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In the middle fifties, when I was in grade school, I took accordion lessons from Sheldon Swain. He chewed gum incessantly and he had a brother who played the drums. His father sold accordions, and my mother bought me a big one--red, I think.
We took lessons at his house or his family's house in far northwest Phoenix, or Glendale, or unincorporated.
We gave a concert at the Encanto Park bandshell and I had to play Song of Spring and I was a nervous wreck. Wouldn't you know--when the audience voted by applause, I was one of the finalists and I had to play the thing over. It was a very long afternoon. I flubbed the second playing of Song of Spring and finished last. The owl was flying low.
We also gave a concert at Gomper's Memorial Clinic up by the old Jungle Park Zoo.
You never know, Roosevelt, maybe we made great music together and we just forgot all about it. I wonder what happened to Sheldon Swain and the brother. Anyway, that hot afternoon at the bandshell....if it had been a movie filming, it would not be quite correct to say that no young accordionists were harmed. I did everything but soil my pants before that afternoon turned into evening, and the ducks went to the island.
Shortly thereafter, I put aside my souped-up open-go-shut and left the
art to Myron Floren and Mr. Welk.
Ah Sheldon Swain. I graduated from high school with Sheldon, Jr. I loved Encanto Park. I swam every day in the summer, (sun bunny days, still having stuff burned off my body from those tans) spent glorious evenings at the Shell watching the shows. Remember the little amusement park over the bridge? Renting canoes was a lot of fun unless some show off kid decided to tip the boat.
OH, Thank you for that quite wonderful post card of the Phoenix Drive In Theatre. I never thought I'd see that again. I was awed as a kid by the neon of course, and the art deco of it (didn't the eyelashes flutter??) or is that my imagination working over time. There was a mom & pop ice cream joint next door to it on the drive-ins left side, that my dad drove us kids out to. It was a big treat and we would sit outside and just stare at the 'neon lady'. What a treat to see it again.
Say I went to Emerson, too. Graduated in 1956. I have the Emerson Herald Senior Edition still. I just sent a copy of it to another Emerson graduate that found me on-line. Do you remember Miss Ogelsby, the music teacher. She was my favorite teacher of all time. I went on to North High for 1956-57. Then to Camelback graduating 1960. What if we knew each other somewhere along the way? Never know, its a small world...
I remember the Indian, too. Wonderful neon. Just terrific memories...
In the 40s I can remember driving with my parents clear over to East Van Buren to see the 2 movies at the Drive Inn Theater. Hot muggy nights, windows all rolled down and it was common to put a blanket down on the mounds or lay on the hood. The speakers were on a post and hung on the car window.
I remember driving to the Alligator Farm which was on the east side just before the Tempe Bridge. We swam at the pool at the other end of that bridge. We drove to Apache Junction to see "the zoo"....(a snicker for this days zoo standards) There were huge gaps of land between Phoenix, Tempe and AJ back then. Now it is one long line of population.
We moved here in '66. As far as I can remember, no, there wasn't a time when blacks & whites weren't allowed to live together. Mainly, I think where you lived was a matter of what you could afford.
Asians / Mexicans and Blacks were all segregated at one time -before the turn of the century and well beyond. I've seen maps at the historical societies showing street boundries which these folks were forbidden to cross without a specific purpose such as being a servant or making deliveries.
Where Chase Field stands now was the Chinese area. Remember back then the whole city was just a few square miles.
Roosevelt -you were alive at the turn of the century right? Help us out here.
Carver High School educated the blacks and during my high school year, Carver was closed and the students were sent to all other schools. I remember being in Woolworths Five and Dime (my first summer job) and there was a separate area for blacks to stand and eat. Segregation was very much alive in the 50s.
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Originally Posted by jack swilling In the middle fifties, when I was in grade school, I took accordion lessons from Sheldon Swain. He chewed gum incessantly and he had a brother who played the drums. His father sold accordions, and my mother bought me a big one--red, I think.
