How do you remember Phoenix? Stories from long time residents... (Mesa: lawyers, cabinets)

[ArizonaBear]

Originally Posted by azdr0710

was it Al's Family Book Store on Van Buren?

I remember they had a great selection of old magazines like "Life" and "Look"...are they closed now??

That was it; thanks for the heads-up. I know for a fact that Al's was there as late as the early 1990's since I bought a used auto repair manual from them

[Arizona Mike]

Originally Posted by roosevelt

Al's book and magazine store was on the north side of Van Buren between 14th and 15th streets. I was there in the late 60's looking around. You would not believe the number of old comics for sale in there for 10 cents; comics that today would be worth thousands of dollars, but who knew? Most comics were donated to paper drives, some churches regularly had comics burning events, I have a photo somewhere. They were considered violent and Wonder Woman was too sexy. Mothers on my block would put used comic books in the sun to 'sanitize' them, talk about fading colors.

Found the photo, 1940's, looks like students, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and I see a nun.

Attachment 53748

Yep, Al's Book Store. I spent many hours there as a kid. Endless boxes of old comic books for a dime (like you, I wish I had kept them all - I actually still have some. My mother, bless her, never threw my comics out!), used magazines in boxes under the paperback racks on any subject imaginable (Scuba diving, surfing, martial arts magazines, clock-repair magazines - you name it), endless rows of used paperbacks. I bought hundreds of old science fiction and horror paperbacks there. National Geographics going back to the 1800s. A sign saying you could buy a Life or Look magazine from the week of someone's birth as a birthday present.

The Alpha Bookstore was actually part of Al's Bookstore - it occupied a section on the west side of the bookstore and sold occult literature, as well as crystal balls, tarot cards, etc. There was a mystical symbol painted on the floor as you went around the divider that resembled the ones drawn by sorcerors to summon up demons. I always stepped nervously around that. The Alpha Bookstore survived when Al's closed at a number of different locations. I remember seeing it in a small store near 20th Street and McDowell at one point. It still survives as Alpha Book Center at 4532 N. 7th Street. Either the current owner was the former owner of Al's or he subleased space in the old store.

Al's was a great place to browse around in the old downtown area. The closest thing we have to it now are the Bookman's stores.

[observer53]

Originally Posted by Westside Willie

Here's a map dated 1939.

Buckeye Rd was apparently called Greenshaw St.
The AZ Canal was the Maricopa Canal.
North High was (and still is) way way out north. All the way out to Thomas.
Dear me! How will we ever get out that far? Pack a lunch-were going on a trip!

Isn't that the truth? When I was a child, living in the Arcadia area, (very early 60's, maybe '59) my dad wanted to go out to some place called "Chandler" to look at some land. Pack lunch AND dinner for that trip. I still remember all the "nothing" between the area close around ASU and whereever our final destination was.

It was monsoon season. We got caught in a "mudstorm" Storms from opposite directions, one with dust on the front end. I can still see the car windshield.

Thanks for the map. Fascinating. Encanto Park, out on the edge of town.

[ArizonaBear]

Originally Posted by Arizona Mike

Yep, Al's Book Store. I spent many hours there as a kid. Endless boxes of old comic books for a dime (like you, I wish I had kept them all - I actually still have some. My mother, bless her, never threw my comics out!), used magazines in boxes under the paperback racks on any subject imaginable (Scuba diving, surfing, martial arts magazines, clock-repair magazines - you name it), endless rows of used paperbacks. I bought hundreds of old science fiction and horror paperbacks there. National Geographics going back to the 1800s. A sign saying you could buy a Life or Look magazine from the week of someone's birth as a birthday present.

The Alpha Bookstore was actually part of Al's Bookstore - it occupied a section on the west side of the bookstore and sold occult literature, as well as crystal balls, tarot cards, etc. There was a mystical symbol painted on the floor as you went around the divider that resembled the ones drawn by sorcerors to summon up demons. I always stepped nervously around that. The Alpha Bookstore survived when Al's closed at a number of different locations. I remember seeing it in a small store near 20th Street and McDowell at one point. It still survives as Alpha Book Center at 4532 N. 7th Street. Either the current owner was the former owner of Al's or he subleased space in the old store.

Al's was a great place to browse around in the old downtown area. The closest thing we have to it now are the Bookman's stores.

I forgot that John and Joy used to have Al's Family Books! I know both people personally Hell; I helped them move from the McDowell location to 7th St a year ago.

[Arizona Mike]

Originally Posted by ArizonaBear

I forgot that John and Joy used to have Al's Family Books! I know both people personally Hell; I helped them move from the McDowell location to 7th St a year ago.

ArizonaBear, next time you see them please ask them to check out this thread, and if possible, please post some of their memories about the bookstore (any photos they could post would be fantastic!)- that was a great place and one of my favorite places in Phoenix as a kid!

[AZmildman]

Originally Posted by HX_Guy

Greatday made a comment in another post about how he remembers when Sky Harbor Airport was a grass strip...out in the middle of nowhere. That had to have been quite a while back...but I love to hear of how Phoenix used to be.

If you've never been, I highly recommend checking out some of the downtown neighborhoods...right off 7th Ave, east to about Central, and just south of McDowell. The streets are lined with huge palm trees, the houses are small, everyone has lawns and it just has a great feel about it.

