Oklahoma City Memories

[boscorama]

Thanks.

[kikkwik]

Saw this for the first time about a week ago and signed up. I live in mid-Missouri now but grew up in SE Oklahoma City. Does anyone remember the El Patio Restaurant on SW 5th between Walker and Hudson? Great reading all the old memories.

[Cartman]

I was stationed at Tinker in the early-mid 70's and worked at the Volkstube at night as a cook. Bartender/friend was named Gary S. In about 1974 I was introduced to a waitress by the name of Tamara Love (soon to be ex-wife of Beach Boys Mike Love)..very sweet girl.

[Redskins/General]

Saw this for the first time about a week ago and signed up. I live in mid-Missouri now but grew up in SE Oklahoma City. Does anyone remember the El Patio Restaurant on SW 5th between Walker and Hudson? Great reading all the old memories.

Right by the main Post Office which is now gone. They had some type of glass block entry way if I remember right!! Ate there all the time because I worked a couple of blocks from there!

[ctchandler]

Kikkwik,
My first date the day I met my late wife, was at El Patio. I was in the Navy and after we married, when we were home on leave, we would purchase two quarts of their salsa (an unknown product in the NE part of the country in the 1960s) and enjoy it in Maryland with home cooked tacos and enchiladas and of course for dipping chips. Every time we came home on leave we would eat there. Really good TexMex food. I think they closed down in the mid 70's.
C. T.

Saw this for the first time about a week ago and signed up. I live in mid-Missouri now but grew up in SE Oklahoma City. Does anyone remember the El Patio Restaurant on SW 5th between Walker and Hudson? Great reading all the old memories.

[purpledice42]

This is my mom on the Lake Hefner wall circa 1952 or so. I have pics of my boys playing on the original Stars and Stripes playground (VERY disappointed to see it had been removed and replaced!!).
A barber shop my grandpa owned at 63rd and May right about where Auto Zone is now (providing it is still there).
Just got the news that Furr's at 63rd and May is no more. Don't know if that is the entire strip mall or just Furr's. Bummer. Fond memories of eating there ALOT!

Considering moving back to the city but my ex says the whole place is "black and wet back" now and that everything is pretty much crap from south side to 2-40, west to Council and NE side. Is this true??
Can't find Heritage Park apts. (way north near Quail Springs on any apartment finders type sources as he said they are not bad).
I'm too nostalgic for my own good. From watching real dad hang glide off that hill facing west just before NW 36th street exit to the afformentioned Stars and Stripes park, how Baptist has changed since I was born there, Bell Isle library, cruising Overholser or Hefner to kill time, the KATT water tower and their calendars (when the station was good!), etc.

[ljbab728]

Only Furr's has recently closed in that shopping center.

[Prunepicker]

Saw this for the first time about a week ago and signed up. I live in mid-Missouri
now but grew up in SE Oklahoma City. Does anyone remember the El Patio
Restaurant on SW 5th between Walker and Hudson? Great reading all the old
memories.

This is a new one, but I'm not surprised that C.T. Chandler knew about it. But
he's old. LOL. That would be in the vicinity of the post office.

My earliest Mexican food experience was El Charrito on S. Robinson. As far as
I'm concerned they were, and still are, the benchmark for Tex-Mex. Okay,
there was this place in Arizona in the early 60's... Hey that ain't Tex-Mex.
Never mind.

[Scott Foster]

I think I remember Mother's. Where was it on N.W. 23rd?

I co-owned and operated Mother’s Art d’cor on NW 23rd and Dewey; the two story building with the huge “rainbow? mural on the wall (now gone). The original Mother's Rock Shop was indeed in the Paseo District.

As this link <http://www.thepaseo.com/about1/>will tell you, Oklahoma City’s historic Paseo Arts District “… was developed by Oklahoman G.A. Nichols in 1929 as the first shopping district north of downtown. … In the 1950s, Paseo was home to small businesses, student partying and jazz clubs. The 1960s brought the counter culture with its creativity, free spirit and problems. …”.

Those of us who were not bored to death by the blandness and superficiality of the gray 50s will confirm that the exciting, socially tumultuous era of the 1960s extended well into the 1970s and beyond. I was in my mid-20s when the massive social upheavals that define my era all coalesced at the same time. The Black, Woman’s' and Gay human rights movements coalesced, the Vietnam War protests began and the Ozzie & Harriet world we had grown up in was swept away by forces none of us could have ever imagined. I for one was ready for dramatic change.

For whatever reasons of fate and circumstance, I became one of the ringleaders of Oklahoma City’s “counter culture with its creativity, free spirit and problems.” Not noted in the gentrified language on the current Paseo District Web site is the sad fact that in the early 1970s, shortly after the Paseo began to have a get-out-of-the-way-dancing’-in-the-streets hippie night life, the entire district was literally shut down by the Oklahoma State Mounted Police. The local “powers that be” had no intention of letting a Haight Ashbury scene become established in uber-conservative Oklahoma City.

