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I remember when.....My dad played on Jim Thornton's show. I remember going to the studio with him every week and watching him perform. My dad has passed away and I cherish those memories. I've been trying to find the tapes of the show but no luck yet. It was a great time and Jim Thornton was a hoot. He was funny and did crazy things. My mama would do the "Jim Thornton stomp". I don't if you remember that. It was when Jim would dance around the mike. I'm glad your grandfather enjoyed the show.
My grandfather was Jim Thornton from the "Saturday Night Country Style". We have lots of pictures but no tapes of any kind. I tried contacting WTVD a while back but they used to tape over the show each week and did not have any footage except a small bit at the end of a tape which they used on their annniversary commercial. I would love to see your tapes if you ever find them. My mother has much more vivid memories of that time that I because I was very young and it stopped airing around 1965. I would love to hear from you. My email address is cemery@nc.rr.com. Thanks for mentioning this in the blog.
I remember the Jene Genkins ads, but I don't remember any promises or even what office he was running for. I always heard them on 680 WPTF. About 1985 or so, I use to hear the ads back and forth to work in Durham. I contstantly heard, "Jene Genkins, testing the NC waters, that's Jene with a J and Genkins with a G", or something close to that. About that time too, they ran lots of phony ads for Steve's Bank. He had Bruno the loan officer and Ginger (?) the teller, or something like that. Sometimes he'd say he's out of town on business; just leave your deposits in the phone booth at such and such.
I should raid my parents' file cabinets. They are famous for keeping old maps. I'd love to dig out a mid 70s map of Raleigh just for laughs.
Please do, and scan them and post! I would LOVE to have one of those! I was about to post a scan from a county atlas from the 1990s (when 540 had just gotten started, but the 70s would be wonderful!! When Six Forks Rd was 2 lanes past Millbrook or so!
Please do, and scan them and post! I would LOVE to have one of those! I was about to post a scan from a county atlas from the 1990s (when 540 had just gotten started, but the 70s would be wonderful!! When Six Forks Rd was 2 lanes past Millbrook or so!
For me, the bigger kick will come from seeing the pre I-440/I-40 days and what N.Raleigh was like before Millbrook and Spring Forest/Lynn were the major East/West thoroughfares that they are today.
For those unfamiliar, I-40 used to route where the Wade Ave. Extension is and died into Wade Ave. at the Beltline. The section of I-40 that runs from the Wade Ave. to the South side of Raleigh wasn't complete until th early 1980s. The Northern arc of the Beltline was branded US1/64 and ran from Cary and ended at New Bern Ave/64 East.
In North Raleigh, Six Forks and Falls of Neuse were mainly 2 lanes roads North of Millbrook Road. Creedmoor Road was also two lanes for most of its stretch and Leesville Rd ran almost all the way to Crabtree. Town and Country Road that runs from Millbrook to Leadmine used to be the end of Leesville Rd.
Millbrook Rd. to the West of the Sanderson High School area simply didn't exist. What is now Millbrook Rd to the West of Sanderson was equal parts old Shelley Road, Leesville Road and new construction. Needless to say, it didn't link to Duraleigh Rd on the west or New Hope on the East.
Spring Forest Rd and Lynn were also separate roads. Spring Forest was a short road that ran from Falls of Neuse to Old Wake Forest Road in the Millbrook High School area. A large old house sat where Spring Forest now heads west from Falls of Neuse toward Lynn Road. Lynn Road ran from Sandy Forks to Creedmoor and used to zig zag at Leadmine Road.
how about the "Player's Retreat" and the original Darryl's on Hillsborugh St?
Mitch's was a great place also...............anybody remember the best rib place ever.........MR. Ribs next to College Beverage and right up the street from the "KEG"........how about Surburban Market on Anderson Drive and "Gattis's Drug Store and soda fountain at 5 Points. Only Movie Theaters in town were the Ambassador and State downtown, the Colony at 5 points, and the Village at Cameron Village............Growing up in Raleigh in the 50's and 60's was a real blast! Miss those DAZE!
Town and Country Road that runs from Millbrook to Leadmine used to be the end of Leesville Rd.
And where Lead Mine now intersects with Glenwood used to be Leesville, as well. When they did that big "redoing" of Millbrook (swallowing up Shelley and Leesville, creating Town and Country, etc) in 1987, they extended the name Lead Mine down from where it used to stop (current intersection of Lead Mine/Town & Country). I always thought they should have just gone on and remaned Lead Mine all the way across and up Blue Ridge, since Blue Ridge has almost a 90 degree turn in it anyway where it "intersects" (i.e. turns into) Duraleigh; just call the whole part that goes up that hill past Crabtree "Lead Mine", while they were renaming all the roads. And for that matter, they could have called the rest of it "Duraleigh" and lost the "Blue Ridge" name altogether--but I know there were already many things with the "Blue Ridge" name, as well as Rex Hospital (not a good idea to be confusing people as to where to find the hospital!)
[/quote]Lynn Road ran from Sandy Forks to Creedmoor and used to zig zag at Leadmine Road.[/quote]
And, at least later on (mid '80s), there was a little chunk of Lynn Rd in the Brittany Woods neighborhood, crossing Glendower and going west. I lived right off of there and it was very odd to have "Lynn Road" way over there connecting to nothing in either direction, except a few little streets including my own. Then when they completed the part from Lynn to Glenwood, it was great, because we had a direct line to the main road without any traffic coming from further East, at least for a while. Of course, once Lynn was completed all the way through, it became a major artery and traffic mess.
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