How do you remember Phoenix? Stories from long time residents...

[all_along_the_watchtower]

On the stretch between Priest and Mill - might have been at Hardy around 1st St - there was a little farm where they trained ponies to give rides to kids. And if you drove Rio Salado beyond Mill towards Rural you'd come to the parking lot for Sun Devil Stadium. Or as I knew it, the infamous Lot 59 which cost a ridiculous (I mean expensive, back then) 50 bucks a semester. For the priviledge of fighting for a seat on the tram. Woe to those on crutches.

[all_along_the_watchtower]

Originally Posted by roosevelt

After watching the youtube segment I ran across this gem with W&L and Joe Bethancourt:


YouTube - Joe Bethancourt - Wallace & Ladmo and a Paper Sack

You would've never known they were related, but Joe's cousin was for a while the Episcopal chaplain at ASU. He was musically gifted like Joe (but not as much!) - it seems to have been a family trait. Anyway, the cousin is now the priest of the Antiochian Orthodox Church in Santa Fe NM.

[roosevelt]

Originally Posted by ArizonaBear

Speaking of the Rio Salado Parkway; I vividly remember where it was just a hilly two lane road from McClintock to Price ca. 1997-98.

My uncle moved to Phoenix during the 30's because his wife had TB. He delivered ice and part of his route was Lincoln Drive which he said was just a dirt road at the time. Teenagers would drive along it to reach the pink sidewalk and go swimming in the Biltmore reservoir.

When I learned to drive in the early 50's, my step mom would take me 'out of town' on roads like Camelback, which was like many east/west major roads in phoenix, only two lanes wide and narrow and made of cement. There was about a 4 inch drop off on each side and people going off the edge had a hard time getting back on.

I also remember further west of Phoenix there used to be small 'humped' bridges over the laterals (major canal roads) and every once in a while you would read in the local paper where some tourist was going too fast at night, came to the bridge and became airborne resulting in a bad wreck. Also remember tourists making a turn into a wide canal thinking it was a road at night, a few drowned. Speaking of drowning in a car, one day after the Salt River had a lot of water flowing, a woman took the lower road under the Tempe bridge and must have hit a sink hole because her car and asphalt road disappeared.

[Dave Bob]

Originally Posted by roosevelt

Speaking of drowning in a car, one day after the Salt River had a lot of water flowing, a woman took the lower road under the Tempe bridge and must have hit a sink hole because her car and asphalt road disappeared.

Those Salt River floods were sure a major headache back in the 70s-80s when only 2 or 3 bridges could handle much water. (I think it was Bill Heywood who commented on what a crazy place Arizona was--when the riverbed is dry, we call it a river, but when there's water in it, it's a "flood")
I was late for a final exam at ASU because of tied up traffic in '72 or '73.

Later I luckily always lived and worked on the same side of the river, but I sure felt sorry for my coworkers who had to cross every day; people were leaving home at 4 or 5 a.m. just to get to work by 8:00.

Since the Mill Avenue bridge was one of the few that was always open, there were huge backups approaching it from the north where Washington and Van Buren merged. For one flood in maybe early 80's, Tempe police stationed an officer with binoculars on top of Tempe Butte to report on the state of traffic so they could attempt to control the stoplights for optimal movement. He was so powerful that they called him "The Ayatollah."

[Westside Willie]

Originally Posted by roosevelt

I think the building was the Penney's store that closed and moved to Park Central. It was next to the Fox Theater which was torn down in 1975. Newberry's was 3 blocks west.
]

I believe this is what you're referring to. Korricks which became Maricopa Tech. Right Roosevelt?

[Westside Willie]

OK. here ya go.

N. E. Corner Central & Jefferson looking NE.

Thats the previously mentioned old Korricks building in the background at 1st street & Washington as seen in 2003.

According to my research the Luhrs Wagon Shop stood there in 1878.
If you don't know who the Luhrs family were, Google them - very very important to the development if Phoenix.

[Arizona Mike]

Originally Posted by Westside Willie

I believe this is what you're referring to. Korricks which became Maricopa Tech. Right Roosevelt?

Going to Korrick's was a big part of going downtown when I was a kid in the early 1960s. The mezzanine level had a book section where we used to buy "Peanuts" paperbacks.

By the mid-1970s, there were very few things to go and do downtown (assuming you weren't - a) a homeless person or wino hanging out in "The Deuce", b) seeking a 24-hour adult bookstore, such as "The Owl Adult Bookstore", or c) a government worker), especially after the few legitimate downtown movie theaters closed down. By the late 1970s, it was pretty grim at night - there were a couple of semi-underground, unlicensed punk rock clubs in the area, some dive bars, but mostly scary hobos and drug addicts.

A lot of things have changed about Phoenix, many for the worse, but I have to say the revitalization of the downtown area is a very good thing.

[roosevelt]

Originally Posted by Arizona Mike

Going to Korrick's was a big part of going downtown when I was a kid in the early 1960s. The mezzanine level had a book section where we used to buy "Peanuts" paperbacks.

By the mid-1970s, there were very few things to go and do downtown (assuming you weren't - a) a homeless person or wino hanging out in "The Deuce", b) seeking a 24-hour adult bookstore, such as "The Owl Adult Bookstore", or c) a government worker), especially after the few legitimate downtown movie theaters closed down. By the late 1970s, it was pretty grim at night - there were a couple of semi-underground, unlicensed punk rock clubs in the area, some dive bars, but mostly scary hobos and drug addicts.

A lot of things have changed about Phoenix, many for the worse, but I have to say the revitalization of the downtown area is a very good thing.

Korricks had several floors with U-shaped wooden balconies. You could stand at the railing and look down to the ground floor. This photo about 1940.

[Dave Bob]

Originally Posted by roosevelt

Korricks had several floors with U-shaped wooden balconies. You could stand at the railing and look down to the ground floor. This photo about 1940.

Attachment 49511

Interesting to see the old downtown Korrick's photos. I think my grandmother worked there as a clerk or bookkeeper before she got married; must have been the 1920s. I'm assuming it would have been the same building as in the ~1940 photo.

[Kardor]

I remember when Circle K's were all U-totem stores. There was a drive-in theater on Northern & I-17 where a K-mart now sits. If you drive the parking lot you can tell it was a drive in. They didnt completely level the parking lot. I remember when the Metro center was "the" hot mall and there were lighted color circles in the floor. I remember Westridge Mall & Christown Mall and the food court at Town & Country. I remember eating a the original Crazy Ed's in Carefree for my 5th birthday (a really, really, long time ago). I remember not locking our doors and not being frightened if we didnt. Finally I remember when Munds Park was actually called Pinewood. Phoenix was once the most wonderful place.