Something good was lost when the Howard Johnson’s restaurants faded from the landscape.
When my father took us to see Grammy, he often stopped at HoJo’s on the way home and bought us kids ice cream cones. Howard Johnson’s raspberry sherbet–wow! The only thing that could compare with it was Howard Johnson’s black raspberry sherbet.
And HoJo’s fried clams–aah, delightful! At the HoJo’s in East Lansing, Michigan, they used to have “All You Can Eat Night” every Tuesday–and I’d go there and chow down on fried clams.
Everywhere was the trademark orange-and-aqua color scheme. And it didn’t matter where you were: HoJo’s was always HoJo’s, coast to coast. They made their own ice cream, by the way, and were justly proud of it. What I wouldn’t give for a pint of Howard Johnson’s black raspberry in my freezer.
But the whole enterprise has just sort of dwindled away, leaving naught but happy memories.