#hampton virginia

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Some things never change. While we didn’t get to 100 exactly last week, it got pretty close.

Woah, so that’s a big correction.

Chris got probation in August:

Rock singer Chris Robinson, 24, was sentenced to six months’ probation when he pleaded no contest to a charge of disturbing the peace during a late-night beer run. The court dismissed an assault charge.

Robinson’s group, the Black Crowes, had played a May 29 concert in Denver, when he went to a 7-Eleven for beer and was turned down because it was after midnight. He allegedly spit on another customer, Elizabeth Juergens, who asked, “Who are the Black Crowes?”1

Whitney’s concert at the Hampton Coliseum was canceled on July 2nd due to “sluggish sales”:

The July 5 concert was killed Tuesday by promoter Dimensions Unlimited of Washington, D.C. Only 2,500 of 10,000 tickets had sold, said Alysia Taylor of Dimensions Unlimited. Even additional television advertising failed to sell the show.

Taylor said a mutual decision to cancel was reached by Houston’s New Jersey-based management company and promoters. It was the first cancellation of an East Coast appearance by the singer.

“It’s horrible,” Taylor said. “I think it hurt us really badly that people got to see Whitney for free a few months ago.”

Houston’s Easter Sunday concert at Norfolk Naval Air Station aired for free on the Home Box Office cable network. 2

What exactly is a dinette? There were stores devoted to them back then, but all I’m seeing is a dining room set. Webster’s says a dinette is a “small dining table and chairs” 3

The Bushes had Graves Disease, which is a thyroid disorder. Millie had lupus.

That motorist was Rodney King. 4

Tops reached their highest in 1991. They’ve never been that high again.

This is messed up. You know how years ago I would share the bottom 100 from Spy magazine? Well, in the 1991 edition, there was an entire section of ridiculous murders : 5

I’m sure that kid is wearing cutoffs that original said “Colonial” but now they just say “COLON”. Colon shorts.

Okay, so here is the thing, the newspaper’s microfilm copy that is on ProQuest is missing the Lifestyles section. I’ll try to fill in the pieces.

There was supposed to be an article about how the Virginia Living Museum built a dinosaur exhibit in the old Miller & Rhoads department store at the Newmarket Fair Mall. I found this article from a special insert from the day before.

My dad took me to this while mom shopped at Sears. I wish I remembered more from it, I just remember that it was at the mall, and I got a cardboard dinosaur pencil case afterward. I wish I had more memories of going places with my dad, he’s not close with me anymore.

WOAH WHAT ARE THE ODDS OF THIS ARTICLE AND THIS AD RUNNING TOGETHER.

I used the Eugene Register-Guard to fill in the comics page:

oh, this was a couple of months after Elly had April, the accident baby.

You know how the strip has been in reruns since 2008? They’re currently running strips from 1993. The original strip ended right when I transferred to another college in 2008 when I was 25. We’re getting old.

Don’t ya just want to slap Jeffy sometimes?

Staff. ‘ROCK SINGER GETS PROBATION’. Buffalo News. Accessed 30 May 2022. https://buffalonews.com/news/rock-singer-gets-probation/article_ee81dda5-27d2-5820-91df-5e9d00d0e0b2.html.
Daily Press. ‘WHITNEY’S CONCERT CANCELED’. Accessed 30 May 2022. https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-19910703-1991-07-03-9107030079-story.html.https://archive.ph/dcx7Q
Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “dinette set,” accessed May 30, 2022, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dinette%20set.
UPI. ‘Attn: Editors and Publishers Reporter Fined for Refusing to Identify Source in King Case’. Accessed 30 May 2022. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/05/30/Attn-editors-and-publishers-Reporter-fined-for-refusing-to-identify-source-in-King-case/3514675576000/.
Spy. ‘Ten Most Senseless Murders in New York City This Year (so Far)’, October 1991. https://books.google.com/books?id=66y_cHgHTYYC&printsec=frontcover&lr=&rview=1&hl=en#v=twopage&q&f=true.

