How do you remember Phoenix? Stories from long time residents... (Scottsdale: centers, payments)

[learicalAZ]

Originally Posted by Chrisxxx

Well darn! I remembered incorrectly.

Don't feel lonesome. So did I.

[baby sinister]

Originally Posted by SluggoF16

I THOUGHT it was the guy who played Harvey Trundel (from the noon-time Ladmo Show) but the glasses threw me. Now I remember Clifton Flowers the face, not the name. He bears an uncanny resemblance to a Mississippi rockabilly artist named Webb Wilder. Thanks for the info.

I had forgotten all about Harvey Trundel...Ladmo's show was on at noon, and I'll never forget his last noon show, how sad I was when the camera's followed him as he rode out of the studio on his 3 wheel bike waving bye.

[jack swilling]

When I was preschool age, we lived on McKinley Street. I think it was 3325/3525 East McKinley by that venerable drive-in theater. My grandmother and the other adults had come from Chicago and often were at a loss for entertainment, so she'd kill the time by listening in on the party line--a shameful thing, but she could have done worse. It was of the essence to maintain strict radio silence while eavesdropping, of course. A great owl lived by our house, and one fine fall evening, when we had the front door wide open to let in the glorious air, grandma was listening in on the party line, and the owl perched right next to the front door and began to hoot in the loudest volume imaginable. My grandmother nearly died of shame, and it was quite some time until she once again violated the tariffs of Mountain Bell.
My mother and her sister would walk down to the drive-in where they had a room in which people who did not come by car could sit near a speaker and watch the movie.
In the back yard of our house, a huge toad lived. At first we had a cesspool, and children were cautioned never to walk over it. It was a funny thing: either little or nothing grew over the cesspool, or the grass and everything else really was greener over the cesspool (cf. Erma Bombeck).
Van Buren was a main drag, and we always passed "24th Street and Van Buren" on the way to go nearly anyplace. It was so lush and green, and I was intensely interested in bird watching. I figured that it would be a great place to build up my list of species observed, so one day I, as a very little boy, called the operator and asked the number of the State Hospital. I dialed it and asked if anyone could come on out there. "For what?" "Well, to observe." "What's that?" "Observe," I said. "Observation. Can a person?" "Well, yes. But a doctor and one of the staff must set it up." I said, "I just want to do it outside." "Do what?" "Birdwatch." Eventually they caught on, and I can tell you that I never called the State Hospital again, for that, or for anything else.
There was a great vacant lot around 30th +/- and Van Buren, and one day the gypsies cane to town, some in old cars, some in gaily painted, horse-drawn wagons, and they leased the lot and camped there, until the Health Department, etc., and petitioners made them move away. The gypsy camp was like a movie set. It is to this day a surreal memory.

[SluggoF16]

The naiveté of youth… in 1968 my 3rd grade class was exposed to the election. My teacher was trying to get us interested in what was going to be a very important general election, and some of our classmates were very impassioned about their beliefs. The teacher only talked of the two major candidates. We then held a mock election. While Nixon “won”, Humphrey did not finish second. It was Wallace, not George, but just plain Wallace, whose running mate was ostensibly Ladmo.

[jack swilling]

I should have noted that the time frame for my memories for life at the McKinley Street house in my very last post was 1947-1950.

[tom85014]

Originally Posted by Chrisxxx

My thinking is that back then women either got married and became housewives and mothers or they devoted their lives to their students as teachers. Being a teacher was one of a very few occupations outside the home that were socially acceptable for women back then.

Attached is an old article on Miss Ann Ott. She taught at Stevenson Elementary located at 12th St and Apache. When Phoenix was planning for the freeway she heard that it would take part of the playground - and was able to get the roadway moved further south so it would not cut into the school grounds. The school was renamed Ann Ott in 1960 upon her retirement.

[Chrisxxx]

Originally Posted by tom85014

Attached is an old article on Miss Ann Ott. She taught at Stevenson Elementary located at 12th St and Apache. When Phoenix was planning for the freeway she heard that it would take part of the playground - and was able to get the roadway moved further south so it would not cut into the school grounds. The school was renamed Ann Ott in 1960 upon her retirement.

Thank you so much. The article is very interesting and I will add it to my collection of special Arizona stories. Miss Ott was a perfect example of the totally dedicated school marm.

[Chrisxxx]

A special memory of watching Wallace and Ladmo was when Wallace would push a cart that had a bell on it. Our German Shepherd would bark up a storm everytime he heard that bell.

[Chrisxxx]

S&H Green Stamps were trading stamps popular in the United States from the 1930s until the late 1980s. They were distributed as part of a rewards program operated by the Sperry and Hutchinson company (S&H), founded in 1896 by Thomas Sperry and Shelly Hutchinson.
S&H Green Stamps - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://www.google.com/search?q=s+%26...Q&ved=0CEgQsAQ

My family collected these stamps religiously for many years. It was actually fun to fill the books and then select an item from the catalog and then receive the product.

[trillcatz]

Originally Posted by SluggoF16

The naiveté of youth… in 1968 my 3rd grade class was exposed to the election. My teacher was trying to get us interested in what was going to be a very important general election, and some of our classmates were very impassioned about their beliefs. The teacher only talked of the two major candidates. We then held a mock election. While Nixon “won”, Humphrey did not finish second. It was Wallace, not George, but just plain Wallace, whose running mate was ostensibly Ladmo.

I was in the 2nd grade at Hohokom Elementary in Scottsdale during the 1960 Kennedy/Nixon election. We had the Kennedy merry-go-round and the Nixon merry-go-round (the kind that are much too dangerous for todays children) and I was for Kennedy...I don't think my parents were but I was...probably a faster merry-go-round.