Wendy's Jungian shadow.

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Bygone High's Ice Cream, Atlantic Avenue.

High's was a regional ice cream chain that began nearing extinction in the late '90s. It was founded in the 1930s, & for a chain that thrived & survived for 70 years, there isn't much info left to honor it.

I worked for High's for about 6 months as a young guy. I didn't mind travelling around Hampton Roads, so I worked @ Tidewater Drive, the shop they had downstairs in the original Waterside, and the Great Neck location (near Y-Not Pizza). And as a younger kid I was an occasional customer at their Princess Anne Plaza & Kempsville locations. The building that used to house their Kempsville shop has completely vanished (5129 Princess Anne Rd, near Withduck). I was a bigger fan of High's before I became an employee, but that's a typical experience, after seeing behind the proverbial (food service) curtain.

In 2006 The Virginian Pilot ran a brief article on what sounded like the last High's (in Portsmouth).. not sure if it's still operating.

It's regrettable seeing a popular, local business go under.. Their banana ice cream was good as Hell too.

contact- nat.rain@gmail.com

HQ

HQ (Home Quarters Warehouse) was basically the first hardware mega-store I remember in Virginia Beach. Which I guess makes sense, they were initially headquartered in Hampton Roads. There was a Hechinger hardware store that preceded the Barnes & Noble at Columbus. But it's floor plan was sort of in between a mega-store and smaller, traditional mom & pop hardware stores.

This is a photo from years after HQ was abandoned.. maybe 2006. This was the store I remember most, at Pembroke (where Wegman's is currently located).

(jokes kinda wrote themselves with this tagline)

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Back in the 80s, this building on Virginia Beach Blvd housed a chain meat shop called Murry's. Murry's was a regional chain.. Maryland, Virginia, DC.. I think mostly Mid-Atlantic and upper South.

The building is at 4135 - 4143 Virginia Beach Blvd, and is now occupied by a cabinet showroom and a cake shop.. the building has a subtle second story. Back in the mid-80s, the second story had some apartment units. There was a cool kid (Amanda) who used to live over the meat shop..

Behind the Murry's during the 80s & 90s, was a small, well hidden collection of shacks. They looked like they may have once been temporary housing for long-gone migrant workers. They seemed really out of place in late 20th Century Virginia Beach. But, who knows..

contact- nat.rain@gmail.com

Godspeed Pembroke Mall

For people who didn't hear (or basically don't care), and the Hampton Roads diaspora who haven't thought about Pembroke Mall for a long time.. It is being transformed in to assisted living & hotel space. The reporting is that the anchor stores that surround the mall will remain (Target, Kohl's etc), while the smaller stores that made up the guts of Pembroke will be gone & replaced with housing. 

It's a strange transformation.. but regrettably makes sense in an era where large retail space is becoming obsolete..

The abandoned Sears in it's last days..

Bit of England in it's last hours..

All the good memories of Space Port, Mother's Records, Pizza Delight, Orange Julius, Fine's, the old Waldenbooks (vital before Barnes & Noble & Borders). Laughing at(or with) Pembroke's experiment in mall carpeting. This place meant a lot.

contact- nat.rain@gmail.com

 

With the imminent transformation of Pembroke Mall, effectively from retail to residential space (a senior living facility and a hotel.) Thought I'd post some old mall floor plans & images.

I noticed the creator of this map accidentally misspelled Jeanne street.

This one was undated, or at least I didn't see a date, but from first-hand memories, I think it's circa 1992. 

One of my first memories of Pembroke was when the Orange Julius was in front of Sears' interior entrance (before moving to the center of the mall). It had the old template, with the glass counter, filled with plastic oranges.

(not Pembroke, but you can see the orange-filled counter, and the acid-washed jeans)

An earlier post on the old exterior Pembroke theaters- https://lostvirginiabeach.blogspot.com/2019/12/ultra-vision-theatre-that-once.html

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The evolution, death, and resurrection of Hugh Mongous.

An old postcard I have, featuring the earliest Hugh Mongous (the mascot). At the time he was standing guard over Jungle Falls.

In his seminal late '7os, early '8os days. Hugh was pantless, and a pretty realistic recreation of a gorilla.

But at some point, Hugh was partially clothed, and the park name was changed to Wildwater Rapids. During this era, Hugh was inexplicably torched, and then replaced with a full-on anthropomorphic character..

Even after the park went thru a second rebranding (as Ocean Breeze), I was still unawarely referring to the park as Jungle Falls. But I was reminded of it in a surprisingly random Zippy comic (property of Bill Griffith) I saw (I think in the LA Weekly, or LA Times). It was a cool reference to Virginia Beach..

contact- nat.rain@gmail.com (send me old Jungle Falls photos if you got 'em.)