Windsor Ontario Architect, Stuart Miller and MMA Architect Inc. hope you enjoy our blog.
MMA Architect Inc. was pleased to have done a project for our client, Johnny Rockets at Caesars Windsor. This 1950s nostalgic theme restaurant with a jukebox, soda fountain, and a menu of hamburgers, fries, milkshakes and malts, has a broad appeal across different age levels. Whether you’re from the doo-wop/bobby sox wearing generation or you’ve just heard your parents or grandparents tell tales of dropping coins in a jukebox while sipping malts at a soda fountain; being able to time-travel while catching a bite of food is always fun.
Our guest blogger Deborah Godin, author of two books on Rock trivia (“Peanut Butter and Mash Potatoes” https://youtu.be/riqWNuef3k4 and “Papa Do Run,” available on Amazon) wishes she had a sharp and shiny Johnny Rockets back in the days she frequented malt shops (named after malt, a sweet milkshake flavoring). Read her trip down memory lane, and if you’re a member of the generation that hung-out at malt shops feel free to leave a malt shop memory in the comment section below. We’d love to hear about your favourite local Windsor, Ontario or North American soda fountains.
My First Malt Shop
I remember it well. It had everything a 14-yr-old 8th Grade girl in 1961 could want.
It was across the street from my elementary school. Students were absolutely forbidden to leave the school grounds for any reason, but most especially not to go there. Not that there was any other reason to sneak off the school block and go to the other businesses (bakery, dry cleaners) on the short, proto-strip mall in the otherwise solidly residential area.
It was kind of dingy inside, and more than a little mysterious; not at all like the bright-coloured place where Richie, Fonzie and the gang spent their Happy Days. And there were real hoods hanging out there, too. Guys who smoked cigarettes from packs they kept stashed in their T-shirt sleeves. Guys who wore their hair in a ‘waterfall’ in front and a ‘D.A.’ in the back. And, as Bob Seger put it so well in Night Moves: “tight pants, points.” And leather. It even had bikers or at least rumours of bikers; I never saw any on my sneaky lunch-time forays. The guys who hung out there drove low-slung cars with big fins, not motorcycles. Technically, you could have called it a malt shop, but cherry Cokes ruled the day. Plus, it didn’t seem like a take-your-date place. The big front counter was full of penny candy, and there was a soda fountain, which was innocent enough, but a big jukebox sat, like an altar to rock gods past (and future) way in the back, where it was even dimmer.
I never got up the nerve to actually go back there and check it out for myself. Not that we had anything to fear from the older guys; they didn’t know we existed. But maybe just dashing off the school grounds was enough bravery for me and a few other girls. The whole adventure practically shouted ‘parental disapproval’ and that was enough. So we would buy some candy and dawdle a while, listening to the songs the guys played. They never seemed to run out of change for the jukebox, and some of the songs I heard there are, to this day, my very favourites. © Deborah Godin 2018
MMA Architect Inc. and Windsor Ontario Architect, Stuart Miller, enjoy working with Windsor-Essex, Chatham-Kent and Ontario businesses and homeowners to create efficiencies that promote business growth and improve lifestyles. MMA Architect Inc. looks forward to serving clients with a variety of quality services.
MMA Architect Inc. licensed professional architect, Windsor, Ontario aka @YQGArchitect, MMAarchBlog ~ ©MMA Architect Inc., January 8, 2018, Blog 8