Paying Tribute To The Stupid Places We Hung Out As Teenagers

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NY Post- These spring chickens clucked for the last time at this fast-food spot.

A Pennsylvania Chick-fil-A has banished kids under 16 from dining in its location unless an adult is with them after lousy behavior from the rowdy teens just wouldn’t stop.

The recent edict made by the Royersford eatery comes amid relentless misbehavior by unaccompanied minors who are too noisy and too vulgar to be trusted on their own.

While it loves “being a community restaurant and serving guests of all ages,” the Chick-fil-A wrote on its Facebook page, “unacceptable behaviors” by groups of children wasn’t worth welcoming them anymore unless with mom, dad or another adult chaperon.

The only time a person under 16 can enter without supervision is if they order their food at the counter — and then fly the coop.

The restaurant, about 30 minutes from Philadelphia, says the youngsters are loud and often curse while also laughing and being rude to employees on the job.

They also swiped decorations while tossing food and trash around and leaving it on tables.

A Chic Fil A changed policy to ban kids under 16 without a parent in their restaurant given the behavior on multiple occasions. Few things here to unpack. The kids were assholes for ruining the place. You can talk loud, you can joke around, you can screw around. Hell you can even play cards like me and my friends did at McDonald's in HS. You just can't trash shit.

I also feel slightly bad for the kids because … this is what you do in HS. You go to weird places because you are too young to do anything cool. I read an article a couple of years ago about kids having nowhere to go at night. It said the mall closed at 9, the last movie played at 10, most kids don't have drivers license etc. It said if you were a relatively safe teen, the options were limited, which lead to kids branching out to do things or go places they weren't supposed to. It's a fair comment. 

This whole thing got me to thinking about the stupid places we all seemed to go as teens. A lot of these made sense in the moment, but looking back a real head-scratching ways to spend a Friday or Saturday night. Although when you don't have a car your options are limited. Also no one really knows how these places became hangout spots, they just all of a sudden were and if everyone was there you followed.

Without further ado here's the ones I remember. I chose not to list fast food places as to be repetitive, but I definitely ended up there as a teen, as well as diners, which I discussed at length here:

Onto my list:

Parks / Woods 

Now this is a little bit of an overlap of doing things you weren't supposed to be doing and just safely hanging out. But nonetheless it felt like a lot of nights were spent staring up at trees. The woods were a big "keg party" destination. Someone had an older kid with a car lug it in there a day before, or a few hours before to set it up. Everyone got a vague description ofd exactly where it was, and off you went along the paths or the back roads to a meet up of like 50-100 kids all holding red cups. 

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Most seemed to be in the winter where you froze your ass off but again couldn't really get into the bars (unless it was a rare occasion when the bar knew in advance and planned to look the other way, which did happen a bunch in my town) and it's where everyone else was so you didn't complain you sucked it up, lived with the cold, and sipped your shitty beer in a North Face bubble jacket like everyone else. When you got chased by the police and it was time to run, it was always better to be with kids who had good sense of direction. I was horrible with directions, but my best friend may as well have been Google Maps back then because he always knew which way to go to end up on a street where no one else was. 

One story from the woods I'll always laugh at is I worked a summer basketball camp and showed up one morning talking to a girl a year older than me about what she did the night before. She said that no one drank but a kid decided to organize a barbecue in the woods/ park via one of the public grills that were set up along the path or by the benches etc. I was confused, "Wait so no one drank, but you just had a barbecue? " … "Yeah it was Matt's idea he said let's just do it, will be a nice summer night." She explained that the cops still showed up and were more mad than any time they ever busted them for a keg. I laughed picturing the cops being pissed they had to sweat there ass off walking along the path and couldn't get a single ticket to write up. Just angry that these idiot kids were having a barbecue of all things. Made me chuckle. 

Deli Parking Lot 

I know .. I know .. it's bizarre but trust me. For whatever reason as a Freshman and Sophomore, the deli parking lots (or at least the one by me) was a central meet up spot on the weekends. I know it made no sense, but I'm telling you this is where you went when you had no where else to go. 

Basement

On the occasions you got to go inside, it was often someone's basement. "What did you do last night ?" … "Oh we hung out at Joey's he had some people in the basement." That was a great night most times. Maybe a few girls were there also, although most of the time you never talked to them, you just talked to your friends. Maybe a game was on the TV, maybe if there parents weren't home you snuck a Smirnoff Ice. But either way someone's basement was often a destination as a teenager. 

The Mall 

I hated the mall, but beggars can't be choosers. So did I go to the mall when someone called with a suggestion of how to spend a few hours? You are damn right I did. And when we got there what did we do ? Literally walked. Didn't buy a thing, maybe food if my parents gave me money. But most times you just walked aimlessly. 

And now my personal favorite as the dumbest one yet … 

Your Friends Sports Games 

"Steve … what are you doin tonight ? " … "Oh me and the guys on the team are going to watch the St. Ann's vs St. Mary's girls game…. you should come." "Sick I'm in." 

This was almost like trading currency in High School. If you played sports (which I did) and people showed up to your game, you seemed to go to their game at a later date. It was a wild scene as most of the girls at boys games couldn't tell you the score of the game seconds after it ended, nor did you really have any interest in going. But it was a way to kill two hours and afterwards when they came out of the locker-room you may have gotten a scoop on an after party. Mary's mom is saying people can come over and go to the basement. Sick. Or hey we should all go to Applebee's. Sick. The game wasn't about watching the game it was  to figure out how to stretch the night from 9:0 when the game ended to 12 am  curfew with any sort of plan. 

You are probably reading all this saying what a shitty way to grow up. But let me tell you add up a mortgage, bills, student loans, and a job …. and being carefree at 16 in the woods cold with a draft beer don't sound so bad.