Childhood Memories of OKC

[Martin]

...all that vintage pizza talk reminded me of those old ads that said, 'come on over to peter piper pizza.

crystal's pizza was my favorite as a kid, i think i like their movie room the best.

oh... and how about farrell's ice cream parlor in crossroads mall?

-M

[Lauri101]

A lot of time was spent at Crossroads when it was raging -- huge crowds, lots of stores teens wanted to work at, like J. Riggins, Jeans West, Chess King. I took piano lessons there at one of the organ/piano stores. I can't believe Eastern Treasures is still there, and Spencer Gifts also has managed to stick it out. A cool place was the pet store next to Montgomery Ward.

Being of the same vintage as Rveit and many here - this thread has been wonderful.

Frederick's of Hollywood has also survived as one of the original Crossroad businesses. I was the assistant manager there on opening day of Crossroads Mall. Our most shoplifted item? Crotchless panties! lol

I graduated from Northeast HS, class of 73. We were bussed to NE - I should have been geographically assigned to Old Classen. We hung out on Classen a lot. Memorial Park was also a hot spot back then, especially on Friday nights after dark!

(sigh) Now I feel old.

[Pete]

I remember Crossroads when it very first opened and as the first big mall (not counting Shephard Mall which was very different -- almost all local stores) it was a real sensation. It was the first time I had seen a big, enclosed mall like that.

I worked at Orbach's (another blast from the past!) at Crossroads the entire time I was at OU. It was downstairs near Dillards and on one side was Orbach's Varsity Shop and on the other was Record Bar. Record Bar would let us borrow any albums we wanted!

Isn't Le Mans still there? Remember when it had the indoor track (or was it bumper cars)?? Played lots and lots of video games at that place on "breaks".


Remember the Mexican place there called El Phoenix? We used to call it "El Kleenex" and thought it was terrible yet lots of people flocked there.

[Pete]

I also remember when Penn Square was open-air and during Christamastime they had a little house in the center courtyard where you had your picture taken with Santa.

Besides Wards, the two big stores were John A. Brown and Rothschilds.

[Martin]

lemans is still there but now called alladin's castle and they did have bumper cars. i'd forgotten about record bar... that's where i bought my first album! the mexican place was el fenix... i don't know if that's the spanish spelling of the word or if the owners just didn't know the right spelling! -M

[Lauri101]

The open-air Penn Square was where I went on my very first date. He was a cheapskate - bought me a cherry limeade at Coits and then took me to Penn Square to "walk around".

He tried to kiss me and his breath was awful! OMG - that was 36 years ago and I can still recall it vividly.

We had just moved to OKC and he told my dad he was going to take me to the submarine races at Lake Hefner. LOL - dad and I both believed him!

I also remember shopping at Street's during their annual sale. I believe it was downtown.

[Pete]

Yes, thanks for the correction... It was indeed El Fenix. There was also a Brown's in Xroads when if first opened which of course was later bought out by Dillards.


Regarding Penn Square, what was the name of the disco/club located there during the disco days that had a huge slide?? The name is on the tip of my tongue!


And of course, there was the infamous Michael's Plum which is where the Varsity is now at 63rd & Western. I remember at the very beginning it was "members only" and legitimately a little difficult to get in. They used to have lingerie modeling during the week as I recall.

[Martin]

now i thought dillards was in crossroads from day one... wasn't john a brown's where sanger-harris/foley's/macy's is now?

i never knew there was a disco in penn square! that's hilarious. i'd bet my brother knows the name... not that he was into disco or anything. ahem.

this thread delivers. i love remembering all this stuff. -M

[Pete]

There was a Dillards at Crossroads as well as a Browns when the mall opened.

But later, Dillards bought all the John A. Brown stores and they were all converted.


I think the Penn Square disco was Clementines -- it was a big scene for a while there.

[Patrick]

I graduated from Northeast HS, class of 73.

Northeast? I graduated there in 1998, but for different reasons. As you may know now it's predominately a medical magnet school in the OKC District. I remember looking at the old year books from NE like back in the 50's and 60's....was surprised to see it used to be an all-white school.

[Patrick]

Browns was where Macy's is currently located. Dillards later built their current 3 story building and sold the property to Foleys (May Dept. stores, at the time).

[Martin]

patrick, i think you're wrong and malibusooner is right. my mom happened to phone tonight and i brought it up... apparently dillard's bought out brown's and briefly operated both stores. the 3-story section that is dillards didn't come later... in fact, according to my mom dillards (and perhaps some of the other original anchors) was opened before the rest of the mall was totally completed. -M

[writerranger]

Browns was where Macy's is currently located. Dillards later built their current 3 story building and sold the property to Foleys (May Dept. stores, at the time).

