My Top 10 List - Add Your Memory

~
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!
~
Post Reply
jeremi08
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2011 1:06 am
Contact:

Re: My Top 10 List - Add Your Memory

Post by jeremi08 » Sat Apr 30, 2011 1:11 am

Delivering the Fresno Bee on my bike after school. Route 36, east side of Wilson Ave and west side of Roosevelt, Olive to McKinley Avenues. Cutting lawns in the summer with a push mower for $.50 a yard. Edging thrown in free! At 15 and 16, riding my 10 speed out to Mendota, Friant or Piedra to fish on the weekends. Getting a bucket of KFC and going out to the drive in at Olive and Clovis Aves to catch a show on one of TWO screens, sometimes trying to watch both movies at the same time. Going out to the parking lot by the airport by the Air National Guard station and watching the planes taking off and landing and wishing I was on one of them.

Carriage House Restaurant across from Farrels in Fig Garden. Owned and operated by Richard Woo and family. I had a huge crush on his daughter Susie, but that's a story for another time. Riding my bike across town on Sunday mornings to go to church with my Grandma Lettie McDowell. Harvey-Millbrook Church of God. Fresno High vs. Roosevelt in the Little Big game, where the trophy was a stuffed pig. (and the semi vandalism that the two schools students played on each other (Teddy Roosevelt in a diaper anyone?) Being able to ride our bikes anywhere in town at any hour and not worrying our parents when we did so. The Tower District. Anything you wanted to buy, you could get in about a 1/2 mile radius.

MikeyB

Re: My Top 10 List - Add Your Memory

Post by MikeyB » Wed Jun 01, 2011 4:15 pm

The Ice Cream place near Triple JJJ's was Gorton's. My wife and I went there every Sunday for a milkshake! Penny Candy at Shaw and Cedar, plus Ole Frijole's Smorgy (same place).

David

Re: "Lost Fresno" My Top 10 List - Add Your Memory

Post by David » Mon Jul 04, 2011 12:41 pm

1. Carnation Restaurants
2. Eagles Cafe
3. Winchells Donuts
4. Royals Cafe (across from Target at First and Shields)
5. Gemco (where the Target currently is)
6. KFIG 101.1
7. Kristen Kelley Soft Rock 98.9 (the sexiest DJ ever)
8. When Fresno State actually had a good basketball team with Boyd Grant and Tark (Thank God Steve Cleveland is gone)
9. A real Mayor in Jim Patterson
10. Bob's Big Boys three on Blackstone, one in Clovis
11. McLane Market
12. The Pop Shop on Blackstone
13. Youngs Supermarket
14. Cedar Lanes Restaurant
15. Coco's Restaurant
16. Bennigan's Restaurant
17. The Chicken Pie Shop in Manchester
18. Y94 FM
19. 96 FM
20. The Old Spaghetti Factory downtown
21. Klein's Truck Stop Restaurant (Had the best Chili Burger ever)!
22. Longs Drug Stores (CVS blows and are all filthy)
23. Safeway in Manchester
24. Floyd's Barber Shop (Oh wait that was in Mayberry)
25. Weinstocks at Fashion Fair and the AWESOME restaurant inside

nancyn
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jul 18, 2011 2:41 pm
Contact:

Re: My Top 10 List - Add Your Memory

Post by nancyn » Mon Jul 18, 2011 3:02 pm

1. Moonglow Drive-In
2. Catching polliwogs
3. White Front, where I first saw shoes tied together with string!
4. Ben Franklin 5 and 10
5. Wonderland pool in the summer
6. Kmart Opening Day and the carnival in the parking lot
7. Webster Webfoot and Jimmy Weldon on tv
8. The Mickey Mouse Club
9. Spin and Marty
10. Producer's milk, Hoppy's Favorite
11. Wearing sunsuits every day in the summer
12. Roller Skating, with my skate key on a white shoe lace around my neck
13. Popsicle "sicle" circles and scrounging for them to send in for "prizes."
14. Morris E. Daley's Summer enrichment classes (and their pool!) and making macaroni necklaces for the first time.
15. Scrounging for discarded soda bottles at new house construction sites and returning them to the store for their cash redemption value; going to Disneyland with the profits.
16. Pinedale ice skating rink
17. The at-home landing strips and hangars for private planes along Herndon Ave.
18. Taking Blackstone, 41, up to Yosemite.
19. The days before freeways in Fresno.
20. Learning to drive in the winter fog.
21. Driver's training simulator trailer at high school.
22. Summer of '68, as a high school student doing volunteer work at Kearny Mansion, the beginning work on refurbishing it for public showing. Found an attic full of very vintage clothing in trunks, barrels full of old wine, turned to vinegar, and rooms full of glass photograph negatives. Amazing memories!
23. McDonald's prices, menu like In 'n' Out - simple!
24. Summer school at Baird Elementary, where summer school was pure enrichment, like acting and learning square roots.
25. P. J. Eads car commercials "Davy, where' you goin'? "

brookieJ
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2011 2:10 pm
Contact:

Re: "Lost Fresno" My Top 10 List - Add Your Memory

Post by brookieJ » Wed Aug 03, 2011 2:18 pm

1. Farrells Ice Cream Parlor
2. Annie Laurie's in Manchester Center
3. Running up and down the spiral staircase at Rodder's Desert Doll
4. Sambo's
5. The Big Yellow House on Shaw
6. The Hokey Pokey at Roller Town
7. Going to Airways in my Op swimsuit and Dove shorts (even though I had a pool at home)
8. The Pop Shop on Blackstone
9. The Refectory
10. The Olde Spaghetti Factory when it was downtown

