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Musicfreeq: "bending over, my bum would block the doorway to the living room"
HEY! Let's keep this discussion family friendly!
The picture is looking north taken from West Windsor on the west side of Stone. Musicfreeq, exact location aside, suffice to say we lived very close to one another albeit in different years. Without posting more pictures, I think there is commercial space where your old house was. I am not sure if the Amphi campus was as big as it is now either. The Dairy Queen was easy access for both of us.
I remember talking about the Amphi Plaza being diagonally across from Mario's Pizza. I guess that was the only place to do shopping without going into an expensive convenience store such as Circle K or Coronado Market. Remember Coronado on Stone and Ft Lowell? I'll bet that was there in 1969. I think there was also a Hostess bakery outlet across from Coronado, but not as confident it would have existed in 1969.
Thanks for posting, AZMemories! Amphi High was much smaller in those days. And I think we've firmly established that the pizza place on 1st Ave diagonal to Amphi Plaza was Marco's back then, not Mario's! My best friend and I would order shrimp and fries platters whenever we could come up with the money!
Wow, musicfreeq, we were neighbors in space, if not time! We lived on W. Windsor part of my college years, about 1970 or so. Unbelievable! The house was on a little dirt driveway south off Windsor, with two little houses on it. Amphi High was on the street just south of it, on the south side of Yavapai. Over the years Amphi grew huge and took over the north side of Yavapai, including most of Windsor. Near as I can tell, I used to live where the Amphi swimming pool or baseball diamond is now!
Windsor didn't go through to Oracle, I believe, but Der Wienerschnitzel was about at the place it would have intersected, I think. Probably still there. Don't we wish Google Maps would put together old aerial photos and have a Google Wayback Maps app!
And here's a story that anyone living in near North side may remember from the mid-60's: just across the street from Amphi Jr. High on Prince Road (now called Amphi Middle School) on Fontana Ave was a gas station. 3 numbskulls teenagers (late teens) were trying to pack a cannonball or something with dynamite. Naturally it blew up, killing one and severely injuring the other two. Turns out that 6 or 7 years later I became friends with one of the injured and heard the inside story. Anyone remember seeing that in the news?
The coincidence of musicfreeq and I both living on a tiny little dirt road called W. Windsor makes me wonder if anyone else on the boards knows anything about or remembers the other places I lived in Tucson in the 50's to early 70's. Here they are:
2901 E. Sylvia: my grandparent's home when we arrived in Tucson in 1958 or so.
1625 E Blacklidge, aka Hutzler's Court, just east of Mountain Ave: at the time, about 3 or 4 small houses and a duplex. The 5 of us lived in a one bedroom duplex; didn't have much money, but there was a swimming pool!
Prince Garden Apts, large complex on Prince Rd west of Campbell. Had two pools! Each building was a four-plex, and wouldn't you know it, next door to us was my 4th grade teacher, who never did much like me!
Windsor St, as in previous posts on this board.
Then I moved to my first place away from "home," an unfinished adobe house on Hedrick, a bit east of Mountain. The guy who owned it was building a small guest house on the lot where he slept, and we shared the kitchen and bathroom. The shower had unfinished adobe walls...Careful where you aim that stream of water!
House on the SE corner of Lester and Warren, which at that time was a couple blocks north of the UA Med School. I think the school has grown closer or over the house now. Joe Bonano, the mafia don, lived a block or so away in a house with a 6 or 8 foot brick wall all around it. He was mostly retired by then, kept a very low profile.
small house on E Copper St, just east of Campbell, in a small courtyard on North side of Copper. Conveniently close to work at Lucky Wishbone.
Then in about '73, on to Flowing Wells Rd, a few blocks south of FW High. It was a trailer court, maybe The Lamplighter Trailer Court. Lived there with my brother until '74, when I packed all my belongings into my Mercury Capri and set off for Minneapolis, The Great White North, with only a rawhide coat, the western shirts I used to buy from Schatzlein Saddle Shop on W Lake St, and a pair of cowboy boots. I sure made an impression in Minneapolis that first winter!
Thank you for the reminder OceanaMan, but the shopping space is still called Amphi Plaza and it is diagnolly across from Mario's Pizza in the present day.
I would say I lived in that area approximately 20 years after you did Musicfreeq. Coronado may not have been there or simply known as another name. I didn't go in very often because I remember it being kind of expensive and they did not offer the Thirstbuster that Circle K offered. I think it was Thirstbuster, comparable to the 7-11 Big Gulp. I could do grocery shopping at Smith's on First and Roger or another grocery store located at Oracle and Ft. Lowell.