Everyone strolling the Paseo District – day or night -- knew that the crowds were teeming with undercover “pigs” which was a joke in itself. Suffice to say, the fat red-necked Oklahoma “narks” stood out in the otherwise flamboyantly dressed hippie crowd. Marijuana and acid were all over the place of course but everyone knew to keep it kool. No, what brought in the mounted troopers was the word “mayonnaise.” One night, somebody painted the word in 6-foot all-cap letters on the street. The already nervous local politicians interpreted it as a code word (think “Helter Skelter”) and a signal for a riot – or at least that’s what they said. Anyway, the chief of police went on the TV news to tell the worried populace that such drug-related gatherings would “not be tolerated in our fair city!” He concluded with, “We have it from reliable sources that even Screaming Yellow Zonkers are being sold right out on the street!” Few outside of the younger set understood that Screaming Yellow Zonkers was a commercial candy; popcorn with a yellow sugar coating. Absurd of course, but it was enough for the governor to send in the troops and shut down the whole scene. All of the fledgling businesses quickly failed simply because everyone stayed away to avoid the cops and the constant media attention. The last thing anyone wanted was to wind up on the television news – simply because so many of us were closeted hippies. Most of us worked so-called straight jobs and turned into hippies after work.

One of the Paseo businesses that failed was the original Mother’s Rock Shop. Oklahoma city’s first real head shop was owned and operated by Wes Melton and his divorced mother Louise. There was another head shop on busy Classen Boulevard called the Abextra but it was a dark, tawdry place owned and operated by a very straight man in it strictly for the money. He was a very nice man but he was all business and the fact that a real revolution was taking place seemed of little interest to him other than the fact that Bill (forgotten his last name) was making a LOT of money from retailing and wholesaling pipes and posters.

The genius behind Mother’s Rock Shop was Les Melton, a tall, dark and very handsome young Lebanese man with a great personality and a keen business sense. Dressed in his tight leather pants and fringed jacket, Wes turned heads on both sides of the gender. Wes recognized the commercial potential of the then run-down Paseo district and it was his opening Mother’s Rock Shop that had set the whole thing in motion. Every one called Louise “mother” which she loved. Mother actually ran the store and carefully guarded the cash. I knew them because they were customers of mine. In those daze, I was in the record business; recorded music. on the road working for a company called Big State Distributing out of Dallas. I represented most of the independent record labels such as Motown, A &M, London; some 85 labels in all. He may have not known it, but Wes had stumbled onto a gold mine. There were no big box music stores, only small old fashioned “mom and pop” record stores with older owners who could not grasp the magnitude of the revolution taking place around them. The music industry changed overnight from Lesley Gore singing It's My Party to Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.

Meanwhile, a few blocks away at NW 23rd and Dewey another and less conspicuous scene was developing; one that would last nearly a decade. In early 1971, a very thin and somewhat straight looking young man and his wife had opened a small retail store called Arts D’cor. Backed by his grandmother, Gene Tyldsley and his wife Toni had rented most of the space in a large two-story brick building with a full basement.

As young as he was, Gene was a brilliant retailer with a keen understanding of marketing and display. And he had the rare gift of knowing exactly what his market would buy. When I first walked into Art D’Cor, I was still traveling on the road selling phonograph records for a Houston-based wholesaler, Big State Distributing Company. All of that is at https://aboutscottfoster.wordpress.c...ment-industry/.

Anyway, I was looking for a place to open a record store after Mother’s Rock Shop was closed. Gene and Toni and I became immediate friends and business partners and we bought the entire inventory from the bank that had foreclosed on Mother’s Rock Shop.

We also hired Louise Melton who continued for the next few years to preside over the OKC counterculture scene as “Mother” of course!

I would be very remiss to not mention our later third partners, Linda and Richard Cochran who I had met while in the U.S. Air Force. Richard and I were stationed at Tinker in the 937th AF Reserve Unit and lived a double life for the years we remained in the “Ready Reserve.” That’s a story in itself. Regards – Scott Foster, Honolulu

I’ll try and write more about this period at some point for it was the defining decade of my life and I’ll never forget the times we had.

[SamW]

Spelling probably not correct but something like Tomlinson, Goslin, and Young?

[Tritone]

I thought the proper spellings were "Turtles," "Girdles," and "Yo- yos." I could be wrong.

[rezman]

I thought is was " They Gip n You" .

[the historian]

I thought is was " They Gip n You" .

It's been a long time since anyone added to this interesting thread. What happened?

