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BajaAZ,
That's cool that it's still there but what a shame that it's not kept up. Is there still a public pool there?
Tony,
I went to Wetmore Elementary between '58 and '61. I think it's still there. If you're right about the zoo not being there until so late, then I must have taken my younger sibs there, or maybe my daughter while visiting.
When was Grace Slick there?? (I'm so jealous - read my name I seem to remember a GF telling me about seeing her but I think it was after I had had moved.
I remember a shopping center katty corner from the Mario's/Marcos. I do not remember what is was called or what stores it included.
Do you remember the giant bottle or something in front of Boondocks? It gave the area a festive look even though that was not in a tourist area.
Going further up First near River Road right by the Rillito River there was a ranch with horses. One day I was driving down First and stopped at a red light when suddenly a horse appeared in the intersection heading west. It stopped in the intersection, appeared confused, then began running in a full gallop north on First Avenue. Me and a couple of other drivers just sat there looking in our mirrors even after the light turned green- stunned. I think the horse was a thoroughbred.
Knowing that you either crossed paths or came very close to a murderer would be a strange feeling. This is especially true when the crime is picked up by the media. After more people read this, I have a feeling that crowd was the notorious little niche that every high school has.
Wow, thanks for mentioning the ranch up by the Rillito River. We used to go on horseback rides there, I could ride a horse as a kid but not since, for probably 50 years!
The Investigation Discovery Channel is running a series called "A Crime to Remember". One of the episodes focuses on "The Pied Piper of Tucson". Charles Schmid and Gretchen Fritz hung out in Tucson during the 1960's on or near Speedway. Schmid ended up being convicted of killing Fritz.
The episode mentions landmarks like The Rodeo Drive-In. Does anyone know about this case and/or familiar with the parties involved?
The show named other people, but those names could have been changed.
Oh, my! Anyone who lived in Tucson in the mid to late 60's probably knows of Charles Schmid, dubbed The Pied Piper of Tucson by national media. He was a short punk who put crushed beer cans in his boots to make himself appear taller. He cruised the same streets we all did in those days, eg Speedway, picking up teenage girls and acting all tough and cool. He killed at least 3 girls, and dumped them in the desert. I'm sure there were others who ended up listed as "runaways." He was a real life horror story.
Schmid was convicted of at least two murders and eventually fellow inmates stabbed him to death. Sorry, Charlie, what comes around goes around.
Really an eerie episode in Tucson history. Just google Charles Schmid or the pied piper of Tucson for the full story. A song was written by Crispian St. Peters about Schmid and the killings and I think Del Shannon put out the record.
"Hey, come on, babe, follow me
I'm the Pied Piper, follow me
I'm the Pied Piper
And I'll show you where it's at."
Last edited by OceanaMan; 02-04-2015 at 10:45 AM..
BajaAZ,
That's cool that it's still there but what a shame that it's not kept up. Is there still a public pool there?
Tony,
I went to Wetmore Elementary between '58 and '61. I think it's still there. If you're right about the zoo not being there until so late, then I must have taken my younger sibs there, or maybe my daughter while visiting.
When was Grace Slick there?? (I'm so jealous - read my name I seem to remember a GF telling me about seeing her but I think it was after I had had moved.
musicfreeq: I'm really jealous, too! To think we could have seen Grace Slick! My two greatest failures in life are not having seen Grace Slick and Janis Joplin in concert. Maybe add Jimi Hendrix; I missed his Tucson concert, too.
I had Spooky Tooth album(s) in the day but never saw them in concert, although there are many concerts I may well have attended but have no memory of.
BajaAZ,
That's cool that it's still there but what a shame that it's not kept up. Is there still a public pool there?
Yep - I haven't been there myself in over 20 years, but the internet tells me that not only is the pool still there, but they've expanded the facility quite a bit (including a heated, indoor physical therapy pool).
