How do you remember Phoenix? Stories from long time residents... (Sun City: salaries, tax return)

[djskum]

Originally Posted by AZ Tracy

Does anyone remember Bates Nut Farm and the Alligators, out on Apache Tr.?

I don't remember the gators but the nut farm I do. It was one of my stops on the way out to my girlfriends house on 104th st. It was not as popular as buckhorn baths, the velda rose drive in theater or the sabre jet but still it was a landmark.

[djskum]

I remember woods canyon before the store opened up at the lake. My dad worked at garret air research and worked with the guy that opened it up. It and flowing springs was the only two good places to go for a quick weekend. I remember when the spillway campsite was free.

[djskum]

I was born and raised in mesa and remember Cristal ice on Country club and Broadway, Cow palace on broadway two blocks east of stapely, KDKB when it came on the air in the mornings and went off at night. Swimming at rendezvous park and riding dirt bikes where fiesta mall is now. If you rode down extension between main and broadway you could smell the rosarita factory. Alma school road in the sixties was a two lane concrete road with a irrigation ditch on one side that us kids would catch crawdads at. I was born at south side hospital and had my tonsils removed on my eighth birthday there. There was the wigwam motel on apache and rural in tempe and the massage parlors on perry lane. Fishing at dobson ranch when only the lakes were there. the U of A experimental farm on main between dobson and alma school. Going to sky harbor when my dad had to go out of town or return from a trip and listening to the control tower on the little radios for a nickel in the arcade there. The siren at stapely and university that would sound at noon every saterday. You could hear it all the way to alma school and broadway. There was so much more that made the valley so great that I think more people wanted to come here instead of hollywood back then.

[Kuzmab]

jimmybeverage-thank you for great memories! I loved pizza D'amore. I'll have to see if my mom has a wheelchair shot of me from 1972 @ st. Joes.

[roosevelt]

Nice picture of the modern interior of the western store on Adams.

[jukebox47]

The Cocanut (coconut) Grove Motel on W. Van Buren. Neat spelling of coconut on the marquee and postcard. Didn't they have the wonderful neon monkey that climbed the tree? I cannot see it in this postcard picture. I hope it was somehow preserved.

[azdr0710]

Originally Posted by jukebox47

The Cocanut (coconut) Grove Motel on W. Van Buren. Neat spelling of coconut on the marquee and postcard.

just looked at a Street View of the place via Google Maps....it's still there...coconut spelling has been corrected??!!, second story dormer window is gone, some new blocky building added near Van Buren side....

but, gee, just not the same

[Dave Bob]

Originally Posted by azdr0710

just looked at a Street View of the place via Google Maps....it's still there...coconut spelling has been corrected??!!, second story dormer window is gone, some new blocky building added near Van Buren side....

but, gee, just not the same

And the pool ("Arizona's finest Paddock swimming pool") has been filled in! That does it, I'm not staying there on my next visit to Phoenix.
But at least the tall palms have survived (taller than they were in the postcard), even if they aren't coconuts or even cocanuts.
Did it really have a neon monkey climbing a tree?

[roosevelt]

Originally Posted by Dave Bob

And the pool ("Arizona's finest Paddock swimming pool") has been filled in! That does it, I'm not staying there on my next visit to Phoenix.
But at least the tall palms have survived (taller than they were in the postcard), even if they aren't coconuts or even cocanuts.
Did it really have a neon monkey climbing a tree?

HERE is a picture of the monkey climbing the neon tree. I didn't want to copy someone else's picture.

[jukebox47]

Originally Posted by roosevelt

HERE is a picture of the monkey climbing the neon tree. I didn't want to copy someone else's picture.

Roosevelt,
Thanks for the neon monkey picture. To appreciate it one had to see it. The monkey neons were not all lit at once but lit in a sequence that gave it animation as it scooted right up that coconut tree.

Does anyone remember any Phoenix motel having a "waver"? It was a life size figure of a person and one arm had a light bulb. The arm moved back and forth, beckoning weary travelers in. There was a bellboy or maybe it was a bell captain, a Heidi, a chef and several others I cannot remember. We restored one of the bellboys and I always wondered where it might have come from.