Bosco's Hobby Shop - Shreve City: That was a boyhood hangout of mine. I use to go in and marvel at the remote control airplanes. I bought my first .049 model airplane engine and balsa wood plane kit there. He was a great guy. I know he got sick of me hanging around always asking questions, but he was always courteous and smiling, even when you could tell he had had enough. I loved that guy, thanks for reminding me of him.

Dons Restaurant - Kings Highway: My family use to go there for lunch on Sundays after church. At the time it seemed like the fanciest restaurant in the world. First place I ever had cajun cookin.

The Don Theater was the first theater I ever attended alone. My dad worked at the Slattery Building for Arkla Gas and when I would go to work with him he would give me a couple of bucks and tell me to "go see that movie you were talking about."

The first time I went I was scared to death. I think it was about a three or four block walk from his office to the theater, but I was afraid that every person walking on the street was going to try to kidnap me. Not exactly sure where that came from, probably my mom. I was so relieved to finally get to the box office.

I sort of remember going to see Saturday matinée double-features at the Don but maybe that was at the strand. Does anyone remember a movie where the actors appeared to come off of the screen and then played out a scene in the audience before returning to the film?

I do remember Shakey's Pizza Parlor as well as Pizza King - that was many a beer ago.

There was a Naramore's drug store in what became the Heart of Bossier shopping center. That's where my mom would go to get all her prescriptions filled. I sort of remember a medicine-like odor every time we went in, can't exactly describe it. My mom would buy greeting cards there too.

I seem to recall that Bealls (which was a couple of doors down) had one of those X-ray shoe sizing machines.

Actually he just looked like a hippie. His name was Robie Odom and from what I've heard he was kind of an uber-athlete at Byrd High School in the late sixties. He moved to Dallas and became a graphic artist/computer graphics guru.

SOOTO Records - Something Out of the Ordinary.

Loved going into that place.. as a young lad, who listened to some pretty eclectic music, didn't care for the top 40 stuff.. I could go into Sooto's and find some excellent stuff.. I believe several if not all of the A-Train records were released on the Sooto's label.

Yeah I can still picture the place now. I love a small hobby shop that is small yet packed full of stuff. Mr. Bosco knew exactly where to pull out the box he was looking for, sorta like that wand salesman on Harry Potter. I hung out there a lot. He was a little more friendly than Tom Dobins over in Bossier. But Tom was OK too. I started out on plastic models and moved up to balsa wood planes. After I built and flew half a dozen control line planes, I started on a remote control plane around the age of 14.. It cost a lot and took me forever. I was afraid to fly it and for good reason. I crashed it in mere seconds on the first so-called flight.

Years later as an adult, I got back into R/C planes and got really good at it. (both building and flying) I flew at Sharks field almost every day before the SuperWalmart was built. Then my kids were born and now I spend all my money on bills.. :(

SOOTO RECORDS....now Theres a blast from the past! Bought many Albums and tapes in there- I sure miss record stores like that, and Stans......

Yup.. I went to Sootos for Records and a few cassettes. But Stan the Record man.. I still have a box of old 8-tracks.. just about everyone has that Stan records sticker on the back.

Where was Sharks field? History needs to know :) Cotton field on Youree?
My dad would take us to a place... must have been Bossier area, where they had a little cement/blacktop landing strip and everything.

Sharks field is where the Wal-mart on Airline is now.

OK -thx ;) that's probably the spot.

Sharks field was right where the parking lot of Super Walmart on Airline. Around 1993, they had to move a few miles north somewhere. I think they are still going today. I think they had as location before the airline (walmart) location but I'm not sure. But that was the real hay day. We had lots of fun for years. Other common places to fly were LSUS and Slack Industrial park but those were iffy. I flew gliders at Walace lake dam. And Bodcau With the uplift off the huge levees, we flew for hours without ever touching the ground.

I saw someone flying just south of Bass Pro Shops the other day but they weren't very good so I don't think that is a hotspot or anything.

More to think about
 

I don't recall Hair Shapers ever being next to Byrd, I think that was Illusions run by Doug Yelverton and Bev? weird lady with wild hair. Hair Shapers was one of the, if not THE first, salon to locate in a mall (St. Vincent's Mall). They were on the East side just outside of Sears. Owned by Claude and Sue Burch who I believe purchased Pat Goin's beauty school on Youree Drive.

Anyone know what happened to Dale Hawkins?

Cuban Missle Crisis - Barksdale
 

I vaguely remember bombers being scrambled and the base being shut down, does anyone else have any recollections of what was going on out there (or anywhere else in the city for that matter)?

And while we're at it - Where were you when JFK was assassinated?

I recall "sonic booms" all the time in Shreveport. Also civil warning sirens would go off every Saturday at noon. They were up on poles at schools. The one closest one to my house was at Broadmoor Junor High. It used to drive all dogs nuts! Especially hounds. First the sirens, then the hounds...Finally the sirens would stop but the dogs just keep on going. I forget when they stopped all that. Must have been in the mid or late 70's


I was 4 years old when JFK was shot and I mean to tell you, it sucked for a 4 year old. No cartoons, no tv shows, no nothing for 3 or 4 days. Finally some programming resumed... I had little understanding of what was going on. I just knew everyone was sad...

We lived in Tallulah then and I was sitting in my 4th grade classroom. The intercom came on and the principal made an announcement that the president had been shot. Lots of kids went home from school early.

My aunt had taken my younger brother and sister to Dallas to see the motorcade so they were on the scene. They were both really young and don't really remember what happened.

It's been a while
 

Well this has sort of gotten put on the back burner but I still think it is worth while. I will get back to it at some point.

Does anyone remember Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs playing in the Shreve-City parking lot?

Or, Parker Turner and the White Leopard Kung Fu School? Or Johnny Lee the main instructor? I believe they put on some sort of Kung Fu Demonstration at the civic center, Kung Fu masters from around the world sort of thing.

Murrells restaurant? Dobbs House on Line Ave? Robert Riser, Sherman Gorton?