Places you went to when you were younger but they are long gone.
 

Mine would have to be Opryland, USA. Rode my first corkscrew coaster there. I was able to visit in in '96 before it closed down and they built Opry Mills Mall.

Astroworld. I found out is closed a couple years ago when I was talking to someone from Houston. I was CRUSHED.

Benson's Animal Farm! I was barely old enough to remember it when it closed, but it was a New England staple.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benson's_Wild_Animal_Farm

You've probably heard of it if you like Dane Cook :)

Sorry I'm double posting, but I just noticed this comment. The guys here on ESPN radio talk about AstroWorld all the time. Having just moved to Houston a year ago, I have no idea what AstroWorld was like, but they always joke that it should be resurrected whenever the debate/vote arises about what to do with the deteriorating, decrepit Astrodome.

I miss Opryland. Sigh.

Yep. Was going to post this as well. Good memories at Astroworld.

Bob-lo Island and Farrell's ice cream parlor.

It was a nice SixFlags theme park with a couple really good roller coasters. It was just names Astroworld because of the Astros.

I came on here to say this. No fair!

We used to have an ESPN Zone in Times Square. My mom dated a guy who took me and my siblings there and while I'm not a huge sports fan, I loved it!

There were two arcades in Times Square, Barcode and Broadway. Barcode was an arcade with a nightclub feel. You had to be 18+ to go unaccompanied and 21+ after a certain time. Of course when I became of age, it was closed. Broadway was good times too, but got super sketchy and closed. Now it's a BBQs.

Also sad Tower Records and Virgin Records closed. Oy, showing my age there.

Old Chicago. A completely indoor amusement park so it was open year round. They had great commercials.

I worked at Astroworld as a teenager on the French Taxis and the Wacky Shack. Good times!

I also feel nostalgic about Peppermint Park, which was over by Gulfgate in southeast Houston.

Yes! I posted on GC previously about going to Farrell's for my 21st birthday with about 30 of my sorority sisters and our house mother. It was a birthday destination when we were kids, and it brought back a lot of memories for many of us.

Also, the 'Vous in College Park, Maryland. Best. College. Bar. Ever. (we went there after Farrell's :o)

You beat me to it! I loved Old Chicago. I grew up in Bolingbrook so I went there quite a bit. (My parents' friends owned the Buster Brown store inside the mall and that's where my sister and I got our shoes as kids.) The combination of being built on what was then the "wrong" side of I-55, the lack of major anchor stores, and Great America opening in the Chicago area was what killed it. Too bad. It was just too far ahead of its time.

While we're talking about defunct amusement parks in the Chicago area, I submit Dispensa's Kiddie Kingdom. (Warning, music plays when you open that page) My sister had several birthday parties there.

I grew up very close to Great America. While it is still there, it was WAY better back then when it was Marriott's Great America rather than Six Flags. The main theme was Looney Tunes back then, and each area of the park had a definite theme as well (County Fair, Orleans Place, etc.). I miss the way it used to be!

Don't know about other places, but Farrell's has returned to Southern CA. The one by me is MUCH smaller than the one I would go to after all the HS football games, and my kids have not been there when someone has ordered a Zoo or eaten a Trough.

I miss the original Knott's Berry Farm. The Ghost Town is the original. It was built to keep the kids entertained while families waited in line for what seemed forever to eat at the Chicken House. It was free, the only ride was the stage coach ride which managed to get robbed every time it went out, there was always a gunfight in the middle of the street. Today, it is just a Western Themed Disneyland.

DaffyKD

Some places I used to frequent in my IU days that are now long gone:

Karma Records
Discount Den/The Den
Garcia's Pizza in a Pan
White Rabbit
Mars
Morgenstern's books (this was my favorite new bookstore)
BW3 (the old Dunnkirk Square location - bought my first legal drink there!)
Aristotle's bookstore
Bookcellar (this was my favorite used bookstore)
Ladyman's Cafe
Mustard's

I totally miss Opryland--Screamin' Delta Demon, Chaos.... such great rides and a beautifully landscaped park.

Boblo island

Santa's Village Scotts Valley California on your way up to Santa Cruz.

I, too, have happy memories of Opryland and Astroworld!

I miss Rich's Department stores in Atlanta and Marshall Field's in Chicago!!

