How do you remember Phoenix? Stories from long time residents... (Tempe: employment, ownership)

[pandaundercover]

I lived here from ages 2-7 before moving back at 23. When I was a kid, we lived in Tempe off Pierce and Broadway?, something like that.... I remember the place being really ghetto and run-down. Not the street I lived on per se, but two blocks from our house back on main streets... just run down buildings, hoodlums, crimes, and a big 'ol dirt field right across the end the street. When my dad came to visit and could remember how to get to our old neighborhood, we went to check it out 15 years later... the dirt field is now full of retail stores, the main streets are rather cleaned up now, and our old neighborhood seems rather run-down. Granted, it's 15 years older and I'm taller/older, it just didn't look the same anymore. For the most part, I remember most of AZ being the same 15 years ago... it really went through some serious modernization since then.

[roosevelt]

Neat view of Sky Harbor, even has the taco bell wedding chapel. This is called the northern terminal? before terminal 1 was built. The spelling is on the post card.

Attachment 85480

[desertratz]

Originally Posted by roosevelt

Neat view of Sky Harbor, even has the taco bell wedding chapel. This is called the northern terminal? before terminal 1 was built. The spelling is on the post card.

Attachment 85480

That gas truck is awesome!!! Even mundane and industrial items had class in those days. A far cry from our cheap, throw away society today!

[roosevelt]

Originally Posted by desertratz

That gas truck is awesome!!! Even mundane and industrial items had class in those days. A far cry from our cheap, throw away society today!

That is a 1939 Dodge Airflow Texaco fuel truck, very streamlined.

[SluggoF16]

Originally Posted by roosevelt

That is a 1939 Dodge Airflow Texaco fuel truck, very streamlined.

I can only imagine what the selling price of that truck was then and would be now if it was in the same shape as the pic.

A good used DC-3 will set you back $250K. A really nice one, $400K.

[roosevelt]

[desertskies]

Originally Posted by roosevelt

Attachment 85532

Central and Jefferson?

[jack swilling]

I used to go to that "terminal" in the 1940s and 1950s with my grandpa to "plane watch." I see the two buildings behind the chapel, but I do not recognize the one on the right. I think the building we went into, then out to the planes from was the one on the left. There were two contraptions in the building's lobby. One took a coin, and made great noises, and served up hot popcorn; the other took the coin, made noises, and served up hot peanuts. We took white paper bags for the peanuts and held it under a spout, or shute, and brown bags for the popcorn. The peanut machine was the noisier, and between the two of them, it was like being in the business room of the Wizard of Oz. It was almost more fun getting the stuff, then eating it.
I wonder if anyone knows what that paper was which someone would raise with the help of a pole, or grabber from the ground to the pilot just before he taxied to the runway? He would open the window of the cockpit and take it, and close the window.
I remember one time we saw a DC3 make four or five takeoff runs. It aborted each run, taxied all the way back to the foot of the runway for the next. Finally took off into the east on 8. I do not recall that it was a passenger DC3.
Remember the wind sock and the tetrahedron?
Anyone know where I can pick up a time machine for a reasonable price?
Roosevelt, that is the best postcard/photo of the old Harbor I have ever seen. It has made my day. Thank you. A great birthday present for me: 10/7.

[roosevelt]

Originally Posted by jack swilling

I used to go to that "terminal" in the 1940s and 1950s with my grandpa to "plane watch." I see the two buildings behind the chapel, but I do not recognize the one on the right. I think the building we went into, then out to the planes from was the one on the left. There were two contraptions in the building's lobby. One took a coin, and made great noises, and served up hot popcorn; the other took the coin, made noises, and served up hot peanuts. We took white paper bags for the peanuts and held it under a spout, or shute, and brown bags for the popcorn. The peanut machine was the noisier, and between the two of them, it was like being in the business room of the Wizard of Oz. It was almost more fun getting the stuff, then eating it.
I wonder if anyone knows what that paper was which someone would raise with the help of a pole, or grabber from the ground to the pilot just before he taxied to the runway? He would open the window of the cockpit and take it, and close the window.
I remember one time we saw a DC3 make four or five takeoff runs. It aborted each run, taxied all the way back to the foot of the runway for the next. Finally took off into the east on 8. I do not recall that it was a passenger DC3.
Remember the wind sock and the tetrahedron?
Anyone know where I can pick up a time machine for a reasonable price?
Roosevelt, that is the best postcard/photo of the old Harbor I have ever seen. It has made my day. Thank you. A great birthday present for me: 10/7.

Happy birthday.........

[roosevelt]

Originally Posted by desertskies

Central and Jefferson?

Adams St. looking west from Central. You can see The Flame where they had the jungle bar with a live monkey and a roast chicken they brought to your table and set on fire, thus the name of the restaurant. Raskin's was a big jewelry store for years.