Those born in the 2000s and 2010s have probably experienced the mythical Gator Fred’s Fun and Party Center.  

Freds was a children’s play place with inflatable bouncy castles, slides, little pretend shops, public services like a pretend firehouse and 1 single, and a single party room tucked all the way in the back. All that, in a strip mall, was the 2010 version of Elev8.  

But what do people remember of this mythical place of childish bliss? The place of slide burns on our legs and arms? In the place of that isolated party room, with the man himself, Gator Fred, making a surprise visit to the birthday boy or girl? A place so forgotten that 75% of the people we’ve talked to don’t even remember it. 

“The bouncy houses, along with the little kitchen they had there, “said Mialee G, remembering the few details of Gator Fred’s. When questioned on why she was at Fred’s, she responded with “My dad’s friend used to take us to a bunch of random places, and that’s just where we would end up some days.” 

Sophomore Keaton Bell said that he went to Gator Fred’s when he was only “Around 7 or 8” and at this time he remembers getting “kicked down the slides by the older kids,” and he was there for a birthday party, just like almost everybody else. 

And that is some of the many memories the students of Steinbrenner have of Gator Fred’s Fun and Party Center.