How do you remember Phoenix? Stories from long time residents... (Tempe: educational, bark)

[Westside Willie]

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

Here it is. We used to buy a CASE of Corona cans here for less than $5 back in 74-75 before the yuppies decided it was trendy. The brewers didn't waste any time running the price way up. Thanks yuppie scum!

[Magnum Mike]

Originally Posted by SluggoF16

Back in the day, when flying was affordable, Sky Harbor had two runways. Later the cross runway was replaced with two parallel runways, and flying was still affordable. One was north of the terminals (8L/26R) and one was south (8R/26L). When I flew in there in Cessna 150s, 152s and 172s in the late 70s, that was the runway numbering. There was an instrument landing system to the south runway, landing to the east (8R). When they added the south runway they eventually changed everything. I'm not sure when they adopted the current numbering and didn't use a left-center-right scheme such as at DFW, since all three are within 0.1 degrees of the same heading, but now the south two are left/right, and the north runway, formerly 8L/26R is, as Magnum mentioned, now a standalone 8/26. As the magnetic north pole shifts, maybe some day they'll renumber again. The same thing happened to Tucson International in the late 80s.

The ILS headings have always been 258, and 77 degrees, but heck Sky Harbor has perfect weather most of the time, you can fly in using VFR.

Terminal 2 opened in the early 1960s, I think 1961 or so, and it's still in operation, Terminal 3 opened in late 1979, and Terminal 4 opened in late 1990. If I remember correctly, when they tore down terminal 1, there were plans of replacing it with a new terminal for regional flights but nothing ever became of that.

[Westside Willie]

Originally Posted by aviator7777

I recall one day in 1991 or 1992 the actual air temperature reported at Phoenix Sky Harbor was a chilly 122F. The air temperature was so hot and off the performance charts for the Boeing aircraft at the airport, there were flight delays due to the "heat hold" from 2:00PM - 5:30PM until the air temperature dropped back into the maximum range of the charts for the aircraft. It made the news nationally that day. No one could believe it was that hot. Aerosols were popping in the storage shed outside on the carport. Crazy hot. Now thats a hot Phoenix day!!!!!

It was June 26, 1990. I was still a postman back then and yes...I was delivering my route that day. Our station (Sierra Adobe) at 19 Ave & Union Hills had T shirts made up to commemorate (?) the day.

Lake Havasu City, went to to 128 degrees on June 29, 1994.

Next time you feel like whining about how hot it is in Phoenix, imagine being a letter carrier, fire fighter, motorcycle cop (in black clothes) etc.
Out there all day - working.

[Knightime]

Originally Posted by roosevelt

A&W always had frosted mugs and the old style root beer before it was outlawed because the government said it caused cancer. The last good root beer was about 1960 as I remember, later it tasted, well, like it does now.

The commercial sale of sassafras, the tree that the root and bark was originally used to make root beer was restricted due to safrol, a chemical contained in the oil, being potentially carcinogenic and hepatoxic. Some people in rural areas still grow it and use it to make sassafras tea (it's legal to grow and use it for personal consumption, it just can't be sold commercially) although home made root beer is somewhat more rare. By some more recent estimates, the restriction was possibly a bit over zealous. And if the sassafras tea consumption in some parts of the south and midwest is any indication, it probably was.

[SluggoF16]

Originally Posted by Westside Willie

It was June 26, 1990. I was still a postman back then and yes...I was delivering my route that day. Our station (Sierra Adobe) at 19 Ave & Union Hills had T shirts made up to commemorate (?) the day.

Lake Havasu City, went to to 128 degrees on June 29, 1994.

Next time you feel like whining about how hot it is in Phoenix, imagine being a letter carrier, fire fighter, motorcycle cop (in black clothes) etc.
Out there all day - working.

At least as a lifeguard it was possible to cool off. It was remarkable to get out of the water on those 110+ days, and suddenly feel COLD when the dry breeze, if there was one, hit.

My delivery job in Phoenix in the early 80s involved those big compressed gas bottles, and a way to get them off the truck was to "hug" them while using one's legs to hoist them to the dolly and lift. Also the way to get them up a flight of stairs; they weighed about 125 lbs if full of nitrous oxide, a little less if full of oxygen. I learned the hard way that trying to maneuver a big steel cylinder that's been sitting in the Phoenix summer sun since 8 AM, and it's 2 PM now, is not a simple task when you're wearing short sleeves.

[Magnum Mike]

Originally Posted by Westside Willie

It was June 26, 1990. I was still a postman back then and yes...I was delivering my route that day. Our station (Sierra Adobe) at 19 Ave & Union Hills had T shirts made up to commemorate (?) the day.

Lake Havasu City, went to to 128 degrees on June 29, 1994.

Next time you feel like whining about how hot it is in Phoenix, imagine being a letter carrier, fire fighter, motorcycle cop (in black clothes) etc.
Out there all day - working.

I remember that day very well and I remember the funny t-shirts they had a couple of days after that.

I worked in north Scottsdale back then, at Scottsdale Airpark, there wasn't anything around there back then, just a few buildings, and I remember they told us we could leave early because the building's A/C system was starting to have problems; The office building was only 3 years old at the time.

I also remember driving home on Bell Road, and of course back then there was a lot of desert on both sides of the road, and I remember seeing a few vehicles that were on the side of the road because they were running too hot.

Coincidentally, about six months later in December of 1990, I think it was December 8th, we set a near record low. I remember waking up on a Sunday morning and a couple of hours after sunrise, I started hearing crashing noise outside. It was ice that was melting and falling off the roof of the apartment complex I lived in back then around 25th Ave & Greenway.

[_Charles_]

I remember that day too. I was working third shift in an IT area at Amex. I was in the office they had at 16th Street and Camelback back then. I remember waking up at my usual time in the afternoon and it was all over the radio. That evening when I drove into work - it was still 117.

[baby sinister]

Originally Posted by Westside Willie

Here it is. We used to buy a CASE of Corona cans here for less than $5 back in 74-75 before the yuppies decided it was trendy. The brewers didn't waste any time running the price way up. Thanks yuppie scum!

Sure would like to see a photo of Smitty's Big Town, perhaps back in the late to early 60's. I remember when they added the walk thru from Walgreens. Also when Western Auto and El Taco was on that corner as well. Pioneer Chicken was across the street on 16th st and the Smitty's bakery was across on Buckeye.

[baby sinister]

Originally Posted by SluggoF16

The Sears at 24th and Camelback seemed bigger than the others, maybe just a matter of perspective inside. Used to enjoy the catalogs, especially the Wish Book. I still have a Kenmore washer I bought in 1987, works as well as Day 1.

I worked at that Sears...it was my first P/T job in high school...I think it was '77-'78.

[Magnum Mike]

Originally Posted by baby sinister

Sure would like to see a photo of Smitty's Big Town, perhaps back in the late to early 60's. I remember when they added the walk thru from Walgreens. Also when Western Auto and El Taco was on that corner as well. Pioneer Chicken was across the street on 16th st and the Smitty's bakery was across on Buckeye.

I remember the Smitty's Big Town that was on 35th Ave & Bethany Home Road, that shopping center went through a lot of changes in recent years. There was a Valley Bank/Bank One branch at 35th Ave & Rose Lane, and when Smitty's closed down and the building was torn down and the Fred Meyer company put a new building there that was going to open about 6 or 7 years ago, but it never did. The new building was torn down when Walmart bought the property and they replaced it with the Walmart that's over there right now.