Senior57
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2011 11:41 am
Contact:

Re: "Lost Fresno" My Top 10 List - Add Your Memory

Post by Senior57 » Wed Oct 05, 2011 10:56 am

1. Pinedale in the mid and late 1940s was in ways more like a pioneer settlement. Some of the housing was spartan, at best. My stepfather built with his own hands a garage, and partitioned it into two rooms, one for sleeping and one for living. We had an outdoor toilet and even an outdoor shower stall. Other home in the area were more elaborate, I guess, but I don't remember much about them. There was also an outdoor theater, completely open air, with a fence around the perimeter so you couldn't see the movie without paying. As I recall, the audience sat on long wooden benches. There was also a swimming pool, so heavily chlorinated that my sister's blonde hair started turning green during the summer months. Inner tubes from surplus war equipment provided floats for the pool. The city of Fresno was straight down Blackstone Avenue, I think, and seemed a long way off to us kids.

2. Yosemite Junior High School, 1951-54. A current photo of the school on Google Maps shows the building layout is just about the same as I remember almost sixty years ago. The pictures that come to mind are of the way the students dressed back in those days. Most of the kids wore neat, clean clothes. The girls were in long skirts and nice tops, while the boys were also neatly attired. One of them even adopted a dapper cane for a few days. To show how things never really change, some of the boys wore their pants really low. Mr. Rush, the woodshop teacher, had one of them smartmouth him in class one day. He simply walked over to him and said something like "Wearing those pants kind of low aren't you?" and jerked them down to the kid's ankles. He was humiliated, and I don't think he was a problem (at least in woodshop) from then on.

Today, that probably would have brought on a storm of protest against the teacher. Another fad that went on for awhile was the wearing of mismatched bright colored socks. You wore, for example, on green and one red sock. I think that when couple were going steady, the girl would sometimes wear her boyfriend's jacket to show the world that they were an item. We had talent shows now and then, and I remember a particularly beautiful girl named Cecelia who danced, always being very careful to hold her skirt close to her legs as she whirled about onstage. We were all very excited about moving up to Roosevelt High, and probably didn't appreciate enough what we had all achieved at Yosemite, and the fine staff that helped us do it. I'll have to continue this later....

Senior57
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2011 11:41 am
Contact:

Re: "Lost Fresno" My Top 10 List - Add Your Memory

Post by Senior57 » Wed Oct 05, 2011 2:32 pm

Teddy - Thanks for your reply. I left Fresno shortly after graduating from RHS, and have had occasions now and then to regret it. I didn't realize then how lucky I was to grow up in such a town and in such times. Memories of those days are fading fast, so I'm really happy to have found your site. Reading the posts of others helps me to recall my own life and times in and around Fresno, and that brings a smile to this old guy.

Richard

parsoje
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Oct 05, 2011 4:06 pm
Contact:

Re: "Lost Fresno" My Top 10 List - Add Your Memory

Post by parsoje » Wed Oct 05, 2011 4:39 pm

In 1960 or 1961 a group of kids from Coalinga CA, appeared on the Flippo Jr show doing gymnastics. I was among those children and have been searching all over for some pictures of the show or the archived video. Thanks Jim Parsons

Senior57
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2011 11:41 am
Contact:

Re: "Lost Fresno" My Top 10 List - Add Your Memory

Post by Senior57 » Fri Oct 07, 2011 8:01 am

Continuing from an earlier post:

3. Stan's Private Line was on the air relatively late each evening (Maybe someone else can recall the hours and the days of the broadcasts). This was back in the late 1940s. I was still in grammar school, but even at that young age, loved to listen to the show. My parents worked nights, so my sister and I could stay up as late as we wanted, and almost always tuned in the show. I think that the way it worked was this: You could go to Stan's Drive In and along with your cokes, fries, and hamburgers, request that a song be dedicated to your Someone Special on the radio program, Stan's Private Line, naturally sponsored by Stan's Drive In. Even after all these years, the sign-on song lyrics float into mind. They went pretty much like this:

Let's eat, I'm hungry. Now please don't think I'm rude.
You're sweet and lovely, but I'm in the mood for food.
Your kiss is thrilling, but please don't think it's crude,
But it's not filling, when I'm in the mood for food.

You've made me know what bliss is, so don't think I'm a dummy,
But I can't go for kisses - on an empty tummy!

Let's eat, I'm starvin'! Our love can be renewed.
Right now, my Darlin', I'm in the mood for food!

I'm sure someone out there can correct me on the wording, but I think the above is fairly close. I believe the program always signed off with the Pied Pipers' version of "Dream," without a doubt the best possible tune with which to end each evening's show. At any rate, the program was great, and some of the dedications were really heartfelt while others were meant to be jokes, etc. It would be hard to imagine anything like it today, which is kind of sad. I think Stan's, without realizing it at the time, did a lot to provide a super hangout for kids and the program did much to encourage a the close-knit town that Fresno seemed to be in those happy times following the war.

Senior57
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2011 11:41 am
Contact:

Re: "Lost Fresno" My Top 10 List - Add Your Memory

Post by Senior57 » Fri Oct 07, 2011 8:58 am

Just happened to recall that you could also phone in your song dedications on, what else, "Stan's Private (Phone) Line."

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 14 guests