One correction: Browns was located where the SW Dillards is today - as seen in the postcard. I LOVED their candy counter!



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[Patrick]

patrick, i think you're wrong and malibusooner is right. my mom happened to phone tonight and i brought it up... apparently dillard's bought out brown's and briefly operated both stores. the 3-story section that is dillards didn't come later... in fact, according to my mom dillards (and perhaps some of the other original anchors) was opened before the rest of the mall was totally completed. -M

You're probably right.

[Patrick]

One correction: Browns was located where the SW Dillards is today - as seen in the postcard. I LOVED their candy counter!



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Yeah, at Penn Square that is correct. Wards was always located on the SE corner of the center. Browns was at the SW corner of the center. Rotschilds was where Aspen Athletic Club and Pottery Barn Kids is currently located. Penn Square Bank was on the north side of the mall, which is now the mall....Men's Warehouse, Abercrombie and Fitch, etc. And the Macy's/Foleys location wasn't built until the 80's.

[Pete]

Browns was awesome, the last of the really nice department stores.

In fact, until the 70's, Dillards was much more like Penney's than Brown's. They gradually upgraded their merchandise then went more upscale when they bought out Browns.


Back to Crossroads, when the mall opened Dillards was at it's current location. Browns was where Foleys (now I assume it's Macys) is now. And yes, there were two Dillards in the mall for a while.

Due to similar consolidations our here in Cali, there are lots of malls with more than one Macys.

[Pete]

Here's some stuff on Shepherd Mall when it opened in 1964 (anybody remember those big umbrellas and the sidewalk cafes??):

[Lauri101]

Northeast? I graduated there in 1998, but for different reasons. As you may know now it's predominately a medical magnet school in the OKC District. I remember looking at the old year books from NE like back in the 50's and 60's....was surprised to see it used to be an all-white school.

When I was at Northeast, there were 20-30 white kids in our class, about 25% of what became the class of 73.It was a bit intimidating at first, but we all got along quite well. It certainly gave me a view of what it is like to be a minority.

We had the science center there - an experiment of the 70's. We traveled to Northwest Classen for sophomore level math, John Marshall for calculus and trig and Northeast had the science.

Who remembers painting the bridge?

[Patrick]

Back to Crossroads, when the mall opened Dillards was at it's current location. Browns was where Foleys (now I assume it's Macys) is now. And yes, there were two Dillards in the mall for a while.

Okay, that's what I thought. So the 3 story building was always Dillards. And Browns was where Macys is now.

[Pete]

I never painted the bridge but remember it very well. Was extremely sorry to see it demolished.

And regarding OKC high schools, up until the early 70's Northwest Classen was all white and considered the "posh" school. They used to call them the "silkies" because they liked to claim they all wore silk underwear.

Then, of course busing changed everything. My oldest sister graduated Putnam City in '72 and I have a bunch of old newspaper clippings from that era regarding such bad racial tensions at Northwest and other schools that they played some of their basketball games during the daytime.

[Saberman]

Sorry to get into this late.

Bob Jenny worked at the OKC Zoo, but was best known for his shows with snakes at Wedgewood amusment park out on N.W. Highway, by the drive-in.

Does anyone rember going to Napoleon Nash, that was the place to go in the "70's".

[Pete]

OKC used to have a ton of great men's stores but almost all (except Harold's) have fallen prey to the big chains.

There was Orbachs, Rothschilds, Squire Shop, Napoleon Nash, Lathams, etc.

[drumsncode]

Napolean Nash, OMG. Wasn't there one near a TG&Y store around Portland and NW Highway?

I also remember a Kimberlings grocery store near there. It was where we bought food for decades. It finally closed, maybe in the 90's. I'll never forget them, because they had those "thumbprint cookies", full-size, for maybe 2 dollars a dozen. I would buy 3 dozen and rock my world.

[Pete]

Napolean Nash, OMG. Wasn't there one near a TG&Y store around Portland and NW Highway?

Yes, it was actually facing Porland just north of the grocery store that was on the SW corner of 63rd & Portland.

And there was a bowling alley in that same center, just west of the grocery store on 63rd.

[Saberman]

I don't remember one near Portland & N.W.Hwy. There was an Anthony's next to TG&Y at 63rd and N.W.Hwy accross from Butterfields, that was a great place to party.

I loved the Squire Shop, grew up in MWC, would drive cross town just to look