I didn't get to skate with my kid, I barely even got to SEE her the entire time she skated. So, I had to monitor the tickets and hope to find people as they came in, and try and guard all the gifts being brought, and bags and purses. So, they told me my room time was at 1 PM from our 12-2 party time. unlike every other place I've ever booked, they give you a random THIRTY MINUTES (even for 25+ kids) at a RANDOM TIME. Huh? I thought my time was at noon? Oh, no, silly me. I signed in with the very unpleasant old guy up front who seems like he barely knows what's going on, and he gives me tickets, and then tells me to go 'sign in' with the party lady who will give me a 'room time'. The carpets look like they have NEVER been vacuumed in the however-many-years it's been open. I'm surprised they're allowed to make food in a place as filthy as this place. I have been once before, but I didn't remember it smelling so awful. That has NEVER happened to me with all the places I've ever hired for my kid's birthdays.įirst off, the stench of this place hits you in the face as soon as you walk in. I literally left in tears and had no chance the entire time to actually enjoy my kid's birthday experience. Because, this place deserves every swear word in the book. The Alamo Fun Center may have crashed, like so many of the cars at the collision center, but it was a fun place – ahead of its time – for young people in Plano to create fond memories.ĭo you have fond memories of Plano’s Alamo Fun Center in the 1980s? Leave them in the comments section below.It's going to be very hard to write this review without heavy use of swear words. It’s now the Crest Auto Group Collision Center. The building is still standing today, but it is probably not a place where many people would like to hang out. It was a great idea, but Alamo Fun Center lost money.” “Dude, I went further than any human possible. All I know is, as I got as far as you could go, I had the key, would open up and press that lever that gets the quarters for like 25 credits,” Scott added. Scott Maxwell, who was a 15-year-old Plano resident at the time, worked at Alamo Fun Center, as his father was an investor in the establishment. A July 1986 photo of Jeff Conley with Premier Auto Leasing, the then-occupant of Plano’s Alamo look-alike structure // courtesy Plano Star Courier newspaper It was a fun place to spend a Saturday afternoon.”ĭane also remembers a smaller version of Big Tex (replicating the one from the State Fair of Texas) on the miniature golf course, keeping with Nathan’s idea to focus on Texas icons at the fun center. Also a good miniature golf course that had a Texas theme. “They had bumper boats, which was the best thing there. They had a good arcade,” said 1989 Plano East Senior High graduate Dane Hoffman. Many people have wonderful memories of what was then the newest hangout. “I remember the pizza was bad,” he said, “but it was free to staff.” Cheese’s in Richardson to see their concept and their pizza production,” laughed Nathan.īut David doesn’t have fond memories of the pizza at Alamo Fun Center. “We had my wife’s 40 th birthday party at Chuck E. A worker at the Crest Auto Group Collision Center said it’s not uncommon to walk outside and see a group of international tourists taking photos of Plano’s Alamo, perhaps mistaking it for the real thing // photo Jennifer Shertzer The Alamo Fun Center offered many options for fun-seekers, including video games, bumper boats, batting cages, miniature golf and a pizza oven. “They discovered that I could work on small engines, and that became one of my duties, to keep those motors running.”ĭavid said that also led him to work on the batting cages as well. It was my second job,” said David Leidy, a former employee. It turned out to be an attraction for many Plano young people then, even though it was not much of a money maker. Photo of the Alamo interior with the original caption from the 1983 Vines High School yearbook The ownership of the arcade, however, did not change. “Video games were really the rage, so we found someone who would buy the video games and we would share the earnings,” he said. A tremendous rainy season and a few concerns from the Plano City Council pushed the opening of the Alamo Fun Center back six months, so that was an obstacle at opening the business. With a population not too far from 300,000 today, the business would most likely have succeeded, but not with the Plano city population of 40,000-60,000 at the time, according to Nathan. The Alamo Fun Center soon after it opened in August 1982 // photo from 1983 Vines High School yearbook
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