Downtown Tucson Memories

It has been 30 years (maybe even more) since Don and I were in downtown Tucson.  During my early years, it was THE place to go for shopping.  There were no malls!  Nope! What would today's teenagers do if they couldn't go shopping at a mall?  Would they survive?

I digress.  Off the five of us headed.  Sandy and Jerry's request was that we first stop at Borderlands, a brewery located in a former warehouse.  It's situated right next to the train tracks, so every 10 minutes or so there was a train rumbling right by the windows.  Maybe the vibration from the trains is good for making beer by shaking it up dozens of times a day.  Who knows?!

 Don and Doris looked at the menu and tried to decide what they wanted.  It was beer for Don, Jerry and Sandy, while Doris and I shared a Mexican Coke.  Doris didn't have a beer since she was driving and I definitely am NOT a beer drinker/sipper/guzzler!

I loved the mural on the back of the building. Someone had a vivid imagination!

Next stop was the Congress Hotel.  This hotel was built in 1919 is the place where the infamous Depression era gangster, John Dillinger, was caught in 1934.  Tucson now celebrates his capture by having Dillinger Days in January each year.

Even though I've lived in Arizona for over 60 years, this was the first time I stepped inside the hotel.  I guess it was about time!

The hotel lobby appears to be the same as it was decades ago, with the old style floors, staircase and faded paintings on the wall.  Since I wasn't around in 1919, I can only surmise that this is truly the case!

All of us were surprised to find two things that we remembered from the 1960's:  A telephone switchboard, just like the kind Doris used when she started her career at Mountain Bell:

And the individual phone booths, that even had wooden swivel seats!  Naturally, the rotary dial phones themselves have been replaced.  I wonder what a teenager would do today if they were placed inside one of these and the rotary dial phone was still there.  Would they even know they could make a call from this "contraption"?  And only pay a dime for it?

As we wandered around outside, we did come across another old landmark, the Fox Theater.  All of us who grew up in the 50's and 60's went there.

We sauntered along Stone Avenue, and I was looking for a familiar landmark from that era: Jacome's (pronounced Ha-ko-mees).  Steinfelds and Jacome's were wonderful stores, now more or less forgotten by most Tucsonians.  Probably the majority of people now living here never heard of them.

Here is what now stands at the corner:

The main branch of the Tucson library at 101 N. Stone.  I know time changes everything and I must accept it and go with the flow.  But the nostalgic part of me wishes that I could step back in time and see and experience everything as it used to be.  It was a gentler, slower paced time, before electronics and instant responses.  Ah, to be young again!  Don would say, "It's not gonna' happen.....deal with it."