Where "The Spa" Used To Be

This past spring, my son would walk down to Papi’s Tacos on Budlong Road to hang out with his friends after school. They’d order french fries and talk about the latest technological advances in the world of gaming or whatever prepubescent boys are into these days. Not sure if I want or really need to know all the details.

It reminded me of when I was a kid. We had a LOT of different hangouts when I was his age because most of us were kicked out of the house and forced, for lack of a better word, to play outside. It was a lot different back then, as we all know.

One place we’d frequent was also on Budlong Road. We’d either walk or take our bikes down past Woodridge Elementary School, bang a left onto Budlong and go to a place I called “Thisbah” for quite a while, until I discovered its real name. More on that to come...

Thisbah was a tiny building, no bigger than a one-car garage, a shack, if you will. We’d gather our pennies, quarters, or dollars if we were lucky, and make the trek down. Come to find out that “Thisbah” was actually TWO words. At first I deduced in my 10-year-old mind that it was “This Bah.” (To translate that in the literal sense from Cranstonian to English it means, “This Bar,” taking into consideration the Rhode Island silent R.) I didn’t quite understand why it would be named “This Bar” because it wasn’t a bar. It was a mini-convenience store that sold newspapers, cigarettes, soda and even pastries and sandwiches.

I finally broke down and asked my sister why it was called “This Bar?”, except I said it in my thickest Cranston 10-year-old accent. My compassionate older sister gingerly told me, “It’s not ‘This Bah’, you moron, it’s THE SPA!” She was very sensitive and tactful when it came to educating her younger sister.

And there it was – The Spa on Budlong Road. At least that’s what we kids called it. We went for the variety of candy that they sold, but for some reason, my sister and I always got the same thing. She would get the cinnamon Jolly Ranchers “Fire Stick” and I would get it in grape. Grape was my go-to flavor. Honestly, I wasn’t even crazy about the Jolly Ranchers sticks. I would’ve much rather have had a Milky Way or Three Musketeers but those cost way more.

There was also the Chinese Fortune Bubble Gum. We could afford a few of those as they sold for 5 or 10 cents each. I remember those tasting like rainbows and unicorns for about three seconds until it was drained of all flavor and then started to fossilize. It was hard as a rock by 10 seconds in, but worth every penny. Literally.

The Spa always gave us something to do, somewhere to go. Sadly for us, it closed its doors because the owners went on to bigger and better things. They opened up the famous T’s Restaurant on Park Ave and have branched out to East Greenwich and Narragansett.

The actual name of The Spa was called “T’s Variety Store” but as kids, why would we notice that? My hypothesis regarding how the The Spa got its nickname is that of a typical game of “telephone”. Before it became T’s, it was called Pumpernick’s Variety, or “the store” as the locals called it. Somehow, “the store” evolved into The Spa thanks to the mighty and powerful Cranston accent. Well, that’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.

The building is still around. A peak has been added to the original flat-roofed framework and it has housed many businesses since we were kids, but for us children of the early ‘80s, it will forever be “where The Spa used to be.”

To read more about the history of T's Restaurant, visit: http://www.tsrestaurantri.com/...