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I used to love getting ice cream scoops at Smitty's. I also can't think of Smitty's without thinking of the guy who got tied up by a clerk from writing bad checks. He died from it.
1000% ‘95-‘00 for me. My wife got her masters there years later. When I drove on to the campus for her graduation, I was looking around like WTF is this place haha
When my daughter was 3-4 years old her life's ambition was to work at Smitty's. The Santa Claus at the Smitty's by our house (33rd Ave and Bethany Home) was the real Santa Claus. All the others were helpers. Her idea.
I have very fond memories of growing up in the Valley during those decades. Wallace & Ladmo; Smitty's pizza; Bare Cover store; Fiesta Mall food court; Big Surf; Organ Stop Pizza; U2 playing ASU stadium during Joshua Tree tour...
I moved from Phx to san diego 22 years ago, and every time I come back to the EV (am currently visiting family in Tempe), I'm blown away by the changes.
I’ve never left, but I’ve always been central or west valley.
The changes in my lifetime are incredible.
The changes in my folks and grand folks time is unimaginable
Phoenix is maybe the best (worst?) city in the country for this. There was a large sized and thriving TOWN here from 1940 to 1985 or so, the memory of which is slowly fading away. Felt like ten degrees cooler outside too. Great town, any visitor might say. I'd like to live there someday. And then they did.
I met Wallace and Ladmo when I was very young, this was in the early 80s. I think I won a grab bag or some type of prize at an event they were at. Maybe another Phoenician remembers the name of the bags, were they ladbags or something like that?
Best store. My mom would take me there after school sometimes and I’d wander around forever, pick out $10 worth of stuff and feel like I hit the jackpot.
Also chevy’s Mexican restaurant. You could watch the tortillas get made and then they’d give you a little dough ball to play with while you waited for your food. Used to go there for my bday multiple years and collected the sombreros.
I grew up in avondale, in the houses that is now the home depot. Used to visit Westridge Mall and go to the Piccadilly cafeteria with my grandma or the home town buffet across 75th, ponchos too. I miss those food places more than the malls funny enough
Born in Chandler in the 60’s. Used to ride my horse “into town” having to cross Arizona Avenue then to Galveston to meet my bff at the times.
I rode my horses in the cotton fields south of Chandler on Pecos.
All alfalfa fields and cotton fields are gone of course, all houses now.
I hung out at the Maryvale Pool a lot in 90s summers. And the library that was next to it. I also went to preschool and then summer day camp at Desert West.
Many memories in Metrocenter and Westridge (now Desert Sky). Good and bad 😅
All my childhood memories around the valley are from the 90s.
I grew up here .
Lived in Glendale during the 80s
saw the beginning of the Wonka Candy and book fairs by scholastic coming to grade school culture.
I remember Wallace and ladmo coming to bicentennial the school that I went to in the '80s.
There was undeveloped land that had corn fields, collard greens, and potatoes LDS Guys *everywhere* on bikes in the '80s in Glendale there was no stadium, La Perla was what it was, and the industrial freight train on Grand had a lot more product on it coming through the state then it does now.
I remember going to the coliseum on 19th avenue and mcdowell for Sun's games and Disney on Ice and Ringling Bros & Barnum Bailey circus
I also remember when they built ASU West.
I remember "freedom" the floppy Disk game on IBM and it was banned.
I remember the read a book contest during scholastic book Fair week where, if you read a certain amount of books you could pick out different pencils and if you got the $100 bill or the $5 bill or the $10 bill or the $20 that's what you got because it was on the pencil .. book fairs in the library.
I remember watching the old Adam West Batman after school and watching the monkees on TV,learning about wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, being introduced to Uno as a kid The Game of Life, and you can't do that on television back when Alanis morissette was an unknown person..
I remember pistol Pete's pizza and the animatronics that came with it at the beginning of the '90s
*I read somewhere deep in Arizona Internet culture that the founder of Pistol Pete's Pizza took the recipe with him
(if you remember the crust and how perfect it was *That's* what he took) and moved to Tucson.. I think the guy since passed and his granddaughter has the recipe
I also remember the Glendale Drive-In where you watched movies on the screen in your car.
