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

[roosevelt]

Westdale strip mall was on 35th and Van Buren. I used to go to the Westdale Cinema 4 theaters and park in the parking lot with my Mercedes 300SL Gullwing, no one ever bothered it. The first Thrifty Drugstore also open there in the 60's. I think developers thought the aluminum plant would cause the area to boom but just the opposite happened. By the 90's some of the most awful apartments and trailer parks in Arizona were clustered in the area. Even the thrift stores moved out.

[West Phx Native]

Originally Posted by made in china

Is that the one that made the air stink so bad? I remember when I was a kid, going from Mesa to Phoenix where you'd get onto the Black Canyon, man it stand bad. I also heard that may have been a Phelps copper making all that stink?

No, that was the Capitol complex..............Thank you, thank you, I'm here till Tuesday, try the veal.......

[jack swilling]

Originally Posted by West Phx Native

the Reynolds plant was built during WWII. Part of it was saved from the wrecking ball and is still in use.

I had the good fortune to work at the Reynold's Metals aluminum extrusion plant as a lab technician for a few years beginning in 1967.

I understood that it was built during WWII and that the U.S. government (War Department?) owned it and commissioned Alcoa to administrate it, hence the name Alzona (Al for Alcoa and zona for Arizona) for that part of town. I remember the sign by the toilets in the men's bathroom in the lab building which said, "Use one tissue only. Or do without," referring to economy of use of toilet tissue.

When the war ended and the government began to sell war properties, the government gave Alcoa the first crack at buying the plant. Alcoa turned it down, Reynolds snapped it up, and Alcoa always regretted passing.

It was an extrusion plant and this meant that for many orders the job could be done on site. The aluminum alloy could be prepared in the furnaces of the cast house, then the alloy metal could be poured right out of the furnaces into the casts (molds) and allowed to dry. This was great, especially for things like rocket tubing.

During Vietnam we worked three shifts a day, seven days a week, pouring metal for many things, especially for rocket tubes, nuclear submarines, and ballistic missiles. In the lab we tested--almost real-time throughout the preparation of the metal--by emission spectroscopy, physical testing, wet analysis, and ultrasonics.

In the earlier days, there was a diagonal road which ran from the southwest corner of 35th Avenue and West Van Buren southwest to the
cast house and other plant buildings. It was used before my time, as were the railroad tracks.

Reynold's was known for its good treatment of its employees--not perfect treatment, but very good. According to professional analysts, in the 50s and 60s, the Reynold's Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurance for employees was second best only to the District of Columbia's Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurance. I did not know when I had it good.

Working at Reynolds was the most fun we could have with our clothes on.
And, to this very day, I am not certain whether it is Reynolds or Reynold's.
I guess Reynold's and Alcoa merged, and that it is Alcoa now, so maybe the question of the apostrophe is academic.

[roosevelt]

Originally Posted by jack swilling

working at reynolds was the most fun we could have with our clothes on.
And, to this very day, i am not certain whether it is reynolds or reynold's.
I guess reynold's and alcoa merged, and that it is alcoa now, so maybe the question of the apostrophe is academic.

[observer53]

And besides that, it's Reynolds Wrap, not Reynold's Wrap.

[cvsgnw]

Originally Posted by Rose Laner

It was the jungle park. Next to the jungle park pet shop. Right down the street from Sureway Market

Are you refering to the one on 7th St by Rose LAne?

[cvsgnw]

Originally Posted by billyincaneyville

I remember shooting the flumes when I was about 13-14 years old, but can't for the life of me remember exactly where it was at. It was in the Agua Fria river bed down south or west of Peoria I do believe. I know it wasn't the one towards Lake Pleasant. The reason the flumes there were elevated is because of it crossing the river. It's been a very long time, but I know you were going so fast in the water that you stood straight up and your feet wouldn't touch the bottom of the flume. When you were ready to get out, simply reach above your head and grab a steel beam and pull yourself up. I can remember climbing up at one spot to find I was about 30 feet off the ground. Had to drop back in and go further down to another spot! Now that I look back, it was really stupid! Especially since I couldn't swim.

I used to go there when I was about 16. Occassionally a dead dog or cat or who knows what would be in there with us. It terminated at a large pool and head gate. Swimming in irrigation was very popular althought it was supposed to be very dirty water and could make you sick. I never got sick or ever heard of anyone getting sick from it. We used to play in it when our yards would get flooded by it. Dad would go to the "sign-up" board and get on the list to receive to water. It could come any time of night or day. Usually daytime so we had a large lake right in our yard - for about an 1/2 hour.

