Street and Johnson Hall (out the back of Plantations Hall and kitty-corner across the intersection) and a leased hotel (the Crown) for a dormitory (it later burned).
School buildings that were so old the only toilets were in the basement.
Sunnybrook Farms started as a store on Taunton Avenue, just over the line in Seekonk from East Providence, selling discounted milk (and only milk) in gallon jugs.
Drug store soda fountains.
When water fountains were called “bubblahs” (bubblers).
When coffee cabinets and ice cream sodas cost 30 cents at the Newberry’s soda fountain.
When Holiday Inns could operate in 49 states, but not Rhode Island, because there was a restaurant
in Cumberland with that name, and they owned the name in Rhode Island.
There was a billboard at the intersection of Taunton Avenue and Pawtucket Avenue in East Providence that announced that “Shopperstown” shopping plaza was coming soon; the sign was there for at least 15 years before a shopping plaza was actually built.
When McDonald’s first opened in East Providence, it was strictly a take-out place and you could get
hamburgers only one way – with everything on it; you couldn’t customize your burger, and it cost 15 cents."

Phyllis Hyde phydeme@hotmail.com (born at Pawtucket Memorial, grew up in Pawtucket and East Providence), moved to Maine in 1978.

I remember the Central Lunch downtown Pawtucket near the bridge on Main St. The owner nick the Greek would ask "How many" and have them lined up on his arm.
At the time the cost was ten cents each and they went up to fifteen cents or two for a quarter. One day a drunk came in and ordered one wiener and Nick told him it was fifteen cents, the drunk said he thought they where two for a quarter and Nick said "that's right", the drunk said he wanted the dime one and Nick could keep the other one. Nick gave it to him.

Joe Morris, Newport, RI captainslocker@cox.net

My name is Jeff Fish. I now live in Charlotte North Carolina, but I lived in Rhode Island for 45 years. I was born in RI and my family lives there. I relish my returns to The Ocean State and look forward to eating wieners, clam cakes, chowda, fish n’ chips (with vinegar), real pizza, Dels Lemonade, and ohhh the Italian delicacies. You can get some of the stuff down here, but it’s a far cry from home!
Necessity may have forced me to leave the state, but the state hasn’t every left me. When people ask me where I’m from, I answer, “I’m a transplanted Rhode Islander”. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to think of myself as North Carolinian.
I wanted to say thanks for this site. It was really refreshing to catch a taste of home!

Jeff Fish zfishz@att.net