#the 1990s #old newspapers #daily press #newport news #hampton virginia #dinosaurs #for better or for worse #reebok #90s fashion #chris robinson #the black crowes #whitney houston

@saleintothe90s

Thu, 02 Jun 2022 22:36:54

This was one of my favorite parts of the newspaper when I was growing up: the little blurbs about celebrities:

I didn’t know that Michael Crawford was in the Los Angeles production of The Phantom of the Opera.
The fangirls went nuts: Hours before Sunday’s matinee, unlucky-but-hopeful fans walked around with crude hand-drawn signs saying “Desperately Need 1 Ticket” and “Please, 2 tickets.” More than 100 people sat sullen-eyed in the cancellation line as the fashionably-dressed ticket-holders walked confidently into the theater. One group of fans set up a radio scanner and an antenna at a table outside the theater, saying they could pick up the performance inside.1
Robert Guillaume was a Phantom! Right after I graduated from high school in 2001, I would watch Sports Night on Comedy Central after the 10am Daily Show repeat. That show tanked after he left.
ThePhantom movie would not come out until 2004. Michael did not star in it.
Sammy Davis Jr. would die just a few days after this article. So would Jim Henson, more on that in a second. I was six and I learned about Sammy Davis Jr. because he died the same day as Jim, or in my mom’s words “Kermit’s daddy”.

Living off of tabasco and snow.

In retrospect, man did those Soviet Union jokes got old. So did those what do you call it? Goodwill missions? Like this basketball game, or that episode of Head of the Class where the kids went to Russia, or the gymnastics competitions.

These “Brain Builders” by the “world’s smartest woman” Marylin vos Savant seem so stuck up, you know what I mean? Like, number 45. 122 is the exception.

There was even a shirt from Starkist:

This is something I vividly remember growing up– but since I was a kid I thought, pre dolphin safe tuna, I may of accidentally ate a bit of dolphin when we had tuna sandwiches . I found a New York Times article from around this time about how the young people felt really strongly about this cause. Is … is this why people my age were so obsessed with dolphins when we were kids? I mean, just search for Lisa Frank dolphins.

I remember my mom saving this picture of Homer and Marge for me! This article is so bonkers considering just in a few months we would get a sloo of Simpsons merchandise.

This is a big oof to the gut, considering Jim died just 15 days later. Jim’s last TV appearance was on Arsenio Hall promoting this special on May 4th.

I love how Channel 33 , which was the Fox affiliate at the time, bought an ad to let us know that the movie Tank would be on that night!

Unfortunately, Oprah’s Brewster Place show would only last 9 episodes. It was filmed at Oprah’s Harpo studios in Chicago. Harpo studios was torn down in 2016 and is now the McDonald’s headquarters. So you can’t go see where Oprah’s talk show was filmed. That’s a part of tv history that is gone.

Guess what chickenbutts? All these theaters are gone.

Newmarket South: my mommy worked there in the late 70s.

New American - Mom would take me here for $1 films in the early 90s, now its a live theater.

Riverdale Theaters - Closed in the mid 90s, was a church I think in the late 90s, now torn down for the Kroger parking lot.

Wiliamsburg Theatre - Now known as the Kimball, now is a live theater.

Village- now is a live theater.

Coliseum 4 - Across the street from Coliseum Mall, which had recently lost their movie theater to a food court around this time. I saw Lion King and Cool Runnings at Coliseum 4, and I think it closed in 1997.

Newmarket Mall 4 - Closed in the early to mid 90s when everything else was closing at Newmarket Fair Mall. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Offices at Netcenter which took over the mall uses it for some sort of auditorium. y/n?

Patrick Henry 7 - Closed in 2000, became an Old Navy, and now is a Tilt Arcade.

Beechmont Twin - Closed in 1995, is a church now?

This is just a reminder on how behind I am on posting this entry.

I forgot Nancy looked like this!

I mean, I know Ann Landers is BIG, but why would people write in to her agreeing with Secretary Sullivan? I also want to go on a deep google dive to see if any of the tennis stars Ann mentions did in fact, smoke.

Was this in the Ken Burns Baseball documentary miniseries.

1. Los Angeles Times. “‘Phantom’ Departs Amid Cheers, Tears : Theater: Michael Crawford Ends His 3 ½-Year Stint as Star of the Hit Musical. He Will Soon Go to London to Star in the Movie Version.,” April 30, 1990. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-04-30-me-82-story.html.

#old newspapers #daily press #hampton virginia #newport news #jim henson #movie theaters

@saleintothe90s

Thu, 12 May 2022 22:10:33

Aftertwo monthsofcomplete flops, I finally have a good newspaper. ~~So good, it might be two parts.~~ Nah, I’m making you guys sit though all thirty something images.

Anybody else thought Jorel was a burnt up C3PO at first?

I looked up the memorial and while Judith’s name is fixed, you can clearly tell it’s been fixed.