I've heard stories of when I-17 stopped at Bell Rd and everything up here in North Phoenix was just orange tree groves in every direciton...that must have been something!

I've been here since 1992 and didn't catch any of that, but things have changed a bit since I've been here.
The 101 was...well, there was no 101. The bridges for the overpasses were in place, but it was just dirt and Beardsley was the road that everyone used. There were some older houses north of Beardsley (101), but only between 35th Ave and say 7th St...nothing else was developed, it was just open desert. I remember the merchantile store at 91st Ave and Pinnacle Peak being in the middle of nowhere and it was sort of a half way point on the way to Lake Pleasant, a place you stopped to gas up and grab some snacks...now it's in the middle of everything.

If you can imagine, when I was little, in the fifties, there was nothing North of North Mountain, now you can drive for over an hour past there before the buildings start thinning out. We were practically in the dessert, neigbors were always killing rattle snakes in their yards and scorpions in their houses. Shea Boulevard was a dirt road on the way to the Salt Rive and everything was citrus groves and vacant lots. Lots more Grapefruits than Oranges, actually. It was kind of a western town. We didn't have too many people here. The tallest building in town was the Westward Ho Hotel because of the radio tower on it. Now the highrises downtown dwarf it. There were actual cowboys and there were riding stables (dude ranches, also) South Phoenix was a nice part of town, just older. And what is considered the historical section now were just thought of as OLD. Families were lucky if they owned a TV, we had neighbors who used to come over to watch shows like Lawrence Welk and the Chevrolet Hour with Dinah Shore. Central Avenue always had the palm trees and there was actually a Palms Theater on Central. We didn't have any culture in downtown except the Art Museum but it was tiny. MacDonalds was at Central and Indian School down the street from the Carnation parking lot. My dad used to take me to MacDonalds back when the logo on the sign was still Mr. Speedy and he could buy a hamburger for 14 cents or a cheeseburger for nineteen cents. The big deal for the teenagers was to "cruise Central Avenue" and park at the Carnation parking lot. Later when they got hungry they would go to Bob's Big Boy Restaurant at Central and Thomas Road, where they actually had car hops that would serve you in the parking lot. Also right there was the J.B. Bayless store that was a replica of A.J.Bayless Markets owner's father's original store, now it is a museum type of place and his daughter is grown and several years ago ran for governor. The Phoenix Indian School was right on Central Avenue.
At seventh street and Missouri Avenue there was the Drive In Theater which that plaza is named for now, the Cinema Park Drive-in Theater is now the Cinema Park Mall. I had friends who lived on the corner of their lot in a small house but they had a speaker in their back yard and they could sit in their back yard at the picnic table and watch and listen to the movies for free. Coffee shops like Guggi's and Helsing's were popular then. There were two expensive restaurants then that were called Green Gables and Neptunes Table both of which by todays standards would be considered less fancy than Denny's. Although Green Gables had a "castle motif" and there was a knight on horseback that led people to their parking space with a big lance, wearing a suit of armor.the most radical music we hear back then was Elvis. Most of the young people listened to the radio on AM stations. Wallace and Ladmo were the local cartoon hosts on the most popular show for kids and they had celebrities on there who wanted to advertise, on the kids show in between cartoons. One of them was Waylon Jennings. Later on I found out that my mother had gone to high school with Marty Robins in Glendale. She asked me one time if I knew who Stevie Knicks was and we all started laughing at her, then she said that she went to school with her father also, Charlie Knicks. My dad worked for Salt River Project but started with them when they were the Salt River Valley Land Reclamation Unit, then The Salt River Valley Water Users' Association, then SRP. We used to go to Encanto Park and go to kiddie land on the rides and the merry go round seemed like a big ride, it has been refurbished and is still there I understand. We would sit up on the hill with a picnic basket on a blanket and listen to music played by some local band who played in the band shell. My mother would drive a whole station wagon full of kids to the Sunnyslope high school pool where we could swim for 10 cents each all day and then afterward, she would come get us an take us to Ted's Tastey Burger on Seventh Street and feed us all there where she could get ten burgers for a dollar. One of the big events in town every year was the Jaycees Rodeo of Rodeo's Parade on Central Avenue. My dad used to take us to the state fair every year.
No More My Brain Hurts,
Arizona Mildman

[Jennifer989]

Phoenix has grown so much. It is supposed to be the fastest growing metro area in the US for the next 20+ years. I am thinking that buying land in Phoenix metro area would be a great idea.

[Westside Willie]

Hey Roosevelt & AZ Mike

An author has contacted me wanting to know if there is any info on why some homes in the Encanto district have basements. Any info on this?

Willie

[roosevelt]

Originally Posted by Westside Willie

Hey Roosevelt & AZ Mike

An author has contacted me wanting to know if there is any info on why some homes in the Encanto district have basements. Any info on this?

Willie

All houses I have been in that were built in the 1900 - 1920 era had basements, all over Phoenix, not just the Encanto area. The floor of the houses were about 15 inches off the ground for air circulation and the basements usually had the hot water heater in them. Later the basements held the old air conditioners in the 1930's that used water towers outside. There was also a flooding problem in early Phoenix so houses usually had steps at the front porch. During the Depression, people would rent out the basements.

[azmike2001]

the way i'll remember phoenix(after 10 yrs)is what an EVIL sheriff (maricopa couny)the WORST in the world?