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Gatorade in glass bottles
Sleeping bags that were as-big-around as a spare tire
Salt tablets instead of Gookinaid/Vitalyte

Prescott with fast food places were Hardee's (before What -a- burger), A &W root beer, and Dairy King and Queen, only one Jr. High (not middle school) and one High School. Water fights on the court house steps Fourth of July. Crusing Whiskey row. The train came thru and stopped at the train station... Whistle blowing to make sure we were in school by 8am. Hiking in tennis shoes and jeans with a day pack not a back pack (those were for overnight) Canvas tents that we 5 girls had to drag from the car to put up. White gas stoves... Riding with my dad down to the Drag races at the Beeline dragstrip way out... And Mel Larson's dragway out in Sun City. (There were these walls up but no houses) Lots of Orange groves... the Barn was the only restaurant on Bell road way out at I think 59th ave or so..

Flagstaff without a Barnes and Noble. That lot used to be an abandoned 50s kitsch motel called the Flamingo Motor Hotel. Yes, it was pink.

China House, the best chinese food I have ever eaten. It was the first restaurant I ever ate at, I was maybe 2 or 3. It was a true mom and pop place, an old Chinese couple that grew up across the big swimming pool. When their kids were in high school, they would help out, but when they went to college, it was just the husband and wife. The husband was the cook and the wife was the waitress. He was always friendly and she always came off a little rude, but she tried. After she would take our order she would say, "Thank you, your welcome." I guess she didn't want to wait for a response. But the food was phenomenal, and barely anybody knew about it. We were often the only customers, but it was a cramped little diner on Route 66 on the east side. Not really the best location. Eventually the husband died and that was the death of China House.

I'm only 24, so I can really say too much.

azbackpackr wrote:For many people around where I live, they grow vegetables and can them, they build up a year's supply of food, they raise a few chickens and a calf or two, they hunt and fish. They have a big freezer and a big pantry.

I do most all of these things in town with a small lot.

hippiepunkpirate wrote:After she would take our order she would say, "Thank you, your welcome." I guess she didn't want to wait for a response.

I can remember, around 1980, ppl thinking I was a little strange because I would take my Vic 20 computer & 300 baud modem and chat with people on other computers.

Ha ha! In 1980 I didn't have running water, electricity or a phone! I cooked on an outside fireplace or Coleman stove. My house had no glass windows, only screens. I had a million dollar view of the Pacific, but paid only $90 monthly land payment. That was on the Big Island...

I remember an old boyfriend who worked for NOAA as a computer specialist at Scripps in La Jolla, in the 70's. The computer was bigger than a refrigerator, and I remember there was a phone attached to it, which of course, made no sense to me. He told me about computer languages he had to use to enter and work with data, such as Fortran. The best thing about visiting my boyfriend at work was checking out our favorite surf spot at Scripps Pier, which was a stone's throw below his office balcony...

Ah the blue ocean! I miss it sometimes...

I lived in Vienna, VA from '88-91. AOL was a start up, the "chat rooms' fit on one screen of my Mac SE. AOL went public and offered shares to all subscribers for $15.

@Sredfield
I used Prodigy in the late 80's before 56k modems became big

Black and white TV... only.

Reel to reel home movies.
Soda didn't come in 'diet'. Then there was 'Tab'. :yuck:

8 track tapes.

What's a microwave oven?

I can remember my first backpacking sojourn back in '59. A few years later I graduated into one of these and a few years later wound up here. My how has time changed things.

Oh I didn't see you there, good times! I was still in the womb with another four months to incubate so I don't remember much... byproduct of all that free love

I like my memory of the first moon walk. I didn't watch it on TV. We were traveling around the West and British Columbia in a VW bus. We had camped at Pavilion Lake, in BC, and we had a canoe. We had heard about the moon walk to occur. As I recall, the moon was full that night (is that a true memory--if so, did the government plan it that way?) and we paddled out on the lake in the moonlight and observed the full moon. "Look at the moon! There are people up there, walking around!"

It wasn't long after that, having driven down into rural Montana, at a small market I saw the cover of Time Magazine, of Woodstock.

Getting us back to hiking and backpacking

azbackpackr wrote:I like my memory of the first moon walk.

Me too!! I was sequestered at NAU at a National Science Foundation Advanced Mathematics Seminar for 6 weeks. I hiked my first Rim-River-Rim on Saturday July 19. On Sunday July 20 we got up early before the monsoons could flare up and I summited Humphreys for my first time. I had a big external frame backpack with hardly nothing in it except water and food, the winds were really blowing on the Humphreys ridgeline and I was almost a pioneer parasailer.

tahosa wrote:I can remember my first backpacking sojourn back in '59. A few years later I graduated into one of these

That's about the time I started and that is what I was talking about when I said I hiked with a military surplus webbelt and canteen. I remember how proud I was stalking through a meadow in '58 on my first pheasant hunt with the dogs out in front and me with the grownups. I carried a 20 gauge - probably with light load to reduce the kick (my Dad loaded our hunting ammo) but I never got a shot.

I remember when things use to be made the best they could be. Now days it's how cheap can it be made without people immediately noticing the short cuts.

That one of my first camp sites in Arizona has been designated a cultural resource site, AZ U:16:227.

Wow! Great thread.
I remember watching my dad target shoot in Echo Canyon at Camelback, great echo!
Did my first shooting at the dike at Scottsdale and Bell.
Why the heck was a bar out in the middle of nowhere..Reata Pass.
Payson and Flagg still had their sawmills.

The Grand Canyon wasn't as deep.

Love your petroglyph, Alston! And my maiden name is Neal!

Hmmmm maybe we're distant cousins.

My petro buddy is up at Pato Pueblo on Perry Mesa, his name is Erle.
As in Erle Stanley Gardner, cuz that's where the Perry Mesans lived.

Sorry.....couldn't resist...

Hahahaha!

No, sorry, we are not related. "Neal" was my dad's stepdad's name. My real last name would have been Saqui, which is far more exotic, but harder for Americans to pronounce or spell. My dad pretty much anglicized himself. We had no idea we were not WASPS. My brother uses the Saqui name to put on his custom guitars, though.

Darn, I was hoping you were a rich relative....
Anyhow, since we've hijacked the thread, back to our program already in progress.

I remember when Fountain Hills was nada and the London Bridge was in fact in London of all places.