As promised, today I'd like to talk about a few other friends of mine from Portage North Middle School: Jamie Francis and Mike Thompson. I think I met them in 6th grade, though it might have been 7th, and from the get go we became pretty good friends. Jamie was the more laid back and chill of the two, whereas Mike tended to be wacky and far more extroverted. Mike was also an artist, which immediately appealed to me since at that time I was really getting into cartoons and illustrations (and yes, I plan to take an entire Memory to cover how that all came to be in the near future). So the three of us -occasionally with a third member by the name of Jay Hansen, who also happened to be a great artist and eventually ended up working with me at the Tower Times at KVCC back in '93-'95- began hanging out and doing stuff quite often after school as well.
Which brings me to the summer of 1986.
Now Crossroads Mall had been around since the early 80's (maybe '81 or '82), but it was the once-called United Artists movie theater (now Celebration Cinema) that had just gotten built by the summer of '86. It was a beautiful 10-screen multiplex that easily dwarfed its next closest competition in town, the lowly Plaza 2 that was across Westnedge near Toys R Us. Now don't get me wrong, I loved me the Plaza 2. It was the one place in town where I saw the original runs of all of the following movies: The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, E.T., and the wonderful Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (three nights in a row, as it ended up only running there a week) and The Kids In The Hall: Brain Candy. Those last two are the really important ones, since their run nationally was severely limited and we were really lucky to get them at all, especially MST3K. Anyway, where was I... oh right, the Crossroads UA Cinema...
The first summer it opened it ran Tuesday movie matinees for a whole $.99! That's CENTS, kids! You can't find squat for 99 cents these days. Try, I dare you! Especially first-run flicks at a theater! It just doesn't happen! So, obviously we spent every Tuesday going to the movies. It was either Jamie or Mike's parents who'd drop them off at my house and we'd walk to the theater, since it was literally built 200 yards from the back playground of Haverhill Elementary, maybe a total of 2 miles away. Sure, there was (and is) Constitution Boulevard that bisected the two, but back then it was never that busy. So we'd hoof it to the theater with like twenty bucks between us and see a couple flicks and still have enough for drinks! Man, I sound like a guy waxing nostalgic about the 50's when I talk like this, but it's true! Cheap entertainment and lots of great movies that year. And the best part? For some unknown reason the employees really weren't into checking ID's back then, and we got into R-rated movies as well! We saw killer stuff like: Top Gun, Crocodile Dundee, Star Trek IV, Back to School, Aliens, Ferris Bueller, Cobra, and Stand By Me. It was an epic summer to say the least.
Beyond the movies, we hung out at one another's houses. I seem to remember Jamie living pretty close to Mike, but I can't for the life of me remember where in town. Oh, and I just remembered another memory that featured these two knuckleheads....
This brings me to life at Star World...
If we weren't seeing movies or otherwise hanging out doing other stuff, we were at Star World. Star World was the most epic arcade we had in town. This was long before Putters (then Putt-Putt Golf) had the array of games it has now, and when arcades ruled both in the malls and out. In Kalamazoo alone, at one time, we had 5! There was the granddaddy, Star World, there was Pocket Change in Crossroads, there was The Fun Factory off of West Main, there was Tilt in Maple Hill Mall, and there was Show Biz Pizza that had quite a few decent titles, as well. So, Star World was the joint. And we loved it for three simple reasons:
1) It was DARK. Only neon for this place, and just enough so you didn't fall and bust your skull.
2) It had easily 100 games, not including pinball and ski-ball.
3) Wednesday mornings from 9-12 was OPEN GAMES for just 5$. Yup: all the games you wanted.
It's hard to get much cooler than that on a hit summer day when all you wanted to do was get a high score on Kangaroo. Star World was our place for birthdays, school magazine sale winnings, and just about any other thing you'd want a noisy place for. And it seemed that Jamie, Mike and I were there just about as regularly as we could, when we weren't seeing movies. Just so much fun.
