My Top 10 List - Add Your Memory

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Add a favorite hang-out or special memory of a time long since gone, but not forgotten. This is our catch all forum for topics not listed elsewhere. The moderator may move your topic to a specific forum category later, to assist other members in finding fun information. If you are in doubt, post here!
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Bulldog Born

Re: My Top 10 List - Add Your Memory

Post by Bulldog Born » Tue Sep 29, 2020 9:56 am

We moved to Fresno in 1956. Eventually settling near First/Clinton.

1. I remember going to Harpains Dairy for the best chocolate milk on earth.
2. Shopping at Continental Market on Blackstone between Ashlan and Gettysburg? with my parents for our groceries.
3. The old airport terminal at Hammer Field when TWA Lockheed Super Constellations used to visit regularly.
4. Purposely missing the bus to walk home from Fort Miller Jr. High so we could spend hours at Arthurs Toy Store looking at model cars and planes to get.
5. Going to Selland Arena and seeing some of the greatest names in Rock and Roll history in their prime
6. That would also include the Warnors, Tower, Wilson theaters, the Wild Blue Yonder and the FSU Amphitheater
7. Watching the movie Grand Prix in Cinerama at the Warnors Theater before Christmas 1966.
8. Turning north on Willow Ave. off Shaw and not having to stop till you reached Friant Dam
9. The Go-Kart track west of hwy.99 on Herndon by the river
10. Those deserted roads(maybe an old gokart track)across from the north west part of FYI off Dakota. That we had make shift races on without any hassles from the law.
10a. That would also include the 1.25 mile road coarse in Woodward Park before it was ever opened as a park

Viking7800

Re: My Top 10 List - Add Your Memory

Post by Viking7800 » Fri Oct 16, 2020 3:54 pm

1. Driving to the Friant dam parking lot on the VERY windy Friant road below the bluffs.
2. Phoenix on West Chinese restaurant and nightlife
3. Wonderland bowling
4. Cruising Belmont Street on Saturday night then heading to Bobs Big Boy
5. Burning trash in the backyard in incinerators or 55 gallon trash drums
6. Harpains dairy
7. Blakey’s pool and the extremely high high dive
8. Nashville West on Blackstone. The last building before crossing the river on 2 lane 41
9. Bonfires during homecoming week at Bullard
10. The Velvet Turtle
11. Fat Jacks
12. The Library across The street from FSU
13. The Graduate on Cedar Ave ( best Grad burger ever!)
14. High school football games at McLane, Madera, Clovis, and Ratcliffe.
15. Munchies, the cheapest soy bean burger around 12
cents!

And who could forget Al Radka singing about Lesterburger!!

oldrockknucklehead

Re: My Top 10 List - Add Your Memory

Post by oldrockknucklehead » Thu Feb 18, 2021 10:08 am

Does anyone remember the name of the little burger place that was on Blackstone in Pinedale in the 1990's? I can't find its name anywhere.

My Dad was part owner of the restaurant that was at Chandler Airfield in the 1970's, and we ate there a lot. It was called Ace's. We used to see quite a few of the downtown Fresno business crowd there. I remember Gail (owner of a pawn shop next to Coney Island hot dogs) and Sam (owner of Sam's luggage), as particularly nice guys that were regulars. I remember the "Warbirds" airshows with vintage WW2 aircraft, and all of the pilots of "the greatest generation" that would fly in for the airshow.

Does anyone else remember the restaurant near Fowler on old highway 99 with the airplane sticking out of the roof? My parents would take us there on special occasions.

All of your posted memories are great :)

21-50 over
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Re: My Top 10 List - Add Your Memory

Post by 21-50 over » Thu Feb 18, 2021 3:42 pm

The place in Fowler was named Bruces Lodge

SJM77
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Re: My Top 10 List - Add Your Memory

Post by SJM77 » 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

GYM
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Re: My Top 10 List - Add Your Memory

Post by GYM » Sun Feb 21, 2021 10:25 am

My father was friends with Gail. My first Kay guitar and Kay stand up bass came from their pawn shop along with a couple of .22s that I still have.

