Hello and welcome folks,

Remember the Pusch Building? Grabe Electric? Have you ever had a
cocktail at the Talk of the Town, or an ice cream cone at the Thrifty
Drug store? Ever hock your pearls or buy a .38 at Field's Jewelers
and Pawnbrokers? Regardless of which business you patronized, they're
all gone; demolished last September, 2004.

It happened so quickly, I didn't have a chance to get any pictures.
Apparently the demolition briefly exposed a 1930's Art Deco facade on
the Thrifty Drug store that few people remembered. If anyone has any
pictures of the businesses on that block, please scan and post them in
the "files" section. I have one recent picture there now. Please
share any history or remembrances by replying to this message.

To jog your memory... The Pusch Building was built in 1889 by
pioneer rancher George Pusch. It housed Grabe Electric for many
years. Charlie Makley, a member of John Dillinger's gang, was
arrested inside Grabe Electric looking at police radios. Later, the
building was occupied by the Talk of the Town restaurant up into the
1980s.

Does anyone know who occupied the buildings before Field's and Thrifty?

Hi again,

I just found some old photos of the Thrifty/Grabe block and posted
them in a folder in the "photos" section. Yes, now you can see the
older Art Deco facade on the Thrifty drug store building. I still
don't know what business it was back then.

I found the photos in the book "Jack Sheaffer's Tucson". The daytime
shots are from April 1958, with people jamming Congress for "Downtown
Value Days". Later that day, a helicopter flew overhead, dropping
ping-pong balls containing money and prizes. Unfortunately it flew
too high, and most of the balls landed on rooftops.

The night photo also shows people packing Congress, this time on the
Friday after Thanksgiving, 1955. They've come to see Santa Claus.
Note the abundant neon signage.

Carlos



--- In vanishingtucson@..., "mistercopacetic"
<mistercopacetic@y...> wrote:

Hello and welcome folks,

Remember the Pusch Building? Grabe Electric? Have you ever had a
cocktail at the Talk of the Town, or an ice cream cone at the Thrifty
Drug store? Ever hock your pearls or buy a .38 at Field's Jewelers
and Pawnbrokers? Regardless of which business you patronized, they're
all gone; demolished last September, 2004.

It happened so quickly, I didn't have a chance to get any pictures.
Apparently the demolition briefly exposed a 1930's Art Deco facade on
the Thrifty Drug store that few people remembered. If anyone has any
pictures of the businesses on that block, please scan and post them in
the "files" section. I have one recent picture there now. Please
share any history or remembrances by replying to this message.

To jog your memory... The Pusch Building was built in 1889 by
pioneer rancher George Pusch. It housed Grabe Electric for many
years. Charlie Makley, a member of John Dillinger's gang, was
arrested inside Grabe Electric looking at police radios. Later, the
building was occupied by the Talk of the Town restaurant up into the
1980s.

Does anyone know who occupied the buildings before Field's and Thrifty?

--- In vanishingtucson@..., "mistercopacetic"
<mistercopacetic@y...> wrote:

Hello

This really brings back memories, we bought our set of wedding rings
at Fields and we still have the original receipt. Also besides Jack
Sheaffers book a couple of other ones are; Tucson Firsts by Larry Cox
and Another Tucson by Bonnie Henry. Jack was a personal friend of mine
and all his pictures and negitives [3 sheds full] were donated to the
Arizona Museum on Second street where I think they are displayed on o
revoling schedule.

Thanks
Larry
lbb1961@...

Hello and welcome folks,

Remember the Pusch Building? Grabe Electric? Have you ever had a
cocktail at the Talk of the Town, or an ice cream cone at the Thrifty
Drug store? Ever hock your pearls or buy a .38 at Field's Jewelers
and Pawnbrokers? Regardless of which business you patronized, they're
all gone; demolished last September, 2004.

It happened so quickly, I didn't have a chance to get any pictures.
Apparently the demolition briefly exposed a 1930's Art Deco facade on
the Thrifty Drug store that few people remembered. If anyone has any
pictures of the businesses on that block, please scan and post them in
the "files" section. I have one recent picture there now. Please
share any history or remembrances by replying to this message.

To jog your memory... The Pusch Building was built in 1889 by
pioneer rancher George Pusch. It housed Grabe Electric for many
years. Charlie Makley, a member of John Dillinger's gang, was
arrested inside Grabe Electric looking at police radios. Later, the
building was occupied by the Talk of the Town restaurant up into the
1980s.

