-warp vibe I now feel when I go here.

So is Family Video the last video store open in Grand Rapids?  Are there some others we didn't think of?

Updates

So my retro shirts made a splash on facebook a bit ago and from that it seems some new folks are finding my blog (Hi!)

If you want to get an automatic notice whenever something gets added, follow me on Twitter.

I update less frequently in the summer months but as the cold season sets in, I get more active here.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing the memories!

Photo Gallery: Monroe Center, mid-70s

A little time-portal to the Monroe Mall area downtown, courtesy City of Grand Rapids archives.
Click photos for a larger view...

Electric Avenue

Electric Avenue was a dance club that existed during the 80s on West 28th St. between Kalamazoo and Breton. I try to mostly post about things that I remember well-- so that I can have maybe some interesting stories to tell at least. Honestly though, I only went to Electric Avenue one time, sort of dragged there by a girl I was hoping to get with (didn't happen!) though we got to slow dance and make out to The Cure.

I remember the place being quite busy and full of flashing neon hanging all around the ceiling. It had a two-level setup, similar to Top Of The Rock, where there was sort of the "dance pit."  I also remember them playing some music videos, including Bronski Beat, "Hit That Perfect Beat." ...Actually, how did they spin videos back in those days? From VHS tapes?? Wow.

I think at some point in the early 90s, it became "Dick's Resort," then sat vacant a bit, then got demolished. Currently, "Xtreme Car Audio" sits on the spot it used to occupy.  Actually, an exclusively car-audio business still being around is kind of impressive.

Here's the tiny handful of photos I could find of the goings on at Electric Avenue (click on them to get a larger view). 

If you used to go there and have any stories, please share 'em in the comments!

DJ Mark McConnell, Danny Douglas (KLQ, Pepsi Dance Traxx), and--some guy

Maybe this is Halloween. I prefer to think people just dressed crazy there all the time. 

Shit gets crazy when Spuds McKenzie shows up!

Party in the front AND party in the back, ladies!