How do you remember Phoenix? Stories from long time residents... (Tucson: governor, ghost)

[AZtrails]

Originally Posted by varden

I miss goin to the old phoenix giants games after spending an afternoon at legend city man those were such fun times I remember getting so excited as a kid knowing that was goin to happen. really miss those old giants games.

I felt the same way. Others must have better pictures, but here are a few on another thread. The middle one shows Legend City and Phoenix Muni in the same shot.

https://www.city-data.com/forum/31808880-post64.html

[torridtiger]

As a constant patron of Boots, Bogarts and malarkey's I was there every night for 5 years. 81 to 85. Met my 4th wife at the point disco on 16th st. On wife number 6 now!! Way to much Gatos!!!! My Sister Collette Hunt and I had so much fun;. At that time I was the "World Party Director" and had cards with 800 phone number to find out where fun was. "Eat on Tuesday, Sleep at stop lights" was our motto!!!! Hard to believe I am 68 now. Oh well time for a new motto??? "this getting old is KILLIN me"!!!!! [sorry, no advertising allowed in the forums]

Any of you other crazies from 80's let's have a reunion soon. I live in Costa Rica now. Why??? Young women here like older men!!! Need I say More? Wayne Byrd

[roosevelt]

Some more memories, some of these businesses didn't stay open long. Double click to enlarge to max size.

[roosevelt]

Originally Posted by torridtiger

As a constant patron of Boots, Bogarts and malarkey's I was there every night for 5 years. 81 to 85. Met my 4th wife at the point disco on 16th st. On wife number 6 now!! Way to much Gatos!!!! My Sister Collette Hunt and I had so much fun;. At that time I was the "World Party Director" and had cards with 800 phone number to find out where fun was. "Eat on Tuesday, Sleep at stop lights" was our motto!!!! Hard to believe I am 68 now. Oh well time for a new motto??? "this getting old is KILLIN me"!!!!! [sorry, no advertising allowed in the forums]

Any of you other crazies from 80's let's have a reunion soon. I live in Costa Rica now. Why??? Young women here like older men!!! Need I say More? Wayne Byrd

I too went to Bogarts, Boots and Malarkey's. Bogarts was a hip place to go until Boots opened. Then Malarkey's. Huge place, held 1500 people and had two dance floors.

[Nanc237]

I just found this thread and am wondering if anyone can tell me if "Big Surf" is still in operation? I know I went there in the early 70's and it was very new and ahead of it's time. I miss living in Phoenix!

[azdr0710]

Originally Posted by Nanc237

I just found this thread and am wondering if anyone can tell me if "Big Surf" is still in operation? I know I went there in the early 70's and it was very new and ahead of it's time. I miss living in Phoenix!

yes, it's still there....

AZ's Best - Big Surf Waterpark!

[steveinnewriver]

I just found this post and will spend the next several weeks, I'm sure, reading it. At the risk of repeating most of what has already been said, I will add the following.

Born in Safford, AZ, in 1951 and family moved to Phoenix in 1953. Grew up on West Echo Lane. Everything north of us was either fields or virgin desert.

Once old enough, rode my old Schwinn bicycle to the shopping center at 27th Ave and Northern. Spent my allowance on BB's, caps (for my cap pistols), plastic models, wooden airplanes, you name it. Happiness House it was called. Had my hair cut every week by the barbers in that strip center. I think they had 4 or 5 chairs. The top dog worked the first chair, number 2 the second, etc. When things were slow the last chair or two might be unmanned. A regular haircut cost my dad $6, I believe. If any collectors out there, there were a few of the famous A-1 beer prints on the wall. There was a black man who worked there for years who shined shoes while you had your hair cut. Being a kid, I always wore tennis shoes. But when he did shine someone's shoes, the man in chair number one would open the register and flip him a quarter. He would then take a seat and wait for someone else to enter wearing shineable shoes.

I remember going to the Fox Theater downtown for Saturday movies. Free admission when you donated one or 2 cans of food for the poor. Speaking of theaters, the grand Kachina in Scottsdale, the Bethany West on Bethany Home Road, and the best one of all - the Cine Capri on east Camelback.

Lots of drive-in theaters back then. The Northern where the K-Mart stands today, the Indian School. There were many more but their names escape me.

8 years of grade school at Alta Vista. 4 years of high school at Cortez. Go Colts!!

Christown was THE mall if you lived on the north side. Park Central was big too. There were no big box stores back then. Most stores were small, local, specialized. Drug Stores, Hardware Stores, Clothing Stores, Lighting Stores, Kitchen Appliances, Hobby Shops, Shoe Repairs, Barbers, Butchers, Groceries. Every neighborhood had their own specialty shop to walk to. Today, you jump in your car and drive to Walmart or Costco for everything. There was a period when various big-box stores tried to get established. I can't remember why they all went away, but I remember shopping at Fed-Mart, Globe, and many others whose names escape me.

I remember full-service gas stations, and the blocks long lines that formed at the stations in the early 70's.

I remember a nationally mandated maximum speed limit for interstate highways of 55 MPH. EVERYBODY sped!!!

Wallace and Ladmo!!!! What can be said. You had to be there. It was a childhood phenomenon. There will never be another Wallace and Ladmo.

I remember before I-17 was built, the path that it would one day follow was oval grass fields with cross overs every 1/2 mile. The northbound and southbound lanes were on either side of the ovals and became the freeway access roads today. A trip to Chandler was an all day adventure.

I remember an old man, thin as a rail and eternally hunch-backed, always dressed in heavy green denim and wearing heavy black shoes, who walked (more like a shuffle) the neighborhood carrying a hoe, rake and shovel at all times, looking for miscellaneous yard work to do. I never saw him without a wide brimmed, light-green hat. I never knew where he lived, where he came from, or where he returned to each night. But I would see him most every day.