I forget a lot about what all Montgomery Ward had. Mom and I never really went in there, and they closed when I was a senior in high school in 2001.

Like, they had paint? I want one of those paint cans, it has a kitty on it.

Getting big McDowell’s vibes from this. I tried to find an article about Mac Donald in Iran, and the closest thing I found was in 2015, there was a place called “Mash Donalds”.

HQ was a regional hardware store that started in nearby Virginia Beach. I had totally forgot about the animated H and Q mascots, and that one time I tried drawing them when I was a kid. HQ closed up shop in 1999.

Here’s another whimisical illustrated ad.

Oh, is this the beginning of E-Z Pass-like technology?

Hm, I don’t consider Baskin-Robbins a fast food chain. I mean, it’s just ice cream. Also, upper middle class people were getting their 31 flavors on back in 1986.

I wish this article was more about the California Raisins then people pooh poohin’ on raisins. I’ve never heard of the Fresno mini series. It had Dabney Coleman in it, I love him!

I’m surprised the NIE went with U.S. Acres (Jim Davis’ other comic strip, and the part of Garfield and Friends everybody fast forwards though) to promote the Newspaper in education Week.
I’m 38, so I guess I can’t color Orson and his friends.
Why isn’t Sheldon saying anything.

Why do I remember this Butcher Shoppe logo from 35 years ago?!

You got a dozen roses if you bought a car from Newmarket Hyundai. It would be funny to show this pic to a small child and tell them that this was one of the first Hyundai cars in America. I mean, you think of THIS when you see a Hyundai now:

Sooo, I died when I saw this, but I briefly came back to life to tell everybody about this. Mercury Mall was a small mall in Hampton, the oldest one in the area, opening in 1967. Only a few pictures survive online of the place, from the Daily Press’ website:

Obviously, when Coliseum Mall opened down the street a few years later, there were more shopping choices in the area. Montgomery Ward left, and moved to the Coliseum Mall in 1983, and that seems to be when the mall fell into disrepair. My whole life, I thought this place had shut down as a mall in the early 1980s, this sad lil guy held on until 1987! A Burlington Coat Factory put in the mall’s place. That Burlington always felt so ancient, that was another reason why I thought that the mall was gone by the early 80s.

The whole complex was torn down in the early to mid 2000s. Burlington moved to Coliseum Mall, killed the mall, and was brought back in nearly its same exact spot where it started back in 1987. Here’s more details.

Who wants to imagine that Oprah was on stage for about 30 minutes, but Lorraine, the Shisedio lady was on for like, an hour talking about the Replica Skin Diagnostic System after Oprah’s speech. And you couldn’t leave.

This whole time I thought Jason Bateman did lose his virginity in this episode.

I found one of these on eBay, going for the whopping price of …. thirteen dollars.

“Wish it, want it, do it” - Brian Griffin

Whooo, look at the “jungle mirage” sheet set from Kmart.

Also, piggy dippin on those dishtowels!

JCPenney still thought it was the late 70s.

These desks are never productive. You can’t fit anything on them!

Don’t buy you girl lingerie from Roses. What’s up with the dragonfly? underwear?

3M invented Post-It notes, who is Plymouth?

Remember these stinky lil things? People now have Bath & Body Works and Yankee Candle, but we had these.

That poor boy. That poor poor boy.

I remember Correctol looking like straight up candy.

These were shampoos made by L'Envie that were supposed to smell like popular perfumes at the time. ew?

I forgot about the brownie mix that came with the CAN of Hershey’s Syrup that always tasted better than the bottle.

Finally, I have two comics. This was around the time my mom began reading the comics to me. I didn’t know what my mom’s mom looked like until I was 12, because she lived so far away, the last time she had visited me was when I was a baby. So whenever I imagined her, I imagined her looking like Maw from Snuffy Smith?!

Also, when learning how to read, I totally thought the Biography comic strip was called “Broadway”. I was a pretty dumb kid.

#daily press #old newspapers #snuffy smith #montgomery ward #hampton virginia #newport news #robots #deadmalls

@saleintothe90s

Fri, 04 Feb 2022 13:11:30

This time of year, I’m always reminded of discount department stores that we no longer have. The department store variety is getting smaller and smaller here in the United States, especially with Kmart pooting out its final stores slowly but surely. To me, Target still has the soul of those old stores.

