How do you remember Phoenix? Stories from long time residents... (Mesa: salvaged, most dangerous)

[ArizonaBear]

Originally Posted by Arizona Mike

I learned to swim at Perry Pool!

It's amazing how far we used to walk around town as teenagers before we could drive. I remember one summer evening in 1974 we were in high school but none of us had a license yet, when a bunch of us got a ride from someone's mom. She dropped us off around 5:00 pm at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, we went through there, lingering in the Chamber of Horrors area, then walked down Washington and across the Mill Avenue bridge over to the Valley Art movie theatre on Mill in Tempe, were unable to talk our way into an R-Rated movie, walked south down Mill Avenue to Monsterburgers and ate, walked the girls back to the home where they were going to have a slumber party near 44th and Oak and said goodbye (after sitting in their driveway and chatting endlessly until one of the girl's father came out and told us to go home), then we guys walked south down 44th Street to Van Buren and walked over to Bill Johnson's Big Apple, had apple pie a la mode while talking about which of the girls we liked the most, walked west down Van Buren (you could do that back then at night and not get shot), cut north up 32nd Street, went into the Circle K on 32nd and McDowell and hung around and looked at comic books (we weren't too old to be total geeks), walked west down McDowell (past Creighton, where we had all gone to elementary school together), and crashed for the night in an apartment where one of us lived with his dad near 24th Street at 3:00 in the morning, after more endless chatting in his room about everything under the sun, but mostly about girls. Back then, you could spend a night like that wandering all over town and our parents figured it was summer and we would probably be safe.

"Rest in peace, you age of innocence...you peaceful, long summer's night" - Rod Serling.

Sounds a bit like the stuff we did during that exact same time frame while I was still living outside of Wash DC

[roosevelt]

Here is the Big Apple way back when KTAR was still broadcasting from there. I remember lots of sawdust on the floors and the waitresses had real guns.
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[_Charles_]

Originally Posted by azfrybaby

Oh boy now we are in my territory. Cudia City. !950s TV western, "26 Men" Jack Curtis, known as the czar of Valley entertainment, branched into teen clubs in 1960 first setting up at the sound stage of Cudia City. Curtis Cudia City club only lasted about 90 days. His next venture was Stage 7 in 1961 and it was the teen hot spot in the early 60's. Many famous singers performed there and I was there every weekend. American Bandstand, Teen Beat, the best DJs, It was all about the music and dancing and cruising and clean fun. The radio stations were even set up at the State Fair in the late 50s early 60s with a dance platform where teens gathered to dance and visit. Brings a tear to my eye.

The movie Bus Stop with Marilyn Monroe was filmed in part at the old state fairgrounds in 1956. They used locals for extras. A friend of mine 3 years old at the time is in one of the audience shots.

[ArizonaBear]

Originally Posted by roosevelt

Here is the Big Apple way back when KTAR was still broadcasting from there. I remember lots of sawdust on the floors and the waitresses had real guns.
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Not sure if they are 'real' or not; but the waitresses today still carry wheelguns @ Bill Johnsons.

[AmeliaAvenue]

Originally Posted by twiggy

That's so funny!!! You are the only person I've heard of who remembers it.
I lived at that place after school for years. Remember those little wax bottles with the liquid in them. All that candy has been making a come back with my kids. Pop rocks and coke. lol Bang! Your stomach has now exploded. he he

I grew up in the Starlight Park area...just off of Indian School Rd. There was a U-Totem just up from the street I lived on (Amelia Ave.), corner of 83rd Ave and Indian School Rd. Everything past there and across Indian School Rd from my house was desert until about 1975-76. This was when they built a strip mall with a McDonald's on the other corner of 83rd and Indian School. I worked at the McDonald's while attending Trevor Browne HS. I was in the 5th or 6th graduating class from TGB in 1977. I returned for our 10 year class reunion and haven't been back to Phoenix since then. The other three corners near my high school were all desert too...I hear now there is a mall catty corner from the school. I just can't imagine how Phoenix has changed over the years. I remember signs on all the U-Totem and 7-Eleven stores that said "only 2 students allowed in store at one time". Made me not want to go in, but my Dad would send us up there for his cigarettes...back when they sold them to children. LOL

[nmweatherman]

