Old Calgary stuff you miss...(The Nostalgia thread)

[CRXguy]

Originally Posted by tvp2003

Fond memories of Marlborough Mall in the 80’s. Got my first pair of Nikes at Forzani’s when it was beside Woolco. When the NES came out there was a dedicated store with the first stage of Super Mario Brothers painted on the wall. There was also a t-shirt store that had Simpsons shirts. San Francisco selling crazy stuff. Tops n Toys (?) selling well, toys; the food court with the Sbarro, the arcade.

Where was the movie theatre?

I think it was at the back of the mall by professional centre.

[CRXguy]

Originally Posted by Slava

Down around the corner from Randy River (not really…just wanted to throw in that blast from the past). I think the movie theatre there was the NE section. Basically if you were walking toward Sears and turned right it was down that arm.

Holy! Haven't heard Randy River in ages.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by CRXguy

Holy! Haven't heard Randy River in ages.

Yo, we heard you like some pockets on your pockets, so we put extra pockets everywhere.

[Sr. Mints]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

I can smell it in my mind. It smelled like a 70s basement full of every toy you would have wanted from the Consumers/Sears catalogs. They let me in the basement once when it was closing. I was too young and dumb not to buy everything as it would be worth fortunes now. All I got was a few Transformers.

For years one of my friends always scored Battle Beasts. Every few weeks he'd have a dozen more. No idea if he still has them (or if he sold them to pay four years of tuition for his kid). It wasn't till years later I found out he was on a Cinnamon Spider phone list.

You know, I'm going to have to chalk this up as a parenting fail and run it by my mom.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Yo, we heard you like some pockets on your pockets, so we put extra pockets everywhere.

The funniest thing I saw at Randy River was a sale sign that said “Big Friggin Sale”. I get that today that probably doesn’t seem like anything. But when I saw that a lot of years ago, it was hilarious and really surprising. No, it didn’t convince me I should make my way in and buy a silk dress shirt.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Slava

The funniest thing I saw at Randy River was a sale sign that said “Big Friggin Sale”. I get that today that probably doesn’t seem like anything. But when I saw that a lot of years ago, it was hilarious and really surprising. No, it didn’t convince me I should make my way in and buy a silk dress shirt.

A silk dress shirt? We have very different memories of the kind of stuff that place sold.

More like jeans with 32inch wide legs, a shirt that’s says pornstar and a ripoff fubu jersey.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

A silk dress shirt? We have very different memories of the kind of stuff that place sold.

More like jeans with 32inch wide legs, a shirt that’s says pornstar and a ripoff fubu jersey.

They sold a lot of fake silk shirts with loud patterns too. Also lots of button up shirts with flames on them. Guy Fieri must have just bought a case of the shirts during their close out sale.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

A silk dress shirt? We have very different memories of the kind of stuff that place sold.

More like jeans with 32inch wide legs, a shirt that’s says pornstar and a ripoff fubu jersey.

I don’t really remember what they had. I just feel like their timeline matched up with the silk dress shirt timeline?

[Mightyfire89]

Originally Posted by Barnet Flame

A load of us used to annoy the hell out of Tops n Toys staff wanting to ‘demo’ video games.

It got to the point where you had to prove to them you had the 40 bucks to actually buy the game.

Yes, there was a theatre - with THREE screens! I went there almost every Saturday.

I was also a regular at the arcade. I remember the staff watching how you played Asteroids. If you just flew around with one small asteroid trying to rack up points shooting the small spaceships, you were made to shoot the last asteroid, or leave.

Whaaaaat? That’s crazy. What kind of dbag move is that? I never would have went back to an arcade where that kind of crap happened.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Slava

I don’t really remember what they had. I just feel like their timeline matched up with the silk dress shirt timeline?

They basically sold knock off versions of whatever n sync and the backstreet boys were wearing... What a time for fashion.

[Raekwon]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

Don’t worry Sliver, there are some of us who remember the plaque.

As soon as you said that I went back to when I was a kid and that sad seals face and surgery photo and all those sweet coins. Not still there? Haven't been to the Zoo for like 20 years.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by Raekwon

As soon as you said that I went back to when I was a kid and that sad seals face and surgery photo and all those sweet coins. Not still there? Haven't been to the Zoo for like 20 years.

More like 30 years. The last one died when it ate one of Sliver's rusty pennies.

The polar bears have been gone for 20-25 years.

[Sliver]

Was always kind of a trip to look at the wall of shame to try to find the coins you tossed in.

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by tvp2003

Fond memories of Marlborough Mall in the 80’s. Got my first pair of Nikes at Forzani’s when it was beside Woolco. When the NES came out there was a dedicated store with the first stage of Super Mario Brothers painted on the wall. There was also a t-shirt store that had Simpsons shirts. San Francisco selling crazy stuff. Tops n Toys (?) selling well, toys; the food court with the Sbarro, the arcade.

Where was the movie theatre?

Man. My buddies and I used to spend all day Sat and Sun just walking up and down Marlborough mall, smoking cigarettes and "window shopping." I try to explain to people today what it was like to flip through clothes on racks at the mall with a lit cigarette in my hand/mouth, and they just stare at me dumbfounded.

[FanIn80]

I realllly miss drive-ins. The one on 17th out towards Chestermere and the one off 16th near Bridgeland Renfrew (I think).

Whoops. I always mix up Bridgeland and Renfrew for some reason.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

I realllly miss drive-ins. The one on 17th out towards Chestermere and the one off 16th near Bridgeland (I think).

So does your wife!

[Flames_Gimp]

we should keep this thread going, anyone have pictures from the 80's in Calgary, at the mall or movie theatres etc? would love to see pictures.
Grew up here and i really miss the 80's!

[Flames_Gimp]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

Man. My buddies and I used to spend all day Sat and Sun just walking up and down Marlborough mall, smoking cigarettes and "window shopping." I try to explain to people today what it was like to flip through clothes on racks at the mall with a lit cigarette in my hand/mouth, and they just stare at me dumbfounded.

when you think about it now, it was so weird that even in the early 90's i remember being at sunridge or marlborough mall, my friends and I just standing around for hours smoking in the middle of the mall! Flames games too, all the smoke!

[MRCboicgy]

I remember visiting my Grandpa in the hospital as a kid, and the smoking room on his floor there was right around the corner from his room. I cannot recall which hospital, but since no one in my family smoked, except grandpa with an old stogie, it stood out.

[Hemi-Cuda]

TIL that Google has done extensive newspaper archiving, and they have thousands of Calgary Herald issues from the 1880's to the 1980's

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=PLWDSxI5WzYC
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=Hx6RvaqUy9IC