One discounter that failed spectacularly in the early 1980s was Woolco, a subsidiary of the smaller discount store, Woolworth. About 19 years after the company began, it announced in September of 1982 that it was shutting down:

They were losing so much money, that in the first six months of 1983, Woolco lost $20 million. 1

Nearly 25,000 people lost their jobs in the closing. At one store the employees found out via reporters calling:

Some Woolco employes learned that the stores would close from reporters calling to question their bosses. A woman at a store in Burke, who answered the telephone for Woolco store manager F. Moreau, began crying.
“Thanks for making my day,” she told a reporter. “Thanks a lot.” Moreau said he had not had a chance to inform his staff before the phone calls began. “I just found out myself,” he said. 6

The chain had become too big, too fast. 7 Woolco had been in trouble for quite some time, but kept opening stores — up until the very end. 2 In Boutte, Louisiana, a store opened on September 29th — three days after the announcement that Woolco was going out of business:

[I had to pay $3 for that article, you better like it]

There was one glimmer of hope that the stores would stay open. Sheik Mohammed al Fassi was interested in making an offer for the troubled chain, citing that he wanted to save the workers’ jobs. 3 Days later, lawyers for the Sheik said that they had convinced al Fassi to not buy the chain:

“Richard HIrshceld, a lawyer for Sheik Mohanmed al Fassi Sid that Woolworth’s financial advisers convinced his client that it was in ‘Woolworth’s best interest to close the stores’. Woolworth could make more by operating the stores through the peak Christmas sales period, and thereby selling its stock at retail prices, than it could expect any reasonable buyer to pay for the chain.” 4

With that consideration gone, the going out of business sales began on November 22nd, and of course like with any going of business sale, there was complaints that Woolco had raised prices before the sale. 5

In early 1983, Woolco locations were winding down business. This report from a store in Alexandria, Virginia:

Naked plastic hangers dangled in long rows like windblown cornstalks stripped of their grain in what used to be the women’s department of the Woolco store on Route 1 south of Alexandria.Coathangers were about all that was left Saturday and they were for sale: seven for $1.The piles of ice skates looked interesting until you tried to match up a pair the same size and style. Oil filters for Subarus or some such car, a rats’ nest of radiator hoses and a very nice selection of auto registration holders struggled for attention in the automotive department. Mis-mixed paint, mis-matched shoes, misanthropic clerks–some choice.The security guards were superfluous. What remained of a $1 million plus inventory was barely enough to put on a good garage sale. Like suburbanites willing to take any offer so long as they don’t have to haul the stuff back to the basement, Woolco workers were pleading for someone to buy what was left. 2

There were two Woolco stores in the area I grew up in, in Williamsburg and Hampton, Virginia.

I don’t know much about the Williamsburg location, other that it became a Roses a few months after Woolco closed. The Roses shut down in 2002 because its lease wasn’t renewed. I wonder if it was because they wanted that shopping center to become more “high end” like everything else was getting in Williamsburg around this time.

Six years later, I would come to this building when it was a Marshalls, and I wondered why the entire building wasn’t used. Seriously, one side of the building looked abandoned. I took this picture way back then. Turns out that was the Garden Center for that Roses. The nearly 50 year old building was later torn down in 2019 when Marshalls moved into a new building.

Now, the one in Hampton, that one I know. Obviously, not as a Woolco, because they shut down about three months before I was born. The store was a fixture of the new Todd Center, opening on November 3, 1971.

A little over a year after Woolco closed, the building became a Bradlees store — after initially denying that the store was opening a location in Hampton. 8

(I love how that kid’s stupid “Go for it!” shirt got a mention)

Why is this ad stuck in the 1950s.

Did y’all know that Ms. B was the lady who played Paul’s mom on Mad About You? It was driving me bananas because she looked so familiar.

By the beginning of 1989, Bradlees was gone after only five years. A tiny blip in retail history time.

In October of 1989, a flashy new locally-based electronics store, FX opened in the old Bradlees store.

Well, they were gone by July of 1990. Nine months!

You know, nobody needed a motorized walkway in an electronics store.

The shopping center finally got it right on November 4, 1991 when we got Big Lots. Big lots opened in the corner, and later Office Max opened in the other half of the old Woolco/Bradlees. I miss it when Big Lots had crazy stuff. I remember as a kid going in there and seeing Barbie dolls from Korea, notebooks with Kelly Bundy on the cover, Tang juice boxes.

Today, Big Lots is still in the shopping center, but a few doors down. There’s something called d.d. discounts in it’s old space, I haven’t been there yet. At least once a year, I’ll have this crazy dream where I’m at this shopping center late at night, most of the time right outside this Big Lots, or I’m in the Office Max/Depot. Why is that?

