Gone But Not Forgotten in San Antonio! - Part I (Austin: family, allowed)

[SATX56]

Originally Posted by pfig16

This has been entertaining reading...not in one sitting though.

It has been fun to read something that brought back memories of things I haven't thought of in years. Bongo Joe downtown, feeding tortillas to the grackles at Casa Rio (back then we thought they were cute), seeing The Sound of Music at the Majestic with my grandmother, the field trips to Buttercrust (you got bread that tasted so much better than when you bought from the store & they gave you a blue & white pencil too!), I never jumped off Edge Falls...walked back down...too chicken, going to Rexall drugstore at Sunset Ridge, Putt-putt at Cool Crest (only game in town), the skyride from the zoo to sunken gardens, every convenience store was called an ice house (didn't know that was only a San Antonio term until I went to college), "parking" on San Pedro by the airport (watching those planes was very popular in the late 60's), Silvey's music store at Terrell Plaza where you could go into a little cubicle to listen to records before buying them, Shakey's pizza listening to "Lay lady lay" by Bob Dylan, riding the elephant at the zoo, marching in the Battle of Flowers parade where we would pass a single cup of water down the row for everyone to drink from.

The place that I really wish was still around is Joske's. You could park and ride the little train up to the store. Inside you entered near the candy where you could get chocolate covered ants then go look for the sales (which were really good) or even go buy a new saddle. Christmas was the best. I wish someone still had Fantasy Land for kids today.

I even remember standing in front of Christ Lutheran Church, on Broadway across from Alamo Heights High, watching as President Kennedy went by on the way to the airport where he flew to Dallas. A few days later I was in 6th grade when we told about the assasination. Hard to comprehend at 11...now too.

Don't remember the little train but loved Joske's and Fantasyland. I watched Kennedy go by on Military drive. I believe that was the 21st he was killed the next day. Think he flew in and out of Kelly AFB. He did a dedication ceremony at Brooks for the Aerospace Medicine school. I was in school the day he was shot and the girls all went to the restrooms and went nuts.

[catriona]

I remember that little train! The parking lot was on the east side of the building and had a covered area where you could wait for the next train. I also remember those chocolate covered ants at the wonderfully enticing candy counter. They had so many different kinds of bon bons and other candies - a kids' heaven! If you were lucky enough to get your parents (more likely grandparents!) to buy you something, the counterperson would scoop the candy onto a scale, weigh it, then upend the scale plate and slide your goodies into a bag. mmm The book section was near by -- my dad used to venture over there and 'read' why my mom shopped. Or he'd head over to the coffee shop that was designed like an old western restaurant. Any one remember the name of that place?

[Willsatx]

Joske's was truly the store to go to, i miss Fantasyland and the ride up all the escalators.

[SATX56]

Funny that I don't remember the train. But surely used it. I have a very selective memory. Apparently! Do you all remember the pinging noises over the pa system? Sounded like sonar on a submarine. Did you have a Sears in your neighborhood? That's what I miss even more than Joske's. Our old southside Sears on Military Drive had to be one of the biggest anywhere. Sears is where I best remember the candy counter. Chocolates , popcorn , nuts of every kind. You could smell it anywhere in the store.

[Blanco Joe]

Satx56 don't get me started on the southside Sears store. I'm gonna want a J.C.Higgins this or that, a Ted Williams glove, a kenmore appliance, and a pound of chocolate peanut clusters in a stripped paper bag.

[Blanco Joe]

I meant a striped paper bag. Reading pfig16's entry was a quick trip back too. I know we all tend to remember most of the good and try not to remember too much of the bad.... but still... things truly seemed more fun 'way back. At first I thought it was just because we were all kids and kids have more fun. But watching my own kids get tired of a manufactured toy and then play with the large box in imaginative ways, makes me think that kids like to use their imaginations to the extreme. We did not have the gadgets in abuandance found today, and money was tighter... so using the imagination was really a neccesity, and frankly... fun! What do you think? Maybe?

[Irish 4]

I haven't seen SA since I took basic traing there Nov. 1951, at Lackland AFB, all we got to see was downtown and at that time you were not allowed to go down to the SA river, which I understand is beautiful and safer..... Irish 4

[Blanco Joe]

One last theory... innocence! We did not really know what made the world go around... no sexual inuendos... heck, what was a sex anyway? Drugs? Those were things a doctor gave you. Bad guys were only in the movies and tv, and they always got beat by the good guys. The world was a fairly neat and orderly place for most of us. I think maybe kids today are TOO grown up, TOO fast. Kids should be able to stay innocent for as long as possible. It's a nice place to take a nap trouble free.

[Blanco Joe]

Irish 4, in 1951 I was about five years old. I wish they had let you wander around some more in SA. Yes, the riverwalk was not the tourist attraction it is today. I believe it was a little wild and woolly down there. The police department was not much of a department back then too. I think Hildebrand ave. was considered the far north about that time. Seems impossible now. Where do you reside now, Irish?

[SATX56]

Originally Posted by Blanco Joe

Satx56 don't get me started on the southside Sears store. I'm gonna want a J.C.Higgins this or that, a Ted Williams glove, a kenmore appliance, and a pound of chocolate peanut clusters in a stripped paper bag.

What about an Allstate motorcycle? Craftsman tools etc?? Whatsup?