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January 21, 2014 at 5:27 pm #610242
miwsParticipantOkay, we’ve had a few “Nostalgic West Seattle” threads here over the years, they may get a ton of comments, then lay dormant for months or more, until someone discovers it for the first time, or specifically searches for it, to add something new.
Anyway, inspired by this thread…
https://westseattleblog.com/forum/topic/what-happened-to-cherie-of-cheries-grooming
….in which someone took it off topic, *shuffles feet, and whistles innocently* with his memories of Beck’s Grocery in that location. I started a search, after Diane asked for any old pictures of Beck’s, and I found this one, from 1939, at the Small Town Papers website (please note that anywhere from one, to a few, simple survey type questions need to be answered to access):
Also, in searching STP I found that news media has been inundated with Spam, going as far back as 1942:
http://tinyurl.com/jw3tqn8 ;-)
The link immediately above, also is an unintentional Treasure Trove of the Corner Stores of the era. (I need to go back and study it, and picture where each of them were!)
So, anyway, I thought this new thread would not only be good to move any Beck’s info and history to, but to also share more of our own memories of WS “Corner Stores” and other stuff!
Mike
January 21, 2014 at 6:10 pm #803507
WS BornMemberI have vivid memories of visiting Frakers (recently shown on the blog) and Askies in the Genesee Hill area regularly as a child!
January 22, 2014 at 2:21 am #803508
JayDeeParticipantMIWS:
What was the intersection? Have you searched the municipal archives? There is always the King County assessor if you get desperate and have spare $ or so. A friend gave me copies of my own property records from the Assessor and it was pretty reasonable.
And like never stepping in the same river twice, and being borne like boats against the current these stores and memories will be increasingly divergent from real life. I felt bad enough seeing a picture of an earlier self in the “Historic West Seattle” book…
January 22, 2014 at 2:38 am #803509
miwsParticipantJayDee, Beck’s was on the SE corner of Belvidere & Hinds (3402 Belvidere).
Haven’t searched the Muni Archives yet, will probably do that in the next day, or so.
Thanks for the reminder of the KC Assessor’s Office. All that Parcel is now showing, is the vacant lot, no “historic” images of the site.
Mike
January 22, 2014 at 6:29 am #803510
trickycooljParticipantHmmmm maybe I can find snippets about my grandpa’s service station. He always asks me of there is still one at 35th and Avalon, I presume it’s the 7-11 now unless the other corners once had stations?
January 22, 2014 at 6:37 am #803511
trickycooljParticipantAlso wow, in 1962 they expected 11 people to die in auto accidents and only 9 did in a 3 day period. Amazing how far auto safety has come that even 1 fatality accident is on tv news. http://wsh.stparchive.com/Archive/WSH/WSH01041962P06.php (towards bottom)
Also thanks for the internet black hole mwis!
January 22, 2014 at 1:54 pm #803512
miwsParticipantYou’re welcome, tricky!
And thanks for the link to that page. Looks like the excessive speeding and red light running isn’t such a recent phenomenon!
On a side note, the page also shows the wedding announcement of the daughter of a friend of my Dad’s from back then!
Mike
January 22, 2014 at 1:56 pm #803513
miwsParticipantOh, and the SE corner (where the building with the new Redline), and the SW corner (KFC) had gas stations at one time too.
January 22, 2014 at 3:31 pm #803514
wakefloodParticipantHey, this is a great thread Mike, et al. Thanks for feeding my nostalgia appetite. :-)
I’m not sure when it opened but the Shakey’s Pizza (now Taco Time) at the top of the bridge was one of the hangouts during the High School years…
January 22, 2014 at 3:40 pm #803515
happywalkerParticipantWith Gil’s on the corner where Taco Time is now…19 cent hamburgers and 25 cent cheeseburgers
January 22, 2014 at 4:01 pm #803516
GinaParticipantFor some mom and pop store reading and viewing fun if you have a SPL card:
http://seattle.bibliocommons.com/item/show/2890808030_independent_america
http://seattle.bibliocommons.com/item/show/2600532030_the_mom_amp_pop_store
The mom and pop store that I was allowed to visit alone at the age of 4 was on 47th and Admiral. Mom would want an ice cream bar or peanut candy bar, but it was too hot out. Alki Mail and Dispatch is the current occupant.
