How do you remember Phoenix? Stories from long time residents... (Casa Grande: engineers, compared)

[desertskies]

Originally Posted by aviator7777

No one I believe has mentioned te huge dust storms that used to roll thru the Phoenix area back in the 70's with great regularlity. They got fewer and fewer as the Valley developed of course. We used to get some real blinding dust storms on the west side... followed by those 83 rain drops the size of quarters we call a rain storm that would mess up the cars... gag.

Those storms would rock! Try to describe one to someone not familiar with them would be almost futile until you produced a pic, showing the length and height of the dust wall.
One storm that stands out is the Scottsdale tornado from June, 1972.
Standing on Pima Rd at Chaparral Rd, I noticed how dark the sky was looking out over the Pima Reservation to the east. DARK! The quietness of the area. Not even a dog was barking. Few minutes later, the dust storm came through and then the rain. HEAVY rain. Not too long later we found what had happened in North Scottsdale. Driving there was nuts, especially at the Indian Bend Wash. Cocopah Elementary School was the designated shelter. Unless you lived in the area, Scottsdale P-D would not let you in (keeping out the sight see'ers).

I must point out, it was not a tornado on the scale of recent storms in the South, but a twister none-the-less.

[dgsaz1950]

Originally Posted by Chrisxxx

Smitty's Big Town/Marketplace, founded in 1964 by Clyde Smith, grew to 18 Arizona locations, 28 total by 1999, purchased by Smith's in 1996, grocery store that also sold a wide variety of non-grocery products
Smith's Food and Drug, purchased 28 Smitty's Supermarkets in 1996 from Los Angeles-based Yucapia, Smith's merged with Fred Meyer in 1997, Arizona stores re-branded Fry's or Fry's Marketplace, Fred Meyer acquired by Kroger in 1999

The building that housed the original Smitty's at 16th Street and Buckeye Road is being renovated to be used by the United States Customs and Immigration Service. After being closed for over 15 years it has been gutted and retrofit as an "adaptive reuse project".

There are about 20,000 square feet left undeveloped at the north end. This includes the Smitty's restaurant and a number of smaller retail spaces fronting Buckeye Road.

Speaking of Smitty's restaurants. Who didn't love going to Smitty's for $3.00 steak and eggs for breakfast? What a deal!!!

dgsaz

[baby sinister]

Originally Posted by dgsaz1950

The building that housed the original Smitty's at 16th Street and Buckeye Road is being renovated to be used by the United States Customs and Immigration Service. After being closed for over 15 years it has been gutted and retrofit as an "adaptive reuse project".

There are about 20,000 square feet left undeveloped at the north end. This includes the Smitty's restaurant and a number of smaller retail spaces fronting Buckeye Road.

Speaking of Smitty's restaurants. Who didn't love going to Smitty's for $3.00 steak and eggs for breakfast? What a deal!!!

dgsaz

I've driven passed there many times and wondered what they were doing. They've set up a temporary fence around the place.

[baby sinister]

Originally Posted by aviator7777

Anyone that lived in Phoenix remember the "bluebird of happy news" on UHF channel KNXV 15?

I remember that...they also mentioned something about UHF meaning "Ultra High Flight". lol

[Chrisxxx]

Originally Posted by aviator7777

No one I believe has mentioned te huge dust storms that used to roll thru the Phoenix area back in the 70's with great regularlity. They got fewer and fewer as the Valley developed of course. We used to get some real blinding dust storms on the west side... followed by those 83 rain drops the size of quarters we call a rain storm that would mess up the cars... gag.

I remember them well. One day, the family went on a Sunday drive up to Flagstaff as we often did during the summer. We left all the windows wide open so it would circulate air while we were gone. Well, there was a really nasty dust storm while we were gone and when we got home thick dust was hanging in the air. It was awful!!! We never did that again. duh!

[SluggoF16]

Originally Posted by aviator7777

No one I believe has mentioned te huge dust storms that used to roll thru the Phoenix area back in the 70's with great regularlity. They got fewer and fewer as the Valley developed of course. We used to get some real blinding dust storms on the west side... followed by those 83 rain drops the size of quarters we call a rain storm that would mess up the cars... gag.

