I remember when...
- Miles' Restaurant had the best hot dogs! (Submitted by Lana Shaw.)
- Big WAYS radio (61AM) was first called New WAYS. (Lana Shaw.)
- The Sunrise Dairy dairy bar operated across West Franklin Avenue from the city's original Harris (later Harris-Teeter) Supermarket. Besides wonderful ice cream treats, they served great sandwiches. A life-size (or larger) cow stood in an adjoining room in front of tall windows. (Submitted by Jeane H. Moore.)
Shoney's stood on the southeast corner of East Franklin and New Hope Road. Their trademark "Big Boy" statue was probably the most stolen piece of outdoor artwork in Gastonia. They made the greatest hot fudge cake in town. (Jeane H. Moore.)
- The Gastonia telephone exchange was "UN," (86), which was pronounced "University." It was only necessary to dial the next five numbers when calling anyone in the city.
The Rhyne Dairy farm was where TJ Maxx is now located. At that time, you looked down on the pasture as you rode by on New Hope Rd. or Franklin Ave. This was before the days of Shoney’s Big Boy. Shoney’s was one of the few places young people went in Gastonia. When it opened, it had a drive-in area in addition to the restaurant. Youth would ride through Shoney’s over and over, in case they saw “someone” or wanted to be seen. In that area of town, Akers Center was the only shopping center. Akers Motor Lines was approximately where Target and Pizza Hut are now. Ivey’s Department Store was in Akers Center. (Michelle Bruchon Grossman) Dollar Days packed Uptown Gastonia with shoppers;
Christmas decorations stretched across Main Avenue and adjoining streets and shined brightly from Thanksgiving night until New Years;
Shoppers dressed to go Uptown;
Ice cream was served in Dixie Cup bowls atop stainless steel pedestals at Sweetland's on Main Avenue;You could get vanilla Cokes at the Moss Drugs soda fountain;
Santa Claus and His reindeer rode on a conveyor at Nolen Concrete on East Main Avenue;
Stars shined from the Firestone Mill tower at Christmas until 1992 (They are back!);
The bright sunlight was welcomed after a Saturday matinée horror movie at the Temple (later the Center) Theater on Main Avenue;
The Leon Schneider Department Store radio jingle was "Let's go to Schneider's; buy the family clothes at Schneider's; 233 West Main Avenue, in the middle of the block...."
Three "dime stores" (Eagle's, Woolworth's, and Kress) were located on the south side of the 100th block of West Main Avenue, across the street from Matthews-Belk Department Store. That was indeed a "super block."
You could buy ducklings and brightly-colored chicks in front of Eagle's dime store before Easter;
One dollar would buy ten comic books at the Marietta Newsstand;
Everyone went to Matthews Belk;
A four-sided clock stood in front of Citizens National Bank and chimed each passing hour;
John's Toy and Hobby Shop opened in the LPT Building on the northwest corner of West Main Avenue and South Street;
There was a miniature water tower on the ledge over the entrance to the Realty Building advertising that McLean Tank Company had offices inside;
Tom Holland operated a barbecue drive-in on the west side of Bessemer City Road (Tom's Barbecue) just above that road's intersection with West Franklin Avenue;
At that intersection once stood a restaurant topped with a large marquee advertising movies playing at the Monte Vista Drive-in on Myrtle School Road.
Gastonia's Beacon Drive-In (never affiliated with the one in Spartanburg, South Carolina) stood at East Franklin Avenue at Willow Street. The kitchen was incorporated into the main office of Carolina State Bank, which later merged into Southern National Bank. Southern National Bank later merged with BB&T and more recently vacated the building when the current BB&T was built at West Franklin and York Street. The building, along with the Beacon kitchen, now houses attorneys' offices.
- The crosswalks at the busy intersection of West Main Avenue and South Street were outlined with brass oval plates embedded in the asphalt and bearing an advertisement for Pepsi Cola.
- The Piedmont and Northern Railway (P&N) streetcar ran down the center of Franklin Avenue from Webb Street on the west end of the line to the Groves Mill on the east. The fare to ride was a nickel.
- Milkshakes at Kennedy's Drug Store were seventeen cents. While talking to his future wife on a very busy day, an employee filled an order for seven shakes with seventeen of the frozen treats. (From a retired insurance man who was once a Kennedy's "soda jerk.")
- There was a small mechanical Santa Claus in the window of Morris Jewelers during the Christmas season.
- The Christmas parade kicked off the Christmas shopping season uptown. Many businesses and organizations sponsored beautiful floats.
- The display windows at Matthews Belk Department Store featured elaborate mechanical displays during the Christmas season.