The S&Q Market (Skoog’s), currently occupied by Alki Bike and Board, was where my mother did her marketing. They had a spike that the cashier stuck the bill on, and at the end of the month would mail the total spent to the home.
Everywhere my mother shopped operated in this way, charge plates were in their infancy, and most women did not have their own checking accounts. This led to the better than watching tv event called “Dad signs the checks.”
Dad would ask Mom to fill out the checks with everything but the signature, so that she would have a concept of what things cost.
And I would be looking out the window at the trees, just in case there was some money growing on them.
January 22, 2014 at 4:40 pm #803517
miwsParticipantYep, and Gil’s was also the KFC franchise at the time. I actually found out maybe in the last 10-15 years, that the Dad of a High School (Sealth, Class of ’76) friend of mine whom I have kept in touch with, is that his Dad managed Gil’s back in the early-mid(?) ‘60’s. I told him that my Dad may likely have yelled at him, if there had ever been a problem with an order. My Dad was not really tactful at……ummmmmm….“complaining”. ;-)
I’m drawing a blank on a more specific time for Shakey’s coming in. Late ‘60’s-early’70’s, I believe. KFC moved to the structure that last housed Groucho’s; where Starbucks Drive-Thru is. I think it was built new then, and then, of course, KFC eventually built and moved into their present location, where one of the corner gas stations had been.
Also, on my mention above about the wedding announcement; now that I am showered, coffee’d and awake, I recall that the bride’s family were actually family friends, rather than the bride’s Dad and mine simply being buddies.
They lived two doors down from us, at the house on 38th, but since they moved in around ’60-’61, when I was an early toddler, I don’t remember them as neighbors, but friends that occasionally visited.
Mike
January 23, 2014 at 2:59 am #803518
JayDeeParticipantMike:
Did you visit the store that was supposedly at 48th and Charlestown? Where the empty lot/p-patch/dog-park/Future park is?
January 23, 2014 at 4:21 am #803519
miwsParticipantJayDee, Yeah it was more of a Supermarket size store of the time, as opposed to the smaller “Corner Store”. Think the old Morgan Thriftway that burned down, or the Rite-Aid on California, that was a Safeway, before moving to Jefferson Square.
The name of the Store has been mentioned on here before, but it slips me right now. Plus, as happens, it changed names over the years.
My Aunt’s Mom lived in the house at the top of the hill, on the SW corner of 46th & Charlestown, so being fairly frequent visitors to her, I went to that Store on several occasions.
Mike
January 23, 2014 at 5:49 am #803520
KevinParticipantThanks for the memories about the old Shakey’s Pizza. I remember going there before my wife and I were married, and then later we moved to WS from the north end.
January 23, 2014 at 6:51 pm #803521
GinaParticipantWest Seattle Thriftway, 4801 SW Charlestown St, ad in the West Seattle Herald archive link for August, 1969. Watermelons, 49 cents each, 6 packs of Simba soda, 69 cents with coupon, whole fryers, 39 cents a pound.
I remember it being a Grocery Cart store in the late 70s, my mother shopped there after the S&Q closed because it was smaller than Safeway and less crowded than the other stores. Also had a butcher that would take requests.
January 23, 2014 at 9:51 pm #803522
trickycooljParticipant@mwis just noticed your grad year and HS, did you go to EC Hughes by chance? You might have gone to elem with my mom or her siblings! They moved to Federal Way by Junior High though.
January 23, 2014 at 11:36 pm #803523
miwsParticipanttricky, I went K-5 at Lafayette, (3 years ahead of Gina), and then my Dad remarried, so we moved over to the Kitsap Peninsula, where Step-Mom was from.