I lived near the Rez and the dust storms would completely foul our pool. At the YMCA where I worked it was worse, the day after required extensive sweeping and vacuuming with the dirt on the bottom, not to mention the paper and plastic, the cans, and the occasional desert broom.

[Chrisxxx]

Originally Posted by desertskies

Those storms would rock! Try to describe one to someone not familiar with them would be almost futile until you produced a pic, showing the length and height of the dust wall.
One storm that stands out is the Scottsdale tornado from June, 1972.
Standing on Pima Rd at Chaparral Rd, I noticed how dark the sky was looking out over the Pima Reservation to the east. DARK! The quietness of the area. Not even a dog was barking. Few minutes later, the dust storm came through and then the rain. HEAVY rain. Not too long later we found what had happened in North Scottsdale. Driving there was nuts, especially at the Indian Bend Wash. Cocopah Elementary School was the designated shelter. Unless you lived in the area, Scottsdale P-D would not let you in (keeping out the sight see'ers).

I must point out, it was not a tornado on the scale of recent storms in the South, but a twister none-the-less.

Tornados are so fascinating. Too bad people sometimes live in their paths.

[SluggoF16]

Originally Posted by desertskies

Those storms would rock! Try to describe one to someone not familiar with them would be almost futile until you produced a pic, showing the length and height of the dust wall.
One storm that stands out is the Scottsdale tornado from June, 1972.
Standing on Pima Rd at Chaparral Rd, I noticed how dark the sky was looking out over the Pima Reservation to the east. DARK! The quietness of the area. Not even a dog was barking. Few minutes later, the dust storm came through and then the rain. HEAVY rain. Not too long later we found what had happened in North Scottsdale. Driving there was nuts, especially at the Indian Bend Wash. Cocopah Elementary School was the designated shelter. Unless you lived in the area, Scottsdale P-D would not let you in (keeping out the sight see'ers).

I must point out, it was not a tornado on the scale of recent storms in the South, but a twister none-the-less.

I clearly remember that storm, it was up in the vicinity of McCormick Ranch... seemed too close to where I lived (82nd and Camelback area). Here in Tornado Alley we are "Red Dirt Ready", not so much in the Phoenix area. There were other tornadoes as well, in 1971 there was one a couple weeks after we started school. My science teacher told us he wasn't sure how that happened, "We have all these mountains around here to block the twisters." I was thinking about this a few weeks ago as we entered our "Fifth Season", and found on this ASU site a history of tornadic activity in the Valley. A lot of what was called tornadic winds may have actually been straight-line winds (we had 90 mph straight-lines here in SW OK on Thursday night) from thunderstorms.

This afternoon I was driving back from OKC and passed the May 24th damage... looks a lot like the damage of the posted June 1972 damage. Nothing like May 3rd, 1999 which obliterated my brother-in-law's place (he sold it 8 months earlier, fortunately).

The higher-base clouds of the desert storms often mean less damaging and smaller tornadoes. Ironically, the only tornado I've ever seen on the ground was in Tucson in the mid 90s. Only seen funnels here since 2003.

While somewhat off-topic, most people find these fascinating; the picture is from 24 May 2011, from Moore, OK, taken by my brother-in-law when he should have been in his cellar!

[Chrisxxx]

Originally Posted by dgsaz1950

The building that housed the original Smitty's at 16th Street and Buckeye Road is being renovated to be used by the United States Customs and Immigration Service. After being closed for over 15 years it has been gutted and retrofit as an "adaptive reuse project".

There are about 20,000 square feet left undeveloped at the north end. This includes the Smitty's restaurant and a number of smaller retail spaces fronting Buckeye Road.

Speaking of Smitty's restaurants. Who didn't love going to Smitty's for $3.00 steak and eggs for breakfast? What a deal!!!

dgsaz

United States Customs and Immigration Service? Is this new to Arizona or are they just moving into a larger facility?

[dgsaz1950]

Originally Posted by Chrisxxx

United States Customs and Immigration Service? Is this new to Arizona or are they just moving into a larger facility?

Relocation and expansion. It's part of the GSA shuffle.

dgsaz