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What a great thread well here's my take......
The widening of 85 from billy graham to sugar creek rd, mike mccay & cj underwood at wbtv, randy trawick now known as randy Travis in the house band at country city USA on wilkinson, the hungry fisherman on eastway, the a&p on central ave, Allen heafner the worlds best barber at central park, all of the fish camps in gaston county, the first mile that opened on 485 in pineville, dr w jack Hudson at northside baptist church, the Krispy Kreme on independence, bill dollar from wsoc radio, zares department store on the plaza, heritage USA, seeing tamy Fay baker at the metrolina expo, the great Charlotte hornets of the earlly 90's, late nights at the knife & fork, peidmont airlines, the biggest celebrity of Charlotte was Rick flare, Lisa coolie from wbtv, spot the dog from we're dealing car lot commercials, pikes soda shop when it was on shamrock, the sleezy xxx theater on the plaza at eastway, & lastly for now when you had out of town guest you took them to wasteland mall to entertain them and to impress them.
Remember when traffic use to get backed up for miles on Independence and it was only
2 lanes with a ton more stoplights.
Or Trying to get to Pterodactyl or one of Charlotte longest running Club Scorpios from 4 lane total
on 85.
The exit was a very sharp clover leaf curve. During the widening the pavement was so tore up
it was scary.
I arrived in 1986 and remember thinking Independence was the scariest road I had ever driven on! It was 3 SKINNY lanes then, and big rigs HAD to use only the middle lane. I learned my way around Charlotte just to avoid that old highway as I had to drive all the way to Monroe and Uptown daily.
Ohhhh...what about Boppers Bar & Boogie??? I met my ex husband there on Ladies night...back when that was a safe neighborhood and Eastland Mall was a great place to shop! Many a fun time was had at The Cellar (where TimeWarner Cable is on Morehead), too!
When I was married and lived in the Matthews part of Mint Hill (Union Rd when it meets Union/Meck Co) I had to 'go into town to shop' at the Harris Teeter in Mint Hill...and drove past huge cattle farms on Lawyers Rd to get there...often some of the cattle were on the road, too. When my son was born, in 1991, and had a collapsed lung, I was afraid to take him home to Union Co because there was no EMS/Rescue out where we lived. Come to think, my first day in the ER of the old Gaston Memorial Hospital, a lady called the desk telling me 'my husband is having a hard time breathing' and I told her, "Ma'am, hang up the phone....and call 911, NOW! She hung up, but then my peers told me, "We don't HAVE 911 here". I was in shock and awe my whole first years here...esp my first Winter...with 28" of snow on the ground and me owning a car with NO heater in it (SOFL native). I lived in Dallas, NC then and had to be brought/taken home from work by the police...or stay at the hospital for 4+ days every snow. Ahhhh! The good old days!
Last edited by mooksmom; 04-07-2015 at 10:45 AM..
Reason: added more
Ok, here we go 😀 I remember having lunch at the diner in the middle of the Charlottetown Mall, watching Sugar Creek perform on Star Search, happily spending way too much money at Reliable Music, cruising the Eastland Mall parking deck on the weekends, paying $10 for a general admission ticket to see Kiss at the original Charlotte Coliseum, I have a small piece of the scoreboard that crashed into pieces in the second coliseum, watching Ric Flair drive a trans am backwards down Independence Blvd...... One of my most fond memories is how neighbors and strangers came together to help each other after hurricane Hugo. Far from perfect, but forever glad I was raised in Charlotte North Carolina 😊
I'm relatively young compared to seemingly most of you. I remember going on the first cool kids field trip to see a Charlotte Bobcats game in the old Charlotte Collesium in the 7th grade. They still do those field trips.
I remember some cassette store uptown my mom would always buy from. Shania Twain and other country artist. We would take that and watch the silver US Air planes take off. Back then before the new runway, there was a sidewalk (you can see the beginning leading to the overlook) lined with random workout polls and good climbing trees. Lots of people carved names into it. Also I left something on the gate when the Dash 8 US Airways crashed into the hanger.
Gus the bus, I remember. I remember the green suckers First Union used to always give out.
We lived in Coffee Creek apartments one year across from the Lowes (where South Tryon hits 485). Back then, there was no 485, there was not a single store out there. Not a McDonalds, nada. And there sure as heck was no such thing as a town of "Arsley."
I remember my grandmother saying when 485 (from 85 to North 77 Towards Lake Norman) that she could get from Lincolnton to see us in Charlotte much faster. It seemed so distant.
Hurricane Hugo was couple years before my time. I can't recall any hurricane in my life that was anything noteworthy.
I just lucked up on this site while searching for information about the HiFi Country Club... Man! your post took me back in time.. I remember all those places... I lived on the west side most of my life. You didn't mention the Chicken n Ribs on the corner of Oaklawn Ave and Beatties Ford Rd. and Freedom Park in the 70s... Purple Penguin...
You know that you are from Charlotte if you are not surprised or confused when you arrive at the intersection of Queens, Queens, and Queens. (You might also be in a Monty Python movie).
Shopping for "expensive" t shirts at Superior Feet on central Av, before it was known as Plaza Midwood. Followed by a trip down the road for music at Repo Cheapo Records and Friday night comedy sketches at The Perch.
If you remember when someone asked you "How are you doing? Okay?" and he really wanted to know how you were doing.
That memory disqualifies about 90% of the members of the forum.
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