Friendly’s closings come with a liberal scoop of memories

By Globe Staff

If you grew up in Massachusetts, it’s where you went for an after-school Fribble or where your doting grandparents took you for lunch. The big red signs off the highways were a signal you were home, and the cramped booths at your neighborhood outpost were a familiar place to linger over a Conehead Sundae.

Haute cuisine it was not. And in an era of increasing foodie-ism, it didn’t stray far from the old favorites. But Friendly’s restaurants were part of the fabric of many Bay State residents’ lives.

So a lot of people are sharing memories today after the announcement by the Wilbraham-based Friendly Ice Cream Corp. that it was closing 63 of its nearly 500 locations as it looks to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Approximately 30 of the stores are in Massachusetts, including stores in Acton, Attleboro, Dedham, Leominster, Needham, Quincy, Stoughton, and Worcester. (See the full list of restaurant closings here.)

“The first time I had Friendly’s was on the drive to the Cape. It was so good that 2 days later when we left the Cape my friend and I stopped and got the same meals & sundaes again,” Jaclyn of Boston wrote on a boston.com forum where dozens of people remembered their Friendly’s moments, most of them fondly.

“Great memories,” wrote Greg of Strafford, N.H. “Worked at the shop in Melrose while in college in the 70’s. Great place for a single guy, there were about 3 guys on staff and 20 girls, one of them was my future wife.”

“Grilled cheese, French fries (“extra crispy”), and pineapple sundaes with chocolate ice cream … every summer when my grandparents visited from Florida, their order was the same,” wrote K.S. from Virginia.

“My friends and I when we were so cool in high school had our first cups of coffee at the counter in the Friendly’s in Franklin, MA. It was the place to go in the 60’s,” wrote Jim C. from Easton.

“My supervisor called me ‘Buttercup’ when I was a waitress,” wrote one woman,who signed her post “Buttercup!”

Click here to contribute your own memories to the forum.