I remember seeing many locations around town with dozens of small shacks clustered together. My parents explained that they were for the migrant farm workers. Remnants of those shacks, now abandoned and falling down, can still occasionally be seen.

I remember visiting Flagstaff in the late 50's and a common sight being Native Americans - mostly Navajo, walking the streets arm-in-arm, husband and wife, wearing their traditional clothing of colorful woven wool or felt and lots of silver on their arms, around their necks and waists.

I remember cool parades down Central Avenue for many occasions. Western themes, Christmas themes, etc. Horses sporting fancy silver saddles and tack, their riders (male and female) wearing colorful country-western clothing.

My high school graduation party was an all-nighter at Legend City.

I remember riding my Honda Trail 90 in the desert at what is today 7th street and Bell Ave. As well as keg parties in the desert off Bell.

I remember the Heard Museum when it was much less "structured." Much more informal. Indian artifacts abounded. There was no cultural interpretation, just thousands of pots, manos & matates, rugs and blankets, baskets and woven artifacts. The interpretations were more or less left up to the viewer. I liked it back then.

I remember always taking visitors up to the top of South Mountain to look out over the city at night.

I remember dinner at the Mining Camp restaurant at the base of the Superstition Mountains. You sat on benches along huge wooden tables and ate from huge platters of beef, turkey and chicken. You could also order baked beans which came in a large crock that sat in the middle of the table. Everyone ate on pewter plates back then. The food was great, all you could eat, and relatively inexpensive.

Like another poster said, dining at Green Gables was a rare and expensive treat. A live mounted Knight in glistening steel armor sat on a real white horse and stood outside the restaurant, lance in hand. Green Gables was the place to take your special date on prom night.

Beef Eaters was another classy restaurant.

I remember Oak Creek Canyon or Kohl's Ranch on the Tonto Creek as annual summer vacation destinations. Oak Creek was lined with rentable cabins back then (Junipine Cabins is where we always stayed - today gone and replaced by a huge lodge), Tonto Creek had cabins or camping sites. They had a horse-riding stable. Fishing was good at both creeks. An occasional 13 inch native Brown Trout would attack your line. 8 to 10 inch trout were common.

Speaking of rock hopping along the creeks, the freedom I had as a kid to hike a creek alone or walk the neighborhoods of Phoenix in safety is, sadly, a thing of the past.

I remember frequent family picnics at North Mountain park.

I remember taking the bus downtown once a month or so with my mom as a special treat to visit my dad who worked at the downtown Sears and Roebuck (before being transferred to the Sears at 21st Street and Camelback) We would eat pizza at the counter of the F W Woolworth's next door to the Sears, where I could have a real chocolate or cheery coke "jerked" by the soda jerk (that's really what they called them) behind the counter.

I remember picnics at Encanto Park. And canoe rides. My mom volunteered at a building that used to stand in the park off 15th ave (I believe) where she would stand on the open roof deck and use binoculars to spot and identify planes as they flew overhead. These were the cold war years!!! My brother still has the book she used that is page after page of colored pictures of all known planes - American, Soviet, Japanese, etc.

As said by others - cotton fields and citrus orchards lined many of the roads wherever we rode. I remember a time when a nation-wide manhunt centered in or around the orchards around what is today 23rd ave and Dunlap. Can't remember if they ever found the guy.

I remember the annual drive to the Japanese Gardens along Baseline to buy flowers. For as far as you could see, there were fields of color - reds, yellows, blues, orange, violet. It was a sight to behold.

I remember the building of Metro Center.

I remember cruising Central!!!

I remember '57 Chevy's jacked up with huge slicks on the rear, chromed mag wheels, cut-out exhaust pipes (illegal), glass-packed mufflers. I remember Plymouth Barracudas, AMC Hemis, Roadrunners, Chargers and Challengers.

I remember a restaurant called Cloud Nine in the North Mountains in Moon Valley where you had to park at the base of the mountain and take a jeep shuttle to the restaurant at the top.

I remember living with mid-century modern furniture when it was introduced, not when it became a furniture fad 50 years later.

I remember buying my favorite songs on vinyl, then on 4-track cartridges, then on 6-track, then on cassettes, then on CD's. Anyone remember how frustrating it was when your tape deck ate your 4-track tapes?

I remember when seat belts were options on new cars.

I remembeer Lou Grubb Chevrolet on the corner of 27th Ave and Camelback, where I would go as a teenager to drool over the Corvette Stingrays.

I remember swimming at Nelson's Pool on 19th Ave.

I remember buying bell bottom jeans.

I remember the Minder Binders bar and restaurant in Tempe with barrels full of free peanuts, and the Monastery (servers wore brown robes) somewhere in east Phoenix. I saw my first Ferrari Dino and De Tomaso Pantera in their parking lot.

I remember concerts and basketball (Phoenix Suns) at the Colosseum at 19th and McDowell. Concerts included Jethro Tull and the Who. And the Ice Capades. And Hockey.

Nuff said. This has been fun. Thanks.

[roosevelt]

Two past Miss Americas from Arizona.

[Westside Willie]

Hey Roosevelt

Is that KOY personality and future AZ Governor "One-Eyed" Jack Williams standing by the mike along side Miss America??

[AZtrails]

Originally Posted by steveinnewriver

I just found this post and will spend the next several weeks, I'm sure, reading it....

Great memories and a good rundown of what made the Valley such a wonderful place to grow up. Thanks for sharing and welcome to the forum.