daddyshack.us - A Night at the Ridgewood Shopping Center

A Night at the Ridgewood Shopping Center

Written by James Grayson

on 07-26-2009

Favoured : 134

The Ridgewood Shopping Center near my old house growing up had seen it's share of businesses come and go over the years. The movie theater where I made out with a girl for the first time was no longer there. Baskin-Robbins (I scooped ice cream there one year) stopped dishing out 31 flavors. The library and Jack-in-the-Box were still around. Ace Hardware closed up shop. Pistol Pete's Pizza, which took many of my dollars for skee-ball tickets as a kid, had been gone a while along with the TG&Y next door.

For some reason the TG&Y store was open when my buddy Lance and I stopped by to have a few beers. I don't remember this five and dime ever serving beer but who was I to argue? It was kind of late and the cafe area where you could sit and drink beer that you brought in (or purchased from them there) was almost full. It was movie night and the action was pumping out of the 20" television. After a couple of beers, Lance turned to me and asked if I had any cigarettes.

"But you can't stand the smell of cigarette smoke," I said. "Why do you want to smoke?"

Apparently he was needing a smoke. I had already quit but for some reason had an open pack in my pocket. Maybe I kept them as a reminder that I didn't need them anymore.

"Do you want to go get some?" Lance asked. He was unaware that I had a pack of Camel Lights.

"Not really, but I'll go get you some if you want," I replied as I wondered if my friend had been body snatched.

I thought about walking across the parking lot to the corner store for his cigs but it was late and there was always the possibility of getting mugged at night. It's not the worst part of town but did have it's shadiness. Lance tossed me the keys to his car and said I could drive instead. I walked out the front door and ran into some people asking for directions. They were all dressed the same wearing white leather jackets with blue fringe and lettering on the back. These people looked very familiar and I think they were part of a religious singing group.

I stopped as I walked to his car and turned around to go back inside. It was silly for me to go get Lance cigarettes when I had some in my pocket he could smoke. I offered them to him but he had already changed his mind and didn't want one anymore. We finished up the beers we brought in and started to leave when the lady at the counter handed us our tab.

"Twenty four dollars for eight Bud Lights?" I asked her. "But we didn't drink any Bud Lights. We brought in our own beer - Coors Light and Budweiser."

She didn't seem to care that she was attempting to rip us off but put the tab away and said we could settle up later. On our way out we stopped by to say hello to the owner. He was sitting up front with his dog faithfully at his feet. I was told that she used to be a fighting dog when she was younger but she seemed very sweet. She was a big dog with dark reddish brown hair and floppy ears. I asked the owner what her name was as I bent down to pat her on the head.

"Her name is Gambit," he said.

"Really? How weird," I replied. "There is a dog named Gambit that lives around the corner from me. He is also a very large dog, a German Shepherd that weighs about 125 pounds."

We said goodnight to them and Gambit got up to walk us to the door. She wasn't really that big after all. It must have been all that hair that made her look so huge lying down. I had a hard time believing she was ever a fighting dog with that sweet face and her runty size. Maybe he told everyone that so people would think twice about robbing his store like they did the little Sears appliance shop a few stores down when I was a kid. The getaway car smashed into a tree in my front yard right outside my room and I remember hearing gunshots before we watched the police handcuff one of the thieves in the grass. I would want a fighting dog after that, too, so I couldn't blame him if he was spinning a tale about Gambit.

As we pulled out of the Ridgewood Shopping Center parking lot I motioned for Lance to take a left. I wanted to see if that house on the corner still had the DeLorean parked out front in the circle driveway. It was nowhere in sight so we called it a night and headed home.