Long, but worth the read....

This is long, but well worth the read if you live in Phoenix or grew up there. It has me missing it today!!


A list of all things people remember about growing up in Phoenix, Arizona. The early years!

1) Would have done anything for a Ladmo bag. (I sat NEXT to my friend Crissy Capacio who WON it. I'm not bitter. Oh yes I am.)

2) Tired to fry an egg on the sidewalk. Yes. Yes I did.

3) Can still remember the words to the hepatitis song. oh my gosh YES I still sing that to my kids when they need to wash their hands after going to the bathroom, wash your hands after changing baby tooooo, cuz we don't want to spread hepatitis, and we don't want hepatitis to catch yoooou... Who? YOU! I'm sure my mom can still sing that since I probably drover her crazy with it.

4) Spent way too many summer days in a mall. Fiesta Mall had dang good A/C and the toy store had model horses, it was next to the record store where you could browse through 45s, and get a pretzel at the gyro guy up in the food court. Yep, good times.

5) Remember KZZP. and KOPA. I had a KOPA bird tshirt. LOVED it.

6) Went ice skating at Metrocenter. Yep, it was a girl scout troop field trip!

7) Get irritated when people say "yeah, but it's a dry heat." Uh huh. But now living here, it makes more sense. But hot is HOT. No matter what.

8) Have red burnt cheeks in ever childhood picture. Or a farmer tan. Yup.

9) Had a pool in your backyard. No, I but I was friends with everybody who did! And I was on the Ahwatukee swim team!

10) Vacationed in San Diego or Rocky Point. San Diego baby!

11) Know what it feel like to come out of an icy cold movie theater into 110 degree heat. That is an awesome feeling. Then sitting in your 150 degree car and enjoying it for a split second.

12) Saw your mom drive with potholders. I don't remember her doing it, but I know I did. I had a 65 mustang. No air. Need I say more?

13) Know what "tubing" means. Did it once. Now I call it the salt river enema treatment.

14) Have been "ice blocking." well no, but I've witnessed it.

15) Have a T-shirt that says "I survived the hottest day in Phoenix history" referring to that summer day in 1990 when it got up to 122 degree in the shade. I didn't have a shirt, but I can tell you exactly where I was that day, and still driving that old mustang without air. Ugh.

16) Consider yourself a "Zonie." Only when I felt I was getting dirty looks in San Diego for driving around with my arizona license plate.

17) Ever put Christmas lights on a cactus. Guilty

19) Burnt the bottom of your feet running out to get the mail because you were too lazy to put on shoes. Yeeeah. I can even tell my mom is nodding her head to this one. I did this ALL the time.

20) Know some Spanish even though you never studied it. Yup. Grande size please.

21) Won hot pink scrunchies at Metro Midway! Oh geeze, yes.

22) Enjoyed making song requests at Organ Stop Pizza. I had a birthday party there. It was awesome. And man could they bring down the house with the star wars theme.

3) Got in trouble for leaving crayons in the back seat of the car. Probably. My kids have brought this into the next generation though. Look at the red wax mark on my black carpet in my car I have now.

24) Are not intimidated by a Super Big Gulp. Bring it on. Coke please.

25) Your heroes were Kevin Johnson (KJ), Mark West, and Tom Chambers. Hey, at least I know that is basketball.

26) Had to pay full replacement price for the rented VCR tape you left in your car. Never. Whew.

27) Shopped at Goldwaters, Broadway Southwest, Federated or Diamonds. I loved those obnoxious federated commercials.

28) Remember Dave Pratt the Morning Mayor on 98 KUPD. Unfortunately yes.


29) Can count the number of times it snowed in Phoenix on one hand. I was standing in the parking lot at Fiesta Mall when it did this. It was cool. Weird white stuff on the cars.

30) Stood in line to watch movies at the original Cine Capri. Oooh yeeeah. I saw Star Wars, Rattle & Hum (I had to see the U2 movie at the best theater ever!) and Titanic before it was torn down.

31) Snow Cones and brain freezes made summer worthwhile. Especially after riding my bike to the Alpha Beta shopping center. You had to stop at Circle K before riding back home!

32) Cried when Wallace and Ladmo went off the air Yes, and even harder when Ladmo died.


33) Went to Pistol Pete's pizza, ShowBiz pizza, and can recall Tex Critters at MetroCenter yes

34) Ate at Smitty's pizza. Only the best pizza EVER. Heck, Smitty's deserves a post of it's own. That was the best store. I have a million memories there. I went to see Santa there, and took our glass soda bottles back there to return for .10 each.

35) Remember Gemco Mom? DO *we* remember Gemco or what?!?! I'll pay you back! I promise!! Somewhere in the Target on McClintock and Baseline there is a floor tile that I spent HOURS standing on looking at the model horses for sale.

36) Ate at Furr's Cafeteria Helll yeaaah.

