How do you remember Phoenix? Stories from long time residents... (Mesa: clubhouse, agreement)

[observer53]

Originally Posted by TrooperRat

Our family moved to Tempe, AZ from Pittsburgh, PA in July of 1974. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. I got off of an air conditioned Boeing 747, walked through an air-conditioned jet-way, into an air-conditioned terminal - Terminal 1 which at the time was the only terminal that existed there. I think Terminal 1 no longer exists at Phoenix Sky Harbor.

...

Terminal 2 opened in 1962, so it was 12 years old in 1974. Terminal 1 was demolished several years ago, replaced by a parking lot.

[taharvey]

instead of getting off the black canyon at camelback to go the the i-10 the most direct route would have been buckeye road.

[trillcatz]

Originally Posted by TrooperRat

Our family moved to Tempe, AZ from Pittsburgh, PA in July of 1974. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. I got off of an air conditioned Boeing 747, walked through an air-conditioned jet-way, into an air-conditioned terminal - Terminal 1 which at the time was the only terminal that existed there. I think Terminal 1 no longer exists at Phoenix Sky Harbor.

Anyway, we got our luggage, headed for the door - it was 117 degrees outside that day, when the door opened, it felt like a blast furnace. I was all of 10 years old and started crying to mommy to "take us home". We ARE home, was the reply. Our family of 5 got into a Ford Pinto that had no air conditioning. We got to a hotel since our house wasn't ready to move in yet. I saw the swimming pool and beelined for it. The water must have been at least 100 degrees. Welcome to Arizona (now go home was our mantra after we had lived her for quite a while).

Tempe at the time was mostly cotton fields. Most of the roads heading south - Rural road; Priest drive, McClintock - turned into dirt roads. There was an air strip in the town of Guadalupe that was used for crop dusting - no longer exists.

People were friendly. It was more of a small town atmosphere. We all waved at each other even walking down main surface streets, even though you didn't know the person you were waving at. There was no electronic paradise going on, people weren't so distracted such as now with cell phones; texting; and all the rest of the personal "gear" many people carry with them nowadays.

In those days, a dust storm meant running for the house or if somewhere else, getting in from out doors. Huge tumble weeds would come sailing down the streets and a blanket wall of dust visible from 20 miles away were the signs to get inside. There is hardly any of that today because so much of the valley has been built up well out west, east, north and even south.

A good rain would mean you could go tubing down the your street. That's not an exaggeration. The streets would completely flood, we would get out the inner tubes we bought for going down the Salt River and would tube down the streets, having gleeful fun as kids. Almost all canals at that time were open, not put into giant pipe and we would play in them all day long. Yup, nasty water, we didn't care. We were kids, get away from the house and do whatever we could find to do.

As an aside, the Petrified Forest at that time had chunks of that stuff laying all over the place and there were no restrictions on picking some of it up and taking it home. Now? The last time I heard, there isn't anything laying around and it's against the law to take it.

Ahwatukee; the Superstition Freeway; and none of the loops existed at that time. I-10 didn't even go through the city, I think you had to get off at Camelback off I-17 to take a surface street to get back to where I-10 picked back up again.

There was a goofy convenience store chain called the U-Totem, I think. They had totem poles outside of all of their stores. In fact, a lot of stores had goofy, weird, outrageous looking signs sitting out in front of them, but it was part of the allure at the time.

The city has changed dramatically since them - some of it for the better, but I think some of it for the worse, too. It would be great, if nothing else, that we could go back to the idea that not everyone is out to get you, that driving in traffic isn't an opportunity to flip your fellow Phoenician off and basically an attitude of congeniality that seemingly doesn't exist here anymore.

***As an aside, the Petrified Forest at that time had chunks of that stuff laying all over the place and there were no restrictions on picking some of it up and taking it home. Now? The last time I heard, there isn't anything laying around and it's against the law to take it.***


LOL that's because all of our parents took some home in the '60's for our "Arizona landscaped" yards...along with cactus which was illegal even then to take. I always wondered why the cactus police or whoever was in charge of that didn't just drive down streets and stop at every house who had a front yard that was obviously "landscaped" with cactus and write out tickets. Homeowners couldn't exactly say, "Oh, these were growing here before we moved in." Not in my front yard anyway.

[desertskies]

Originally Posted by taharvey

instead of getting off the black canyon at camelback to go the the i-10 the most direct route would have been buckeye road.

I remember taking Greyhound to L-A and the bus did go down Buckeye Rd to SR 85 to get on to I-10.

[SluggoF16]

Originally Posted by desertskies

I remember taking Greyhound to L-A and the bus did go down Buckeye Rd to SR 85 to get on to I-10.

Maybe we didn't do it the right way, but in the summer of 1973 we took a family vacation to California. We took Bell Road to Grand Avenue/US-60 to Wickenburg, then went west out of Wickenburg to the Brenda Cutoff near Quartzite where the 10 picked up on the way to LA. In the summer of 1980 when I went to USAF field training in California the 10 ended (or started, depending on your point of reference) just out by Buckeye at Tonopah. By 1987 when I was stationed in CA the 10 made it all the way to the Black Canyon.

[roosevelt]

This photo marked 1943, Paradise Valley, Phoenix; Primary Country Club. Anyone ever hear of the place? Paradise Valley at the time was any land north of Phoenix.

[SluggoF16]

Originally Posted by roosevelt

This photo marked 1943, Paradise Valley, Phoenix; Primary Country Club. Anyone ever hear of the place? Paradise Valley at the time was any land north of Phoenix.
Attachment 77852

While way more common these days with automatic word processing and spell checks/word suggestions, I originally wondered if that was the Pima Country Club north of Indian Bend on Pima. Primary, Pima, and a typesetter with poor vision? However, a check of the aerial photos of the day showed nothing there in 1957. Definitely an interesting name. Since Thunderbird Training Field was often called Thunderbird Primary, maybe a connection?

[azdr0710]

Originally Posted by SluggoF16

While way more common these days with automatic word processing and spell checks/word suggestions, I originally wondered if that was the Pima Country Club north of Indian Bend on Pima. Primary, Pima, and a typesetter with poor vision? However, a check of the aerial photos of the day showed nothing there in 1957. Definitely an interesting name. Since Thunderbird Training Field was often called Thunderbird Primary, maybe a connection?

I think what is now Scottsdale Airport used to be Thunderbird, which would count as Paradise Valley, geographically.....didn't think there was a CC related to it, unless a pool was good enough back then??....

[SluggoF16]

Originally Posted by azdr0710

I think what is now Scottsdale Airport used to be Thunderbird, which would count as Paradise Valley, geographically.....didn't think there was a CC related to it, unless a pool was good enough back then??....

There were two Thunderbird fields, #2 was what is now Scottsdale Airport, with the Thunderbird Adventist Academy taking the name from the old WW II airfield. Thunderbird #1 in Glendale became the Thunderbird School of Global Management in 1946.

There don't appear to be any classic definitions of country clubs located in any aerials of either airfield. They may have been out in the country but it doesn't look like they are the location of Primary CC.

[azdr0710]

Originally Posted by SluggoF16

There were two Thunderbird fields, #2 was what is now Scottsdale Airport, with the Thunderbird Adventist Academy taking the name from the old WW II airfield. Thunderbird #1 in Glendale became the Thunderbird School of Global Management in 1946.

There don't appear to be any classic definitions of country clubs located in any aerials of either airfield. They may have been out in the country but it doesn't look like they are the location of Primary CC.

so could Roosevelt's picture just be a pool that was at Thunderbird #2?.....would fit all of the notes Roosevelt says were on his picture......