Who didn't know about this place? I remember Liggetts getting robbed in the middle of the night probably in the late 60's. They tried to get the safe open & couldn't & drug it almost all the way out to the highway. It left ruts carved in the pavement almost all the way out by the sidewalk & then loaded it up & took it with them, I don't believe they were ever caught. At one time there was a game machine in front of the drugstore & Publix bag boys would always be playing it without spending any money. You could put a pop bottle under one side & play for free all night. I always thought those bag boys were geniuses for figuring out how to stick it to the man.....
PS: Looks like the picture must have been taken around Christmas time judging by the decorations.
Welcome back BH. I know you have been busy with things and I wish all the Wall family well. This picture was a weekly event as there weren’t many places to get groceries at that time I went with my mom many times to this complex and it was an all in one place for her to get her hair done, get a drink and get groceries. A very boring event for me but I kind of enjoyed it. All these amenities in one place I guess that’s why it’s still exist today. Great picture!
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Peggy, Danny/Brookside Homeboy and Publix are the center of the "Real Naples" Universe....
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We lived close and some of us walked over to the grand opening of the shopping center. There was only the drug store, Publix and Grants, the spaces in between were empty. My mom worked the lunch counter at Grants for awhile. There used to be carnival rides set up each year in the parking lot,some type of traveling carnival. I also remember a GTO that was always parked in front of Publix. I think it belonged to a Cooksley that worked at Publix, but it was in mint condition.
ReplyDeleteThe G.T.O mentioned above was a burgundy 65 “Goat” that was indeed owned by Mike Cooksley (I think it had a white convertible top).
ReplyDeleteYou guys know I go nuts over the cars. In the picture shown, that's a Corvair pickup truck on the far left (it had a drop down cargo ramp on the right side behind the cab), then looks like a Rambler station wagon, a black 55 Ford, an early 60's Chevy pickup, and Phil Perry's 63 Ford Fairlane parked in front of "Don's" Liggett-Rexall. The bright white car in front of the laundry (hiding the 53 Ford) is a Vauxhall (kind of obscure, no?), then a 63 Chevy 4-door (I had one).
The dark car directly in front of the VanDerVeer music store is a Renault-Dauphine ("Go look that one up in your Funk and Wagnall’s" - Thank you Laugh-In). I think The Van Der Veers also sold Honda motorcycles in a store on the north side of 5th Avenue near 3rd Street (1962-63) long before the Honda store on 4th Ave N. (ext to the Bull Pen) appeared.
Let's see, next is a 62 Chevy Impala SS convertible (you know like Mr. Breeden's only not Butternut yellow), a 55 Chevy convertible (by the tail-lights); It's parked behind another Impala, this time a 63 (it's the tail-lights I tell ya), (there's a 60 Ford Galaxy hiding in front of the auto parts store), then an early 60's Ford Falcon parked behind a 59 Ford (tail-lights again). That next big white barge might be a 61-62 Buick by looking at the fender cutout, then a 54 Oldsmobile sitting in the middle of nowhere. A 60 Peugeot 403, and 63 Ford Falcon Futura round things out.
After all that, quite frankly, I don't care what the last car on the right is!
11:05 PM PST
When Liggets first opened you could pop a balloon for the price of a banana split from like 5 cents on up. I think they very briefly had Asthmador on their shelves, as well as other things before Gary Young became aware. Vince and Jeff Wood and I used to skateboard up and down the sidewalks for hours, Jeff had the first skateboard..skates nailed to a board. The roof was not out of bounds for creeping around either.
ReplyDeleteI remember riding my bike by one day when I saw the gas station out front catch on fire and go up in flames..up to that point it was the most exciting thing I'd ever witnessed.
Got my first Jimi Hendrix album and Janis Joplin the day it came in at Grants.
My Grandfather, Lou Pappas, owned the Liggetts Rexall. The first in Naples. Great Pic!! Thank you.
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