Putt-Putt, Innocence Lost
Skimming the Express Blog this morning I was somewhat suprirsed to see a picture of Bob Peck Chevrolet. Apparently, the space is closing down after all these years, to be quickly replaced by a mixed-use twelve-story building. Bob Peck was a something of a neighborhood landmark, and being raised just a few blocks away it holds an important place in my childhood psyche. One of my first car-related memories was of the Nye family driving off their lot in a brand-new nineteen-eighty-something Chevy Nova.
More important to my childhood memoryscape, though, was the Putt-Putt golf course which used to live across the street from Bob Peck. It was one of the best in the area, with the windmill and the loop-the-loop and everything. It was also one of the first things to be destroyed from Before-It-Was-Cool Ballston, to make room for a giant hole which somehow facilitated the construction of a retirement high-rise in an adjoining lot. My fifth-grade mind couldn't fathom why the Putt-Putt had to be demolished when it did. I still don't, I suppose. But it marked an important turning point in my life. I grew up that day.
Later, my father would tell me -- and I'll always remember this -- "Jeff, someday you'll be driving by this interesection and you'll tell your kids that used to play mini golf right there, and do you know what they'll say? 'No way there could be a minature golf course on such a valuable piece of real estate!'" A wise man, my dad.