What businesses do you miss?

[ljbab728]

It's on about N.W. 48th and N. Western on the west side of the
street.

Lee Burns, a music professor at OU, had a fantastic record store that was
Classical oriented until he and his wife moved to Boston.

I remember Lee from when I was in the OU band in the 60's. He was a good guy.

[cinders8709]

Harold Shoe Store was in the shopping center at 23rd and Meridian...that was the only place I got my shoes as a kid.

[Prunepicker]

The building with The Earth? Was it once a church? If I ever went upstairs,
it was only once. But thanks for the wake-up!

I don't believe it was a church, but it's quite possible. I don't ever remember
it being such and I frequented the area in the 60's. There was a place called
Head Quarters in that section of town. It was similar to Mother's and
Abextra.

[RadicalModerate]

From an old news item archived online:
Originally home to Northside Church of Christ, the building was constructed by church members in 1948 and valued at $50,000.

So what was the name of the music store when your friend Lee Burns and his wife owned it?
(I used to love browsing in there and occasionally buying something . . . =)

[RadicalModerate]

. . . it seemed to be the only place in town where you could buy cards along these lines


. . . or '80's versions of music like this (like, on cassette =):


(what WAS the name of that place? . . . dang.)

[Prunepicker]

So what was the name of the music store when your friend Lee Burns and
his wife owned it?

It was the Music Gallery!

[RadicalModerate]

Thank You, Sir!
(that question really would have bugged me for at least a couple of days =)
(dang. all this just reminded me of that long-gone, dearly departed store upstairs in Penn Square with the NewAgeTraceMusic and fountains and greenery and stuff . . . =)
(i think it was across "the mall ravine" from Successories and fairly close to The Frankiln Quest location . . . =)

[whorton]

Without a doubt:
1. Shakes pizza
2. El Felix Mexican
3. Any working and decent cafeteria

After that:
4. The 14 flags drive in theater
5. The Riveria drive in theater
6. Team electronics
7. Sound warehouse.

[ManAboutTown]

1. Casa Bonita.
2. Heritage Park Mall / Crossroads Mall / Shepherd Mall.
3. Crystal's.
4. Split T.
5. Russell's.

[Pete]

I miss all the classic men's stores: Harold's, Orbach's, The Squire Shoppe, McCall's.

To be fair, we still have several good ones: Mr. Ooleys, Steven Giles, Alton's, Rye 51.

[stlokc]

I second that, Pete.

Harold's, Orbach's, McCall's were where we bought all our "better" stuff growing up. Squire Shoppe I am less familiar with.

At the risk of sounding older than my years, people today are so casual about everything. Jeans at the symphony, t-shirts even at nicer restaurants. Grrrr! Glad there are still some nice outlets though.

[whorton]

I would probably go back and add:

1. Harry bears restaurant on Mosteller drive.

And in this era of mega motion picture theaters where they have EVERY CURRENT PICTURE IS AVAILABLE. I kinda miss the charm of places like the Apollo twin, the Shepherd and Quail twin, the Southpark 4, Reading 4, and even the Almonte 6. Granted, I am a bit biased as I was a projectionist at each of those theaters, but goodness, the charm of a sitdown movie is now lost to history.

Kind of makes you appreciate those days of youth and listening to parents an grandparents bemoaning how things had changed since their youth. . karma is a . . .well you know!

[sooner88]

I miss all the classic men's stores: Harold's, Orbach's, The Squire Shoppe, McCall's.

To be fair, we still have several good ones: Mr. Ooleys, Steven Giles, Alton's, Rye 51.

Not a full blown men's shop, but I'd add William & Lauren to the mix. For fully custom it's pretty affordable for what you get, and they're great to work with.

https://williamandlauren.com/

[Bill Robertson]

Radio Shack. The old original Radio Shack when they had drawers and drawers of electronic components. And a tube testing machine. The reason I wanted to be an electrical engineer came from repairing the radios and TVs around our house when I was a kid.

[whorton]

Rat shack was pretty cool to a young man growing up in the late 60's and 70's. Sadly so many of their products did NOT stand the test of time.

Mach I speakers
D X-120 or D X-160 short wave radios
Their whole police scanner line. .
T R S 80 COMPUTERS.
63-968 Radio controlled clock
23 channel CB radios
Their stores in general!!

[btmec]

The discussion about John A. Brown's started me thinking about many places that are no longer here that I really miss. I'm going by memory here, so I may misspell some of the names (feel free to correct me!), but here is my list.


Rothchild's

Anyone else?

Do you remember the smell of Rothchild's? It had a distinctive smell. I also miss Orbach's. Those two places are were my mom did all of our shopping as kids.

[btmec]

I miss Casa Bonita! I know most people say their "Mexican" food was horrible, but I loved every bit of it. I remember coming to the one in OKC one time before it closed. I lived in eastern OK at the time and so I mostly went to the one in Tulsa but it has closed down and changed hands. I think the one in Tulsa may have reopened under a different name, and the only Casa Bonita left is the Denver one.

'
I remember the Mexican singer they used to have. He always scared me when I was little. I remember years later he was working at another restaurant and still remembered us.

[btmec]

Michael's Plum
Gibsons
OTASCO
Streets
TG&Y
Shotgun Sams
and who could forget there's a world of fun at Wonderful Tammy Lynn

I loved OTASCO's Christmas commercials where they always showed off the new toys.

[btmec]

I second that, Pete.

Harold's, Orbach's, McCall's were where we bought all our "better" stuff growing up. Squire Shoppe I am less familiar with.

At the risk of sounding older than my years, people today are so casual about everything. Jeans at the symphony, t-shirts even at nicer restaurants. Grrrr! Glad there are still some nice outlets though.

Don't forget Rothchild's, Clark's (North Park Mall), and for women's clothes, Street's.

[btmec]

Rat shack was pretty cool to a young man growing up in the late 60's and 70's. Sadly so many of their products did NOT stand the test of time.

Mach I speakers
D X-120 or D X-160 short wave radios
Their whole police scanner line. .
T R S 80 COMPUTERS.
63-968 Radio controlled clock
23 channel CB radios
Their stores in general!!

Jensen 6x9 triaxial speakers. Those were the speakers to have in the 80s. I remember when CBs came out. My parents had one in each car and my grandpa was a trucker and had one. We used to get on there and talk to people for hours when we were kids. Breaker 1-9 what's the 10-19 is what we always asked after school when my grandpa would pick us up.