We took lessons at his house or his family's house in far northwest Phoenix, or Glendale, or unincorporated.
We gave a concert at the Encanto Park bandshell and I had to play Song of Spring and I was a nervous wreck. Wouldn't you know--when the audience voted by applause, I was one of the finalists and I had to play the thing over. It was a very long afternoon. I flubbed the second playing of Song of Spring and finished last. The owl was flying low.
We also gave a concert at Gomper's Memorial Clinic up by the old Jungle Park Zoo.
You never know, Roosevelt, maybe we made great music together and we just forgot all about it. I wonder what happened to Sheldon Swain and the brother. Anyway, that hot afternoon at the bandshell....if it had been a movie filming, it would not be quite correct to say that no young accordionists were harmed. I did everything but soil my pants before that afternoon turned into evening, and the ducks went to the island.
Shortly thereafter, I put aside my souped-up open-go-shut and left the
art to Myron Floren and Mr. Welk.
Ah Sheldon Swain. I graduated from high school with Sheldon, Jr. I loved Encanto Park. I swam every day in the summer, (sun bunny days, still having stuff burned off my body from those tans) spent glorious evenings at the Shell watching the shows. Remember the little amusement park over the bridge? Renting canoes was a lot of fun unless some show off kid decided to tip the boat.
Sheldon's little brother was named Chuckie I think. The blond singer in the combo was Pat Thorson from Scottsdale High School. Much later, Sheldon owned those two Pullman Pie dining cars, one on Bethany Home and the other on Camelback. After that he got into a lot of trouble because he was in the used tire business by the airport and the huge pile caught on fire and burned for weeks.
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Last edited by roosevelt; 05-07-2011 at 12:57 PM..
Anyone remember the 1983 tent city, not the jail, that was located a few blocks from the state capitol? There was a city renewal program that shut down most of the missions, soup kitchens and cheap hotels by intending to open up services in other parts of town but it didn't happen and tent city sprung up. I remember it was under some structure with pillars and a chain link fence. The homeless were streaming in and building shacks out of cardboard, plastic, tin and cloth. Lots of shopping carts. It was on a one way street, perhaps Washington. It was abruptly closed after some incident.
Tent City was located on 9th Ave between Madison and Jefferson St's. Directly across from St Vincent de Paul's charity soup kitchen ("Vinnies"). The city did open a homeless shelter at the NE corner of 9th Ave and Jackson, across from the Farmer Johns warehouse, that assisted some at TC, but there was always the rebel homeless and Tent City lasted a little longer. Phoenix City Hall finally had enough and evicted the TC residents off the lot they occupied, brought in the dozers and leveled the area, makeshift tents, boxes and all. I do remember Cheryl Parker from KPNX out there doing a live shot. She was a petite thing.
From the Nashua (New Hampshire) Telegraph, as filed by the Los Angeles Times, March 19, 1983.
Unless my senile dementia is acting up, I recall that in the 60's Pete of Pete's Fish & Chips used to live on Osborn near 50th St, just a few blocks from my childhood home. There was a big fishing boat parked in the driveway along with a truck that had "There Goes Pete!" painted on the side. It always made me think he personally caught all the fish served at his drive-ins. In about 1987 or so, Pete was killed by somebody who wanted to steal his coin collection. I was called for the (very large) jury pool in the murder trial, but didn't serve on the jury. I'm pretty sure the defendant was convicted.
BTW Yukon, I went to Tavan about the same time you were at Kachina (but I'm a few years older, hence the senile dementia!). Our two schools were sort of rivals, but shared a band director named Chuck Walker, a really neat guy. He would have us marching around the neighborhood streets for weeks every year, practicing for the Scottsdale Parada del Sol. I wonder what the residents thought of having grade school kids blasting away on their instruments at breakfast time! At least we were ready for the parade, which was even televised locally in those days. I played a baritone sax that was about 4 inches taller than I was.