[whorton]

Does anybody remember an old club that was built to look like a wrecked ship just W. of the riding stables at Draper Lake?

Yes! All these years later, I can reveal it was a place called "the T I K I. Club" (why can't you turn off auto complete?? ) It had its grand opening August 2, 1969. It was not open long and Give not been able to find out WHO was being it!

( this is what you get when you enter T I K I... Riki ...it is frustrating as the Dickens!! Pete??)

[btmec]

I remember the big slide they had in front of Skate-a-Rama on S. Western. MAP It was like the one they have at the fair but open during the warmer times of the year.
Oklahoma City had TWO major newspapers that were delivered TWICE a day. Practically every home subscribed to one or sometimes both like my house. My dad was a cop and frequently in the newspaper (back when the OCPD was small and cops were well respected) so we got 4 papers a day.
Most of the city parks had water fountains (one of the old ones I remember MAP)and pools. Our local park located off SW 59th on Independence (MAP) had a pool and a small clubhouse with games for the kids during the summer. They tore it down years ago.
Billy's Hamburger restaurant at SW59th and May had the best burgers. As little kids ages 6-9 we would walk half a mile in the summer and eat burgers there. Can you imagine kids today doing that? MAP
The old Philips 66 stations that all at a mechanic on duty in the pointed roof buildings where they only sold automotive things. The guy there would patch our bike tires for us. Could you imagine letting your kids today go hang out at a garage with a car mechanic at ages 6-9? Everyone in the area knew my dad was considered a badass cop so maybe that helped.
My dads cop friends said that my dad would get a confession out of someone before the elevator made it to the jail. Aparently, the OKC jail was only accessible through an elevator.
Remember skid row that was downtown at Sheridan and Walker? The city tore it down but because of the way they tore it down it couldn't be developed on for something like 40 years. They built a building there in 2015 or 16,
Remember when the Biltmore Hotel downtown was raised? We watched it and my mom let us go down to the site and hunt for souvenirs. That was before safety regulations, lol who needs safety regulations? We were tough kids in the 70s and 80s. I never understood why that happened. We had a neighbor who was a chef there and he showed us pictures of the inside and it looked really nice. My parents used the bricks we collected to build a wall that is still standing.
Do you remember when convenience stores didn't sell fuel? There is still a 7-11 location on Straka Terrace and S. Penn that never had pumps.
Also, TG&Y on SW 74th and Penn. They had an automotive center, sold fuel, a garden center with small engine repair, a great sporting goods section, and more. I worked there when I was in high school before they closed.
I remember the old one-screen porn theaters and when going to a one-screen theater for a mainstream movie was the norm. My first movie I went to at age 3 was Joe Kidd at a one-screen theater and I remember when we came out there was a poster for a new Bruce Lee movie, Fist of Fury coming soon. I begged my parents to see it but I never did until I was much older. Theater was here MAP
Does anyone remember the hills we used to ride bicycles and motorcycles on around SW 59th and Independence? MAP There were some smaller hills on SW 55th and Independence. MAP we used to ride on but the better hills were the others. We didn't have a name for the small ones but the bigger ones were called The Walls. Kids from other neighborhoods called them the Five-niner hills. Blah they weren't from our neighborhood.
Does anyone remember in the late 70s when May Ave south of SW 89th was a dirt rode and all of the intersections on SW 89th were stop 4-way stops?
I remember when Skaggs on SW 74th and May first opened. My parents let me buy a hot wheels car and I still have it.
In the late 70s or early 80s Safeway went in at SW 89th and Penn. Before that there were cows there and behind the store was a sod farm. Some of the sod farm land is still vacant behind the storage facility there now. It was also a nursery. MAP
Those are my memories for now.

[btmec]

I forgot one more thing. Remember when at Sears they actually had guns on racks where you could pick them up to check them out without a salesman?

[Teo9969]

Crystal's


What I would pay to go in today to see how different it was to my actual memories.

I think this is also low key one of the biggest reasons fory disdain of Chili's

[btmec]

Someone mentioned Crystal's to me today. At the 74th and Penn location, we saw Leslie Neilson eating with some friends. I wasn't old enough to appreciate their decorating. They had some really cool antiques. I'd love to know what happened to the Art Deco women with gas torches they had on each side at the entrance to the theater.

[Bill Robertson]

Someone mentioned Crystal's to me today. At the 74th and Penn location, we saw Leslie Neilson eating with some friends. I wasn't old enough to appreciate their decorating. They had some really cool antiques. I'd love to know what happened to the Art Deco women with gas torches they had on each side at the entrance to the theater.

A manager from Casa Bonita transferred to the south Crystal's. A group of us would sometimes take Casa food to them and trade for pizza. I loved the place. It did have some cool decorations.

[Laramie]