Minute Man
In the late 1960's and early 1970's across from where the Raleigh Springs Mall was later built on Austin Peay Hwy. was a great little hamburger place called THE MINUTE MAN. Besides hamburgers and "radar pies" you could play a game of pool and hang with your friends from school!
Barbra

Oh Boy what memories did I have there...I started skating there back in 1975, I was 4 years old. If you were a regular back in the '80's you would remember Mr.Keel. He kept us all in line. I loved going friday night.Jamm skating! Remember the DJ, Animal poor guy we drove that man crazy, with all of our request. What remember most is when I got my first pair of speed skates, and going skating on Monday nights. And Mr.David comin out to make sure the girls shorts were'nt too short...I have to find some of my pictures of us posin on the "mushrooms".

I remember going skating there in 6th grade (around 1986). The dentist I had for years was in that little office complex in the right foreground.

Heading northward on Austin Peay, you came to the main shopping areas. Showbiz Pizza (the other Chuck E. Cheese) was on the east side of Austin Peay, between Kroger and some other store I don't remember. There was a separate building to the north (but in the same parking lot) that was a hardware store; when it went out of business, Central Hardware moved in. For some reason, I have the idea that a "Central Park Burgers" drive thru was in that area...

There were three pretty good Chinese restaurants along austin peay. Nan Yang's was my favorite, which was in the area across from the south part of the mall. Nam King's was in the parking lot of Montesi's (later Seessel's); Jade East was further north, right by the post office. Jade East had some sort of murder that occurred there, if I remember right.

Pizza Inn was another popular place for my family; they had a buffet with chicken nuggets and french fries as well as pizza.

Speaking of pizza, for a short time there was a busines called "Box Office Pizza" in the shopping center on the south side of Yale across from Montesi's/Seessel's. You could get pizza AND a video from the same place, delivered!

Going into the Raleigh Springs Mall, the smell wafting from Chick-fil-a hit you, along with the sound of "The Theme from Peter Gunn" eminating from the "Spy Hunter" game in the arcade. They moved some of the video games out into the middle of the hall for a short time. The two-screen movie theater was where my father took my brother and I to see "The Empire Strikes Back" (they had re-released it to theaters at the time). There was an A&W restaurant on the left as you neared the end of the main hall. Goldsmith's was straight ahead. At the end of the hallway to your right was Sears, the hallway to your left ended at J.C. Penney's. The left hallway had the toy store; the right hallway had the software/video games store (Software, etc., I believe). Well, those were the stores I remember because they were the only ones where I really shopped.

On the north side of Yale Rd across from the mall, I remember a buffet named "Britlings"; we (and about 80% of churchgoers in Raleigh) would show up there on Sunday afternoon. It went out of business, and a "Front Page Cafe" went in. I don't think it lasted very long. "La Hacienda" was in the same space for quite a while. Not sure what's there, now. The jeweler's that was in the same shopping complex (a few doors to the west) was where I got my wife's engagement ring made.

As I recall, in the early to mid 80's, Montesi's was the grocery store on the west side of Austin Peay, Seessel's Grocery was on the east side; there was a Service Merchandise also on the East Side (you shopped at Service Merchandise by pulling the ticket for whatever item you wanted, then took it to the register, and then the item was brought from the warehouse area and sent down a set of roller conveyors). Just north of Service Merchandise was a nice little barbecue restaurant named "Gridley's".

I used to live a block away from the Raleigh Springs Mall on Scheibler Road. And I worked as a bagger at Montesi's during high school. Much of my youth was spent at Skateland and the Raleigh Springs Mall. Didn't skate much at Skateland, but we'd go there to play pinball, and we knew which machines we could beat on for free credits!

Much of my time at the mall was spent in 3 places: at Sultan's Castle arcade spending all my Montesi's earnings on Defender, Tempest and Asteroids; at Swiss Colony getting free cheese/bologna, and at Camelot Music.

There was also an Exline's Best Pizza in Town restaurant on Austin Peay, Shakey's Pizza, and a Krystal that we used to frequent.

Working at Montesi's had its benefits. We'd buy 1/4 kegs of beer there and take them to the Summer Twin drive-in for Sat. evening movie matinee parties!