1. Arnold's Pickles
2. The stockyards
3. When the entire city smelled like orange blossoms
4. Going to Emerson Elementary
5. Going to North High.
6. When Turf Paradise was a long drivve out onto the desert.
7. When the YMCA downtown served the best dinner for the cheapest price around.
8. Blakely Gas's "Collect 'Em All" glasses with cactus printed on them.
9. When Christown opened.
10. When the Oriental flower gardens in south Phoenix were the most beautiful sight around.
11. When the tallest structure was the tower on top of the Westward Ho Hotel.
12. When A-1 beer was about 65 cents a quart.
13. Ice patches on the streets before Phoenix became a "heat island."
14. When Scottsdale was the "West's Most Western Town."
15. When Phoenix had two newspapers, and The Arizona Republic was truly conservative.
16. When I-17 was built (we played in the huge concrete drainage forms).
17. When the motels of east Van Buren were respectable and clean.
18. Did I mention orange blossom time?
19. When JFK campaigned briefly at Sky Harbor, which only had one ATC tower.
20. Coke machines with 5 cent bottles of Coke.
21. When driving to Mesa was a big outing.
22. When Black Canyon Highway was a main entrance to Phoenix from the north.
23. The great nostalgic times spent after school with Wallace and Ladmo (bless their hearts) and the original Looney Tunes.
24. When the South Mountains were a scenic range surrounded by farms and livestock below.
25. Bob's Big Boy on Central Avenue!
26. Camelback Mountain without homes built all up the sides of it.
27. Attending a Duane Eddy promotion, outdoors, live and in person. If you don't know who Duane Eddy was, don't ask.
28. My first pair of cowboy boots!
29. The flash floods before the flood-control arroyos were built.
30. Clean air fer cryin' out loud! Pristine air!
31. When the Greyhoud Bus depot was a tiny little thing downtown nextdoor to a bowling alley.
32. When the first-made T-Bird dealers placed little models of them in their dealership windows that I oh, so dearly coveted.
33. When boy's high fashion shoes had raised leather running down the outside edges and swirling up and over the center to the toe.
34. Sour or "ornamental" orange trees.
35. Our biggest football rivals (of the North High Mustangs): South Mountain High
36. When Roosevelt and Oak Streets east were decent streets to live on.
37. When Phoenix only had three TV stations.
38. When South Phoenix wasn't a dangerous place to go.
39. Attending High School just after Wayne Newton graduated from it.
40. I spent a total of 35 years in Phoenix, watched the original Sun City being built, laughed loved and lived there. Grew up there. I'm in tears now...because it's a different city, unrecognizable to me, and it's a totally different world.

God bless all you Phoenicians.

[Dave Bob]

Originally Posted by azfrybaby

There was a goofy golf place behind Green Gables and it had a shooting gallery. One of my favorite places to walk to. Perry Pool another and of course we used to walk from 24st and IndianSchool downtown to the Fox Theater, the one with the balcony, spend the whole day and walk home. The only bad thing I remember was wearing a crenolin inder my skirt in August and half way home I had to take it off because my legs were scratched raw from the netting.

Green Gables was definitely my favorite goofy golf course; lots of shade from the big eucalyptus trees, cool castles & moats & ramps.

Cudia City has been mentioned. I barely recall seeing TV reruns of "26 Men", the 50's western series filmed there. Good theme song. I clearly remember the melody; the words, not so much...

"This is the story
of 26 men
who something something something something something..."

azfrybaby, do you remember some of these institutions in the 24th & Indian School area?

• Tang's grocery store; good bakery inside. Loved the cinnamon bread and sweet rolls with almonds.
• Dick Smith's Swim Gym at 20th & Campbell. Took swim lessons there in the early 60's. We'd watch the divers practicing on the springboard and platform. As a young 'un I didn't realize that Dick Smith was a renowned diving coach; one of his students we were watching was Bernie Wrightson, who later was in the Olympics. Won a gold medal, I think.
• Pony rides on the south side of Indian School around 22nd street, not far from the big Goettl air-conditioning shop. There was a small pen with some Shetlands walking in circles. Maybe once was I able to talk my mom into stopping and letting me ride.

[roosevelt]

Originally Posted by nmweatherman

1. Arnold's Pickles
2. The stockyards
3. When the entire city smelled like orange blossoms
4. Going to Emerson Elementary

Here is old Emerson before it was remodeled into offices.
My homeroom was the upper right (Hoerning), going left was math (Skillicorn) and then art (Humphrey). Below was cooking for girls (Tadesco?). The building on the right was wood shop (Strange). The bleachers were put up for graduation and never taken down. You can see the old incinerator on the far right. The one teacher that seemed to be there forever was Ogelsby, the music teacher.
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[nmweatherman]

Thank you! I used to run and play "football" on that field, to the east and behind the school. I went to my first school dance there and fell in love with a girl named Sherri. I do not recall teachers' names but one...our woodshop teacher was a Mr. Flatt.

After I graduated I went to North High...LONG before it became an inner-city school. How on earth did you find that pic!?

[roosevelt]

Originally Posted by nmweatherman

Thank you! I used to run and play "football" on that field, to the east and behind the school. I went to my first school dance there and fell in love with a girl named Sherri. I do not recall teachers' names but one...our woodshop teacher was a Mr. Flatt.

After I graduated I went to North High...LONG before it became an inner-city school. How on earth did you find that pic!?

I took the photos. There was a little girl named Mary I have still not forgot. After that I went to Phoenix Union because I lived south of McDowell.

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