Back at school, Mike and Jamie and I would doodle and create funny pictures including, for whatever reason, a superhero Jamie and I came up with called Captain Corn Turd. Why do I remember that? Basically because I could probably still draw it if I put my mind to it.
So that was Mike and Jamie.
I don't think I've seen Mike in 25 years or more, but oddly, I ended up working with Jamie at Bravo for three years. Small town, this Portage...
Which brings me to the summer of 1986.
Now Crossroads Mall had been around since the early 80's (maybe '81 or '82), but it was the once-called United Artists movie theater (now Celebration Cinema) that had just gotten built by the summer of '86. It was a beautiful 10-screen multiplex that easily dwarfed its next closest competition in town, the lowly Plaza 2 that was across Westnedge near Toys R Us. Now don't get me wrong, I loved me the Plaza 2. It was the one place in town where I saw the original runs of all of the following movies: The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, E.T., and the wonderful Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (three nights in a row, as it ended up only running there a week) and The Kids In The Hall: Brain Candy. Those last two are the really important ones, since their run nationally was severely limited and we were really lucky to get them at all, especially MST3K. Anyway, where was I... oh right, the Crossroads UA Cinema...
The first summer it opened it ran Tuesday movie matinees for a whole $.99! That's CENTS, kids! You can't find squat for 99 cents these days. Try, I dare you! Especially first-run flicks at a theater! It just doesn't happen! So, obviously we spent every Tuesday going to the movies. It was either Jamie or Mike's parents who'd drop them off at my house and we'd walk to the theater, since it was literally built 200 yards from the back playground of Haverhill Elementary, maybe a total of 2 miles away. Sure, there was (and is) Constitution Boulevard that bisected the two, but back then it was never that busy. So we'd hoof it to the theater with like twenty bucks between us and see a couple flicks and still have enough for drinks! Man, I sound like a guy waxing nostalgic about the 50's when I talk like this, but it's true! Cheap entertainment and lots of great movies that year. And the best part? For some unknown reason the employees really weren't into checking ID's back then, and we got into R-rated movies as well! We saw killer stuff like: Top Gun, Crocodile Dundee, Star Trek IV, Back to School, Aliens, Ferris Bueller, Cobra, and Stand By Me. It was an epic summer to say the least.
Beyond the movies, we hung out at one another's houses. I seem to remember Jamie living pretty close to Mike, but I can't for the life of me remember where in town. Oh, and I just remembered another memory that featured these two knuckleheads....
This brings me to life at Star World...
If we weren't seeing movies or otherwise hanging out doing other stuff, we were at Star World. Star World was the most epic arcade we had in town. This was long before Putters (then Putt-Putt Golf) had the array of games it has now, and when arcades ruled both in the malls and out. In Kalamazoo alone, at one time, we had 5! There was the granddaddy, Star World, there was Pocket Change in Crossroads, there was The Fun Factory off of West Main, there was Tilt in Maple Hill Mall, and there was Show Biz Pizza that had quite a few decent titles, as well. So, Star World was the joint. And we loved it for three simple reasons:
1) It was DARK. Only neon for this place, and just enough so you didn't fall and bust your skull.
2) It had easily 100 games, not including pinball and ski-ball.
3) Wednesday mornings from 9-12 was OPEN GAMES for just 5$. Yup: all the games you wanted.
It's hard to get much cooler than that on a hit summer day when all you wanted to do was get a high score on Kangaroo. Star World was our place for birthdays, school magazine sale winnings, and just about any other thing you'd want a noisy place for. And it seemed that Jamie, Mike and I were there just about as regularly as we could, when we weren't seeing movies. Just so much fun.
Back at school, Mike and Jamie and I would doodle and create funny pictures including, for whatever reason, a superhero Jamie and I came up with called Captain Corn Turd. Why do I remember that? Basically because I could probably still draw it if I put my mind to it.
So that was Mike and Jamie.
I don't think I've seen Mike in 25 years or more, but oddly, I ended up working with Jamie at Bravo for three years. Small town, this Portage...
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