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

[1937Gal]

Originally Posted by baby sinister

I worked at that Sears...it was my first P/T job in high school...I think it was '77-'78.

We always went to Sears at 24th St and Camelback to do our shopping because they had THE BEST Sears. I still have my mother's 1949 Kenmore Sewing Machine in a cabinet and although I haven't had it raised up in 25 years, I betcha it would still sew....forward and backward. That's all it did but I made all of my clothes on this precious machine.

[Chrisxxx]

Originally Posted by roosevelt

A&W always had frosted mugs and the old style root beer before it was outlawed because the government said it caused cancer. The last good root beer was about 1960 as I remember, later it tasted, well, like it does now.

Without success, I have been trying to remember the name of the additive that was banned. Many people were very disappointed in the flavor of sodas after the ban. Does anyone recall the name?

[Chrisxxx]

Originally Posted by Knightime

The commercial sale of sassafras, the tree that the root and bark was originally used to make root beer was restricted due to safrol, a chemical contained in the oil, being potentially carcinogenic and hepatoxic. Some people in rural areas still grow it and use it to make sassafras tea (it's legal to grow and use it for personal consumption, it just can't be sold commercially) although home made root beer is somewhat more rare. By some more recent estimates, the restriction was possibly a bit over zealous. And if the sassafras tea consumption in some parts of the south and midwest is any indication, it probably was.

In 1960, the FDA banned the use of sassafras oil and safrole in commercially mass produced foods and drugs based on the animal studies and human case reports.[11] Several years later sassafras tea was banned,[11] a ban that lasted until the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act in 1994.[12] Sassafras root extracts which do not contain safrole or in which the safrole has been removed are permissible, and are still widely used commercially in teas and root beers.
Sassafras tea can also be used as an anticoagulant.
Sassafras - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Chrisxxx]

Originally Posted by 1937Gal

We always went to Sears at 24th St and Camelback to do our shopping because they had THE BEST Sears. I still have my mother's 1949 Kenmore Sewing Machine in a cabinet and although I haven't had it raised up in 25 years, I betcha it would still sew....forward and backward. That's all it did but I made all of my clothes on this precious machine.

For some reason your post reminded me of home economic classes in elementary school 7th and 8th grade (1958-1959). The class had several electric sewing machines and one old treadle machine. The teacher asked who would like to use the treadle and no one came forward so I said I would use it. I completed all my sewing assignments quite successfully on that machine and learned to love it. To this day I have a fondness for those old treadles. Something I wish the schools had done differently in those days is to make both home economic classes (for girls only) and shop classes (for boys only) coeducational. I'm sure many boys would have benefited from learning to cook and sew as would many girls from learning about electronics (I'm guessing that is one of the things they learned in shop). I know that I would have loved to have learned how lamps work so that I could have repaired my own when they ceased to work over the years rather than just throw them all away. Other than make lamps I really don't know what the boys did in shop.

[Magnum Mike]

Wow, times sure have changed. The Boys Club I used to go to when I was a kid, on 23rd Ave & Missouri, is now The Boys And Girls Club..

I remember going over there and spending the whole day during the summer, swimming in the big pool, and doing many other fun things.

[Westside Willie]

Originally Posted by tom85014

Love that building - I think it is the only school building still standing from the territorial period. I probably have more old photos - will check.

There is an AZ history book at the Phx library that (incorrectly) shows Grace Court having been demolished sometimes back in the 1970's

dummies

[observer53]

The buildings around it, which were pictured upthread (and one of them says "Court School" on the front of the building) were demolished, though I don't know when, I wasn't working nearby then like I am now. I know there was talk of demolishing the main Grace Court building even more recently than that, before the historic preservation people stepped in on the issue and the building was ultimately remodeled on the inside as was hoped would happen. http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/s...wscolumn7.html

[Westside Willie]

Originally Posted by baby sinister

Sure would like to see a photo of Smitty's Big Town, perhaps back in the late to early 60's. I remember when they added the walk thru from Walgreens. Also when Western Auto and El Taco was on that corner as well. Pioneer Chicken was across the street on 16th st and the Smitty's bakery was across on Buckeye.

Heres are recent article from Phoenix Magazine concerning the previously mentioned revamping of the Smittys center. Check out the tiny old thumbnail from back in the day

[Westside Willie]

Some asked awhile back for old aerial shots of Sky Harbor.

Heres 2 more.

or go here to see a gob of really cool old pix. Get a load of the airport flood picture apparently taken while standing IN the Salt River.
http://www.brazilbrazil.com/skyharbor.html

[Magnum Mike]

Originally Posted by Westside Willie

Some asked awhile back for old aerial shots of Sky Harbor.

Heres 2 more.



or go here to see a gob of really cool old pix. Get a load of the airport flood picture apparently taken while standing IN the Salt River.
Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport

Good pictures Willie, I see a Boeing 707 on the left, not sure which variant, and possibly a Convair 440 propeller airliner on the right, parked on the tarmac at Terminal 2.

It was back in early and mid 1960s, I was a little kid back then, when I remember my father used to take us and watch airplanes take off and land, we used to park right off 24th street. It was a thrill to see the Boeing 707-320 and the new Boeing 727 take off and land, and it was especially thrilling to hear them when the pilots engaged reverse thrust after touch-down, and the ground shook from the sound the reverse thurst produced.

That's a good link also with the many good pictures, but I'm wondering about this one, a TWA Boeing 707-320 on final approach over Tempe, but is that the Salt River? From the title of the .JPG image file name, it must have been taken after a flood.