Let's See Who's A REAL Charlottean!

the movie drive in on north tryon

1. Airport Park
2. Betty Feezor
3. Swain's Steakhouse
4. The Gondola
5. Cloudy McLean
6. Vicki the Elephant
7. Ivey's
8. Belk's Luncheonette Chicken Salad
9. July 4 at Freedom Park
10. Good Samaritan Hospital
11. Joey the Clown
12. Fred Kirby
13. Big Ways Birthday Ball at Memorial Stadium
14. A&P where Eastway crosses Ind.
15. Clarks at AmityGardens
16. Thunderbird Drivein
17. Swains
18. Crockett Park
19. Charlotte Hornets ( Baseball )
20. The Clock restaurant
21. The Sunday Night Hall of Fame on WBT
22. Henry Bogin
23. The Little Rascals after church in B&W
24. Bill Callahan on WSOC-TV
25. Lee Rose
26. Independence Blvd was a two lane road
27. South Park Mall was a horse farm
28. drive in movie on North Tryon
__________

29. Kays Gary
30. Harold Johnson
31. George Shinn
32. Ben Douglas
33. Big Bill Ward
34. Irwin Belk
35. Jim and Tammy Baker
36. Central High School
37. Second Ward
38. Charlotte Hornets Pro Football Team (WFL)
39. Carolina Cougars Pro Basketball Team (ABA)
40. Anyone remember when construction workers on W. Trade found old gold mine shafts under the street?
41. Anyone remember when When Curtis Turner started building Charlotte Motor Speedway?
42. Dorothy Counts
43. Park & Shop
44. Lawing Awning Co on N. Tryon
45. Thomas Cadillac downtown behind Ivey's
46. Montaldo's on E. Trade

You left off
47. WGIV
48. Big Ways 610
49. South 29.
50. Carolina Theater
51. The Arthur Smith Show
52. Leroy the Hyena
53. Tommy the Tool
54. 365's Lunch Bucket
55. The Marvenettes
56. "Sweet Daddy" Grace & The House of Prayer
57. The Annual Turkey Drop
58. The Playhouse
59. Gilda's House of U-know What
60. Ernie Dollup
61. Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs
62. Jim Martin
63. Harvey Gantt
64. Stan Brookshire
65. Excelsior Club
66. Shrine Bowl at Memorial Stadium
67. Fox Drive in Theater
68. The intersection of Queens Rd. and Queens Rd.
69. "Uncle Jim" Mahaffey played by Jim Patterson

70. Nixon Bros. Steakhouse on Independence
71. The Epicurean on East Blvd
72. Ultraman
73. August Jam @ Speedway 1974

72. Gottlieb's (Army/Navy Store)
73. Doug Bell
74. Mike McKay's "Those Were The Years" on WBTV
75. "Horror Theatre" W/Ty Boyd on WBTV
76. "Terror Theatre" W/Larry Sprinkle 0n 36

79. Thompson Orphanage
80. Heritage USA
81. Jim Crockett's WCW Wrestling with Rick Flair, Ricky Steamboat, Ivan Kolov, Dusty Roads and others
82. C.J. Underwood on Channel 3
83. That Sports announcer (Bill Curry???) on channel 9 before Harold Johnson that got fired for saying the "N" word.
84. The Charlotte News
85. Dr. Francis Robicsek performed 1st open heart surgery in N.C. at Charlotte Memorial

86. Diamond Jim's on 4th st.
87. Yellow Rose on Tyvola.

88. WRPL The Ripple
89. Calvin Walker on WRNA
90. Calvin @ All That Jazz on WROQ

Cowboy Fred wrote:

Anyone remember these:
1. Airport Park
2. Betty Feezor
3. Swain's Steakhouse
4. The Gondola
5. Cloudy McLean
6. Vicki the Elephant
7. Ivey's
8. Belk's Luncheonette Chicken Salad
9. July 4 at Freedom Park
10. Good Samaritan Hospital

You forgot one:

Marrying your first cousin

91. The Masonic Hall with it's strange architecturial relief and columns on West Trade. It was a beautiful building but it scared me to walk by as a kid.

92. Gathings Motors which was the only dealer for MG sportscars between Richmond VA and Atlanta. They also sold and serviced the first Porsche and Mercedes Benz in this area.

This has stirred up some old memories. I loved to read the Charlotte News growing up here. I delivered it after school every day for 3 years so I read it every day. Kays Gary's column was always great. He did so much to help people in need and to promote the area. Remember Holy Angels Nursery? It was a Catholic hospital/nursery for abandoned and unwanted children at Belmont Abbey. They were terribly underfunded and had poor resources until Kays started writing about the kids there. The stories were heartbreaking and they got national exposure which caused donations to come pouring in. Doctors and other health professionals volunteered to come and help the kids. Today it is still thriving. Kays' first columns were written nearly 50 years ago!

93. Having to swim nude at the YMCA on West Trade in the 1950's. They didn't allow swim trunks.

94. Billy Graham's big Charlotte Crusade in c. 1960 that filled Memorial Stadium every night for 2 weeks.

95. The original "Infinities End". A pot smoker's paradise with hundreds of bongs, rollers, pipes and other paraphernalia.

96. Judge McMillan

97. Kelly Alexander

This is very good. I've lived in Charlotte and the surrounding area for 20 years so I remember a lot of the things. Some I didn't know. So very interesting to find out.

Yes, Infinity's End in the 70's.

The Gondola.........

Betty Feezor, have her cookbook

Dr. Robicsek doing open heart surgery on my father in 1976.

98. The Orignial NBA Hornets, 1988
Coach Dick Harter
Dell Curry
Dave Hoppen
Rickey Green
Tyrone "Muggsy" Bogues
Earl Cureton
Stuart Gray
Kurt Rambis
Kelly Tripucka
Robert Reid
Rex Chapman

99. The original Charlotte Hornets baseball team playing in Griffith Park in the late 1950's. Harmon Killebrew played first base and was called up to the Senators 3 times before 1960. They moved the next season and became the Minnesota Twins. Harmon became an all star and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1984. As a kid I remember him hitting a ball so high and so far it seemed to disappear into the clouds over the right field wall at Griffith Park.

Griffith Park was torn down about 1970. I think it was on or near Selwin Ave. It was an old style park with wooden seats and a partial cover supported by vertical beams. If you bought a seat behind one of the beams you were in the shade but part of your field of vision was blocked. A good trade off on a hot afternoon!

100. The observation deck at the old Douglas Airport.

101 The sign for the Confederate Naval Yard. It was on S. Tryon about a block from the square. I don't know if is still there. When the Federal Navy attacked Norfolk the Confederate Congress decided to move all Naval supplies inland near a major railroad terminus and chose Charlotte.

102 Old Settlers Cemetary contains the graves of Revolutionary War soldiers as well as earlier graves.

103 Sugaw Creek Presbyterian Church (often referred to as Sugar Creek) One of the oldest continually active churches in the SE USA

104 Greek Orthodox Church in Dilworth and their Festival every year with awesome Greek food!

105 Grady Cole the voice of WBT radio for 35 years (I can't believe no one has mentioned him!)

106 The original Briarhoppers on WBT Radio c. 1930's-1950's

107.Zayre's

I haven't been here that long, but I know about the Charlotte Clippers (the first southern hockey team)

I remember when North of Harris Blvd and Ballantyne did not exist. They were all woods. Eastland Mall was a mall and not gangs hang out.

The Pterodactyl Club Grand Opening!

The Cure, The Cult and many more played.