After paying 20 dollars for parking, having the wind spread sugar from Blink’s all over your shirt, and realizing you got to your show at the Casino Ballroom an hour before doors open, you need a calm, measured way to take out your blistering aggression.

And that’s why the Hampton Beach Shooting Gallery must return.

Do you remember the shooting gallery?
It’s where you could do what’s otherwise impossible: take aim… and give life. It's where you could turn two Kohl’s mannequins into dueling pianists, or turn on a light from afar without saying “Hey Alexa!”

Sadly, the Gallery shut down for good in 2016 before being torn down that winter.

According to Seacoast Online, one loyalist even scavenged for pieces like Kramer dumpster-diving for the set to “The Merv Griffin Show.

Sadly, co-owner and beloved Seacoast fixture Elizabeth Moreau sadly passed months before the Gallery's closure, according to nhpr.org, and it certainly wouldn't be the same without the "Shooting Gallery Lady."

But the Strip just isn’t the same without the Hampton Beach Shooting Gallery, and when I pass by its former location, my heart sinks like I… just ran out of change at the Hampton Beach Shooting Gallery.

Of course, times have changed, and were the Gallery to return, it could use an update. After all, saloons have changed, so here are a few suggestions for modern characters at whom we could take playful aim in a new and improved Hampton Beach Shooting Gallery:

  • Cowboy Wearing Oakleys Who Really Wants to Talk to You About Crypto
  • Honking Goose with Emotional Support Goose
  • Bartender Who Ignores You for an Hour, Then Says, “Oh, you want something?”
  • Squirrel Empowered by Absence of Humans During COVID Lockdown Who Just Flips You Off and Keeps Eating From Birdfeeder
  • Blonde Karaoke Girl Who Sings “Don’t Stop Believin’” Until You Leave

Do you miss the shooting gallery? Are there other classic Hampton Beach places you miss?

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