The Amphi Apartments are on Stone; a little bit south of Prince. There were a few separate buildings with multiple units. There is currently a grocery store in the Amphi Plaza called Food City. It is unlikely that is the same store you shopped, but probably the same retail space.
It is tough to determine if there are apartment complexes in the 200 West block of Limberlost, especially if they are set back as you said. It looks like townhouses on the south side of Limberlost and retail space on the north. This would be between Oracle and Stone.
Hi again, O-Man! Long time, no hear! We're having fun here, going on about where we lived, as you can see! That's so funny that you lived on that tiny street, too - who'd have thought? We've got 3 great minds going here! Hah! Blacklidge also sounds familiar - could it have lead to Cherry, where my GF lived? The Prince Garden Apts: sound like where my younger sister lived in '76. OR the AMPHI ones: I know she was close to home, but I also remember they had a pool where she lived. ?? This is the sibling who worked at the DQ on Prince in the mid 70's: I have a pic of her wearing a navy blue uniform, trimmed in red, and a funny little cap! Sound familiar?? Were Lester and Copper anywhere near the University? My GF lived near the U of A and we would walk around hanging near the frat houses - a fave pastime of my adventurous friend")
I am SO wishing I had an old street map of Tucson: I am thinking seriously of getting on eBay to track one down! Esp since Google maps, as azmemories has said, didn't exist back then - poopy damn! And I googled Coronado Market: they set up shop in 1980 so I missed shopping there, darn it!
O-Man: Did you think about the grocery store in Amphi Plaza? It's bugging me now, and I want to remember it's name - I'm pretty sure it wasn't the A & P, which is where we shopped in Michigan, prior to moving to Tucson I think azmemories is saying that it is Food City now, and I think it's the same space that the old grocer's was in.
I vaguely remember something about the accident at the Jr. High but did not know anyone there at the time. From 1962 to 1964, I was at Sacred Heart for junior high. I do remember an explosion at a dry cleaners plant around that time and radio/TV news reports stating that "Father Laurentian may or may not be among the dead," freaking us out since he was the pastor of Sacred Heart. It later came to pass, that he had gone to the site to administer last rites to those who were critically injured or died in the accident. Do you remember that one? You may have been a little young for that one, since you are a couple years younger than me
OK, guys, I am SO excited: I went directly to eBay and found a Texaco street map of Tucson from 1969 and bought it! I will have something to look at now when we talk about these places and maybe it will make more sense:
The rarity of these things makes me realize that I should not have tossed out all the old AAA maps from the early 80's when I remarried and we took trips - before the last 2 kids Oh, well - you can't win 'em all
OK, guys, I am SO excited: I went directly to eBay and found a Texaco street map of Tucson from 1969 and bought it! I will have something to look at now when we talk about these places and maybe it will make more sense:
The rarity of these things makes me realize that I should not have tossed out all the old AAA maps from the early 80's when I remarried and we took trips - before the last 2 kids Oh, well - you can't win 'em all
Musicfreeq, I definitely appreciate you looking up Coronado. It seems there may be yet another mystery. According to Manta, the grocer was in fact established in 1980 as you said. Yet, somebody on Yelp claims that it was around since the 50s! They go on to say it burned down and was re-built.
I would provide the URL, but I am not sure that is allowed.
There is a good possibility they are thinking of another store since Yelp is very unofficial. I was thinking that their sign back in the late 80s looked like it was from the Depression era
Just out of curiosity and to check of memory ( I googled the dry cleaner accident: Lo and behold, the 50th anniversary of it was 2013! So it was in the middle of my time in junior high as I thought! And it was HUGE and tragic. 7 people were killed, the facility was demolished and TG&E (power provider at the time) was sued for a gas leak/
You can google Dry Cleaner Plant explosion: Tucson, 60's and get the AZ Daily Star anniversary write-up. O-Man, unfortunately, I could not find anything along those lines about the Jr. H.S. explosion
Yeah, I'm pretty excited about the map: I'll be hanging it on my office wall and getting colored pushpins to designate our landmarks! hah!
Did anyone here one this blog every figure out if we can Personal Message another blogger? TonyBaloneyToys thought there was a way, too. I hate to be so paranoid, but after several incidents of credit card fraud last year, I'm less trusting than I used to be. Sad state of affairs, these days, isn't it? And where is the original poster? Can the Stonemason man be contacted? Being more of a newbie on here, I don't know any mods or administrators - do you guys?
