Remember these? (Dallas, Denton, Farmers Branch: rent, homes, to buy)

[FarNorthDallas]

Originally Posted by Spree

What is El Fenix?

Mexican Food restaurant. It's still around. We usually go to the one at Northwest Highway and Hillcrest in North Dallas. There is also one downtown and one in Addison.

[sonshinelife]

There is still an El Fenix on Forest Lane south of Farmers Branch too.

[sonshinelife]

Originally Posted by SepiaZelda

Olla Padrida! I can't believe they tore that down.

Olla Padrida... was awesome. I use to go there with my mom and dad whenever family came to town. My parents had a beautiful ring made for me there on my 16th birthday.

[sonshinelife]

Hey what about the Shakey's Pizza Parlor... both on Harry Hines ( I think) and later on Beltline. We use to love to hang out there after football games in the late 70's and early 80's.

Also, how about "Next Door." We use to frequent Next Door after my brother's games in the early 70's. They had the best Suzy Q french fries and vanilla shakes.

Suddenly, I'm feeling very old with all of this walking down memory lane.

[kt2le]

When I was a kid, eating at Shakey's on Harry Hines (just south of the circle) was a fun, fun time. The banjo players were kind of corny but we liked watching the cooks make pizzas through the windows. Remember how the dough would go in and out of the machine and come out flat?

Swensen's Ice Cream in Turtle Creek Village was good and so was Polar Bear Ice Cream. In the 1960's, we'd go to the Polar Bear across from Lake Cliff Park in Oak Cliff when we'd go visit one of my great aunts who lived in that part of Dallas.

[smuboy86]

I work at Macy's at Valley View AKA: Foley's, Sanger-Harris. There are some areas that were just basically sealed up. The Coffee Shop on the lower level is still there in all it's glory, it's just used as a stockroom. There's another stockroom that seriously has blue/purple padded walls and I don't even want to guess what that part was!

[kittytoes2006]

Reading this thread really brought back fond memories of days gone by to me as well. I am 48 and grew up in the North Dallas area around Walnut Hill Lane and Northaven Road. My mom was a divorced mom raising 2 daughters on a very slim paycheck, but every Friday night (payday) she would take us somewhere to eat. I remember Jay's Marine Grill on Mockingbird Lane. It was kind of retro even in the 70s. Those rolls they had were mouth watering. After we ate there Mama would take us to Love Field airport and we would go up into one of the terminals and watch the planes come in. This, of course, was LONG before all the extra security. Utterly fascinating. Mama would weave stories for us like..."See that man and woman coming off of that plane...just imagine where they have been or where they are going". It was magical to us. Dreaming that we were seeing some "real" people that might be coming back from Paris, France or Tokyo.

I remember when the Target store opened on Centerville Road in Garland, too. That was another magical time. Before they opened Mama took us to look in the doors at the new motorized checkout lanes amd conveyor belts. Absolutely amazing. She explained to us that the store was going to have these special shopping carts (she read all this in the newspaper) and a
thing that would open the front end of the buggy and literally move all the items from your shopping cart for you. WOW! Then when it opened on some Friday nights the Target store would run a special HOT DOG AND COCA-COLA for 19 cents. We would eat until we were sick. I remember SO many things from my childhood, but this post really made me remember more. Thanks to whoever started it. I THINK I COULD GO ON FOREVER! Hey, does anybody remember the Burger King on Royal Lane and Marsh (around that area)? Now THIS was a real treat. During the summer Mama would come and get us on her lunch break and take us to Burger King. How Burger King has changed over the years. Back then you paid like 50 cents for this HUGE cheeseburger and it was on a toasted bun (NOT microwaved and spongy like today) and so juicy it would drip down your arm. And get this...they wrapped the burgers in white tissue paper the way the old burger joints did and if you got them TO-GO, they were in a simple white sack. Now THAT was a REAL burger. Then, of course, you had Goff's Burgers across the street. They were a little too expensive for just everyday, but they sure were good.

I remember Northtown Mall. We would always go there to get our school clothes. We would have to put them on lay-a-way, but it was like Christmas when Mama could afford to get them out. The Montgomery Ward store there was our "Neiman Marcus".

This thread has really got me thinking. I think in my spare time I am going to write down all my memories from childhood. I think my son might like to read it someday when I'm gone. THANKS FOR THE START OF THIS THREAD!!

[sonshinelife]

Oh yes... Northtown Mall and school clothes. We bought bags of clothes. Back then you could get numerous outfits for the price of one outfit nowadays. I may be exagertating a bit but I sure did come home with bags of clothes.

and... yes Goffs had the best burgers in town

[homesick in Hawaii]

Man you guys are making me really homesick now. I grew up in Farmers Branch in the '50's and moved to Oak Cliff as a young teen. I can remember drag racing on LBJ when it wasn't finished yet and there was no one on the road surface. The FB police did not appreciate us.

On Forest lane was the original Charco's. A great teen hangout on Friday nights.

Then they built the Northtown Mall. It was never a great mall and only got worse as the years went by.

Goff's Hamburgers and Ice Cream.

The Denton Rd. Drive In.

I grew up playing in Bands along Samuel Blvd. and Harry Hines... they aren't anything like they used to be.

My late wife used to love Olla Podrilla. I knew she would bring home some kitchy stuff with a huge price tag!

I remember the Mobile Building on Stemmons and Mockingbird when it actually had people in it. Is it finally rebuilt and occupied??

Love field used to have an upper deck observation area with seats and big windows that looked out east over the runways. I used to watch the old DC-7's and DC-3's taking off.

Jay's Marine grill was my favorite for years. The popovers were great if you could get the waitresses attention!

The first jack in the box was at Northwest highway and Webbs Chapel Rd. You could get a burger for 11cents, a drink for 10cents and fries for 7cents. They had these strange prices and no one knew what to make of the place. Across the road was the Rockerfeller Hamburger joint, right about where the Chili's sits now.

I worked at Love Field for almost 20 years, and you could take a lunch break and walk anywhere on the field you liked, look at old transport planes, touch them, whatever. Nobody cared back then.

When my parents built their house in Farmers Branch, Valley View lane was the edge of civilization as far as I was concerned.

I remember the First National Bank building search light that would go around endlessly and could be seen for miles around.

I can remember going around the big traffic circle at Harry Hines and Northwest highway.

At that same location was the Anchor Inn, the Circle Theatre, and a big restaurant shaped like a ship.

I remember Ron Chapman, who's name was different then, having a teen show broadcast from North Park called sumpin' else. If memory serves me, my highschool band played there on tv once about 400 years ago.

[FarNorthDallas]

Oh, traffic circles. I remember the one at Belt Line and Coit.