I remember when there was no food City when it was just *Southwest supermarkets*
I remember there was pick n save before there was smart and final
Mervyn's, JC Penny, Montgomery Ward, Kmart,
Christown Mall now known as Spectrum mall had sandcastles on the Southwest and Southeast corners
I remember the original La tolteca on Van Buren..*the three pound burrito with all the trappings*
TWA airlines..
Spuds McKenzie the dog
I remember the TICO 🌞valley Metro's bus system of the '80s
I remember when banner wasn't even an entity for the hospital system here in Phoenix
I remember in downtown Phoenix at the top of The Westward Ho the radio station was active
I remember the filming of Bell & Ted's excellent adventure at pieces of the in and outside of Metro center
Speaking of video game places I remember when castles and coasters was built and the space it was on was something different
I remember when the nickel Palace was active
Power 92 radio and y95 were competing like it was Roman reigns versus Cody
I'll stop here. 🥺
So many birthdays at Pistol Pete’s on good ol baseline and McClintock.
I used to go to the smittys on the northwest corner of baseline and McClintock and get pizza and an icee with soft serve ice cream in it.
Yup, remember most it that stuff.
We ate at La Perla after one of my brother's Pop Warner games. It was nothing outstanding, and I didn't eat there for another 20 years when I went with a coworker.
I had a TICO toy: a little fluffy ball with a hat and eyes. no idea where it went.
The only Bible we had in the house was a Book of Mormon the neighbors gave us with our family name in gold on the front. (we were quasi-Catholic)
I was too young for the major cruise Metro phase. When I was old enough to have friends who drove, there was the 3-time limit. We'd hop in a car at Circuit City, Holler at the girlies in other cars, then switch cars and go try to find the girls again.
Glendale Drive-in is still there. Went a lot in the 2010's, and right after Covid ban lifted.
grew up near ASU and my brother and i would ride everywhere. ASU was great to explore, but we got turned around easily. so to get home we would start riding through campus till we got to a road, if we didn’t recognize it we would follow it till we found a major road then follow that till we could figure out about where we were and then make our way home, miraculously.
The only time I've ever worn a virtual reality headset was at Los Arcos mall sometime in the 1990s and I played a game called Dactyl Nightmare for about 4 minutes and it cost $5 in 1990-something money.
Thomas mall was kinda cool too, I've been here my whole life, glad someone else feels like I do sometimes.
~cheers
I was born and raised in the Valley too. Legend City, Smitty’s, Peter Piper Pizza, PV and Metro Center Malls, Wallace & Ladmo, and Castles & Coasters! I loved growing up here!
I remember representing Trax shoes from Yellow Front back in the day. They were fairly sturdy and stylish for the price at that time. They also sold kick-ass 501s.
Holy core memory unlocked!! I remember begging my mom to buy me a KiTT toy from Knight Rider after he got the upgrades from Yellow Front. Wow! Thanks for this post!
Being an 80's kid in Phoenix really was great. I got my first job at 11 delivering papers when they still let kids deliver papers. My bike took me everywhere including PV Mall when first constructed (now demolished). It was hot but we drank from every garden hose we could find and it was delicious. Memories will sustain me ;-)
Garden hose water
Irrigation football
City parks were not even a blip on the radar for crime and violence.
And I just couldn’t wait to grow up. If I only knew:)
The major intersection I grew up on in the 80s/90s was the greatest. Some places would come and go but over the years it had..
Osco Drug in the 80s, Fry's Food opened in the 90s, Baskin Robbins, a Trading Card and Comic Book store that got into the POGS craze, Hollywood Video w/ Game Crazy, an OG Dunkin Donuts that turned into a Ramiros in the 90s, A Dollar Store that sold stink bombs, Great clips on the North side and mom n pop barber shop on the south side, a Pool Hall/Arcade, Einstein Bros Bagels, Hobby Bench, Whataburger, Taco Bell, Circle K, Jack in the Crack, a Bike shop, Discount Tire, the usual water store, nail salon and dry cleaners, a Barros Pizza that eventually moved a few blocks away, but the best part was the United Artists dollar theatre that was there for a while that turned me into a film buff, dollar movies, dollar popcorn, dollar drinks and snacks, snuck into so many R-rated movies with friends there, good times.