Guest

Re: My Top 10 List - Add Your Memory

Post by Guest » Wed May 12, 2021 12:37 am

1. Continental Market
2. Armstrong Stables
3. Rudy’s Variety Store (great penny candy)
4. Rossi’s Pizza
5. Foster’s Freeze on Divisidero St
6. Nuzi’s Hair Fashions, 6th floor of Fresno Community Hospital
7. Weinstocks
8. Pat’s Blue Ribbon Sandwich Shop
9. Queen of the Valley Academy (high school)
10. Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor

Flodaddy

Re: My Top 10 List - Add Your Memory

Post by Flodaddy » Thu May 13, 2021 8:03 am

1.Gemco
2.Circle park
3.Royal's dinner
4.Cedar Lanes
5.Lester Burger
6.Happy Steak
7.Giant Slide on blackstone
8.Munchies Hamburgers
9.Harpains Dairy
10. Manchester Theater
And many more... born 1960 grew up at first and shields area.🤗

SJM77
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Re: My Top 10 List - Add Your Memory

Post by SJM77 » Wed Jul 07, 2021 9:57 pm

Some more memories and a correction.... at Cedar and Clinton, I believe it was Cedar Drugs that was next to Lesterburger, not Casner as I'd stated. Casner was located at Cedar and Shields, southwest corner, we did a lot of shopping there. I believe there was a grocery store next to it, can't remember the name.

Across Cedar was Cedar Lanes, many happy memories there. Dad bowled league and the burger and fries were killer. I think I sipped my first beer there. Those were the days, hey kid, go get me a pack of smokes out of the machine. Like a different world from today.

Post above reminded me of a few things, the Gemco fire in '69, we walked over there to watch. Shopping at Manchester Center in the suburbs after all those years of shopping only downtown. I remember doing a poster for Fresno the All America City contest, looking through a knot in a tree at the then new Fulton Mall and winning something so going to the relatively new Convention Center to stand up on stage like a clueless kid.

Selland Arena and the Fresno Falcons. Reino Ciipola, I can hear the announcer call that name, and the clack of the puck and the whoosh of the skates and the Zamboni providing the in between entertainment.

Anyone watch Jaws at the Star-Lite before they tore it down? I think they were still running it a year after original release, could've sworn we saw it in the summer of 76 and the theater screens were gone a couple years later. Drive-in theaters in general were a staple. Hid in many a trunk until the theaters got smart and starting charging by the 'car load'. Which one had the X-rated flicks? Sunset or Motor In or was it another out there on the west side of town? I remember seeing Earthquake in Sensurround in '74 at a downtown theater, believe it was the Crest.

I guess we're fortunate to be so blessed by memories. It's been an interesting ride in life.

Kari

Re: My Top 10 List - Add Your Memory

Post by Kari » Fri Sep 03, 2021 12:06 pm

Growing up on Clinton...
1. Leif Ericson and the Playboy Magazine that the boys buried outside the fence.
2. Reading all the teen magazines at Joe's Liquor.
3. My brother teaching me pool at the pool hall near Joe's Liquor.
4. My bathing suit top flying off after jumping off the high dive at Blakely's.
5. The cute boy named Doug who delivered the Guide to our house.
6. My first date at Colonial Greens.
7. Endless days at the Carousel Skating Rink.
8. My huge family eating together at Cedar Lanes,
Chicken Pie shop, Sambos, taking up the back booths and tables.
9. Eating Lesterburgers after church.
10. My Dad selling fresh produce from his truck on the banks of the canal on Maple. He managed to give us seven kids a nice home and life while my Mom stayed home.
11. Falling asleep in the backseat of the car at Starlight Drive-In.
12. Eating Flying saucers made at Foster Freeze on Cedar.
13. All the amazing concerts at Selland Arena.
14. Wandering around Penny Candy and buying posters.

I love Fresno and when I moved away, I came right back. Hopefully my grandkids will have the same wonderful memories.

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