Hope Hawley

As some of you may have heard, the local Chuck-E-Cheese has put in an application  to serve beer and wine at its location at Central Mall in Texarkana. I wanted to write about this from the perspective of a college student.

First let me just say I do not have kids but I do have nephews and nieces whom I love to take to Chuck-E-Cheese, so with that being said, I say not just no but Hell no. Chuck-E-Cheese is not designed for adults; it’s known as “A place where a kid can be a kid.” How are you supposed to be a kid if you have a drunk parent running around? This just puts the establishment, employees, and other customers in danger. Now I know people are saying, well, beer and wine isn’t hard alcohol; you are correct, it is not, but it is to light- weights who can’t handle it or who can’t cut themselves off. Chuck-E-Cheese is simply not a place for adults to be drinking. I mean, why would you want to, anyway? If you are bringing your children there, it should be about their having fun, not you. As a college student I understand the struggle of having nothing “fun to do” in Texarkana but as a mature adult I also have enough common sense to know that mixing alcohol with a kids establishment is just flat out crazy.

There are plenty of places for adults to go and have a drink around town. Multiple restaurants, bars, clubs, and even the bowling alleys serve alcohol. At the bowling alley you can have fun bowling and drinking, which makes far more sense than playing games at Chuck-E-Cheese with two- and three-year olds running around while you’re sipping on a Budweiser. Some places that you may want to look into to have a good time while drinking that are adult friendly: Fat Jacks, Holiday Bowl, College Bowl, Stages, Buffalo Wild Wings, AppleBees, Electric Cowboy, Club Primetime, etc.

Yes, this is just the opinion of a college student and a young adult who likes to drink. Even I realize how crazy it would be to have a drunk person running around at Chuck-E-Cheese. Their slogan has always been “A place where a kid can be a kid,” but when you mix alcohol in, it’s taking that completely away. There are not many places in Texarkana where young kids can simply run around and be a kid so don’t take one of the few spots that are still around.