37) Shopped at Mervyn's Sniff sniff. And here they just closed forever. We had a Mervyn's Christmas box that went back and forth to Florida and Arizona for decades. It was always fun to see who got the box with a present in it that year.

38) Saw your first concert at the Arizona State Fair I saw U2 there when they opened for J Giels at the fair! It was love at first sight. And the U2 love keeps going....

38 1/2) Or went to concerts at the original Compton Terrace at Legend City.

39) Remember the Madhouse Macdowell (Purple Palace) yes.

40) Remember Suns Fever yes.

41) Recall Thunder Dan Yes. And I can't think of him without the joke. Remember when his restaurant was closed down from the health department for awhile? There was a joke that said: Majerle's where they cook the carrots and PEE in the same pot. I don't know why, it always made me laugh.

42) Mourned the loss of Cotton Fitzsimmons

43) Believed in the 100 year flood

44) Did the hokey pokey at Skateland. Yes!!!

45) Cruised Central, Metro or Mill Avenue. Back when Mill Avenue was cool baby.

46) Remember only TWO freeways either the I-10 or I-17. Yes.

47) Remember who Rose Mofford or Evan Mecham is. Yes.

48) Know what Sonoyta Motors is. Yes.

49) Know what Price Club is (and when there was only 1). Oh yeah!!! That was heaven for an office supply addict like me.

50) Had Dimension Cable. LOL, yes.

51) Know what the Phoenix Gazette is. Yes.

52) Went to Legend City Yes!

53) Know what Yellow Front, Lucky's, Smittys, AJ Bayless, are Yellow Front ROCKED.

54) Suffered with a swamp cooler. I wouldn't say suffered, I loved our swamp cooler. We even had one in the garage, so our garage was cool during the summer.

55) Went boogie boarding on irrigation day. Oh gosh yes. At the park in Ahwatukee.


56) Thought 19th Ave and Cactus was in the boonies. yes.

57) Were ever excited about your appearance on "Pets on Parade." LOL, no but I loved watching that show, and always was bummed when I missed the dogs and they were already on cats. Waaay before tivo.

58) Suffered the consequences of leaving your sister's favorite vinyl record in the car. LOL, not a record but I'm sure there were some melted cassettes.

59) Thought Big Surf was Rad! - and you had to run from sprinker to sprinkler in the sand so your feet wouldn't burn. Oh, and big surf used to have sand in the pool. Without sand is for wussies.


60) Danced at Club Rio. no.

61) Remember Tex Earnhardt and his "No Bull commercials" All too well. They are in my brain forever.

62) This is for my west siiiiide girl Shanna - Attended a birthday party in a railroad car at the McDonald's on Bethany Home and 23rd Ave. me, no. I was east side.

63) Remember the Dr. Demento show on KZZP every Sunday night. yes.


64) Burned your hand trying to open your locker at school. yes. It sucked to have the ones that were in the sun.

65) Locking your car doors as soon as you got south of Bethany Home. no comment

66) Wished you lived in California. Who doesn't???

67) Didn't believe that High schools actually had indoor halls and full size lockers like they do on TV. Oh yessss!

68)Your Hypercolor T-shirt was permanently a different color under your arms. Haha, never had one, but I remember the armpit issue.

69) Knew not to shoot at a Saguaro because it could fall over on you and kill you. LOL, the thought never occured to me, but this makes me laugh because I did always worry about one falling on me.

70) Thought Flagstaff was REALLY cold. LMAO at this one. YES I did.

71) Always saw at least 10 people you knew on Mission Beach (San Diego) yes!

72) Remember when Buckeye was BFE82) yes

73) Wore jellies in the summer even though you had really bad feet sweat. YES! YES! YES! But I looked oh so coooool.

74) Remember when Ahwatukee had "The house of the future."

75) Have a scar on the back of your thighs from the 3rd degree burns sustained from the metal clip your seat belt clicked in to. YES!

76) Remember the orange trees planted all the way down the middle of Black Canyon Freeway (Now called I-17)

77) Going to slide rock in Sedona and hoping it wasn't closed due to high levels of bacteria in the water! YES!!

78) Remember when Terminal 2 was the only passenger terminal at Sky Harbor and you had to walk on the tarmac. YES!!!!

79) Celebrated a birthday at Ed Debevick's yes.

80) Thought Bobby McGee's was the coolest restaurant ever? yes! Mike and I went there for prom.

82) Ever rode the "crack the whip" ride at Encanto Park. yes

83) Ever got attacked by a jumping cholla cactus? Of course! You have to taunt it to see how far it will jump. Hey, we didn't have tivo and video games...

84) Remember the commercial about Valley Fever..."Dustyyyy, dustyyyy, dustyyyy" LOL, yes!

85) Witnessed the shock when the "art" on the 51 when installed. (Referring to the lovely toilet and large silver sphere.) YES!!

86) Had the bell run for their birthday at Farrell's (Christown) YES.

87) Remember Stu Tracey, Linda Turley and Roger Downey on channel 5?? KPHO!