Being an adult sucks sometimes.  Watching things from the past slowly going away makes me sad.  There are many characters from restaurants, places I used to go and things I used to do that are now gone and are just a memory.  Today I want to talk about them.

The McDonald Land Gang


Ronald McDonald is still here but where are his buddies; Mayor McCheese, Birdie, Hamburgler, Grimace and the rest of the gang?  Since McDonald’s has been going the "hipsters" route they have gotten rid of the iconic gang and it sadness me.  I used to love going into McDonalds and seeing all the colorful characters lined up on the walls being playful.  It made me happy no matter how old I was. Parents had to complain that McDonald's was advertising too much to kids and it was making them fat, but if you really paid attention to the McDonald Land Gang they were always activate and moving.  They were not lazy.  Plus on top of that there was always McDonald's Play Land that kept kids active which I miss as well.  I had two very active birthdays parties at McDonald’s as well.



Burger King Kids Club



Another fast food gang, the Burger King Kids Club was always fun.  A group of kids with their dogs made up this group.  There was Wheels, J.D., Kid Vid, Snaps and more.  They were a fun bunch with fun commercials.  Kids were allowed to join the club and got gifts on their birthdays.  I really don’t know why Burger King fazed them out but I do miss them.  I remember being out in Reno, NV and in my kid’s meal getting a sports bottle modeled after one of the Kids Club members which I still have till this day.  I also had my 4^th birthday party at Burger King which wasn’t the world's greatest party, but oh well, still great food.



Discovery Zone



I miss Discovery Zone so much. When Discovery Zone closed my childhood went with it.  Miles upon miles of brightly colored tubing with tons of colored balls. I could spend hours in there, happy as a lark.  One of my favorite slides was always the roller slide which my mom always hated because it always left my legs bruised, but hey, I was kid and I didn’t care.  I always loved the bungee room. It was always fun climbing on the cords and bouncing around.  Funny story about the bungee room, when my mom first heard they were putting a bungee room in she literally thought they were going to let kids bungee jump.

One of the reasons Discover Zone failed was pricing.  I remember hearing my mom complain about how high it was getting to take me to Discovery Zone.  She would rather take me to McDonald's and play at times.  She still, however, made sure to have at least 2 of my birthday parties there.



These are just the tips of the iceberg for me.  The ones that sit right at the fore front of my mind and bring back a lot of memories for me.  I hope you enjoyed the memories and rants (lol).