Maybe they can go to the malt shop later? And then the sock hop?

    • gimpchrist @lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      It’s kind of like a library but not that many books, more condoms and snacks, often a projector and screen for movie Nights, and access to Community Resources like food banks and clothing places and counseling for gay people and stuff

    • CrayonRosary@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Ours had a big TV for movie night, a snack bar, a Nintendo room, and an arcade in the basement. It was built in the mid nineties, and is still there, though I haven’t been inside since then. It’s probably all updated.

    • JJROKCZ@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      My small town (<3000) had one in the 90s, we had a dance floor with music Friday and Saturday nights, a projector for movies and a concession stand, and a mini golf course downstairs. In my later teens I helped convert an unused part of the second story into a haunted house/maze for Halloween.

      The building was originally a warehouse built back when the town had industry around the turn of the 20th century. It was brick built so still in great shape even today and it’s been abandoned again for 20 years now

        • JJROKCZ@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          The town has just continued to decline, nearly everyone is either desperately poor, broken by their jobs so they can’t do anything or they’ll lose disability, on hardcore drugs, or so old/senile they can’t contribute to the community.

          Nearest decent job and grocery stores being 45+ minutes didn’t help things. A few generations and it’ll be completely gone. I, like most capable children of these type of towns, fled to the city as soon as I was capable in search of a better life. Otherwise I’d break my back in manual labor and develop opioid addiction, or have my job replaced by automation and develop opioid addiction. Tis the fate of America’s rural Midwest

          Back in the late 1800s-early 1900s the town counted over 60,000, by the early 90s around 3k was being generous with city borders and census counts. I honestly think they just stopped updating the sign to stave off depression and save money

    • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      In the 90s, original teen center in my neighborhood was the YMCA or rec center. The adults complained and restricted a lot of the access to “teens with parents”. Malls were kinda popular. But so was the nearest game store or comic store.

      In the 2000s-2010s, it was coffee shops. But you had to pay to be inside.

      The new “teen center” in my neighborhood was the library. Quality place.

    • /home/pineapplelover@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      My public library has one and has a bunch of teen books, manga, video games, board games, they just got some arcade machines, and they got some 3d printers. They got events going on from time to time for the kids as well.

    • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      I’m not sure, but I suspect it’s where they have malt shakes and ice cream socials, and dance the jitterbug to the Big Bopper.