Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
wow, just mention any place and roosevelt will be right along with full visual documentation of it....
your collection, roosevelt, must be among the great collections of Arizoniana that exists....do you have anything set up for it to be donated to the Historical Society or similar?....is it filed and organized?.....
Just ran into this thread. Brings back many memories. Too much to read all at once. Brings back lots of memories.
We moved from Casa Grande to Flagstaff to Phoenix all in 1966. We moved right next to a big hole in the ground that all the kids called "little grand". It was near 35th Ave & Thomas. I was wondering if anybody else remembered it?
Here is the Big Apple way back when KTAR was still broadcasting from there. I remember lots of sawdust on the floors and the waitresses had real guns. Attachment 44815
LOL I worked as a hostess during the sawdust on the floor era. Wore a gun too but it wasn't real. Health department finally decided the saw dust wasn't healthy and it disapeared.
1. Arnold's Pickles
2. The stockyards
3. When the entire city smelled like orange blossoms
4. Going to Emerson Elementary
5. Going to North High.
6. When Turf Paradise was a long drivve out onto the desert.
7. When the YMCA downtown served the best dinner for the cheapest price around.
8. Blakely Gas's "Collect 'Em All" glasses with cactus printed on them.
9. When Christown opened.
10. When the Oriental flower gardens in south Phoenix were the most beautiful sight around.
11. When the tallest structure was the tower on top of the Westward Ho Hotel.
12. When A-1 beer was about 65 cents a quart.
13. Ice patches on the streets before Phoenix became a "heat island."
14. When Scottsdale was the "West's Most Western Town."
15. When Phoenix had two newspapers, and The Arizona Republic was truly conservative.
16. When I-17 was built (we played in the huge concrete drainage forms).
17. When the motels of east Van Buren were respectable and clean.
18. Did I mention orange blossom time?
19. When JFK campaigned briefly at Sky Harbor, which only had one ATC tower.
20. Coke machines with 5 cent bottles of Coke.
21. When driving to Mesa was a big outing.
22. When Black Canyon Highway was a main entrance to Phoenix from the north.
23. The great nostalgic times spent after school with Wallace and Ladmo (bless their hearts) and the original Looney Tunes.
24. When the South Mountains were a scenic range surrounded by farms and livestock below.
25. Bob's Big Boy on Central Avenue!
26. Camelback Mountain without homes built all up the sides of it.
27. Attending a Duane Eddy promotion, outdoors, live and in person. If you don't know who Duane Eddy was, don't ask.
28. My first pair of cowboy boots!
29. The flash floods before the flood-control arroyos were built.
30. Clean air fer cryin' out loud! Pristine air!
31. When the Greyhoud Bus depot was a tiny little thing downtown nextdoor to a bowling alley.
32. When the first-made T-Bird dealers placed little models of them in their dealership windows that I oh, so dearly coveted.
33. When boy's high fashion shoes had raised leather running down the outside edges and swirling up and over the center to the toe.
34. Sour or "ornamental" orange trees.
35. Our biggest football rivals (of the North High Mustangs): South Mountain High
36. When Roosevelt and Oak Streets east were decent streets to live on.
37. When Phoenix only had three TV stations.
38. When South Phoenix wasn't a dangerous place to go.
39. Attending High School just after Wayne Newton graduated from it.
40. I spent a total of 35 years in Phoenix, watched the original Sun City being built, laughed loved and lived there. Grew up there. I'm in tears now...because it's a different city, unrecognizable to me, and it's a totally different world.
God bless all you Phoenicians.
Yepper, I sure can understand the tears. Those were goldplated memories, the kind you just can't replace, can't find today and unless you grew up inthat era you can't begin to understand what has been lost. I wish my kids could have known it but they don't miss what they didn't have.
We will keep the memories alive untill the last one turns out the light and closes the door. I am so glad and feel so blessed to have grown up in the 50s and 60s in the little town of Phoenix. WOW! We had it all.
Green Gables was definitely my favorite goofy golf course; lots of shade from the big eucalyptus trees, cool castles & moats & ramps.
Cudia City has been mentioned. I barely recall seeing TV reruns of "26 Men", the 50's western series filmed there. Good theme song. I clearly remember the melody; the words, not so much...
"This is the story
of 26 men
who something something something something something..."
azfrybaby, do you remember some of these institutions in the 24th & Indian School area?
Tang's grocery store; good bakery inside. Loved the cinnamon bread and sweet rolls with almonds.
Dick Smith's Swim Gym at 20th & Campbell. Took swim lessons there in the early 60's. We'd watch the divers practicing on the springboard and platform. As a young 'un I didn't realize that Dick Smith was a renowned diving coach; one of his students we were watching was Bernie Wrightson, who later was in the Olympics. Won a gold medal, I think.
Pony rides on the south side of Indian School around 22nd street, not far from the big Goettl air-conditioning shop. There was a small pen with some Shetlands walking in circles. Maybe once was I able to talk my mom into stopping and letting me ride.
Yes I remember them all because I grew up on 25ST. and Montecito. Went to Madison 2 on Campbell and Dick Smiths was right across the street. I do remember swimming there probably lessons also and heard that he did train some swimmers who became great. Tang's Resturant had the best fried chicken ever and Jasmine Tea. There was a small icecream parlor on 24St and Cambell next to a laundry mat. Two sisters served up the best concoctions. The last time I saw them was in the early 90s where they had moved into the back of the drugstore on 24th St. and Indianschool. They had a little coffee shop. Then one of the sisters died and the drugstore closed down. Now a rental center. mary and Catherine not to be confused with Mary Coyles. When I was a kid I walked through a dairy farm called the Milkey Way. I would stop to talk to the cows. I left very early so this very special teacher, Mrs. Striker could fix my hair, with little clips as my mother never had time. I think I was inthe second grade. I also remember taking a can of food to the auditorium at Madison so i could see Roy Rodgers and his horse come walking out on the stage.