Does anyone know who occupied the buildings before Field's and Thrifty?

Welcome Larry,

Thanks for your contribution. I recently acquired most of the books
you mentioned, but haven't read them all yet. If you look in the
"photos" section of this Group, you'll find some pictures of South
Congress. You'll notice that two are close-ups of photos from your
friend Mr. Sheaffer's excellent book. I esecially like the view of
Congress at night during the holidays.

Note I always use low-resoloution scans to avoid any potential
copyright infringements, and to save space in the files section.

By the way, I was recently reminded that the Thrifty Drug was a
Woolworth's for many years. With the change of ownership came the
change of traditional spherical ice-cream scoops, to the BIZARRE,
cylindrical scoops of the Thrifty/Rite Aid chain. But that's another
topic entirely.

Okay, I can't resist...
If you've never seen one of their ice-cream scoopers, I'll post a pic
of one which is selling on e-bay right now. Look in the "Grabe"
folder in the "Congress" file of the Photos section. They're selling
for over a hundred bucks. I think the chain still uses them.

Carlos


--- In vanishingtucson@..., "lb1940" <lb1940@y...> wrote:

--- In vanishingtucson@..., "mistercopacetic"
<mistercopacetic@y...> wrote:

Hello

This really brings back memories, we bought our set of wedding rings
at Fields and we still have the original receipt. Also besides Jack
Sheaffers book a couple of other ones are; Tucson Firsts by Larry Cox
and Another Tucson by Bonnie Henry. Jack was a personal friend of mine
and all his pictures and negitives [3 sheds full] were donated to the
Arizona Museum on Second street where I think they are displayed on o
revoling schedule.

Thanks
Larry
lbb1961@a...

Hello and welcome folks,

Remember the Pusch Building? Grabe Electric? Have you ever had a
cocktail at the Talk of the Town, or an ice cream cone at the Thrifty
Drug store? Ever hock your pearls or buy a .38 at Field's Jewelers
and Pawnbrokers? Regardless of which business you patronized, they're
all gone; demolished last September, 2004.

It happened so quickly, I didn't have a chance to get any pictures.
Apparently the demolition briefly exposed a 1930's Art Deco facade on
the Thrifty Drug store that few people remembered. If anyone has any
pictures of the businesses on that block, please scan and post them in
the "files" section. I have one recent picture there now. Please
share any history or remembrances by replying to this message.

To jog your memory... The Pusch Building was built in 1889 by
pioneer rancher George Pusch. It housed Grabe Electric for many
years. Charlie Makley, a member of John Dillinger's gang, was
arrested inside Grabe Electric looking at police radios. Later, the
building was occupied by the Talk of the Town restaurant up into the
1980s.

Does anyone know who occupied the buildings before Field's and

Thrifty?

If anyone is interested in making an archival quality portfolio of
vanishing tucson. I have the products in my scrapbooking store, and
the expertise to help you put it together. I think that this could
really make something attractive: leather post bound album, expandable
as the picture collection grows, no worries about size; lots of
heritage type stuff available for embellishments.

Come see me at Sonoran Scrapbooking (SW corner of Speedway and
Craycroft) and we can get started on a great project. Portfolios are
an awesome way to present your idea to others in a dramatic and
convincing manner - change anyone?

Jay

__________________________________________________
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I was sitting down chatting with my dad the other day about vanishing
Tucson, he was born here in 1925. I'm going to have to write down some
of his rememberances and post them. The thing that struck him most last
time was that there are no more western outfitter stores here in town
any more. Jim

--- In vanishingtucson@..., david corker <cor1ker@y...>
wrote:

M.C.,
Do you have a photograph of the Chicago Music Store traffic accident;

was it always a cave in the wall?

I've heard that 60 years ago Campbell Avenue was the end of eastside

Tucson neighborhoods, do you have a snapshot?

A few years ago there was a book put out, "Wings over Tucson" or

something like that..It showed aerial photos of Tucson in the 20s, 30's
and 40s, differet locations followed by photos of the same location
today. jim

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I was just wondering how many people remember going out on west Grant
Road to Olson's Dairy? It has long since been dug up, turned under and
paved over. But was right there on the south side of Grant Road at the
Freeway. Jim

---david corker <cor1ker@y...> wrote:

Do you have a photograph of the Chicago Music Store traffic

accident; was it always a cave in the wall?


