Arizona Memories from the '70s 

I couldn't believe it when KDKB died. It was a sad day😢

This was such a fun look back, thank you! I lived in Phoenix in the 70's. My dad had the "Pool & Brew" pool hall on 32nd St. and on Thomas. We would close the bar and everyone would spend the day floating down the river, it was epic! It was our annual river day and all the patrons would go, 50 of us scrambling to find a tube for the day. We moved to Carefree in the late 70's and my father owned the "Dancing Bull" restaurant in the Spanish Village. The 100 yr. floods would wash out Scottsdale Rd and nobody could reach us, not even venders to deliver our goods. We ended up selling the restaurant just because of that reason....too many 100 yr. floods! LOL

I'm Don's youngest. I'm sure every 70s and 80s kid remembers tubing! I know I do!! We didn't have smartphones then. 🤣🤣

I remember Dave Pratt at KUPD. He was hilarious. The Red Rocker!

I was a child in Phoenix’70s

The veteran's coliseum was the concert venue. Led Zeppelin played there - riots outside. Lots of "blue" smoke.

As a kid in the 70s, I watched the sitcom Alice, which was set in Phoenix, and thought it was a great place to live back then; no mention of the sitcom is a crime because it depicted people like Alice who moved out west to start a new life; in her case, she lost her husband in a trucking accident, and she decided to follow her dreams of a singing career that was put on hold when she married her late husband and had her son. She and her teenaged son end up in Phoenix with a broke down car on their way to CA, and she worked at a diner for a stingy boss named Mel. I always loved that sitcom.

I'm a native Arizonan, born and raised in Phoenix, and before they had flood control, I remember one year in particular when we had a flood and that was in June of 1972, I was 15 years old back then and I remember my friend and I riding our bicycles on flooded streets, we accelerated as fast as we could on the dry sections of streets, and it was thrilling to both of us to make water splash as we rode our bikes through flooded sections of neighborhoods.

Growing up in Gilbert in the 70s was kinda like that show Happy Days, we had Jim's Dairy Bar were my teenage sister and her friends hung out. We had the one Circle K and the one Dairy Queen where we hung out. We would either go to Big Surf or Williams Air Force base to go swimming. A lot of my neighbors were foreigners who's parents were in the air force. It seemed like there was a lot more to do on the cheap. We were always outside playing on our bikes because cartoons were few and far between so TV wasn't a top priority.

Sad Big Surf is gone and the land being turned into apartments.

14:40 I know that guy on the bass! Last time I saw him was around '73 - our daughter was 3 years old. Roger Ames - a brilliant musician.

I loved there from 1985 thru 1991. Long Wings in Tempe, Los Arcos Mall, Thomas Mall, Tower Plaza with Alcolpoco Bay Beach Club, Warsaw Willy's blues, The Bagel on Scottsdale Blvd. The pink Biltmore Desert hotel was just being built and I was at a gathering at a huge sprawling windows and slate estate farther down the road. When Brookshires restaurant was open and we'd go have breakfast after the bar and I saw a bunch of people different from me but... We all needed breakfast. Drive past 58th Ave and it was all orange groves!

I remember when Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke were in downtown Phoenix in April of 1977 filming the final scenes of The Gauntlet, the bus they were driving was being riddled with bullet holes shot by hundreds of police officers, and I went downtown and watched as the bus turned on Monroe Street.

What a great series. This predates me as Im only 47 and lived in AZ from 1984-1999, but I love the state and it really feels like home to me when I go there now, even though I have no family left in AZ. Might move back someday.

Really brought back a lot of fond memories…thank you!

Thank you for putting this together! I moved away from Az in '79 and plan to return this year. Like many, my family & I tubed the Salt, raced dune buggies and dirt trikes and got into Hang Gliding. The cool Jazz scene was happening and life was lively (despite the heat of July & August). New entrepreneurs, with new ideas literally breathed life into an already beautiful place filled with possibilities. Again - Thank You!