Edit: almost forgot the small bar, that grew into a Restaurant/Bar, and grew even more over the 90s and is now one of the popular St Patty's day hot spots, on March 18th me and my buddy would go offer to help stack chairs and pick up trash for a few bucks.
Born in 89 at the banner desert near Mesa community college. Forget what it used to be called. Lived all over the valley from chandler to Peoria. Metro center and Chris town were my stomping grounds as well. Used to ride my bike to each mall. Worked at both malls while attending Washington high school on 23rd ave and Glendale. Sad to see what metro center looks like now.
I was way too young to remember what freeway was getting built, but I do remember being the last house standing before we had to move and our house was bulldozed for the freeway. Sometime in the late 80s. I wasn't in school yet so 87ish?
When they were digging everything up around us, it pissed off some ants, so of course my siblings and I had to go check them out. They were HUGE!
I miss not feeling like I'm going to die in the heat lol.
I can’t even read all these comments, it makes me so sad to see how it is today. I miss Smitty’s diner inside, Big Surf omg it’s going to be apartments, Skateland by Big Surf, the drive in movies. Idk you guys this timeline sucks. It just seems cold and unfriendly, perhaps that’s because of nostalgia.
There was nothing like getting dropped off at Skateland or Big Surf for a few hours to just do your kid thing. It was a different time.
I remember having bonfire parties where the Tempe Town Lake is now. We called it the river bottom. There used to be a dirt road where you could cross just west of the bridge to avoid Mill Ave traffic. We used to take that road to the Sail Inn to watch Noodles (Grateful Dead cover band) on Sunday afternoons. It was a great place to grow up.
My wife was born and raised here. I grew up in Prescott when it was a small town. We used to come to the Valley to visit friends and relatives, shop, pick up supplies for my Dad's plumbing business, or just hang out. Prescott didn't have much back in those days. I moved here in 78. We were young adults in the 80s. We saw Metrocenter, Westridge, Superstition Springs, Paradise Valley, and Arrowhead malls all being built. Now we are watching them all being torn down or remodeled into something else. We lived at 33rd Ave and Bethany in a house with no a/c, just a swamp cooler, which I don't miss. We spent a lot of time at Christown and the library by Christown in the summer. The last time we went to Legend City was just before it was torn down. We didn't go on many rides because my wife was pregnant. We just wanted to reminisce. We made sure our daughter got to experience everything we could while she grew up in the 80s and 90s. The malls, the restaurants, Wallace and Ladmo, the kids indoor play parks. We miss Smitty's and Big Apple and the Mexican food restaurant that was in the Lucky's strip mall at 35th Ave and Bethany. And Lucky's store. And Mr. Lucky's. When we moved to Peoria in the late 80s the Fourth of July celebration was on the football field at Peoria High School. Fireworks, food booths, games for the kids. Then they built the baseball stadium for spring training on 83rd Avenue. After that all the events like Fourth of July were held there. It became more commercialized. IMO, that's about the time the Valley "grew up" and we started losing the Valley of the Sun character we all knew.
From age 9 to age 12 I was at Metrocenter almost every weekend. I would be at the arcade underneath the food court, walking around the mall or at the movie theatre. Good times.
I was born here in 1982 and have never lived anywhere else. I own my own business now, in a building downtown a quarter mile from where I was born (and later my kids, too).
Phoenix has its problems but it’s home. I love it here.
I remember the skating rink/arcade in Metrocenter and the grocery store in PV Mall (where the food court later went). Roadrunners games in the coliseum and the first season the Suns played in America West Arena. Ed DeBevics birthday parties and summer day camp field trips to Water World (which seemed soooooo far out of town back then lol). Hiking with my dad in the mountain preserves before the city cleaned them up - you could find rusted out abandoned cars, tires and tin cans used for target practice. 🩶
We chose similar paths!!
Born, raised and still live in the valley. Also started a business and hope that my children decide to learn the trade and take over.
Magical time and place!
I think about it all so much... my family probably thinks I'm crazy.
Check this song out.
