Fond Calgary memories for the youngins'!

[JiriHrdina]

3 words regarding where I spent much of my youth.

Wizards Castle Arcade.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

I grew up in the NW during the early 80's..... Hawkwood was literally the edge of town...

- Ponderosa Restaurants. Used to be all you can eat fish and chips. Awesome salad bar too. Morphed into a Bonanza which was also good.

- Food for Less - Safeway's attempt at bargain food.

- Fabled Table Buffets... good at 1st, nasty thereafter. Miss their fried chicken though. Once saw the Stamps roll in and and demolish the buffet.

- Foody Goody. Or as I called it - Foody-not-so-Goody.

- Deerfoot Mall actually purported to be a real mall....

- Market Mall when it was crappy. Was a Malt Stop right outside the Bay. A Joe's Diner complete with a 50's Chevy in the Center of the Mall. Bad Brick Floors

- Northland mall when the halls were dark and the stores lit. Horrible concept that died out. That mall has never really caught on.....

- Gauntlet @ Wizard's Castle. Lots of it.

- Chuck E Cheese Birthdays at their Sunridge location (where A&B is now). And yes Bullwinkles. (liked their fried chicken).

- wishing some of my friends would take me to Flames games as my parents couln't afford tickets. I still remember how badly I wanted a #2 Macinnis Lettered jersey but knew my parents couldn't afford one. Never got one until my #12 Iggy 2 years ago....

- Hockey card scrambles. No one really cared how much they were worth.

- Calgary cop cars with the blue hood and trunk, with big POLICE stencilled down the side.

- When the LRT was still a novelty....

- Olympic Mania. All elementary schools got a kit from CODA to add to the curriculum.

- Hidy and Howdy. I knew a redheaded girl named Heidi Beare. She really hated that.

- Romeo & Juliet restaurant out by COP.

- When COP was still called Paskapoo.

- The opening of the Performing Arts Center. At the time we though was so posh.... as opposed to the less than glam place it is now (compared to major opera houses and centers in larger cities ie Roy Thompson Hall in TO)


Ahhh the memories......

[JiriHrdina]

Forget when COP was called Paskapoo. The key is what that actually was. Flying down those tracks in those weird rolling board things. Crazy stuff.

[Tron_fdc]

ooooooooooh Anyone remember Curly's south? It was the first bar I ever went to, and I was 15 with ID that looked NOTHING like me.

dollar highballs though....I could get wasted for less than $20!

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally posted by Tron_fdc@Jan 13 2005, 12:01 AM
ooooooooooh Anyone remember Curly's south? It was the first bar I ever went to, and I was 15 with ID that looked NOTHING like me.

dollar highballs though....I could get wasted for less than $20!

Spagucci's!

[JiriHrdina]

Well since we are on to bars, here were some of my old haunts.

Botany's (in the NE Radisson - horrible place)
Fox n' Firkin NE
CJs (of course)
3 Cheers
Yankee Doodles (the precusor to Shanks)

[Bleeding Red]

Anyone know whatever happened to Buckshot?? That kid's show was great - anyone who went to kindergarten in CGY in the '70's got on that show.

Also - is Shakey's Pizza still around - I remember you could watch them make your pizza and they showed old flicks - mostly disney's Sleeping Beauty.

[calf]

Too lazy to read through everything, so don't jump on me if this has been mentioned: I remember when there was no development north of Nose Hill...and the horseback riding there too. And Crowfoot was 'way out there'.

[RougeUnderoos]

Anyone go to Home Food Inn just off Macleod near the legendary Denny Andrews? The grub in that joint was heaven on earth.

The arcade in Southcentre was called Arcadia. I sunk a lot of quarters into Pole Position there and never did get good at it. It was next to Big Brother's T-Shirts which was a great place to get a Mork and Mindy iron-on stuck to a brown t-shirt if that was what you were into, which I apparently was.

For the Bonavista locals -- when I was a small tot (too young even to shop at Kacz' Kidz) my older brother told me that the AGT building on the corner of Bonavista and Acadia Drive was a "peanut factory" and I believed that well into my teens.

[KevanGuy]

Originally posted by Mango@Jan 12 2005, 06:29 PM
Did anyone live by a Red Rooster?

Oh, thats right mango. It was Red Rooster. Not Red Robbins. Well if you are talking SE then yeah.

[calf]

Ah yes, Red Rooster. Then it turned into Winks with a bakery in it. Now it's a regular ol' Mac's

[browna]

Mac's slurpees called Slush Cats, before Frosters.

Mr. Soft Drink and those (IMO) bad flavours of pop.

Tradewinds Hotel (nice hotel) across from Chinook (Home Depot there now)

South Centre Inn
North Centre Inn (Peepers)

The Palace when it actually showed movies. Same with Showcase Grand. And Esso Plaza.

