I'm so old I can remember....

Well, do you remember the Colbert Theater, Strand Theater, Princess Theater, Park Vue Drive-in theater, Wilson Drive-in or the Mary Drive-in Theater?? What about street cars locally and street car tokens? What about when schools turned out for "cotton pickin' "??

How about the Clackers(two balls on a string) or the Western Flyer wagon.

The Clackers product was local in origin...seems like a Sandlin man maybe..?

Does anyone remember the drive-in theater
on Huntsville Road?

That was the Wilson Drive-In.

quote:

Originally posted by SHELDIVR:
The Clackers product was local in origin...seems like a Sandlin man maybe..?

Yep....

They were producing them at what was an old store (at the time..converted to a home now) at the corner of Stony Point and Patterson Road

How about when there was no Wal-Mart around here? The only Kmart was in Florence, as was Grant's. Muscle Shoals had Woolco and Tuscumbia had Howard Brothers. Oh yeah, at that time the only mall was Southgate Mall in Muscle Shoals, and Florence also had a Service Merchandise.

how about when the Chevrolet dealership was in Tuscumbia (Gene Crump) and the Buick dealership was in Sheffield (Miley Buick and Olds)?

I recall seeing the trolley tracks on Court Street when I was about four and wondering why a train would go down the middle of the street.

I remember eating at the lunch counter in McClellan's and the wooden floors when TG&Y was downtown. I remember Mrs. Ryan at Ryan Piano and the incomparable scent of Roger's Dept. Store.

I vaguely recall Roz Klebinoff at Talk of the Town (where my grandmother refused to 'trade').

I watched movies at the Joy-Lan in Petersville and the Marlboro in Muscle Shoals but my favorite was the Shoals Theater. The first movie I recall seeing there was Dr. No. I was three.

I remember my mom saving green stamps to buy things at the stamp store.

I remember shopping dowtown before there was a Cox Creek Parkway at Sears, JC Penney, Ledgewoods, Kaye's, Roger's, Ryan Piano, Wilson's.

I remember stopping by Mr. McGee's store where the Mailing Room is now on my way to the Rec Center pool and I remember the goats on the hill at Martin Park and the ducks. The train was my favorite.

I got my first bike at Western Auto in North Florence.

I loved eating at Barber's cafeteria because they had the best cornbread sticks.

How about when there was no Kmart? (Grant's came later) The old Kmart building was Maxim's before it was Kmart.

When Cox Creek pkwy. was a little two lane road.

Drive Ins....other than Wilson, i remember Joy-Lan and Marbro.

quote:

Originally posted by RoadHawg:

quote:

Originally posted by SHELDIVR:
The Clackers product was local in origin...seems like a Sandlin man maybe..?

Yep....

They were producing them at what was an old store (at the time..converted to a home now) at the corner of Stony Point and Patterson Road

Ahhh-Haaaa! i mentioned that on another thread and was told i was wrong.
to the one that told me that....lol

quote:

Originally posted by ^PuF^:
How about when there was no Kmart? (Grant's came later) The old Kmart building was Maxim's before it was Kmart.

When Cox Creek pkwy. was a little two lane road.

Drive Ins....other than Wilson, i remember Joy-Lan and Marbro.

Welll...you were right about Clackers, but I think you're wrong about Grants and Kmart.

Grants was ORIGINALLY at 7-Points Shopping Center (long before Kmart) for many years and MOVED out to where Big Lots is now (including a restaurant...where I bussed tables washed dishes for gas money) a few years after Kmart came to town.

I don't recall a Maxims at all. I thought Kmart came to town and BUILT the old Kmart building.

quote:

Originally posted by RoadHawg:

quote:

Originally posted by ^PuF^:
How about when there was no Kmart? (Grant's came later) The old Kmart building was Maxim's before it was Kmart.

When Cox Creek pkwy. was a little two lane road.

Drive Ins....other than Wilson, i remember Joy-Lan and Marbro.