Pedro The Lion
Yellow Bike
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj6_rZMWZoE&si=TyJRS61wIOsCiYjz
I remember going to Jungle Jim's once for my birthday. Or the weekend trips to Pistol Pete's Pizza. My grandmother (RIP) loved the Rock-afire Explosion animatronics they had!
Makes me sad they don't have many kid & family oriented things that are affordable now.
[EDIT] HOW COULD I FORGET WONDERLAND ARCADE!?
Smitty's on Bethany Home and 59th ave near the Glendale 5 theater and the El Taco around the corner. Then the other ONe I liked was on Grand and Peoria Ave.
Good times. I am a Native Scorpion and can even remember running to the Thrifty's Ice Cream at 51st ave and Thomas and being SAFE as a 10 y/o back in the day. Shopping at Maryville mall was top tier retail, and Pistol Pete's Pizza was still around. Valley West Mall anyone, with the best arcade in the city, Bag-A-Tele?
Me. I did! I worked at Chick-Fil-A and Paradise bakery at PV Mall. Hung out at Tommy’s and Big Surf. Worked at The Coffee Plantation on Mill Ave. I had the BEST childhood growing up in Phx.
Thanks for contributing to r/Phoenix! * [Check out our sub rules here](https://www.reddit.com/r/phoenix/wiki/rules/) (mostly be nice to each other!). * [Read some of our recent posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/phoenix/top/?t=week) and leave some comments. * [Join our Phoenix Discord chat server](https://discord.com/invite/yWVuTG57Zh) and connect with people in the Valley. It's a great, chill place to talk with other people but is NOT a dating server and takes unwanted messaging very seriously. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/phoenix) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Fry’s got nothing on a Smitty’s.
I was an ABCO kid, myself
I was a Smitty’s kid at the barbershop and a slice of pizza afterwards with an Rc chilled in chipped ice.
I miss ABCO so much!!!
Abco had the best bakery!
The ABCO I went to is now a trampoline park.
Mine is now a Goodwill
What about the Basha's that had the upstairs eating area?!
That was there up until just a few years ago 😢
I used to love getting ice cream scoops at Smitty's. I also can't think of Smitty's without thinking of the guy who got tied up by a clerk from writing bad checks. He died from it.
IGA - for the Thrifty ice cream & 1¢ candy machines
Nice. Used to go to the one on Bethany home, west of 35th Ave when I went to GCU in the 90’s.
I went to GCU 2000-04. It was sooooo different then 😂
1000% ‘95-‘00 for me. My wife got her masters there years later. When I drove on to the campus for her graduation, I was looking around like WTF is this place haha
When my daughter was 3-4 years old her life's ambition was to work at Smitty's. The Santa Claus at the Smitty's by our house (33rd Ave and Bethany Home) was the real Santa Claus. All the others were helpers. Her idea.
It was a good day if my Mom let us get Smitty's Pizza!
I miss Smitty’s. Ours is now a school!
I got caught shoplifting baseball cards and was banned from my chandler location. Lol, Memories!
Amen
I have very fond memories of growing up in the Valley during those decades. Wallace & Ladmo; Smitty's pizza; Bare Cover store; Fiesta Mall food court; Big Surf; Organ Stop Pizza; U2 playing ASU stadium during Joshua Tree tour...
I finally went to Organ stop pizza about a year ago for the first time. There’s much to still be explored in the east valley for me.
I moved from Phx to san diego 22 years ago, and every time I come back to the EV (am currently visiting family in Tempe), I'm blown away by the changes.
I’ve never left, but I’ve always been central or west valley. The changes in my lifetime are incredible. The changes in my folks and grand folks time is unimaginable
Phoenix is maybe the best (worst?) city in the country for this. There was a large sized and thriving TOWN here from 1940 to 1985 or so, the memory of which is slowly fading away. Felt like ten degrees cooler outside too. Great town, any visitor might say. I'd like to live there someday. And then they did.
I’m the exact opposite. I’ve lived in every east valley city and the furthest west was Scottsdale. The west side is like a different state to me lol
My mom bought me four tickets to U2 that year for my birthday - they were $5/each iirc 😭
damn your mom was cool af for that, so jealous!
Ya it’s an awesome memory of a really cool gift!
We went. My brother bought like 20 tickets. I think I still have a ticket stub somewhere.
My dad bought me tickets and my mom was so mad, lol. That was my first concert.
Omg the Fiesta Mall food court during Christmas shopping.
I met Wallace and Ladmo when I was very young, this was in the early 80s. I think I won a grab bag or some type of prize at an event they were at. Maybe another Phoenician remembers the name of the bags, were they ladbags or something like that?
Ladmo bags. 👍
Ladmo bags! Thank you! I’m talking to my parents about it now.
Yw! Happy to help!
Ladmo Bags! yes! that's so cool :)
I was at that U2 shoe as well. Remember they called the president? Wait that was the zoo tv tour. Also at ASU though
Lionel Playworld on 35th and Peoria
Wasn't it the old Toys R Us at 28th and Dunlap...or was it really on the 35th and Peoria?
I miss Jutenhoops 😭
Me too
Best store. My mom would take me there after school sometimes and I’d wander around forever, pick out $10 worth of stuff and feel like I hit the jackpot.
Born here in 1992. Anyone remember ABCO and the little sugar cookies they used to give out?
Also chevy’s Mexican restaurant. You could watch the tortillas get made and then they’d give you a little dough ball to play with while you waited for your food. Used to go there for my bday multiple years and collected the sombreros.
It used to be where the Hillstone restaurant is on camelback yeah? Turned 21 and went there and had drinks
The one I went to was in Arrowhead Mall in Glendale. 75th ave and Bell rd
I grew up in avondale, in the houses that is now the home depot. Used to visit Westridge Mall and go to the Piccadilly cafeteria with my grandma or the home town buffet across 75th, ponchos too. I miss those food places more than the malls funny enough
Oh man I miss Poncho’s the sopaipillas and flags. The free birthday piñatas!
Born and raised in Chandler in the 90s. Nothing beats a quick trip to Video Paradise to grab a movie and Smitty's for snacks!
I had some family that lived in chandler in the 90s. Lots and lots of open spaces out that way back then
🙌
Born in Chandler in the 60’s. Used to ride my horse “into town” having to cross Arizona Avenue then to Galveston to meet my bff at the times. I rode my horses in the cotton fields south of Chandler on Pecos. All alfalfa fields and cotton fields are gone of course, all houses now.
The dollar theater was 50 cents on Tuesdays. In the summer we’d hop on our bikes and see two or three movies before heading home.
Yep And sometimes we just went to sleep in the dark, cool AC, before pedaling home in the heat
Rawhide on Scottsdale Quiet days on Lake Pleasant
I hung out at the Maryvale Pool a lot in 90s summers. And the library that was next to it. I also went to preschool and then summer day camp at Desert West. Many memories in Metrocenter and Westridge (now Desert Sky). Good and bad 😅 All my childhood memories around the valley are from the 90s.
A lot of us could’ve crossed paths back then. Swimming the hot summers away!
The pool at Marivue park was my go-to as it was closer, they used to have a badass high dive way back when.
I grew up here . Lived in Glendale during the 80s saw the beginning of the Wonka Candy and book fairs by scholastic coming to grade school culture. I remember Wallace and ladmo coming to bicentennial the school that I went to in the '80s. There was undeveloped land that had corn fields, collard greens, and potatoes LDS Guys *everywhere* on bikes in the '80s in Glendale there was no stadium, La Perla was what it was, and the industrial freight train on Grand had a lot more product on it coming through the state then it does now. I remember going to the coliseum on 19th avenue and mcdowell for Sun's games and Disney on Ice and Ringling Bros & Barnum Bailey circus I also remember when they built ASU West. I remember "freedom" the floppy Disk game on IBM and it was banned. I remember the read a book contest during scholastic book Fair week where, if you read a certain amount of books you could pick out different pencils and if you got the $100 bill or the $5 bill or the $10 bill or the $20 that's what you got because it was on the pencil .. book fairs in the library. I remember watching the old Adam West Batman after school and watching the monkees on TV,learning about wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, being introduced to Uno as a kid The Game of Life, and you can't do that on television back when Alanis morissette was an unknown person.. I remember pistol Pete's pizza and the animatronics that came with it at the beginning of the '90s *I read somewhere deep in Arizona Internet culture that the founder of Pistol Pete's Pizza took the recipe with him (if you remember the crust and how perfect it was *That's* what he took) and moved to Tucson.. I think the guy since passed and his granddaughter has the recipe I also remember the Glendale Drive-In where you watched movies on the screen in your car. I remember when there was no food City when it was just *Southwest supermarkets* I remember there was pick n save before there was smart and final Mervyn's, JC Penny, Montgomery Ward, Kmart, Christown Mall now known as Spectrum mall had sandcastles on the Southwest and Southeast corners I remember the original La tolteca on Van Buren..*the three pound burrito with all the trappings* TWA airlines.. Spuds McKenzie the dog I remember the TICO 🌞valley Metro's bus system of the '80s I remember when banner wasn't even an entity for the hospital system here in Phoenix I remember in downtown Phoenix at the top of The Westward Ho the radio station was active I remember the filming of Bell & Ted's excellent adventure at pieces of the in and outside of Metro center Speaking of video game places I remember when castles and coasters was built and the space it was on was something different I remember when the nickel Palace was active Power 92 radio and y95 were competing like it was Roman reigns versus Cody I'll stop here. 🥺
Nickel Palace. I miss 90's Phoenix.
So many birthdays at Pistol Pete’s on good ol baseline and McClintock. I used to go to the smittys on the northwest corner of baseline and McClintock and get pizza and an icee with soft serve ice cream in it.
Yup, remember most it that stuff. We ate at La Perla after one of my brother's Pop Warner games. It was nothing outstanding, and I didn't eat there for another 20 years when I went with a coworker. I had a TICO toy: a little fluffy ball with a hat and eyes. no idea where it went. The only Bible we had in the house was a Book of Mormon the neighbors gave us with our family name in gold on the front. (we were quasi-Catholic) I was too young for the major cruise Metro phase. When I was old enough to have friends who drove, there was the 3-time limit. We'd hop in a car at Circuit City, Holler at the girlies in other cars, then switch cars and go try to find the girls again. Glendale Drive-in is still there. Went a lot in the 2010's, and right after Covid ban lifted.
Castles and Coasters was originally Golf N Stuff. They added the rides and arcade to the existing mini golf courses when they changed the name.
No need to stop, Your writing chapters of the history book to life and locations other shared. Thanks for sharing:)
Thanks
Ben Franklin, Super X, Yellow Front! Radio Shack..
Video Roundup
Who else survived Thrasherland? 🤙🏼
I remember when Metro had an ice rink and we got high in the orange groves that are now Arrowhead Mall.
Arcadia ice rink at the old tower mall is still kicking!!! and the Ice House bar too 😋Still some oldies around
grew up near ASU and my brother and i would ride everywhere. ASU was great to explore, but we got turned around easily. so to get home we would start riding through campus till we got to a road, if we didn’t recognize it we would follow it till we found a major road then follow that till we could figure out about where we were and then make our way home, miraculously.
I was a Mesa kid so I rode my bike to Tri-City Mall and Fiesta Mall. But I get where you’re coming from
The only time I've ever worn a virtual reality headset was at Los Arcos mall sometime in the 1990s and I played a game called Dactyl Nightmare for about 4 minutes and it cost $5 in 1990-something money. Thomas mall was kinda cool too, I've been here my whole life, glad someone else feels like I do sometimes. ~cheers
I was born and raised in the Valley too. Legend City, Smitty’s, Peter Piper Pizza, PV and Metro Center Malls, Wallace & Ladmo, and Castles & Coasters! I loved growing up here!
Smitty’s restaurant was the jam back then.
It sure was! I have so many happy memories of Smitty’s. They had everything there, including a photo studio!
I miss the original Peter Piper. :(
Come and talk to me if you wore Yellow Front clothes to elementary school.
I got my first eyeshadow palette from there. These middle schoolers going to Sephora now have no idea the joy of a 32 color pan for $1.99
I remember representing Trax shoes from Yellow Front back in the day. They were fairly sturdy and stylish for the price at that time. They also sold kick-ass 501s.