Hi David,

As a matter of fact, I do. What I have posted above is actually a
picture of a picture. I noticed that someone at the Chicago Store
posted pictures of the accident in their window, more than a year
after it happened. You can see the huge, unrepaired cracks in the
plate-glass, which sort of adds something, right? Look for a folder
of additional pictures posted in the "Photos" section.

I'll also cut and paste a newspaper article below. Note that the
article gives the impression that the Chicago Store has occupied the
building since 1919, but you can see from the old photos that the
building was used by Penneys throughout the 30's, 40's and 50's (at
least).

The inlayed tilework on the sidewalk outside says "Aaronson Bros",
which probably predates Penneys. Does anyone know for sure?

Thanks,
Carlos

Here's the article about the crash:

chicago store's redo
Repairs to restore damage to music emporium from nearly year-ago crash
By Joseph Barrios
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Published: 12.17.2004


Some things don't change at the Chicago Music Store.

Patrons strum guitars in crowded aisles. Employees holler at each
other from around corners and over stacks of musical instruments.

And soon, the familiar downtown fa?ade will lose the black eye it
suffered last year when a tractor-trailer smashed into the front of
the store at 130 E. Congress.

This week, the business received the OK from its insurance company to
make roughly $85,000 worth of repairs. The impact literally pushed the
front of the building about 2 inches back, said Mark Levkowitz, whose
great-grandparents founded the Chicago Store in 1919.

The crash happened at 5:25 a.m. on Dec. 30. Tucson police reports say
Candice Elizabeth Beckham, headed north, ran a red light at Sixth
Avenue and East Congress Street and collided with a westbound
tractor-trailer. The impact and possibly the driver's swerving sent
the tractor-trailer into the front of the store.

The top half of the tractor-trailer was crushed as it lodged under the
building's overhang. The trailer hit and damaged the familiar metal
sign bearing the store name.

Levkowitz was at home that morning when the phone rang about 5:30 a.m.

"I got a call from the alarm company saying, 'There's a truck in the
entrance of your building.' The alarm company tends to exaggerate,"
Levkowitz said. "I came down and there was a truck in the entrance of
our building. It was quite a shock."

Levkowitz said it took time to process the insurance claims because he
wanted to be meticulous about the repairs. In October 2003, the
Chicago Store was one of eight Downtown properties named to the
National Register of Historic Places.

Construction will begin in a few weeks and should take about a month
to complete. Levkowitz said he doesn't expect the work to disrupt
traffic or business.

A glance at the point of impact shows the brick and mortar walls of
the building sit about 2 inches back from the concrete foundation.
Levkowitz isn't clear on exactly how it will be done, but workers will
try to pull the damaged portion of the building back out. Workers will
also repair some support columns, reinforce portions of the basement
and replace the smashed and cracked glass in front display cases.

Employees and customers of the Downtown fixture have dealt with tough
times in 2004.

Mark Levkowitz's father, Joe, and his uncle, Phil, who ran the store
for decades, both died early this year within 16 days of each other.
Phil was known to stay by the front counter and greet customers while
Joe could often be seen talking to young musicians in the store
aisles.

David Membrila, a local school music director and longtime store
customer, said he felt bad when he heard about the crash.

"I remember when that accident happened, thinking to myself, that was
Phil's spot," Membrila said. "It was a rude awakening for how tragic
life can be. There's a lot of traffic that goes through the Chicago
Store. It's kind of like the 'Cheers' bar, that counter."

The crash did force both the Chicago Music Store and its adjoining
business, Music Land Sheet Music & Instruments, to close for two days.
Sort of.

Even on the day of the crash, faithful customers were still coming to
the front door, said Mary Levkowitz, Mark's wife. And her husband was
still helping them.

"He would run back, get them what they need, and come out. He was
pushing pianos out the front door," she said.

Once the repairs are complete, there's still more work to be done. A
$40,000 Back-to-Basics grant from the city will serve as the
foundation for a $200,000 restoration of the building's front. The
original black and yellow tile will be revealed and windows, which had
been covered by the store sign, will be opened up again.