“Woolworth Will Close All Woolco Stores.” Daily Press, September 25, 1982.
Knight, Jerry. “Woolco, Memco Closings Show Lack of Class.” Washington Post, January 17, 1983. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1983/01/17/woolco-memco-closings-show-lack-of-class/8ed29aea-fcb3-4f92-ae0e-1134eb7686c6/.
“Woolco Awaits Sheik.” Daily Press, September 28, 1982.
“Saudi Sheik Won’t Acquire Woolco Chain.” Tallahassee Democrat , October 5, 1982.
“Md. Seeks Ban On Woolco Sale Price Increases.” Washington Post. Accessed November 15, 2021. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1982/12/28/md-seeks-ban-on-woolco-sale-price-increases/8a5f719e-4db2-4a4c-a1bc-47faaa1480b9/.
Brown, Warren, and Thomas Lippman. “Woolworth Will Shut Down All 336 Woolco Discount Stores.” Washington Post, September 25, 1982. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/09/25/woolworth-will-shut-down-all-336-woolco-discount-stores/45da5b4c-9570-46b0-9a02-023bb1f89a63/.
Oklahoman.com. “Woolco’s Quit-Business Sale Drawing Crowds in 40 States,” November 23, 1982. https://oklahoman.com/article/2004020/woolcos-quit-business-sale-drawing-crowds-in-40-states/.
“Bradlee’s Won’t Open Stores on Peninsula” Daily Press, January 4, 1983.

#woolco #discount stores #hampton virginia #deadmalls #dead stores #big lots #bradlees #fx electronics #retail history

@saleintothe90s

Tue, 23 Nov 2021 19:14:30

Ok, so here’s the thing, for some reason ProQuest doesn’t have any issues of my local newspaper for the tail end of 1983. So I’ll have to go back and cover 1983 in January. Maybe this was a good mistake – November 1, 1984 was a beast of a newspaper, full of ads, and the food section and the neighbors section!

The Bowditch Ford logo always annoyed me from a design perspective. It looks like someone’s 12 year old kid drew the logo, and an adult drew the king.

I can’t help but wonder if Zola retired so quickly after the 1984 Olympics because of the bumping incident with Mary Decker. I mentioned it before in one of my Favorite Commercial posts (of all places!). However, her retirement was short lived, she returned to the Olympics, competing for South Africa in 1992.

aw, wedding hat!

Maybe because I watch Adam-12 every day after work, but I’m getting big Adam-12 vibes from this troupe of “Angels” who watched over a neighborhood in Newport News on Halloween.

The Dalkon Shield was a IUD like device that was discontinued due to harmful side effects from bacteria getting into the string. It looks like a scary ladybug attached to a string.

A&N’s ads looked pretty much like this up until the time they shut down in 2008.

I didn’t know we had Bradlees in Hampton back in 1984! Bradlees is just a store I don’t remember, because it left the Hampton Roads area back around 1989 when I was only six. It wasn’t a store my family frequented, like Sears of Kmart. I like that our local bus company, Pentran makes a special stop at Bradlees on Mondays through Saturdays.

‘Yall know Company Man on Youtube? He needs to do a vid on the rise and fall of GNC. If you’ve been to a dead mall in the last 20 years, you know GNC because its the only store there along with Bath & Body Works. Walls and walls of protein powder and supplements that haven’t been touched in 5 years. The GNC of 1984 actually had real food like Tuna and raisins, yogurt and prunes. It’s kinda funny to think about going to the mall to buy tuna and peanut butter.

I hope Jim Fuhs the lasagna making fireman is still with us today.

I’m thinking that Farm Fresh used to be a lot larger back in the day, or they sold a lot less food. The Mr. T doll and Montgomery Moose!

There has to be a catch on that $99 computer.

Fae, the baby with the baboon heart died a couple of weeks after this article.

This was back when we flew too close to the sun and thought we could cook anything including roast, cakes, and muffins in the microwave.

Here is the commercial for the E.T. Vitamins. Mr. Big reminds me of that episode of King of the Hill w~~here Hank and the boys kidnap Dale’s new lawnmower~~.It wasn’t that episode, oops. Yall know the scene.

~Mr. Big~

well…i investigated where the Shoney’s once was in Hampton. It’s some dump for construction vehicles– I think the restaurant was long torn down, but look: