The Place Where This Picture Was Taken on My 7th Birthday Was Just Torn Down

When I was a kid growing up in South Paris, there was only one place to have a birthday party. Just a few weeks ago, that place where this picture was taken was torn down. 

There's no date on the picture, but by looking at it I would guess it was my 7th birthday and my brother's 5th. No, we aren't twins. I'm two years older. Our birthdays though fell just four days apart so my childhood was plagued with always having to share a birthday party with my younger brother. He's the one in the Red Sox jersey and I'm beside him reading a card. The kids are pretty much every kid that lived on Nichols Street, where we grew up.

You probably guessed by now that this is McDonald's. At the time, it was pretty new. It was opened in 1975 and if I'm right, this picture was just three years later. Here's what it looked like in 2013.

Back then there was no Playplace, no Happy Meals, not even Chicken McNuggets. When you had a birthday party at McDonald's it was hamburgers and fries for everyone and a Grimace plastic hand puppet that looked more like a giant mitten with Grimace on it. There wasn't even a drive-thru when it originally opened.

The building was torn down a few weeks ago to be turned into the parking lot of the new McDonald's being built right next to the old one. The only original thing remaining is the sign put up when it opened. It was later moved from in front of the building to the side when the Playplace was added out front. It was removed several years ago.

It's kind of sad to see it go. The new style of buildings don't instantly say McDonald's to me like the classic double-sloped Mansard roves that had lights that looked like french fries to a 7-year-old kid. Another piece of childhood torn down as time marches on.

In case you're wondering, they're hoping to have the new building open and ready to go sometime in October.