Welll...you were right about Clackers, but I think you're wrong about Grants and Kmart.

Grants was ORIGINALLY at 7-Points Shopping Center (long before Kmart) for many years and MOVED out to where Big Lots is now (including a restaurant...where I bussed tables washed dishes for gas money) a few years after Kmart came to town.

I don't recall a Maxims at all. I thought Kmart came to town and BUILT the old Kmart building.

You're right, i was wrong about Grant's...
But i'm 99% sure Maxim's was before Kmart.

(My Mom worked at the Grant's restuarant for awhile)

quote:

the old Kmart building.

I think there was another location for Kmart prior to the one behind the bowling alley but I don't know where it was.My aunt worked at Kmart back then and my grandfather would take me there every Saturday night to buy a new Barbie doll or one of her accessories. I racked up.

I can remember when there was a drive in at Elgin, going swimming at Hatfield Lake and to the drive in. Kents downtown, my mother,grandmother and aunts would drag me all over downtown and the ONLY place to go Potty was a Rogers, of course when I had to GO we would be 3 blocks away from it. Eating at TG&Y it was soooo good.

quote:

Kents downtown,

Remember the kiddie Ferris wheel they had? I always made sure I had money to ride it.

quote:

Originally posted by Schnauzer1:
How about the Clackers(two balls on a string) or the Western Flyer wagon.

I remember the clackers! They came out when I was a kid living in Columbus, Ga. Didn't they eventually take them off the market? I never knew they were from here. Neat. Another trivia fact to store in my brain.

remember telephone 'party lines'?

I remember moving to Elgin and being unable to get phone service for almost a year

I also remember going on many dates and later with my hubby to the Elgin drive-in. It was only a quarter-mile past our house. I loved living in Elgin.

quote:

Originally posted by flotown79:
It might be fun to take a walk down Memory Lane.


Zebco 33 fishing real
Super balls
Easy-Bake Ovens (for the girls)
GLoW wrestling
The Von Erichs vs. The Freebirds
Tackle football, no pads no helmets
When There was only one Wal-Mart in town
Ker-Plunk (the marble game)


Do kids play hide ~n~ seek these days? I know we did!!!

I do remember tackle football on Sundays at Coffee High and McFarland Park. We played marbles before school at Brandon. I remember no WalMart(those were the days) Lincoln Logs, Erector Set, Grants, KMart on Flo Blvd, Hills Grocery downtown, and yes Kents Dollar Store where Rosies is now. Clackers, oh man.... they were cool. While they may have been made here, they were also made by 1600 companies in the US according to this link,.... Link

quote:

Originally posted by Schnauzer1:
How about the Clackers(two balls on a string) or the Western Flyer wagon.

LOL. Clackers. That brings back some painful memories. I actually still have a pair of those.

I'm so old I can remember...

making our own fun as kids...

...building a fort out of any materials we could find

...playing 'King of the Mountain' on a huge 'mountain' of sawdust at the old Sawmill

...eating plump juicy blackberries off the vine

...walking, riding our bikes all over town without fear

...escaping to the mossy rock by the stream with a good book or paper and pen

...playing dress-up with my cousins and putting on a show - the perfect microphone was found atop the posts on Grandma's four poster bed

and everyone respected their elders.

I actually still have a pair of clackers--they are on my bookshelf. You gotta be careful with those things!

Was it Woolco or Grants first?
Remember the Martin theater? I saw the Jeff Bridges King Kong and Raiders of the Lost Ark there.

Grants

K-Mart was a Kresge or something similar downtown.

The store pn the boulevard was Maxam's I think, didn't stay long (I don't remember being taken into it), then it was K-Mart.

No, Buddy Sadlin didn't invent Clackers, but he sure sold a lot of them.

Yes, there's a thread somewhere on Seven Points Shopping Center. Grant's opened there in 1957.

Before Rosie's was Family Dollar, it was Kent's. Before that it was Kroger. My mother always mentioned it was her favorite. Hill's was where Fred's was, and the A&P was where Scrapbook Legacy just went out of business.

quote:

Originally posted by George Sand:
...I remember Mrs. Ryan at Ryan Piano and the incomparable scent of Roger's Dept. Store.

...

I watched movies at the Joy-Lan in Petersville and the Marlboro in Muscle Shoals....

I remember my mom saving green stamps to buy things at the stamp store.

......

i remember green stamps and the store was in Sheffield. where Foodland plaza is now. i am not 100% on the location. i also remember the Marlboro Drive in where NOTHING is right now. i still have the Ryan piano in my living room.

I used to get those green stamps.
As a matter of fact, I still have a toaster oven I got with stamps 30 yrs ago..black & chrome..still works great

When i lived in Haleyville i worked for the S&H company for a few years and loved it. I still have a small bookcase and pinup lamp purchased from them in 1975.

Some Kmart trivia that came from an uncle that managed a local retail store in the 60's, and is still in retail....and maybe Firenza can help with this since she's so good with local history....

The wife(?) of the Kmart founder was either from Florence, or had family here.
And it was a local pharmacist (Spalding?) that first approached Kmart with the idea of putting a pharmacy in their stores. They weren't sure it would catch on, so they let him try it out in the Florence store.

quote:

Originally posted by Gail-:
I used to get those green stamps.
As a matter of fact, I still have a toaster oven I got with stamps 30 yrs ago..black & chrome..still works great

Kroger's gave "Top Value" Stamps. I used those to acquire a Bowie Knife, a 30/30 Marlin, and a marble top table. Still have them all.

I remember eating at a drugstore in Sheffield , where an old colored woman would come out from the kitchen with what is still the best rolls I ever tasted. The building on 2nd street that at one time had the Salvation Army store, and is across from Smith's garage was once an A&P grocery store.
I remember stopping at the Kroger where the Quad City Knock is (or was) on the way to Huntsville and picking up a BBQ chicken , continuing out Hwy 20 (had to go to Tuscumbia to pick it up) and going out and stopping at a church which had outside eating tables , and eating our chicken . Then going on to Huntsville.
Any of you remember the two theaters in Tuscumbia ? The one which was about where that bank was started showing ONLY 3D movies.

The Strand was first. Later they built thr Tuscumbian. It had them fancy sliding seats. They did not show Saturday morning westerns there.

I remember Big K was where Foodland is now in Sheffield. It later became a Wal-Mart, and then Wal-Mart moved to where Woolco was in Muscle Shoals at Southgate Mall. Later Wal-Mart built the Super Center next to Southgate Mall. I also remember when A&P was at the location of Foodland in Tuscumbia. I used to love to smell the 8 O'clock coffee when you walked into the store.

quote:

Originally posted by Smooth operator:
I remember Big K was where Foodland is now in Sheffield...

Big K then moved to Hwy.72 in Tuscumbia.

quote:

Originally posted by ^PuF^:

quote:

Originally posted by Smooth operator:
I remember Big K was where Foodland is now in Sheffield...

Big K then moved to Hwy.72 in Tuscumbia.

I don't remember Big K moving. My mother worked for Big K, and then Walmart, when walmart bought Big K. The one on 72, was Howard's Discount store if I remember correctly. I remember they had everything from electronics (my brother bought a stereo there) to groceries. I thought Big K was just bought by Walmart.

There was S&H, Top Value, and Quality. May have been another one, but not sure.

quote:

Posted 27 December 2008 05:19 PM Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Gail-:
I used to get those green stamps.
As a matter of fact, I still have a toaster oven I got with stamps 30 yrs ago..black & chrome..still works great


Kroger's

As a college student short of funds, I bought my parents Christmas gifts with S&H green stamps

Otasco (Oklahoma Tire and Service Company) was in the Sheffield Plaza close to the Big K store and there was another store in the Howard Brother's location before they were there but the name escapes me.