Were You A Teenager In Enfield In the Early 1980s? You Could Be Our Next Prize Winner

ENFIELD, CT — Insomnia can have its benefits, and last night's inability to sleep sent me on a late-night cruise around town. For some reason, my mind drifted back to the days (actually, nights) of cruising back in high school, and those memories have led to our latest Enfield trivia contest.

In reality, this is not really trivia, but rather a test to see who knows Enfield inside and out, and can remember back to the early 1980s, when there were quite a few hangouts in town and just outside for clean-cut innocent teenagers like myself (sorry, couldn't keep a straight face with that one).

I took photos late last night of some spots where my classmates and I used to spend a lot of time (okay, way too much time) during our Enfield or Fermi years, usually after school (but sometimes during or instead of). I started high school in 1979 (when the ninth grades were still at Kosciuszko and Kennedy) and graduated in 1983, so the challenge is to tell us what business or landmark existed during that timeframe.

It's not going to easy, as some of our previous contests have been. Googling is not going to help this time; instead, you need to have an idea of what is in the current photo and go through 45 years of brain cells to recall what was there when center parts, 8-track tapes and Puma sneakers were still en vogue.

There are nine photos: four from Enfield, four from nearby towns and one from about an hour away. Email your answers to tim.jensen@patch.com by 5 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 25. The person with the most correct answers will win a $25 Frank Pepe's gift card; in case of a tie, a winner will be selected by random drawing.

I am deliberately excluding the largest hangout in town at the time: Enfield Square. Back when it had lampposts, fountains, stores and customers, every teenager went to the Square. Whether it was the funky entrance of Airport, or the unbeatable slice of cheese and a soda for 99 cents at L'Expo, it seems every kid wound up there. The reason I didn't go in to get a current picture is simple - I was afraid of getting run over by a tumbleweed.

Here then are contemporary views of the nine old gathering spots. Photos by Tim Jensen/Patch unless otherwise indicated.

IN ENFIELD

IN NEARBY TOWNS

AN HOUR AWAY