This was the Plaza Shopping Center up above, and our Movie Theater below. The shopping center had a grocery store, a jewelry store, a clothing store, a five and dime store, a furniture store and the post office in front, a beauty and barber shop on the side and the drug store and the Copper Kettle Cafe in the back. Our movie theater, which we called simply "the show", had a double feature on Saturday, with a matinee and an evening show, a different movie double feature on Sunday with a matinee and evening show. Then it changed again and ran a single feature Monday and Tuesday night. A Mexican movie was shown on Wednesday, then another single feature Thursday and Friday night. We could get in for 15 cents and get a candy bar or a coke for a nickel, and a box of popcorn for a dime. so for 35 cents we could see 2 movies, a cartoon and get full of candy, popcorn and coke. Now those were the good old days. Another chapter in the saga of the "Good Old Days" comes to an end. lol Blessings Little Witch Eileen

Bologna and Kool-aid are things of the past. That was back in the good old days when parents instead of the Government raised children. Now days, parents have to follow guidelines drawn up by people who probably never had children or if they, did had a nanny or a babysitter raise them.
Back when I was a child, we didn't have obese children so our diets were of little concern. I think the reason was because we went outside and played. We climbed hills, rode our bikes. went roller skating, and walked where ever we had to go. Now days kids don't have that kind of freedom. You have to find your entertainment in the confines of your homes and I think that is really, really sad. You miss out on so much. I wouldn't trade my childhood for anything and my wish for the world is that things could go back to that kind of life style. It was lived at a slower pace and most people could be trusted.

There were drugs around then, but they were not as available and young people didn't have easy access to them. I remember when I was about your age, 14 or 15, we had a rumble between two Mexican gangs in town. One of the boys was killed so we made the Phoenix news papers. The headlines read "Morenci Gang War Flares". Boy did we think we had hit the big time, making the headlines in the Arizona Republic.
At school the next day everyone was talking about it and someone said "they even found Mary Jane there".
Well dummy me, I said "who is Mary Jane?, I don't know any Mary Jane." lol
Oh, how times have changed. Our big deal was to find someone we could talk into buying us a couple of quarts of beer and go up on the mountain or down the river and roast hot dogs, play our guitars and drink beer. hehehe You kids now days would really think we were square, nurds, or whatever you call the un-cool kids today. We thought we were pretty hot stuff, coolest of the cool. lol Have a good week "Little Witch" Eileen

Nah...No one ever ended up in the hospital. We didn't dare tell our Mom's if we biffed it, we weren't supposed to be riding down that hill so if we went home crying, we wouldn't be allowed to ride our bikes for awhile and would get a good licking to boot.

Life was a lot easier back then. Kids had more freedom to be kids. We didn't have to wear helmets, knee pads, elbow pads, etc. when we skated or rode our bikes. The scrapes, bumps and bruises were all just a part of growing up.

In the summer, we could leave our house right after breakfast and chores, and not come home until lunch. After lunch it was off again until supper, and after supper gone until dark. Sometimes we even got to play out after dark. No one bothered us, and parents didn't have to worry about where we were or what we were doing. (small town gossip moved faster than e-mail does today).
We didn't have TV until I was a teen and there were no hand held games, CD players, I-Pods or any of the things you kids now days use to entertain yourselves. Our entertainment was our imaginations and the freedom we had to run and play.

All of the mining camps had a hill with a cross on it ( I'm not sure why, I think it had something to do with the Catholic Church) and one of our favorite pass times was to climb up too it and have a picnic. We would climb the face of a small cliff to get there, and when we went home we climbed down the back side of the mountain, and walked through an old graveyard. Boy could we scare ourselves and each other with that.
Our lunch was usually a bologna sandwich and a jar of water or Kool-Aid, (no bottles of water or plastic cups etc. It was a glass jar or nothing) . My favorite drink was raspberry Kool-aid. Just eating a bologna sandwich with a glass of raspberry Kool-aid today, sure brings back memories .

Second Installment:

The large redish brown building in the middle of the picture was the single teachers dorm, and the green building below it was the married teachers dorm.
The long hill to the left was hospital hill, (the hospital is the funny shaped building at the top).
We used to ride our bikes down the hill and the first one to use their brakes was a chicken. If you didn't use your breaks, you could really be moving by the time you hit the bottom, but if you lost it you got a hell of a road rash. We all carried scabs on knees, elbows and occasionaly the nose, for most of our growing up years. In fact I still have some scars on my knees from the "hospital hill" rides, hehehe.