AAA assured us that gas supplies were plentiful for the Labor Day weekend, with regular gas selling for $1.27 a gallon, up a penny from the previous week. If you found a self-service station, you could get gas for $1.22 a gallon.

Warwick Musical Theatre closed its summer season with the ever-popular Anne Murray.

It was the 70th season for the Eastern States Exposition in Springfield, Mass., where a visit to the Rhode Island building was a must. Tickets were $7, including a free show by Loretta Lynn.

Conway Tours offered an Atlantic City red-eye trip for $36.

The Cajun and Bluegrass Festival (now Rhythm and Roots) was still in Escoheag, celebrating its 13th year. A young Allison Krauss was one of the performers, along with the late Dewey Balfa. Favorites Michael Doucet and Beausoleil and C.J. Chenier also performed.

The Beachcomber on Oakland Beach Ave. had a lobster dinner for $6.95.

Ocean State Opera Company presented Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Mikado” at Wheeler School in Providence. Tickets were $12.

Chucky was back in "Child’s Play 3," that horrible series about the doll that comes to life and murders unsuspecting people. To further attract teenagers before they returned to school, we were subjected to "Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare." We just knew that there would be more blood spilled on Elm Street.

Remember the Pasta Challenge, held in downtown Providence every summer? Bertucci’s was there with their brick oven pizza, Coffees, a long time Cranston neighborhood restaurant, had excellent meat and clam sauces. Panino Presto of Warwick held their own with the pricier Providence and Newport establishments with their clam and tomato sauces.

Taste of the World was another festival held in Providence’s Kennedy Plaza, where Warwick’s Bangkok Cuisine sold their special Chicken Satay and the Kings Inn offered Chicken Sicilian. The mud pie from Warwick’s Chart House was a big hit.