On 32nd street and Indianschool there was a store that had a lunch counter inside, forgot the name. Bet Roosevelt knows. It isn't Roosevelt Nettles is it???
Yepper, I sure can understand the tears. Those were goldplated memories, the kind you just can't replace, can't find today and unless you grew up inthat era you can't begin to understand what has been lost. I wish my kids could have known it but they don't miss what they didn't have.
We will keep the memories alive untill the last one turns out the light and closes the door. I am so glad and feel so blessed to have grown up in the 50s and 60s in the little town of Phoenix. WOW! We had it all.
I can understand..............
Maybe that is why I vastly prefer the older enclaves here in the Phx area because they are more of a 'human' scale i.e. 12th St/Indian School, Temple District of Mesa, Willo, etc. whereas Grayhawk (Scottsdale), Las Sendas (Mesa) etc.---------------pass. The latter places one is chained to you car to get around.
I remember when the Lone Ranger came to town in the 50s. He appeared in Chandler in front of a ranching association at the San Marcos, then he appeared at the venerable Sears Farm Store in downtown Phoenix.
Sears Farm Store--that was like a small zoo. We kids would go and pet the animals and check out the chicks, ducklings, and other birds.
Remember when they let the shoe salesmen use x-ray machines on the kids' feet to see how well they fit into prospective shoes? Food and Drug or someone stopped them.
I remember the drone of the gray Goodyear blimp through the sweet silence of the valley and the drone of the piston DC-3s,-4s,-6s-7s, and the Lockheed Connie. No--the Phx. Fire Dept. NEVER chased the Northern Lights for 45 minutes. EVER.
I remember the double parking nightmare and the contrived "nightmare" of Sweet Polly Purebread getting pregnant after taking her bath too soon after her brother took his.
I also remember the Jungle Park Zoo on 16th St ?? , west side of street,
across fron Gomper's Society. Before I left in 1989, it had beome Jungle Park Veterinary Center.
The ostrich farm out on 100th Ave ?? and Washongton/VanBuren??
St. John's Indian School Fairs, the old Wiletta St. branch of Valley National Bank in a huge quonset hut sp?? Well, back to contemporary, plastic reality and away from this real life for a few more hours.
Last edited by willard e. kissinger jr.; 07-13-2009 at 10:59 AM..
I remember when the Lone Ranger came to town in the 50s. He appeared in Chandler in front of a ranching association at the San Marcos, then he appeared at the venerable Sears Farm Store in downtown Phoenix.
Sears Farm Store--that was like a small zoo. We kids would go and pet the animals and check out the chicks, ducklings, and other birds.
Remember when they let the shoe salesmen use x-ray machines on the kids' feet to see how well they fit into prospective shoes? Food and Drug or someone stopped them.
I remember the drone of the gray Goodyear blimp through the sweet silence of the valley and the drone of the piston DC-3s,-4s,-6s-7s, and the Lockheed Connie. No--the Phx. Fire Dept. NEVER chased the Northern Lights for 45 minutes. EVER.
I remember the double parking nightmare and the contrived "nightmare" of Sweet Polly Purebread getting pregnant after taking her bath too soon after her nrother took his.
I also remember the Jungle Park Zoo on 16th St ?? , west side of street,
across fron Gomper's Society. Before I left in 1989, it had beome Jungle Park Veterinary Center.
The ostrich farm out on 100th Ave ?? and Washongton/VanBuren??
St. John's Indian School Fairs, the old Wiletta St. branch of Valley National Bank in a huge quonset hut sp?? Well, back to contemporary, plastic reality and away from this real life for a few more hours.
Monty Montana used to come to our school every year in the late 40's. Found a picture of the Sear's farm store, never knew they had animals. That X-ray machine was deemed a danger to the men that worked in the shoe department, not the customers. Over time the salesmen were absorbing radiation. The zoo was behind an art gallery, I remember the spider monkeys. It was on 7th Street about 1/2 mile south of Gompers.
The original Valley Bank on Willetta was an old house. The only thing I can think of like you described is the geodesic dome at the bank in Tempe.
Yepper, I sure can understand the tears. Those were goldplated memories, the kind you just can't replace, can't find today and unless you grew up inthat era you can't begin to understand what has been lost. I wish my kids could have known it but they don't miss what they didn't have.
We will keep the memories alive untill the last one turns out the light and closes the door. I am so glad and feel so blessed to have grown up in the 50s and 60s in the little town of Phoenix. WOW! We had it all.
Yes, we did. It was a great place to grow up. And, at least we have those memories. Those who grew up here later, and those who grew up in the 50s and 60s in less wonderful places, don't have them. We were, and are, lucky in that respect.
Roosevelt, that is a splendid picture of the Farm Store. I still think that if we turn Wiletta upside down and shake it, a quonset hut will fall to the ground. I see there is no way to message or email you. Pease drop me a line sometime. I was born in the old St. Joe's in 1945 and left for San Diego in 1989. Take good care of yourself. Thank you for your unique contributions.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
little grand?