6th Grade was at Tracyton Elementary, then Jr. High at Central Kitsap.
Back to WS, (Arbor Heights) where my Guardian lived, in very late ’73, or very early ’74, after Dad and then Step-Mom passed about 15 months apart.
So then, at that point, it was Sealth!
Mike
January 23, 2014 at 11:56 pm #803524
trickycooljParticipantAh, quite the resume! I jumped around a few school districts myself. Would have been a funny coincidence! One of these days maybe I’ll stumble on someone that knew my mom’s family when they spent their 10 or so years in West Seattle! I found their old house and it was exactly as my mom and siblings remembered it.
January 24, 2014 at 12:38 am #803525
seaopgalParticipantNot a corner grocery, but I am curious about the progression of grocery stores in the former PetCo building on California (south of the brew pub). I think it was a Safeway when we first moved here in 1986 (before they moved to Rite Aid and then to Jefferson Square). There was also a type of bulk-food market — Pioneer ? — for a short time. But was there a 3rd grocery there prior to PetCo? Maybe a Lucky’s or ??? I may just be remembering a remodel done by the Safeway there (“trendy” black ceiling, etc.).
January 24, 2014 at 1:11 am #803526
alkiwendyParticipantSeaopgal, the former Petco building in the Junction was a A&P Grocery Store in the late 50’s and early 60’s.
January 24, 2014 at 2:54 am #803527
miwsParticipantYep, an A&P, and then became Tradewell. Safeway was never there, to my knowledge, unless it would have been in something like the ’30’s or ’40’s. And pre-moving to Jefferson Square, Safeway was indeed in the now Rite-Aid spot on California & Dawson.
After Safeway’s move, that spot became a (locally owned) Pay-n-Save Drug Store, which was bought out by also local-ish (may have been out of Oregon) Payless Drug Store (no relation to the Shoe Store of the same name), and Payless was bought out by Rite-Aid, or something like that.
tricky, a kind of a “small world” thing happened, when in around 1999-2000, I got to personally know some other fans of local radio guy/comedian Pat Cashman, after one incarnation of his radio show was abruptly canceled, and a group formed via the net to get him back on the Air.
During the first part of my Sophomore year, until my Step-Mom passed around Thanksgiving of ’73, I started High School at North Kitsap. S-Mom and I were in the process of moving from Silverdale to Poulsbo, so she transferred me to North at the beginning of the school year, rather than mid-year.
Fast forward to ’99 or so, and meeting the other Cashman fans, I found out that one of them had graduated from North Kitsap in ’74. So, much like Gina and I found out on the Earlier days of WSB that she and I likely passed each other in the halls of Lafayette way back when, Trisha and I probably did the same at North.
Mike
January 24, 2014 at 5:21 am #803528
GinaParticipantI think it is safe to say that Mike and I were in the same building when we had early dismissal after RFK and MLK were killed.
Lafayette had over 1,000 kids attending at that time. Declined after my Kindergarten year because the Pill was introduced about 6 months after my conception.
It sometimes seems odd to think how all the schools were so packed, but there was a much lower population in West Seattle. Grocery stores were less crowded, but all numbers were rung in by hand. The carts were much smaller. Paper bags had to be doubled, tripled if it was raining. Candy was placed on high shelves out of reach for children. Produce in winter was maybe a dozen or so fresh items to choose from. Union laws prohibited the sale of meat on Sundays. Stores closed by 7, Safeway was open late until 9. And Mr. Hooligan at the deli next to Sheppard’s did not like Canadian coins.
January 24, 2014 at 5:37 am #803529
miwsParticipantHa! Mrs. Beck would always dig into her stash of Canadian coins, to make change if we gave her a Canadian Nickel, or Dime, or whatever! :-)
Mike
January 24, 2014 at 5:16 pm #803530
seaopgalParticipantTradewell is the store I was trying to remember … thanks!
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