- Sweetland's Restaurant was one of the most popular after-school gathering places for students from Gastonia High School.
- Coke floats and milkshakes were among the favorite soda fountain treats at Sweetland's.
- "Three Centas" and "Spindle Center Colas" were bottled in Gastonia: the "Three Centa" at the northwestern corner of Gaston Avenue and North Firestone Street, and "Spindle Center" on the east side of Linwood Road near the Fifth Avenue intersection. Both buildings still stand.
- The Spindle Center Fair came to town annually in the early fall. The fairground was located at the present site of Akers Center on East Franklin Ave. Students in the City Schools received free tickets for "school day," and schools dismissed early on that day.
- The Trenton Mill on West Main Avenue was a thriving community. Everyone knew everyone else, and it felt like one big happy family. [This situation was probably true of all the mill villages in the city. Please send us your memories of others.]
- There was a big clock at the old bus station (Union Terminal) on West Franklin Avenue uptown.
- The Woolworth lunch counter served delicious hot dogs, hamburgers, and club sandwiches.
- Uptown Gastonia was hopping all week long and then closed on Sunday so everyone had to go to church.
- Among the notable newsstands were the ones at South Street and Main Avenue, Marietta Street at Main, and in the lobby of the Main Post Office.
- Cowboy movies played every Saturday at all the uptown theaters.
- Gastonia was a baseball hotbed. The training ground was on the streets of the mill villages, where the bat was often a broomstick and the ball was a ball of twine from the mill.
- Tony's Ice Cream operated a West Side location. (The building still stands!)
- Long Avenue (only two lanes before the railroad trench) was an "avenue of churches." It was the original home of First Presbyterian Church, First Baptist Church, Saint Mark's Episcopal Church, and Saint Michael's Catholic Church.
- You could get into the Webb movie theater on South Street for a dime.
- Beautiful homes lined West Main Avenue.
- The Beatles arrived in the U.S. and British Rock was readily available here. It was in 1963 that I developed a relationship with our white, plastic clock-a.m. radio. I surfed the channels (age 10 at the time) for anyone playing a Beatle song. In the meantime, I was exposed to all sorts of popular music. At one point in time I had just enough money to finally buy a 45 rpm record ($.99). Since I didn’t drive, I had to rely on my mom to drop me off at the “Music Box” record store (near John’s Toy and Hobby) on Main Avenue while she was running errands in town. Of all the Top-40 songs of that time, it was hard to decide which 45-record to buy. Would it be my favorite Beatle record or “Needles and Pins” by the Searchers. It was narrowed down to those two. Finally, I decided on the Searchers. My logic was that I decided that the Beatles were bound to be popular longer than the Searchers. As a result, I would be able to purchase Beatle records for a longer period of time. If suddenly, the Searchers were no longer popular, then I might loose a chance at having that song.” I was so thrilled since this was the first record I ever bought. I will always remember calling the Music Box and asking if they had the record and how much and being so excited. The man behind the counter didn’t share my enthusiasm. I remember Mom pulling up in front of the Music Box on Main in our station wagon and running in to buy the record. It was such a thrill to sit in the back seat looking at the first record I had purchased as we drove away down Main Avenue. (Submitted by Michelle Bruchon Grossman.)
Neon pigs ran across the roof of R.O.'s Barbecue (They're back, although a local sign ordinance requires that they stand still--what else is new? Contact City Council and demand that they FREE THE PIGS!);
You could watch Cokes being bottled through a plate glass window at the Coca Cola plant on West Franklin Avenue;
Woolworth's had a snack bar with ballons you could pop, and what ever amount was on the paper inside is what you paid for a banana split. (Debbie Clark)
I was a boy and we listened to the
Grand Ole Opry in Nashville on WSN on Saturday evenings, WIBW in Topeka, Kansas (listened to the
Old Fahioned Revival Hour on this station on Sunday Mornings), KCMO in Kansas City, MO, and KOFO in Ottawa, Kansas. In the early years, the family only had a battery-powered radio, so listening was confined to the
Grand Ole Opry and the
Old Fashioned Revival Hour. [From Mr. Wilbur Watts (
nostalgia@sprintmail.com), who discovered our website and has been declared by the Chief PooBah of the
Grand Council of Gastonia Title Grantors to be an Official Gastonian of the Nth Degree! Mr. Watts is a Disabled Veteran of the United States Air Force (TSGT) and is a collector of movies and music, having over 1,000 movies and 70,000 music recordings. He grew up in Ottawa, Kansas, and now lives in Appleton City, MO, which is halfway between Kansas City and Joplin, 18 miles east of Butler, MO. Say "hello" to him as one Gastonian to another.]
More to come! (Share your memories today.)