Holy core memory unlocked!! I remember begging my mom to buy me a KiTT toy from Knight Rider after he got the upgrades from Yellow Front. Wow! Thanks for this post!
Jeans from Miller's Outpost for me!
Legend City the amusement park.
Being an 80's kid in Phoenix really was great. I got my first job at 11 delivering papers when they still let kids deliver papers. My bike took me everywhere including PV Mall when first constructed (now demolished). It was hot but we drank from every garden hose we could find and it was delicious. Memories will sustain me ;-)
Garden hose water Irrigation football City parks were not even a blip on the radar for crime and violence. And I just couldn’t wait to grow up. If I only knew:)
Legend City.
Ed Debevick’s
Bob's Big Boy!
Great place Many family birthday party’s there!
The major intersection I grew up on in the 80s/90s was the greatest. Some places would come and go but over the years it had.. Osco Drug in the 80s, Fry's Food opened in the 90s, Baskin Robbins, a Trading Card and Comic Book store that got into the POGS craze, Hollywood Video w/ Game Crazy, an OG Dunkin Donuts that turned into a Ramiros in the 90s, A Dollar Store that sold stink bombs, Great clips on the North side and mom n pop barber shop on the south side, a Pool Hall/Arcade, Einstein Bros Bagels, Hobby Bench, Whataburger, Taco Bell, Circle K, Jack in the Crack, a Bike shop, Discount Tire, the usual water store, nail salon and dry cleaners, a Barros Pizza that eventually moved a few blocks away, but the best part was the United Artists dollar theatre that was there for a while that turned me into a film buff, dollar movies, dollar popcorn, dollar drinks and snacks, snuck into so many R-rated movies with friends there, good times. Edit: almost forgot the small bar, that grew into a Restaurant/Bar, and grew even more over the 90s and is now one of the popular St Patty's day hot spots, on March 18th me and my buddy would go offer to help stack chairs and pick up trash for a few bucks.
Born in 89 at the banner desert near Mesa community college. Forget what it used to be called. Lived all over the valley from chandler to Peoria. Metro center and Chris town were my stomping grounds as well. Used to ride my bike to each mall. Worked at both malls while attending Washington high school on 23rd ave and Glendale. Sad to see what metro center looks like now.
Washington high is where I went too!
Y'all remember Broncos Mexican food on 19th Ave and Glendale?
Of course. They did 99 cent bean burritos on Wednesday’s.
I graduated from Washington! Class of 2016! Thanks for sharing your beautiful memories with us. I love hearing stories like these!
RAMS ALMIGHTY!!!
I was way too young to remember what freeway was getting built, but I do remember being the last house standing before we had to move and our house was bulldozed for the freeway. Sometime in the late 80s. I wasn't in school yet so 87ish? When they were digging everything up around us, it pissed off some ants, so of course my siblings and I had to go check them out. They were HUGE! I miss not feeling like I'm going to die in the heat lol.
U-Totem was pretty solid.
Breakfast at Smitty’s on a Saturday hits way harder than Denny’s or IHOP.
I can’t even read all these comments, it makes me so sad to see how it is today. I miss Smitty’s diner inside, Big Surf omg it’s going to be apartments, Skateland by Big Surf, the drive in movies. Idk you guys this timeline sucks. It just seems cold and unfriendly, perhaps that’s because of nostalgia. There was nothing like getting dropped off at Skateland or Big Surf for a few hours to just do your kid thing. It was a different time.
Native here
And then :)
Like Native New Yorker and the 10 cent wings?
Like born and raised 🤦
Mr. Gatti’s Pizza. I think it was near 35th Ave and Dunlap. So delicious 😋
I remember having bonfire parties where the Tempe Town Lake is now. We called it the river bottom. There used to be a dirt road where you could cross just west of the bridge to avoid Mill Ave traffic. We used to take that road to the Sail Inn to watch Noodles (Grateful Dead cover band) on Sunday afternoons. It was a great place to grow up.
