Hello everybody, I hope you all are doing well and preparing for summer as school lets out. I know many of you will be doing some traveling.

Here, I thought we would talk more about places where we dined, shopped and had fun back in the day here in Murfreesboro, and what businesses operate in these spaces in present day.

One of the popular places where we dined was the Western Sizzlin, which was located on Broad Street. That building would later house many other restaurants over the years, most recently Party Fowl, which has also closed (though it appears some work has been going on in this building lately, so maybe something else will open there soon).

Another place where the whole family would go dine was Bonanza, which was located in the Mercury Plaza on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. I believe this is the first place I went that had combinations that were numbered. For example, if you ordered the No. 1, it came with the steak and baked potato. If you ordered a No. 2 it came with a steak, baked potato and salad, and so on (folks, correct me if I’m wrong). CitiTrends occupies this portion of Mercury Plaza today.

We also ate at Don’s Kitchen Korner Restaurant, located at the corner of College Street and Maple Street. Marina’s on the Square has occupied this space for the past 30-plus years.

One of my favorite places as a kid after Central Middle School football games was Armondo’s, which would later become the Boro Bar and Grill, which itself closed recently. I also attended the Boro Bar and Grill in college, which could be a whole series in itself. Armando’s had the best spaghetti, lasagna and pizza. I believe some nights they had a $1.99 night where you could eat all the spaghetti you wanted.

One other restaurant we would go to is Quincy’s, located on Northwest Broad Street. Today that building houses Yoki Buffet.

Now, let’s talk about some places where we shopped. If you were shopping on the Murfreesboro Public Square, which a lot of people did on Saturday, you had places like Cecil Elrod’s French Shoppe, which today is located next to Puckett’s. The Guidance Center was in this building for many years.

There was Holloway’s, where you bought your children’s clothing; this was located in the building on College Street just off of the Square that currently houses the Main Street office and the Heritage Center.

Sullivan’s was located in Jackson Heights Plaza, on the side of the shopping center closest to Toot’s.

There was also Harvey’s Department Store, which later would become Peebles (and also Dirt Cheap, which has also closed), at Mercury Plaza.

If you had an aquarium you would go to Rose’s which had all the supplies for pet fish. They also sold sea monkeys! Roses was also located in Mercury Plaza (which also had a flea market).

As far as having fun, there really wasn’t a whole lot to do in Murfreesboro back in the day, but there were a couple of skating rinks. The first skating center was on West College Street, called Skate Center West. It is still open! Owned and run by the Warren family.

Later came the Hot Wheels Skating Rink, located on Middle Tennessee Boulevard behind Mercury Plaza. Today Victory Christian Center occupies this building.

I will dedicate future stories to movie theaters, in particular drive-in theaters, here in Murfreesboro.

I do hope you all have a safe and fun summer. Always remember, go out and do something nice for somebody. Let people know you love them. God bless!