SJM77 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 20, 2021 3:50 pm
Fresno native, read this site many times over the years, figured would join and share a bit....
Some good memories.... grew up on the east side in a then new subdivision at the west edge of the airport that had grown out of Hammer Field..
--- Squirrel hunting with 22's and building forts in the then cotton and potato fields on the edge of the airport, swimming in the irrigation pump pond along the dirt road that would later become Anderson Ave. and getting chased off airport property by the NG MP's when out playing on the farm equipment parked near the taxiways. Playing on the bunkers south of the tower and managing to break into a couple of them, I think I still have an old cash register we found. Otherwise the bunkers were empty outside of some trash.
----Visiting the maintenance hangar of the 144th to watch a friend's dad work on the F106's stationed there and then walking next door to the 1/4 midget track to check out practice sessions. Don't recall seeing races there but saw plenty of practice sessions. Both places were just west of Clovis on McKinley and the 144th wasn't nearly as sprawling as now.
----Grammar school, ditching church to sneak across Cedar to Lesterburger to get a burger and fries before the big kids across the street at McLane High mobbed the joint. Lesterburger was on the southwest corner of Cedar and Clinton next to Casner Drugs. They had other locations around town but that was the one I went to as a kid.
----Miniature golf at Colonial Greens, skating at the Carousel, golfing the mini-course across Shields at Hank's Swank before they built apartments there. They later started a driving range adjacent to the airport extension on Chestnut just north of Shields and I practiced there during high school.
----Golfing and swimming at Airways. Swimming mostly as a kid and golfing during high school. Inexpensive good time.
----Free birthday pizza at Me 'N Ed's. Loved that place. Went to the one across from C&O for years, later the one next to Ashlan Park when dating a friend's sister since they lived across the fence from the parking lot behind it.
---Often mentioned in threads here, cruising the Belmont main, though for myself it was more to hook up with fellow racers. At the time I was involved in the 70's, high schools had their own 'corners' and I usually hung out at San Pablo and Belmont, can't recall if that was McClane or Bullard. Kids from private SJM weren't really into racing and I don't recall ever seeing classmates there cruising. Most of my racing buddies went to McClane. I read a post in this thread from another member who named our racing spots, I bet I knew him back in the day, my big three were American Safety, Martinoil (Suburban propane now, on Cherry) and Jensen and Cornelia out by the sewage plant. After a night of racing we'd watch the sun come up eating breakfast at Denny's at Jensen/99 or at what I remember as Tiny's on west Olive, west of 99, fuzzy on that though.
----Like many others I visited Harpain's Dairy often, especially after Foremost stopped home delivery. Later on, after Harpain's closed, mom would get her milk at Belmont Dairy and I'd get a surprise, meeting a girl I'd gone to high school with by happenstance there, she was working. What I didn't know all those years was her family owned the place, heh.
----Roeding Park memories..... Anyone remember the annual catfish derby? Man that was fun. I've got tons of pictures my dad took at the park, mostly at Rotary Playland, where the train and that whirlygig ride were my favorites. Someday I'll get the slides scanned, dad did everything in 35mm slides.
Many years later, as an adult, worked as a docent there for about ten years in the 90's and happened to be working the rainforest the day Nosey died. Sad day, the keepers and docents were gutted. However, I did often help prep the elephant popsicles, basically a 2x4 stuck into a clean plastic garbage can with various fruits and melons mixed into the water and frozen. So, even with her passing, I still have good memories of my tiny bit of work with those cool pachyderms. A couple docents and I joined a safari group and later went to Africa to see elephants and other of our captive animals in the wild.
-----Not so good memories, ironically related to flying, something near and dear...
A close friend I grew up with lost both his parents and aunt in the Tenerife disaster only a couple months before we graduated. That was a really dark time, kinda took the graduation fun wind out of my sails.
------Two places mentioned a number of times on these forums, Me 'N Ed's and Outpost, narrowly escaped the mess that a Lear jet landing on Olive Ave caused. My house at the time was a couple blocks from there and, whoa, messed that area up for months. Between that an all the houses getting ripped out for the 180 I'd had enough and moved to the country.
A bit long-winded, lived in town or in the area for nearly 60 years, plenty more where those came from. In the realm of hanging on to the past, I get my mail each day out at the road in the same mailbox my parents had set at the corner of Clinton and Chestnut when their house was being built before Chestnut and the side roads were paved. Thick galvanized steel still in service nearly 70 years later. Made in USA strong