Just out of curiosity and to check of memory ( I googled the dry cleaner accident: Lo and behold, the 50th anniversary of it was 2013! So it was in the middle of my time in junior high as I thought! And it was HUGE and tragic. 7 people were killed, the facility was demolished and TG&E (power provider at the time) was sued for a gas leak/
You can google Dry Cleaner Plant explosion: Tucson, 60's and get the AZ Daily Star anniversary write-up. O-Man, unfortunately, I could not find anything along those lines about the Jr. H.S. explosion
Yeah, I'm pretty excited about the map: I'll be hanging it on my office wall and getting colored pushpins to designate our landmarks! hah!
Did anyone here one this blog every figure out if we can Personal Message another blogger? TonyBaloneyToys thought there was a way, too. I hate to be so paranoid, but after several incidents of credit card fraud last year, I'm less trusting than I used to be. Sad state of affairs, these days, isn't it? And where is the original poster? Can the Stonemason man be contacted? Being more of a newbie on here, I don't know any mods or administrators - do you guys?
I just sent you a personal message Musicfreeq. Take note of the picture and look at the top right of your screen when logged in. You should have at least one unread direct message.
azmemories: TY for the tip; I have PM'd AZPostmaster and he now has the name of my dad.
And O-Man: Were there many trailer courts over there around Flowing Wells, north of Roger Rd.? I ask, because I realize that my brother, 4 yrs. younger than I, lived in a trailer park in that vicinity, in the early 70-'s. He was renting one, with a cousin, not far from the high school. And my GF who lived over in that direction lived on Fairview not Fairmont as I called it before, along with her 6 sibs, and near her numerous cousins, several of who made up half of Amphi's football team from 63 to 67.
If you ever checked your annual, you prob'ly already know who I am and you could see all the boys we would go to watch play every Friday nite. I was never into football but would tag along in order to attend the dances afterwards - the music was always my thing The only sport I ever followed was gymnastics, because I has several guy buds on our team. One of my best friends was a year behind me and would have been a junior when you were a sophomore. His older brother was on the team as well; sometimes only 5 or 6 of us would show up at the meets, which was a shame, because, to me, they were amazingly strong and athletic. I recall Amphi having a pretty decent team, too.
Did you ride the bus to school? When I lived at home on W. Calle Siglo, we would catch the bus - at either the corner of Oracle & Roger or Oracle & Limberlost - we were about 3 streets closer to Limberlost. There would be a fair amount of horsing around on the bus but fun. I rode home with my mom, who worked in the school office. If Mom worked late, we would take the bus, get off at Roger Rd and go in this little hole-in-the-wall corner store called Mayfield's to get some candy with any leftover lunch money Mayfield was a cranky old geezer who would let you go behind the counter to select your candy but watch you like a hawk. It didn't dawn on me at the time that there were prob'ly kids who would swipe some!
I could never get away with much 'cause Mom would hear about it: either from Mr. DePascal, Mr. Rose or that witch, Beeghley. My French teacher, Mrs. Farrell, was super cool and even Mr. D was a pretty good guy. My senior year, I pretty much always got a ride from either friends with cars (rare) and ultimately my BF. Old Chevies were cool and a classmate drove a newer Mustang, which was like the ultimate set of dream wheels, back in the day.
The Coronado market at SE corner of Stone-Ft Lowell was indeed from the late 40s or 50s. My parents who lived near Leos Auto supply at Stone-Glenn, shopped at Coronado Market or as they called it "Bud Goods" Bud was the owner. The north end of the building was a small upholstery shop, that is what burned, the rest of the building survived and was eventually bought by a Vietnamese family and remodeled. It continues in business.
The name of the grocery store in Amphi Plaza, at least when I was little, was "Luckys".
The DQ at Prince-Stone was owned/operated by my parents friends, Joe and Mavis Albers. Still operated by their daughter. Joe had by far the best ice cream of any local DQ, he must have richened the mix.
Back when, there were a couple BIG swanky houses along the north side of Yavapai, before the high school expanded over them.
I may have mentioned it before, but when I was 5-6ish, as they were putting Paul Bunyan together, before standing him upright, I was allowed to crawl up inside him to his head! Leo Toia the owner (and father of Dons Hotrod Shop owner) was another of my Dads buddies. Anybody else remember buying reconstituted motor oil or reconditioned spark plugs or get this... living water lillies at Leos Auto Supply??? Keith
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Anyone familiar with these places?