Republik

Rouge, never heard that about the AGT building when growing up. Although I don't think I've ever seen another building like that in Calgary...certainly not in as highly visible as that one is.

[arsenal]

anyone remember the indoor skate park that was accross from chinook?

[TheCommodoreAfro]

Three things:

Bob's Hambugers

Buckshot Live

And that "teen bar" (Flashbacks I think) that opened up next to Banzai.

[Ro]

I only lived in Calgary until I was 7 or 8, so obviously I don't remember the bars or other things like that, but some of this other stuff is making me somewhat nostalgic. I have a pretty lousy memory, so I can't think of anything on my own, but Red Rooster, the waterslides, the old zoo (for some reason, I remember polar bears...did they ever have polar bears there? Or am I imagining things...), the old 1A highway to banff, Bullwinkle's, Woolco... ah the memories.

But yeah, did the CZ ever have polar bears?

[Frank the Tank]

Hahaha! This is awesome! Bringing back some good memories. I used to underage drink at Curly's south as well as some other places I can't remember. My friend worked at the Inn on Lake Bonavista so we would sit downstairs after his shift and they'd give us free draught. We were like 15 maybe.

For those of us that frequented South Centre Mall, anyone remember the Little Generals model shop? My mom had to drag my brother and I out of there kicking and screamimg.

Ah Bullwinkles! Fun times. Anyone remember The Old Spaghetti Factory? Used to be our favourite restaurant then one day it was just gone. Many many years later I was in Toronto on business and we were walking around downtown looking for somewhere to eat and lo and behold, there is an Old Spaghetti Factory in downtown T.O. Even has the stained glass light fixtures and the rail cars inside just like I remembered it!

And Rouge Undies, don't feel bad about the AGT building, I thought it was a CIA headquarters for many many years!

[Ro]

Originally posted by Frank the Tank@Jan 13 2005, 07:24 AM
Ah Bullwinkles! Fun times. Anyone remember The Old Spaghetti Factory? Used to be our favourite restaurant then one day it was just gone. Many many years later I was in Toronto on business and we were walking around downtown looking for somewhere to eat and lo and behold, there is an Old Spaghetti Factory in downtown T.O. Even has the stained glass light fixtures and the rail cars inside just like I remembered it!

TOSF isn't around anymore??? I thought there was one still in Calgary... Maybe the location is different. I remember one being in like the 3rd floor of a high rise or something like that. That was my favorite restaurant as a kid also. A good family restaurant, without the cheap, plastic "family restaurant" type food. And yeah, I remember how unique the atmosphere was in that place. Cool.

[Lanny_MacDonald]

I remember...

* Living on the last street in the city and having nothing but open farm land to south and east of us.

* Lord Beaverbrook and Acadia schools were not even thought of.

* I used to go hunt tadpoles in the marsh where Acadia school is.

* It was a huge adventure to go to "the valley", where Deerfoot trail now runs, and find deer, bear and the odd moose.

* Galelli's (now Conmac? the cement joint off of Southland) and CIL used to be way out of town (now where Douglas Glen is).

* Woodwards Parcel Pickup was amazing technology and a service advantage over all the competition.

* Ed Whalen had hair.

* The Husky Tower being built.

* Watching the Calgary Centenials and thinking that was the best hockey on earth.

* Drinking Pic-a-pop soda.

* Knowing the original owners of "the confectionery" in the Acadia shopping center and getting free candy.

* China City was a high class restaurant.

* You packed a picnic lunch to go to Midnapore.

* The Stamps played in Mewata Stadium.

* The opening of St. Celia's church. I remember helping piece together the crucifix before it was erected above the chior loft.

* Rose Kohn was a single arena and a treat to play in.

* Shoveling the rink before playing games outdoors in pee wee.

* Ogden being a ways out of town.

* The stockyards were huge.

* Okotoks was a day trip.

* The Banff Coach road was it to get into the mountains, and it was an overnight trip for most people.

[Flame On]

Originally posted by Daradon+Jan 12 2005, 06:38 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Daradon @ Jan 12 2005, 06:38 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Mango@Jan 12 2005, 07:29 PM
Did anyone live by a Red Rooster?

I lived not to far away from the Red Rooster in Whitehorn. [/b][/quote]
So did I! I remember there were some awsome drop offs of the curbs at that Red Lobster for my bmx. Oh and there was that cool huge round circle outside that you could sit and eat....candy of course. Plus there was some burger place, Bobs was it? Had the hugest, best donuts.
Devonian gardens with it's ice rink was cool too and it had a really sweet play ground as I remember.

[Frank the Tank]

Hey Lanny, where was Rose Kahn arena? I know I played there but I can't picture it...