Thanks to Arizona Mike for the old postcards. Every one is a nostalgia trip (even though nostalgia isn't what it used to be!). I remember well the Tower Plaza Guggy's. Another childhood favorite restaurant was Gene's Broiler Buffet in Scottsdale--hamburgers grilled to order as you went through the line, homemade pies, and individual-size earthenware pots of baked beans. My buddy and I would pedal our bikes out the Arizona Canal bank to the Fifth Avenue area, visit the Wax Museum (Western settlers scalped by Indians! Lincoln shot by John Wilkes Booth!!), then eat lunch at Gene's; quite the Saturday adventure for us little squirts.
Yukon: You spoke of a mexican restaurant near your house. I bet it was the Tee Pee Tap Room at 41St & Indian School Road. The food was fantastic. The drive-in must have been The Mustang Drive_In, didn't it have a neon horse on the front? It was on Thomas in the 56th area, I think. I remember all that you spoke of, too.
I posted this in another thread, but I'll go ahead and post it here as well.
I remember my parents had a neighbor and his wife, they both worked in downtown Phoenix in one of those office buildings from the 1920's until he retired in the mid or late 1950's, and his wife retired in the early 1960's. They both passed on sometime in the mid and late 1970's, but he used to tell us about how he and his wife used to get off work during the holidays and do their Christmas shopping downtown after getting paid, they didn't have to drive all over the valley because downtown was the center of everything back then. He also told us if you went past 19th Ave & Camelback in the 1940's, you'd be out in the boonies! Imagine that!
I remember this all very well. Downtown Phoenix WAS where we shopped. I moved to Flagstaff in 1955 just after high school, and one time when I came to Phoenix to shop, I was totally surprised at the new concept of a "shopping mall" which was at Central and Earll..... Park Central. I love my fond memories of hopping a bus to go downtown to shop. I am so old that I remember well the old JC Penny store with the escalator to the basement, JJ Newberrys and FW Woorthworths, the Indians beading on the corner of Central and Washington in front of Walgreens... Then JCPenneys built that fancy department store with that awesome winding around parking garage.
My first summer job was at Woolworths at the notions counter. Money would go into a chute that went upstairs to the bookkeeping department.
Yukon: You spoke of a mexican restaurant near your house. I bet it was the Tee Pee Tap Room at 41St & Indian School Road. The food was fantastic. The drive-in must have been The Mustang Drive_In, didn't it have a neon horse on the front? It was on Thomas in the 56th area, I think. I remember all that you spoke of, too.
The Scottsdale drive-in was the Roundup on Thomas just west of Scottsdale Rd. The Mustang Drive-in was located in Chandler at Ray Rd and Arizona Ave. Both had neon horses, but the Roundup was a cowboy with a lasso on a horse I do believe.
The Scottsdale drive-in was the Roundup on Thomas just west of Scottsdale Rd. The Mustang Drive-in was located in Chandler at Ray Rd and Arizona Ave. Both had neon horses, but the Roundup was a cowboy with a lasso on a horse I do believe.
The Round Up had a giant smiling cowboy standing, with a huge curled western hat; his arm pointing at the Round Up sign above the marquee. No horse, sorry.
I remember this all very well. Downtown Phoenix WAS where we shopped. I moved to Flagstaff in 1955 just after high school, and one time when I came to Phoenix to shop, I was totally surprised at the new concept of a "shopping mall" which was at Central and Earll..... Park Central. I love my fond memories of hopping a bus to go downtown to shop. I am so old that I remember well the old JC Penny store with the escalator to the basement, JJ Newberrys and FW Woorthworths, the Indians beading on the corner of Central and Washington in front of Walgreens... Then JCPenneys built that fancy department store with that awesome winding around parking garage.
My first summer job was at Woolworths at the notions counter. Money would go into a chute that went upstairs to the bookkeeping department.
I used to go into the old Penneys store before they built the newer one, it was on Washington just west of Walgreens. There were wooden floors and an exit to Central behind Walgreens. Before that, and my time, Penney's used to be about 3rd Avenue and Washington.
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