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

[Lee151]

Boy, does this post take me back.....My grandmother lived in a mobile home park on Union Hills and the Black Canyon and it was an adventure to get there. There were coyotes, javelina and jack rabbits all through the park. Ditto the park my aunt lived in on Bell Rd.

I certainly remember irrigation ditches full of crayfish, not just along 27th Ave, I caught crayfish along 15th Ave when we lived there earlier. Roer's Bird Farm was on 27th Ave too.

I have friends that went to St. Simon and Jude. I had to attend church with one of them when I spent a saturday night and the huge crucifix scared me. I'd never been inside a Catholic church before.

Chris-Town was the first indoor air conditioned mall in Arizona. I'm not old enough to remember when it opened but I do remember the birds in the cages, Farrell's and the organ grinder's monkey. When Metrocenter opened it was a huge big deal and was certainly a safe area. The Smitty's opening on 35th Ave and Bethany Home was a big deal too.

I remember when going out Scottsdale Rd. to take visitors from out of state to Rawhide was a major drive through the desert.

I remember U-Totem but not the wax lips.

I rode in horse shows at the Black Canyon Saddle Club. I rode horses in the desert that is now the middle of Arrowhead Mall.

I went to the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Sombrero Playhouse on 7th St. more times than I can count.

I remember seeing top name concerts for free at the State Fair. I remember general admission concerts where we lined up on those big curved ramps to the coliseum for hours in advance. I have ticket stubs for big names for under twenty bucks a ticket.

I remember when Bob's Big Boy had a fabulous salad bar and when we drank pitchers of margaritas at Tortilla Flats in Chris-Town mall and the drinking age was 19 but we were 17. Oh, what I'd give for one of their Machaca Chimis right now. There is no edible Mexican food in Oregon except Chipolte.

I remember desert parties at 7th St and Deer Valley Rd. I remember drunken floating down the Salt River.

I remember Wallace and Ladmo, I remember Dave Pratt and the Sex Machine Band. I remember KDKB and KUPD were the only radio stations I listened to. Watching Jerry Lewis on KPHO collecting pennies for Muscular Dystrophy and dropping them off at the station.

I've been to Legend City and Big Surf.

Terminal 2 at Sky Harbor was the newest fanciest terminal but we had to walk across the tarmac in the heat to and from the plane.

I remember the horse at Green Gables, the costumes at Bobby McGee's, the Sicilian pizza at Raffeales which you can still get BTW, had some last year.

I remember crisp clean air and drinking tap water because it tasted fine. Not because we couldn't afford to buy water. There didn't used to be water machines outside grocery stores.....

[twiggy]

Originally Posted by jenkaye

I loved Metro center and it WAS safe at one time. Do you remember the store in there where you could record a song? You would go into a booth and sing and come out with a record or something, the line was always so long I never got to do it. But it looked so cool!

OMG! Yes, I remember doing that with my girl friends. How funny.

[Ponderosa]

I remember floods on the Salt in 1978 and 1980. In 1980, all the crossing except for Mill Ave were washed out or collapsed. It took me 3 hours to get to work and this went on for weeks. There were traffic lines for miles and miles and vendors walked up and down the lanes selling newspapers and coffee. Lots of people rented hotels or stayed with friends on the north side of the river. They started a makeshift passenger train called the Hattie B (named after Bruce Babbit the gov's wife) over the rail bridge near Mill. The train inspired the imagination of many and began the drive for a light rail system that finally got voter approval 25 years later.

[Magnum Mike]

Originally Posted by Lee151

.....
I certainly remember irrigation ditches full of crayfish, not just along 27th Ave, I caught crayfish along 15th Ave when we lived there earlier. Roer's Bird Farm was on 27th Ave too.
....
I remember U-Totem but not the wax lips.

Roer's bird farm was a short walking distance away from where my parents live. It was there up until just a couple of years ago, now it's a big dirt lot. I'm not sure what they're going to do with it.

I also remember the U-Totem on 27th Ave, just north of Bethany Home. The building is a pawn shop now.

El Rancho supermarket used to be in the building on the northeast corner of 27th Ave & Bethany Home, now it's a Food City, and just across the street on the south side, there was a Furr's grocery store, it's a Savers now.

I don't think anybody mentioned TG&Y stores that were scattered throughout the valley.

[Magnum Mike]

Lee151, I'm sure you remember the golf course that was around I-17, just north of Bethany Home, it was there up until the early 1980's, when it was replaced by apartment complexes.

[Artliquide]

Originally Posted by Lee151

the costumes at Bobby McGee's,

I used to make balloon animals and hats there for extra cash. Is it not there anymore??

[Lee151]

I do remember the golf course.

I worked at Payless Nursery when I was in highschool which was in the parking lot of the El Rancho supermarket on 27th Ave and Bethany. There was a Chinese restaurant across the street that had good cheap hamburgers. There was an import store at El Rancho too where I used to buy incense and a snack bar inside with good fresh fast food. I remember going to a concert with the guy who owned the snack bar but not his name. I also worked at Gemco very briefly. My mother shopped there a lot when I was younger.

My gradeschool girlfriends and I would walk up to Uptown Plaza ? 35th Ave and Bethany Home to shop at TG & Y and Revco drug store and Hobby Lobby. Before the Smitty's was built. I think it was Revco. They had lots of make up that we tried on.

I think Bobby McGee's is still there.

[aj661]

Originally Posted by Magnum Mike

I don't think anybody mentioned TG&Y stores that were scattered throughout the valley.

Hey Mikey, yes I did!
https://www.city-data.com/forum/1973490-post7.html

Originally Posted by Lee151

Boy, does this post take me back.....
I remember the horse at Green Gables, the costumes at Bobby McGee's...

Bobby McGee's is a long time ago? Seems almost like yesterday we went to the one in Mesa once every week after work. Does the late 1980's really qualify for a long time ago???

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

I remember floods on the Salt in 1978 and 1980. In 1980, all the crossing except for Mill Ave were washed out or collapsed.

I worked both of those floods and remember at least two others before those. The 1970 flood was deadly. I guess I'm older than I thought; having lived through a few one hundred-year floods and a five hundred-year flood, that would make me how old????

[Lee151]

I went to the Bobby McGee's by Metrocenter before going to the prom when I was a sophomore in high school.
My 25th reunion was last year.......

I remember bad floods on the Salt, I did not live or work in Tempe then and none of my friend's did either at that point so just saw them on the news. When I did live in Tempe I also worked in Tempe so they didn't affect me.

[Magnum Mike]

Let's see if some of you remember this scene from the movie The Gauntlet. It starts out in downtown Phoenix on Washington. The small cluster of buildings Eastwood walks out of, which were replaced by the Bank of America Building.

Here's one of the scenes on 2nd Street and Adams, with Eastwood and Pat Hingle infront of Symphony Hall, which now looks completely different with the new Civic Plaza.

In May of 1977, just across the street from the then new Hyatt Regency hotel.


And 30 years later in 2007, taken from the approximate same location, just a few feet south, with the Hyatt Regency to the left.