5 Things That Make Ryan O’Bryan “So Evansville”

My Facebook news feed has been littered with friends sharing the reason they are "so Evansville". The theme of which seems to be sharing memories of the city's past. I'm not sure how it started, or who started it, but being a lifelong Evansville resident, I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and share a few of the things that makes me "so Evansville".

I'm So Evansville...

1. I remember when Chuck E. Cheese was Showbiz Pizza

From about first through eighth grade, I would have a couple of friends spend the night for my birthday and we would go to Showbiz for my birthday meal and video games. This ties into number two on my list...

2. Toys 'R' Us was Children's Palace

After the annual trip for pizza, caffeine, and video games, my mom and dad would drive us across Green River Road where I would spend my birthday money on a video game for whatever gaming system I had at the time.

3. The Evansville Triplets were our pro baseball team

The Evansville Otters haven't always been our hometown pro baseball team. From 1970 until 1984, Bosse Field was the home field for the Evansville Triplets. A Triple-A farm team for the Detroit Tigers. I remember going to a game with my dad where the San Diego Chicken made an appearance, which at the time was more exciting to me than the game itself.

4. Sterling Beer was brewed at the corner of the Lloyd and Fulton

Sterling Beer is still around, now being brewed in Louisville, but it got it's start right here in Evansville way back in 1863. Our brewery shut down in 1997 after the company filed for bankruptcy, and the building sat vacant for several years before finally being torn several years later.

Fun Fact: The outdoor patio at the Gerst Haus on Franklin Street is made from the bricks of the brewery.

5. The Lloyd Expressway didn't exist

Despite it's numerous stoplights that you could easily argue defeats the purpose of calling it an "expressway", "the Lloyd" as it's so commonly referred, makes getting from the west side to the east side a much quicker trip than it used to be. I'm a west sider by birth, having spent the first several years of my childhood living about a half-mile away from the Vanderburgh County-Posey County line out in the St. Phillips area. At that time, a trip to the east side to head to the Mall, or the aforementioned Showbiz Pizza trip, was easily a 20-30 minute drive that required taking either Morgan Avenue or Division Street which now serves as a one-way street along the side of the Lloyd.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Certainly there are more examples that make me "so Evansville", but I want to hear from you. What makes you so Evansville? Let me know in the comments below.