Hello everybody, I hope life finds you doing well and looking forward to some spring weather. I know I am. For this month’s story I thought we would concentrate on what 18–21-year-olds did growing up in Murfreesboro in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. So, fasten your seat belt, we’re gonna take a look at the places where we cruised, shot pool, played Tron and other arcade games, ate fried chicken and just hung out.

First of all, isn’t it a rite of passage when you get your driver’s license? Along with that comes freedom. Freedom to move around . . . well, as long as you don’t get too many tickets, like yours truly. True story, my late father, Floyd Wilson, was one of the first State Farm agents here in Murfreesboro (he actually had an office at the old James K. Polk Hotel in the early ’60s).

One day, he called me to stop by his office. I was like “Dad, what have I done?” He said “Son, I’m gonna have to cancel your insurance because you have too many points.” LOL. The beginnings of the prodigal son. But don’t feel bad because my own father canceled my insurance. I’m sure there are worse things that have happened to us. By the way, the cancellation of my car insurance did not take place at his office at the James K. Polk hotel. I’m not that old.

Now, back to the story. For one thing, our driver’s license in 1984 was just a green piece of paper with the yellow seal of Tennessee. No, I’m not gonna say that some friends of mine may have altered their driver’s licenses to appear older so they could get into certain places, since after all, there was no photo ID at that time. However, because of actions of certain other people, the photo ID was coming soon.

As far as cruising around Murfreesboro we cruised the car wash at the corner of Memorial and Clark. It was right behind Farmer Brother’s Insurance. We would also cruise Clark’s parking lot, which is now the Nissan dealership here in town. We would cruise Family Billiards, today the location of Avalon, the workout joint.

As we cruised Family Billiards, from time to time local police officer Hiram Lester would sometimes make us pour out our adult beverages in the parking lot. No telling how many lives he helped save over the years. Thank you, Hiram!

Some of my older friends would cruise the Shoney’s parking lot and the Jackson Heights Plaza, which housed the Martin Twin movie theater on Broad Street. Today that movie theater is known as the Premier 6, and they have the best popcorn in town. Dave Gober does a great job of keeping the old-school feel of what a movie theater should look and feel like. It reminds me of the Cinema Twin that Hal Christiansen owned and operated off of Tennessee Boulevard back in the day.

I worked at the Martin Twin theater for Mr. Tomlinson and wore some sort of smock; I only lasted one night.

As far as playing pool, you could actually play pool up on the Square at Norris Lovvorn’s pool hall, close to Past Time Barbershop. Of course we also shot pool at Family Billiards on Memorial, which was also an arcade where teenagers could be found on Friday nights hanging out in the parking lot or playing Tron and Space Invaders inside. We also cruised the old TSC parking lot, next to a present-day tire shop on Memorial.

We also used to go to the Marbro Drive-In Theater, located on Northwest Broad Street, just past the railroad tracks. I remember having a 1948 De Soto and we would pile into that car, probably with five people in the trunk trying to sneak in. When I opened that trunk, it looked like a Shriners circus of clowns.

Oh yeah, one other thing that teenagers did, we would cruise up to Tiger Hill and look out over the little town of Murfreesboro. That was cool.

Later, in my college years we did a little bit of reveling and sometimes we would end up at Miss Ann’s. Miss Ann’s was located next to Patterson Park Community Center, and she had the best fried chicken. It was like a meat and three similar to a Kleer Vu but it was mainly open late night into the wee morning hours. If my memory is right, it was her actual house, a brick ranch home that had a different colored light, either a red light or blue light, out front by the front door. My friends and I would go in to eat her famous fried chicken and vegetables after a night of reveling. I remember she had a gold tooth. She would always ask us “Is there anything else I can get you boys?” I was told there was a bordello in the back. I answered “No ma’am,” but you would often see local attorneys and maybe a few judges in the mix eating their fried chicken at Miss Ann’s.

Today teenagers are glued to their cellphones, whether it’s Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. This is the new way of life: how many likes? What did this person say or what did that person say? I’m guilty of it, too. One of these days maybe we’ll go back to having pen pals.

One thing you can do these days is going to Go USA and play putt-putt, race some go-karts, hit some golf balls or hit some baseballs, play arcade games. The same family that owns Go USA also owned Family Billiards back in the day. That is cool. I know I’ve left out some places, especially for different generations of what they did but for the most part growing up in Murfreesboro was really cool where most everybody knew everybody. You may get in a fist fight every now and then, but then go have a beer together. Today you honk your horn and you’re afraid that somebody’s gonna shoot your car up. Crazy. Maybe it’s time to get back to the simpler things in life. You be the judge.

Now, go out and do something nice for somebody. God bless.