Sea World- Ohio.
Why did they ever think it was a good idea to put a Sea World in northern Ohio where it could only be open 3 months out of the year?!

Not that I particularly liked it, but does Underground Atlanta still exist?

Me too! That's actually my family, way back on my father's side.

Their bakery used to have these delicious smiley face sugar cookies.

I remember that. My husband took me there a year or two before it closed. I thought the same thing why Sea World would be near Cleveland.

Yes it does...but it's become kinda shady now. (That's what I've heard...I never went in the 2 years I lived in Atlanta).

Mr. Gatti's (arcade/pizza place) and Skate City (local skate rink)

YES! Marshall Fields. SO much better than Macy's.

Kroch's and Brentano's and Crown Books - two of my most missed bookstores. And Borders. I always preferred it to Barnes and Noble.

For those from the Chicago area, check out Craig's Lost Chicago. Talk about bringing back the memories!

And a few NYC places I loved that are no longer there...

Love Saves the Day
Tower Records/Tower Records Annex (the clearance outlet behind the main store in the East Village)/Tower Books
Dojo
Around the Clock
Barnes & Noble Annex (clearance outlet)
Daffy's
Stage Deli
Confetti Pasta
Tavern on the Green

Marineland of the Pacific in the early 60's.

It was kinda sketchy decades ago too ....

Astroworld - ESPECIALLY the Cyclone. Best. Wooden. Coaster.

The Adventurer's Club at Pleasure Island - Walt Disney World. My very favorite part of WDW - and that is saying something.

Underground Atlanta - cool when it first opened, then turned dangerous, then got revived, and is now on the downhill side again.
Sid and Marty Krofft's indoor amusement park in Atlanta - slowest rides I've ever seen. It was all a joke.
Rich's and Davison's in Atlanta and everywhere else - Macy's is a sad, sad, shabby substitute.
Parisian in Birmingham and other locations - we Alabama residents are still livid that it was sold to Belk and converted into crappy, low-class merchandise.

I doubt anybody on this board is from Florence, Ala., but there was an amusement place on the river, around 1959-60, that had trampolines stretched over pits dug in the ground. I loved that place! Only got to go one time. I was, oh, 6 or 7 years old.

Schloss Klessheim in Austria that went from elegant hotel when I was a child -- with the most fantastic dessert and pastry trolley that I ever laid my eyes on -- to a sad casino last I knew. All I wanted was a dirndl and that dessert trolley. Today, dessert trolley, yes; dirndl, um, no.

Ponchartrain Beach Amusement Park in New Orleans. D.H. Holmes Stores in New Orleans and other southern cities (Dillard's is a pale and wan replacement.) Garfinkle's Department Stores in D.C. Goldsmith's Department Stores in Memphis. Old Tyme Deli in Jackson, Mississippi. And pre-1980 Saks Fifth Avenue.

CHAOS was sold to another park after Opryland closed down and according to this site, it has been scrapped.

http://rcdb.com/165.htm

Want to ride CHAOS again, kind of?

Here's a clone of CHAOS that is still operating, in Belgium ( with most of the effects actually working):

http://youtu.be/JqBknDf5-Y0

Sid & Marty Krofft's Theme Park, I love their trippy shows as a kid ( that is a whole other thread) and you can see glimpses of this failed park in this video:

http://youtu.be/HS_TmRtoO2k

Oh, the 70s. Kid's shows were definitely interesting back then....

Midtown Mall. Sibley's. McCurdy's.

Underground Atlanta is still open, but it has apparently changed since I went there 30+ years ago on a college weekend trip. My recollection is that it had a bunch of fun bars and restaurants as well as neat shops back then. Last year I was back in Atlanta for the first time in ages, and our hotel was nearby. We decided to go to Underground Atlanta for dinner and drinks at about 9:30, but the entrance was locked. We asked back at the hotel if it was closed for good, and they said that everything locks up by 8 p.m. on weekdays and at 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays for safety and security - and to keep the neighborhood clean and quiet.
The website says that original underground Atlanta was closed in 1980 after the nearby MARTA station opened and for "other factors" -- which I assume had to do with crime and urban decay. It was reopened in 1986 with a huge cash infusion from the city and private industry, and they apparently try to keep it clean and safe now.