The Don Bolles murder still plagues us today! I have had no one who was involved then give me a reason why they never dug more on the Funk family (Emprise) that ran the Greyhound tracks! Yet 4 years earlier the 92nd Congressional Commission on Crime knew much more. Including the wiretapping of Bolles phones at home and office. Too many who know the truth have died, but there’s still a small handful that know imho. I wish a solid reporter would do more digging on this aspect.

Moved here in July of 1978 from Chicago. The next month the tison gang broke jail. I thought I was in the real wild wild west!

I never knew who “compton terrace” was named after. Im watching this the day before he died. I was a kid in tucson in the 70s.

Loved the Phoenix road runners. I always called them blood-and-guts. We went to many games every year. My mother introduced me in 1963 to hockey and if somebody ask me if I like sports, I say there are no sports except live. Ice hockey and now we fast forward fifty years later and I am still going to ice hockey games in the town that I live in

Goldwater was our neighbor in 70s.

Remember riopell at celebrity new years many times

Dang man. Such great memories.

Born in Maryvale in ‘72, raised in Glendale. I left the Valley in 2004. Apparently Maryvale Hospital closed its doors years ago; is that correct?

Thank you... interesting things I've heard of having moved there in '87.

And the tree awned streets with sunken lawns to the west of 32nd st and Thomas. Sure miss all that's gone

I miss Legend City & Big Surf !!😂

I wonder if the people who made this realize that there is much more to Arizona besides the Phoenix area?

Wow I was on stage with Jerry Riopel and Chuck Berry, I knew who Chuck Berry was but not Jerry until this Video.

You guys should do a special on winslow.

I remember Mary Jo West was huge when I was in grade school. I lived 3 streets south of Bill Close and would see him walking his dogs when it wasn't to hot out. Our whole neighborhood was a buzz when he was held hostage live on TV. It was horrible. We had a business in west Yellowstone MT (west entrance to Yellowstone park) in the summertime. The first year we went was 1976 and I remember my brother and I missed the bicentennial train. But Montana was more fun for us. We worked our butts off, making money. My brother bought his first computer. TSR 80 from radio shack at Thomas mall. Loved that mall.

The bi-centennial, we got stoned and missed it!

At 39:49 That’s the Indian bend wash in Scottsdale at Osborn rd looking East

"there was a lot of beer at the bottom of that river" that's disgusting.

I was 9 years old when we went to the Freedom Train.

Very interesting history. Alice Cooper was an Arizonian since 1958 - Wow. 31:28 Women in the men's shower room? L.A.P.D. 10k race in the 70s started and ended at the Police Academy at Elysian Park. At the end of the race a healthy looking runner woman came in the policemen's locker room. Stripped down in front of male runners and LAPD and jumped into the shower with us! She said the women police officers showers were not working and SHE was entitled to take a shower just like the men - and was going to have one! True story. 35:22 This group of Embassy Marines received special plaques with embossed Marine & Dept. of Sate seals for taking part in the evacuation. I have one in my collection.

Phoenix is LA east. Just listen to the news.

Louis Taylor, the man convicted of the fire at the Pioneer, was released from prison in 2013.

Is that Pat McMan doing the voiceover

😎👍👍

When you saw the big truck and all the works in front of your and when you want to Tempe and mesa you all mud the water was going great speed I want kdkb they the first to talking heads and Devo and undertones and heavy metal I see many years and to see the dj when they change format and get albums go get album’s

Yep disco queen old

This should had been titled Phoenix memories from the 70s, not much else was talked about.

Did Elvis presley play in Arizona in the 70s

Sorry. Don’t Rember it I am a native of. Phoenix. How. Sad

Don’t Rember it

It was nice to look into our Arizona past but WAY to much democratic government propaganda. Do better PBS or prepare to be defunded.

RU-vid Teezy T Phoenix. Songs the truth