Gone But Not Forgotten In Miami (Coral Gables, Miami Springs: shopping mall, to eat, castles)

[jcblanco22]

Originally Posted by Cougar Beach

We moved to Miami in '68, when I was 7 years old; we moved in with my father's uncle, who had a house on 103rd ave and 40th terr. We used to go to the Concord movie theater every week for the double feature. I saw 1,000,000 Years B.C. with Raquel Welch and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Mrs. Miller, ther theater manager got to know us, and she'd always let us sit in the loges on our general admission tickets. (The seats were nicer, and you could smoke.)

On Bird road I remember the Dog House, which became Uncle Belly's, and Arbetter's across the street. Of course I remember the Pizza Palace at Galloway, but the Pizza Patio was better. They had carhop service at the Pizza Patio. I don't remember how good the pizza was there, but they had very good friend chicken, spaghetti and meatballs, and stuffed potatoes.

There was a strip shopping center at Bird & 98th, where my parents owned a drop-off laundry/dry cleaning place, next to Olympia TV and a bait & tackle store. Further down was Luther's Hardware, Dr. Weiss the optometrist, the FranBill luncheonette (owned by a couple from West Virginia), and the Olympia Heights drug store. Pearl's furniture was at the other end.

The Old Hickory was near Tropical Park, on the north side of Bird Road. The guy who ran it reminded me of Uncle Joe on Petticoat Junction.

Cougar, your recollections and memories are awesome, thank you for sharing.

I have one question for you regarding the strip mall where your parents ran the laundry that you refer to as being on "Bird Road and 98th". Are you referring to the same plaza that housed "Miami Magic", the magic and novelty shop? If so, I'm curious if you have any personal recollections of that place, I found it to be very interesting and quirky and have asked about it on this forum before.

[Cougar Beach]

Originally Posted by jcblanco22

Cougar, your recollections and memories are awesome, thank you for sharing.

"... "Miami Magic"...

I don't remember that, but around in 1968 or '69 there was a store called Diamond Lil's, that had arts and crafts supplies. It was a small place, toward Pearls. The owner had no phone; she'd always use the pay phone in my parents' store.

LOL, pay phones.

Across the street from us was another shopping center, with a Food Fair (later Pantry Pride, I guess....that memory is a little hazy). There was a luncheonette there two, with a bunch of NFL/AFL football team stuff on the walls. They'd mix finely-chopped red and green bell peppers in with the ground beef. They had unusual hamburgers. That's all I remember of that shopping center.

Crossing Bird Road on foot was a real crap shoot. I don't know how I survived two years of hanging out in that area.

By the way, there was also a butcher in our shopping center, called Manion's. There was a store or butcher before Manion that had a swinging screen door on the front, and no air conditioning. Manion brought it up to modern standards. I remember a butcher named Leo who worked there. He looked just like Shemp of the Three Stooges. I'd always get Yahoo's, bagged popcorn, and lays potato chips there, between ages 7 to 9. That must be when I started on the processed food diet that has served me so well.

Mark and Henry owned Olympia TV. I used to hang out there during the day, since I loved messing with electronics. Tube TVs! Tube radios! Man, I am ancient. Anyway, I went on to become an engineer, so it must have been a good inspiration. Mark was hilarious.

I do really miss the Pizza Patio. I hope someone else remembers it. The waitresses were tough mamas. One chased down a car that tried to pull away without paying, at the drive-in part of the restaurant. I remeber their discussing child discipline methods when I was nine years old. Creepy!

[Cougar Beach]

I was just thinking about how Mark (Olympia TV) sometimes took me on service calls with him. He would go all over Dade county, including way up in the northwest section. We even went to the industrial park where Modernage was (the arch) until a couple of years ago to pick up parts. We also went to Stanton Electronics on the Tamiami Trail. (Electronics geeks will also remember Olsen Electronics on US 1 around Coral Gables....and the computer store that opened in the 70's near Tropical Park....some clever name with "byte" in it, i think.)

Does anyone remember when the Palmetto Expressway had a traffic light, around Miami Lakes? And the Palmetto was only two lanes each way, at least from Dixie highway (where it began) to Flagler Street.

[tallrick]

The last part of the original Palmetto is going to be expanded now. It is between Miller Road and Sunset drive. The old food fair and tv repair shop I remember was on Bird and 99 ave.

[dadeguy]

the deadly palmetto by-pass. it was supposed to by-pass town and relieve traffic. way back when the palmetto was sort of like krome ave is today except that you could enter or exit the palmetto at just about every street that intersected it. a better analogy might be us 27 up in broward county but instead of only major streets intersecting it was just about every block. you exiteded at 65 mph on an oblique angle the crossed the opposite oblique angle to merge onto the palmetto. it was a very poorly thought out method of accessing what was tantamount to a freeway. we lived in hialeah on w 18th lane and w 80 st with the palmetto being w 20th ave and nw 138st/135st being w 84st. you could hear the horrific car accidents some nights as often times inerbiated drivers would collide upon merging into or exiting from the palmetto.

[Cougar Beach]

Originally Posted by dadeguy

the deadly palmetto by-pass. it was supposed to by-pass town and relieve traffic. way back when the palmetto was sort of like krome ave is today except that you could enter or exit the palmetto at just about every street that intersected it. a better analogy might be us 27 up in broward county but instead of only major streets intersecting it was just about every block. you exiteded at 65 mph on an oblique angle the crossed the opposite oblique angle to merge onto the palmetto. it was a very poorly thought out method of accessing what was tantamount to a freeway. we lived in hialeah on w 18th lane and w 80 st with the palmetto being w 20th ave and nw 138st/135st being w 84st. you could hear the horrific car accidents some nights as often times inerbiated drivers would collide upon merging into or exiting from the palmetto.

Yes, I remember that. The north part of the Palmetto was insane -- imagine regular streets intersecting with an interstate highway. I don't know what the designers were thinking.

But I recall that the whole of the Palmetto Expressway was considered a death trap. There were frequent terrible accidents all the way south. I remember a lot of people driving drunk. I'm sure that had a lot to do with it.

Back in the day, enforcement of drunk driving laws was a joke.

[dadeguy]

Originally Posted by Cougar Beach

Yes, I remember that. The north part of the Palmetto was insane -- imagine regular streets intersecting with an interstate highway. I don't know what the designers were thinking.

But I recall that the whole of the Palmetto Expressway was considered a death trap. There were frequent terrible accidents all the way south. I remember a lot of people driving drunk. I'm sure that had a lot to do with it.

Back in the day, enforcement of drunk driving laws was a joke.

yes. if I recall correctly there was a bar or tavern about every mile or so up and down the whole length of the palmetto from kendall to what is now the golden glades. I remember bars advertising happy hour on huge banners.

[ConeyIsBabe]

The Coral Room

What was it? ..... where was it? ........and is it still there

[plantlover]

Hi ConeyIsBabe!
The Coral Grill was on Islamorada, I think. It had two rooms downstairs and upstairs. It was a buffet with huge bowls of shrimp among the goodies. Is this what you are refering to? It is no longer open. It was painted a coral-pink shade.

[ConeyIsBabe]

Originally Posted by plantlover

Hi ConeyIsBabe!
The Coral Grill was on Islamorada, I think. It had two rooms downstairs and upstairs. It was a buffet with huge bowls of shrimp among the goodies. Is this what you are refering to? It is no longer open. It was painted a coral-pink shade.

LOL........... I was asking about The Coral Room ( not the Coral Grill )

Actually, I have been to the Coral Grill and it was a nice buffet!


P. S. .............. hint .......... it was in Coral Gables