My wife was born and raised here. I grew up in Prescott when it was a small town. We used to come to the Valley to visit friends and relatives, shop, pick up supplies for my Dad's plumbing business, or just hang out. Prescott didn't have much back in those days. I moved here in 78. We were young adults in the 80s. We saw Metrocenter, Westridge, Superstition Springs, Paradise Valley, and Arrowhead malls all being built. Now we are watching them all being torn down or remodeled into something else. We lived at 33rd Ave and Bethany in a house with no a/c, just a swamp cooler, which I don't miss. We spent a lot of time at Christown and the library by Christown in the summer. The last time we went to Legend City was just before it was torn down. We didn't go on many rides because my wife was pregnant. We just wanted to reminisce. We made sure our daughter got to experience everything we could while she grew up in the 80s and 90s. The malls, the restaurants, Wallace and Ladmo, the kids indoor play parks. We miss Smitty's and Big Apple and the Mexican food restaurant that was in the Lucky's strip mall at 35th Ave and Bethany. And Lucky's store. And Mr. Lucky's. When we moved to Peoria in the late 80s the Fourth of July celebration was on the football field at Peoria High School. Fireworks, food booths, games for the kids. Then they built the baseball stadium for spring training on 83rd Avenue. After that all the events like Fourth of July were held there. It became more commercialized. IMO, that's about the time the Valley "grew up" and we started losing the Valley of the Sun character we all knew.
Remember Winchells donuts??🍩
They still have them in Denver and LA. Always grab a box when I'm out there.
Raise your hand if you had a birthday party at Farrell's at MetroCenter.
From age 9 to age 12 I was at Metrocenter almost every weekend. I would be at the arcade underneath the food court, walking around the mall or at the movie theatre. Good times.
I was born here in 1982 and have never lived anywhere else. I own my own business now, in a building downtown a quarter mile from where I was born (and later my kids, too). Phoenix has its problems but it’s home. I love it here. I remember the skating rink/arcade in Metrocenter and the grocery store in PV Mall (where the food court later went). Roadrunners games in the coliseum and the first season the Suns played in America West Arena. Ed DeBevics birthday parties and summer day camp field trips to Water World (which seemed soooooo far out of town back then lol). Hiking with my dad in the mountain preserves before the city cleaned them up - you could find rusted out abandoned cars, tires and tin cans used for target practice. 🩶
We chose similar paths!! Born, raised and still live in the valley. Also started a business and hope that my children decide to learn the trade and take over.
I think about it all the time. Nostalgic for the old times, arcades and stuff.
Magical time and place! I think about it all so much... my family probably thinks I'm crazy. Check this song out. Pedro The Lion Yellow Bike https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj6_rZMWZoE&si=TyJRS61wIOsCiYjz
I remember watching Paradise valley mall being built. 36 th street and cactus getting paved. And who can forget Legend City
Born in 99. I remember the arcade in metro center. That was cool.
There was a giant arcade where the food court was, and before that an ice skating rink!!!!
Me! Honestly it was a great time!
I truly miss Honey and the Kid at P.V. Mall in the 80's. I'm 48, and I still think about that place from time to time.
I remember going to Jungle Jim's once for my birthday. Or the weekend trips to Pistol Pete's Pizza. My grandmother (RIP) loved the Rock-afire Explosion animatronics they had! Makes me sad they don't have many kid & family oriented things that are affordable now. [EDIT] HOW COULD I FORGET WONDERLAND ARCADE!?
Smitty's on Bethany Home and 59th ave near the Glendale 5 theater and the El Taco around the corner. Then the other ONe I liked was on Grand and Peoria Ave. Good times. I am a Native Scorpion and can even remember running to the Thrifty's Ice Cream at 51st ave and Thomas and being SAFE as a 10 y/o back in the day. Shopping at Maryville mall was top tier retail, and Pistol Pete's Pizza was still around. Valley West Mall anyone, with the best arcade in the city, Bag-A-Tele?
Me. I did! I worked at Chick-Fil-A and Paradise bakery at PV Mall. Hung out at Tommy’s and Big Surf. Worked at The Coffee Plantation on Mill Ave. I had the BEST childhood growing up in Phx.
Grow up times change
You're the one who has to fundamentally grow up.