For the past few months I have been working on re-creating our neighborhoods and marking a map with who lived where. I thought it would be easier than it has been.
My first attempt looked really messy as I tried to write in the exact spot on the map where people lived and there really wasn't room to write them in.
I am going to try something different this time. I am posting the Tempe map I'm using in the 'Looking Back' section of the site. From there you can download it if you want and zoom in close.
A lot of you have sent me your address(es) while in High School and I really appreciate that a lot. Some of you sent me names of people who lived around you but could not pinpoint where exactly they lived. Some couldn't remember their own address.
PLEASE, look at the maps and see if you can help me to put everybody approximately where they go on the map.
If you can remember addresses great! If not, describe where on the map people need to go.
I am going to go with numbered houses on the map and a corresponding numbered list of names off to the side.
Hopefully visualizing will help everyone's memories.
I thank you very much for any help you can give me.
Steve,
I lived on the corner of W. Fairmont Dr. and Dromedary Drive. My sister ('76) still lives there and she still has the same phone number!! It used to begin with WO7 (woodland.....). I have few memories of the way things were....but, I worked for Ma Bell as an information operator/directory assistance that was housed in the white building on W. 5th Street just south of the Hackett House. It is now Trails (I think). We entered from the back and went upstairs and looked phone numbers up in big phone books! I also went to Dr. George Sanchez, optometrist. His office was located on W. 7th Street and is now located (and has been for many, many years...maybe 30) on the south side of Broadway between Rural and College. He gave me my first pair of contact lenses when I was 13 years old. The Tempe Elementary School District offices were named for him. I still go to him as have my children and now their children. He is someone you might like to interview. I do have a Then and Now book of Tempe......it is available at Changing Hands I think. Now there is another individual to interview....Gail Shanks, founder and owner of this bookstore that started on Mill Avenue.
Good luck with this project.
Hey guys!
Are you only planning on doing the book from the Tempe HIgh, 1960's point of view? If so, that's OK. However, if you would like a broader (in geographic terms) and deeper (in time) point of view, I might be willing to help. I'm a native of Tempe, and my Dad came to Tempe when he was 8. There's a lot of family and city history that I have access to. We lived in the old Fire Station #2 for several years, and then my Uncle Russ and his family lived there. My Dad graduated from THS in 1948, and attended high school with Ira Fulton, Joe Spracale and Paul Chavarria.
Just let me know.
Have a wonderul, peaceful New Year!!