As for the zoo - I didn't mean to imply it's poorly kept in general, just that they don't seem too "on top of things" at all times. Sometimes you go there and it's nice, sometimes you go there and you wish you hadn't.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OceanaMan
Wow, thanks for mentioning the ranch up by the Rillito River. We used to go on horseback rides there, I could ride a horse as a kid but not since, for probably 50 years!
Do you guys mean the Rillito Park Racetrack? Horse racing has been going on there for basically forever, the '50's I think, but also there used to be folks there who would take you out on a short horseback ride for a fee. I don't think the general public can ride there anymore, but they are still racing (it is also home to one of Tucson's best Farmers Markets now).
I'm trying to remember the name of the BBQ joint I used to go to in the early 70's. I think it was on an east-west street like Grant or Speedway, on the west side like between Campbell and Stone. It had great barbeque ribs and meats, and especially great sweet potato pie. Small , family run place with a name like Mama's or Southern. Does anyone remember it?
I don't remember a BBQ pit, but wish I had, but I don't think we ate much BBQ back then. I think mostly when we went out to eat it was at Bob's Big Boy, Jonnies, Lucky Wishbone, Richies, Panchos on Grant for Mexican. I hear Pancho's are still in business too. My dad was a part time Italian Chef, so he always had big food parties at out house when I was little, homemade Ravioli and Spaghetti huge meatballs and hot Italian sausage were his specialty along with a killer sauce. But then when my mom married my step-dad, there were still the parites but by then we were older and mostly they were poker parties and lots of booze. Both my Mom and Step-dad work for TG&E long before El Paso Gas took over.
Grace Slick came and gave a free concert on her way to some place else if I recall. I think the DJ's on KTKT and KWFM were making the annoucements that it would be in park and free. I wanna say she was there sometime around 1970-71. Not to sure but I moved to Denver area at end of 71, so it had to have been before that. That was back in the day when a $4.00 to 5.00 ticket could get you 2,3 or even 4 bands sometimes at one show and they didn't end after 45 minutes. Like one time there was the concert that Wolfman Jack was playing with Guess Who as the headliner. I can't remember who else played but I know the concert didn't end till close to 3 or 4 in the morning and that was the norm back then for all concerts and bands weren't asking a hundred bucks a pop back then. Then there was the time Santana tried to start a riot between the Whites and Mexicans, cops were throwing teargas all over the place outside, riots broke out when the Rolling Stones came, crowds stormed the doors trying to get in and got gassed for that. The goood old days!
Mentioning the Riallto race track, I remember a time when a friend of mine and me rode our stingrays down there and climbed up in the watchtower just to have a look around. There wasn't anyone around so we climbed up, seemed like 100 feet straight up. They probably have something much better now, but that thing sure was rickety.
Wetmore Elementary is still there, but like my old schools they don't rank very high for overall test scores. But I think that's the nature of the public school system these days. The No Kid Left Behind and Common Core are just fronts for lousy politics in the school system and the kids are pawns. Man if you didn't make the grade when I was in school you got flunked! Period. And had to do the year over again. I recently learned that public school kids now have to wear uniforms because of all the gang-banger crap that's in Tucson. Sorry for the rant.
OceanaMan, Yeah, i'm bummed about missing Grace, but I was def outta AZ by 1970. Came back for regular visits, but having married and being a parent, I wasn't attending many concerts.
Tony, I don't remember much of any barbeque around either, let alone remember what place the O-Man is speaking of.
I do remember seeing sev big bands in concert: The Turtles (Monterey for sure), The Standells (Dirty Water - take you back??!!) also I think the Monterey, and The Animals, who may have been there but I swore it was a bigger place, higher stage and am wondering if it was at the Tucson Gardens? I wonder if any of you were there (65 or 66??) and the gross thing that one of the musicians did that made me kinda turn off the band for awhile
I recall always standing at these shows and having plenty of room to dance. We always went with GFs and I don't remember going to a concert with a date. I do remember the Turtles song, "You, Baby" being a real favorite my senior year and being played at school dances. A concert may cost anywhere from $1-2 as best I remember. Huge amount of money for me, when I babysat for my spending money and got only $.50 allowance a week. Sigh. It didn't go far, but all my parents could afford. I had friends who got none, so figured I was darn lucky.
