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Boston Pizza locations in Lethbridge and Brooks hold special memories from the '80s for me. Source: https://logos.fandom.com/wiki/Boston_Pizza (May be subject to copyright) |
It was around October of 1986, and I had mooned over this girl in my class for well over a year. Finally, through a strange set of circumstances, primarily of my own doing, I was actually going out with her on Friday night.
Was it an actual date? That is still the subject of speculation and conjecture. Whatever it was, all those 37 years ago, it was a magical night for me and one that, obviously, I have not forgotten.
The vast majority of it was spent at the Third Avenue Boston Pizza in Lethbridge, so when I saw the Boston Pizza logo on TV the other day, it took me back to that night in October of 1986.
It also reminded me of some other special nights at Boston Pizza over the years across the province.
Two of a kind
When I was growing up on the farm, the closest Boston Pizza was in Lethbridge. The funny thing was, there wasn’t one, but two locations.
When I was growing up on the farm, the closest Boston Pizza was in Lethbridge. The funny thing was, there wasn’t one, but two locations.
One was on Third Avenue, pretty much next to the Burger King. The other one was wedged in a sort of strip mall just off Mayor Magrath Drive South next to what was then a Zellers and is now The Movie Mill.
Both of those places would be the site of some special memories.
Birthday bash
Elementary school was always a bit of a jungle, where friendships came and went pretty freely. My neighbour Mike was a good friend for awhile but we grew apart when the bus routes changed. Although our farms were side by side, our route was split because there was an accident in the intervening intersection in which the bus driver was killed. We never rode the bus together again.
Elementary school was always a bit of a jungle, where friendships came and went pretty freely. My neighbour Mike was a good friend for awhile but we grew apart when the bus routes changed. Although our farms were side by side, our route was split because there was an accident in the intervening intersection in which the bus driver was killed. We never rode the bus together again.
Before that all transpired, Mike was turning 10 on February 7, 1980. I remember this so clearly for two reasons. One, my birthday is exactly 11 days later, and they were always kind of bunched together at school and in community sports. The other was that, as odd as it sounds, in our small town Mike was the New Year’s baby. Seriously.
To my surprise, Mike invited me to his birthday party, along with a couple other guys, Doug and another one who escapes me at this point. I remember buying Mike a few presents, including a blue t-shirt with horseshoes on the front. The strange things a guy remembers.
The itinerary was simple. We went bowling at the Holiday Bowl in Lethbridge, then went for supper at – the Third Avenue Boston Pizza.
Date night – sort of
My first actual date was a convoluted story. You see I had mooned over this girl all through Grade 11. During that time, I lost a bet with some friends, which forced me to ask her out. I did, but made out like it was all a big joke. Well, I kept mooning after her that summer, and into Grade 12. We ended up bench partners in a class and became close. One day I asked her if she would have said yes, and she said she would have. So we set a date.
My first actual date was a convoluted story. You see I had mooned over this girl all through Grade 11. During that time, I lost a bet with some friends, which forced me to ask her out. I did, but made out like it was all a big joke. Well, I kept mooning after her that summer, and into Grade 12. We ended up bench partners in a class and became close. One day I asked her if she would have said yes, and she said she would have. So we set a date.
At about the same time Bruce Hornsby and the Range released their debut single “The Way It Is” and album of the same name. One day I was humming the song in class and she took to calling it “Get a job” after one of the more pointed lyrics.
Well, Saturday night arrived and I was so excited. I got dressed, sporting my brand new high school jacket, and drove to her house, which was on the edge of my hometown. She invited me in to meet her mom and that went really well. She asked about Thanksgiving, and I told her about my family and what we did to celebrate. We headed to Lethbridge, where we took in a movie – “Heartbreak Ridge” with Clint Eastwood. At one point he was putting some camouflage paint on his face.
“Should I do my makeup like that?” she asked, and we both laughed, much to the chagrine of the people around us.