[cvsgnw]

Originally Posted by azfrybaby

I lived at Stage 7 untill it turned into the VIP Club. Went by the name of Frenchy. Vince (Alice) was to young to go inside but we would chat during intermission. I sang there once. Found out I couldn't sing on key if the band was so loud I couldn't hear my voice. Mike, Gilbert on the drums, Larry Ricard and Ray Danell who sang and acted like Elvis. Walk Don't Run was their theme song. Rocky Rose, great dancer. Who knows I might have known you. Great times. Nothing like it since. The Nite Life on 59th and Indian School That was in the late 70s early 80s. Mike Metco played there. They had an Old Geezer gathering at the Rythem Room a few years back and I saw many of the older players. Jack Curtis and Frank Fafara (The Golden One) were there andf one of the guys from Phil and the Frantics. Great times. I also remember that Jack started another club called Stage 7 again but it just didn't fly.

Did you know a kid from Sunnyslope by the name of Stan Butcher? He was a drummer with a band that one the Battle of the Bands on year. He took the money and opened a club on the east side. I was away in the Coast Gaurd and missed it. I heard that he commited suicide or ODed or something. Know anything about that?

[cvsgnw]

Originally Posted by Westside Willie

Ask and ye shall receive: Frank Phil & Alice.

Please tell us what Alice was like as a teen.

I know he used to go to Cortez High -

[cvsgnw]

Originally Posted by Westside Willie

Ask and ye shall receive: Frank Phil & Alice.

Please tell us what Alice was like as a teen.

Originally Posted by Magnum Mike

Ah yes, Fountain Hills. My parents took us out there a few times in the early 1970's and my father drove on Shea Blvd, which had NOTHING east of Scottsdale Rd. Also, Scottsdale Rd and Shea was considered "the boonies" up until the mid 1980's.

I remember the Super Chicken cartoons and I slightly remember commercials by SRP or APS that were promoting all electric homes, as well as the heat pump tehcnology, which was new in the early 1970's.

I also remember when Christown Mall (Now Spectrum Mall) opened in 1961. There wasn't much north of it. When Metro Center opened in late 1973, at the time there wasn't much around it back then.

I remember Goldwater's department stores, which were owned by the Goldwater family, they had a store in Park Central mall, one in Scottsdale Fashion Square in the early 1960's, then another one opened in 1973, when Metro Center opened.

I also remember seeing Wallace and Ladmo and Gerald at Thomas Mall sometime around the middle of June of 1968.

I also remember the 5 TV stations we had back then, and their network affiliates. Channel 3 was KTVK, ABC's affiliate, Channel 5 was KPHO, it was independant back then, Channel 10 was KOOL, CBS's affiliate, and Channel 12 was KTAR, NBC's affiliate. PBS has been channel 8 here for as long as I can remember.

Glendale, Mesa and Chandler were farming communities. Up until the late 1980's, El Mirage and Surprise were the type of towns you could drive by on Grand Ave, and miss if you blinked!

Like many other natives, I'm sure we all agree on the urban sprawl we saw starting sometime around the mid or late 1980's, and ignored downtown Phoenix. I also remember in 1970, when the 40-story Chase Tower (Valley Bank Tower back then) was under construction, my father and I walked by the site when it was a big hole in the ground. To this day, it's still the tallest building in Arizona.

I was born in 1948. My father and uncle became builders after the war. (Wilson and VanSant). They built several landmarks in Phoenix and started several current names on their way to success. In their early days they built small track homes that a returning Vet could buy with very little $ down. Dad built our first home at N.16th Ave and Marlette then in the mid 50's another at 711 W. Flynn Lane. Other places you may remember; The Copper Belle resturant, Fry's groceries, some Bayless stores, The Graham Movie studio (they made a TV show called Broken Arrow, The Dick Van Dyke Show and a movie called Zabriski Point. Dad had to build fullsize replica of a home (up on the side of the mountain to the left of Carefree as you go North) to blow up at the end of the movie. File:Zabriskie point antonioni 01.png - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia That was really cool! They also built numerous apartments and custom homes all over the valley. They built one of the first homes on the side of Camelback Mountain by Echo Canyon. That was a real milestone too. We used to go for a drive on Sundays after church. ( He built Asbury Methodist, Cross Roads Methodist and Trinity Methodist Church ) We would drive out through the desert to where there were no roads and beyond. Dad would say, we're going to build a house here or buy this land. My mom and I would think he was crazy! Of course that was somewhere like Bell Rd. and 7th St. Urban Sprawl was described to me as visualizing a pebble tossed into a pool and watching the ripples go out from the center. That was Phoenix. Phoenix had great years of prosperity, it also had bad times. Dad said about every 7 years the building boom would get ahead of it's self and then prices would drop,no more work and so the tradesmen would leave town to find work elsewhere. Remember John F. Long? He was a pioneer, built a zillion homes. Homes got so over-produced they couldn't keep track of them. You could buy with NO MONEY DOWN or just sneak in and probably live there for months before you were noticed. Then there were the unions. Arizona is a right to work state. The unions tried to get into the residential areas of the trades. The strikes that resulted took down over two hunderd general contractors and put my dad out of business as well. So, in Phoenix you ride the ripple and keep moving further and further out, if you can afford it. Need proof? Just fly over the valley and have a look!