Re: horses: I thought it was the Rillito Race track: my dad loved the place and was quite the horse man. Us kids went a few times, but only when Mom would take us for a few races where Dad went at least once or twice a week during the season and was studying "the bible" (the racing program!!) to send bets with his buds when he couldn't make it. And when the horses weren't running, there were the dogs! and he would head to those races, out southeast somewhere as I recall - the name of that track escapes me. We always thought that was mean, racing dogs, so us kids never even asked to see those races
Tony, I'm not surprised about Wetmore going downhill: I was always geeky and got good grades and , I agree, there was slim to no chance of not being held back if you didn't give it your best shot. Wetmore is not in a great area now, altho' it was decent back in my day. We would walk to school, running thru a desert-like vacant lot on Limberlost, where cactus would jump and stick to our knee sox! Hah! We always wore dresses or skirts - I didn't own a pair of jeans til I was well into my 20's! LOL.
The ranch near River Road definitely preserved a small town southwestern setting to what was already a rapidly growing metropolis. Rillito Park is still there; it appears that the intersection has a shopping center. I always liked that drive on River heading east. I seem to remember more ranches approaching the intersection of Dodge.
Using beer cans as lifts was only one of many things Schmid did to enhance his appearance. According to the episode, he wore make-up that included giving himself an artificial beauty mark. There were three murders that investigators know for sure and the DA was able to prosecute him for. One of them was Fritz's sister who was killed the same night as Gretchen. They were both buried in the desert.
Musicfreeq: You have my curiosity piqued! What gross thing did one of the musicians do on stage??
I think the dog racing venue was simply called Tucson Greyhound Park. I seem to remember it being in South Tucson. I am going back many years though!
Your right musicfreeq about the spelling of Rillito. For some reason I've always called it Rialto but that might be because everyone in my family had a texas accent. That's another story, but we did, so maybe that why I thought it was different. Your dad and my dad probably seen each other at tracks, might of even known each other if they were both regulars. My dad was for sure. Gambling was the main reason my mom divorced him. He'd go and spend his last buck at the horses or dogs, instead of buy milk or something my mom needed to feed us. My dad got into trouble because of his gamblinig and wound up in Florence for about a year which was around 65-66. I do know he hung with the local mob guys, but he kept us out of it and so alot of the trouble he got into was a jolt to us, but then he was small time and it seemed his gambling was an addiction, cause even after he got out he moved to Cali he was still doing all his old stuff. He's dead though and so it doesn't bother me to say all this, just ancient history to me.
I do remember one time he won really big, or at least that's what he told us and bought us a house out on Vicksburg near where they built Saguaro High, but that was before the high school was there. He paid cash for the house and financed all the furniture, bought new cars and then everything got taken when he got in trouble. That was the straw that broke my moms back. She had enough and left him for good. so we went from kind a rich to dirt poor again over night like. The point of this is all that area on Vickburg was desert out all the way to Tanque Verde and I think I got a jumping cactus in my every other day or so. Me and my friends played in desert building forts, hunting birds with our bb guns, always something to do and we stayed out as long as possible. Who ever wanted to stay in then was a weird kid or a momma's boy.
Did any of you ever go to the Dances they had at the Cactus Bowling Alley on Friday or Saturday nights? That was when bands always wore matching suits and sport coats and their hair was just below their ears or at shirt collar. My dad was a bouncer at the time and would take me along so I could bowl. Little did he know I was soaking up the music and checking out all the Go-Go girls. My dad was good friends with Mike Pagnozzi SR. who managed the bowling alley at the time, so we knew them long before Mike Jr. became a Pro Baseballer. I think I'm just a little older than Mike JR. but we played together whenever his dad and my dad got together. Even though life for me was complicated by my dad's doings I have tons of great memories and having a forum to talk and read others brings up more of them. glad I found this site.
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I seem to remember a GF telling me about seeing her but I think it was after I had had moved.