Afterwards, we had supper at Boston Pizza, where we had brutal service. She actually filled out the comment card at the bottom of our bill, noting it wouldn’t hurt the waitress to smile at least once. The manager was at the till when I paid the bill. He noticed the comments and said he’d follow up. He also showed me the correct way to hold the pizza box – straight up and not sideways like a binder – so the cheese would not run on the leftover pizza.
On the way back to Coaldale we stopped to watch the stars by the CJOC radio tower, then I took her home.
When I pulled into her driveway, she got out of the car then paused.
“I guess I can make it all the way to the door by myself,” she said. I just laughed.
I have thought about it a hundred times over the years. Did she want me to walk her to the door, and what would have happened after that.
I always wondered.
Taking it on the road
There was another Boston Pizza I frequented, often in the summer, in Brooks. It was one of my Aunt Monica’s favourite places to eat back then. It still is, although the location has changed.
There was another Boston Pizza I frequented, often in the summer, in Brooks. It was one of my Aunt Monica’s favourite places to eat back then. It still is, although the location has changed.
My first experience was actually on one of our Sunday visits. We went to see my aunt and uncle in the early afternoon, and they were going out for supper. They invited us to come along, and that was my introduction to Brooks Boston Pizza.
I recall we had just been given a dog, and were debating what to name him. The name he had when we got him from our relatives on the farm was Toby. My sister and I bandied about a number of names, and settled on either Jody or Toby. Eventually, we stayed with Toby.
That was the back drop when we were deciding what to order. I settled on a pizza, while my Mom asked my Aunt Monica what she ordered.
“I like the Boston Brute,” she said.
Even though, it sounded like a barbaric food, or a deodorant.
Yet, that’s what my mom ordered, and let me try. I quite liked it, and have had dozens of times since then.
My Uncle Pete had the ribs, so my Dad followed suit.
I actually think, that trip to Boston Pizza was the next time I had eaten at one of Boston Pizza’s locations after the birthday party.
The years after
Boston Pizza would play a very special place in my life, especially in the 1990s. It was where I first played video lottery terminals, and had some really good times during some bad situations. They were all at the Boston Pizza on Whyte Avenue in Edmonton.
Boston Pizza would play a very special place in my life, especially in the 1990s. It was where I first played video lottery terminals, and had some really good times during some bad situations. They were all at the Boston Pizza on Whyte Avenue in Edmonton.
In the 1995-1996 school year, I would go virtually every Friday night to the Boston Pizza for some team pitchers with my dear friends François and Kari. We’d vent, laugh, and try and sort out the stress we all were under.
Eventually, by the Spring of 1996, my days at the University of Alberta were numbered and I knew I wasn’t going to be returning, I convened what I called the Boston Pizza Summit. It was a sort-of going away party, although I still had a few weeks left on my contract. When it was finally over, I convened a second summit, which really was a goodbye. I went off to work in Vermilion at Lakeland College a year after that. When that did not work out, I convened a third summit. Then, about a year after that, in November of 1998, I convened the final Boston Pizza Summit when I left Edmonton for good.
Amid that, on March 17, 1997, I was invited to celebrate my friend Darcy Whiteside’s birthday. It was fitting that he was Irish celebrating his birthday on St. Patrick’s Day. It turns out, Boston Pizza was having the Beer Olympics. Somehow I ended up on a team with Darcy and Michel Ouellette, who really was not a drinker. Yet, through a series of games where we had to chug beer, throw bottle caps into a cup, try to whistle with a mouthful of crackers, and use a straw to blow a toy car across a finish line, we won. Our prize was Rickard’s Red t-shirts. Mine still lives in my garage.
There were more but that is for another place.
Parting thoughts
It may have great food, but what makes Boston Pizza so great for me is all the great memories that literally go back to the dawn of the 1980s.
It may have great food, but what makes Boston Pizza so great for me is all the great memories that literally go back to the dawn of the 1980s.
Whether it was a birthday party, time with my cousins, my sort of first date, or binge eating after Friday night basketball , it was always a place to be for me.
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