In the early '70's a midwesterner crashed with me for a few days on
his
way to join the SLA (insurgent-fanticists and Patty Hearst
kidnappers)
California, he said he'd been inspired by the movie "The Trial of
Billy
Jack." A pal of mine was an extra in the Kent State massacre
sequence
filmed in Tucson; does anyone have producton-stills that show the
town

Hi All,

Just wondering if anyone remembers the old drive-in resturants in
Tucson? Everyone remembers Johnnies, but how about Richies,
Hasty-Tasty And Duffies where they gave you a pizza shaped like a
heart on your birthday. Does anyone remember more?

Larry

--- In vanishingtucson@..., "lb1940" <lb1940@y...> wrote:

Hi All,

Just wondering if anyone remembers the old drive-in resturants in
Tucson? Everyone remembers Johnnies, but how about Richies,
Hasty-Tasty And Duffies where they gave you a pizza shaped like a
heart on your birthday. Does anyone remember more?

Larry

Don't forget big Bobs and Johnnies on 22nd was only place open after
12:00.

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Had to email my mom, and this is what she remembers.

Drive-ins !!!!!!!!
How about:
"A & W" on Speedway
"Polar Bar" on Speedway and almost next door on Speedway
was "Marco's"
"Pat's" on Speedway, S 6th and Ajo and now on Grande Ave.
"Lotaburger" on Grant
"Duke's" on N Main

Hi All,

What a great topic! I'll look for old pictures. I added a scan of
the drive-in listings in my 1948 Tucson Business Directory. How about
those names? I love the spelling of Central Dryv-Inn (sic).
Hasty-Tasty and Polar Bar are clever. But my favorite would have to
be "One's-A-Meal" (I'd eat two).

Larry, at Duffie's, did they put candles on your heart-shaped pizza?
Did they sing too? How old were you?

Back to the present:

I know "The Crossroads" mexican restaurant on S. 4th used to have
car-service. They would actually bring a pitcher of beer out to your
car. You can still park in the spots, but I'm not sure if they'll
send a waitress out to take your order. I'm SURE they won't serve you
booze in your car.
They have a great old neon sign. Not sure if it still lights up.

Does anyone know if "Shari's 1st Ave. Drive-In" still has car-service?
How long has Shari's been there?

I may need to do some hands-on research this weekend. My mouth is
watering already.

Here's the list so far. I'm sure we can add a lot more. If you've
been actually there, please describe it. I'll eventually post the
list in the "Files" section.

Thanks,

Carlos

drive-in restaurants:

Arroyo 4900 E. Speedway

A&W on Speedway

Big Bob's

Central Dryv-Inn 1107 N. Stone

Circle Drive Inn 3802 S. 6th

Crossroads 2604 S. 4th

Dixie Drive-Inn 1019 N. Stone

"Duke's" on N Main

Duke's 1148 N. 12th

Duffie's where they gave you a pizza shaped like a heart on your birthday.

Hasty-Tasty

Johnnies on 22nd was only place open after 12:00.

"Lotaburger" on Grant

"Marco's" on Speedway, almost next door to Polar Bar

One's-A-Meal 945 N. Stone

"Pat's" on Speedway

Pat's 6th/Ajo

Pat's currently on Grande

"Polar Bar" on Speedway

Reed & Bell 19 E. Speedway

Richie's

Shari's Drive In 2650 N. First

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Sharis still open and serving,Ads on TV from time to
time

--- "William V. Sutherland" <wvsaz@...> wrote:

Re: Shari's Drive-In:

"Does anyone know if "Shari's 1st Ave. Drive-In"
still has car-service?
How long has Shari's been there?"

In 1978, Shari's Drive-In was June's Drive-In. June
actually cooked the burgers herself. It became
Shari's a short time later. In 1978, the building
already looked quite old and worn, so it was likely
another drive-in before June had it, perhaps many
owners. It would be interesting to know just how old
it is, and what it was called when new.

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Hi All,

I found a wonderful picture of Boke's Drive-In. Before I posted the
photo, I drove by the location to see what's there now. It's a
parking lot.

I also found another 1940's picture of Boke's Northside location at
2408 N. Stone. That is the northeast corner of Grant and Stone, which
is not referred to as "northside" anymore. Boke's must have been
there before the service station was built, which looks like a 1950's
building.

Anyone tried their root-beer?

Computer note (need help)

Unfortunately, the Boke's Stone image is a bitmap file (.bmp).
Somehow, my computer lost it's MS Paint program, which opened bitmap
images. Does anyone know if I can reinstall just MS Paint from my
Windows 98 restoration disc, without affecting the rest of my files
and programs?

Thanks,

Carlos