Nostalgia overload!!

This little place used to be the library.  I went here a lot! 

So we've driven through Irving several times in the last few years but yesterday Glynda attended a Dulcimer festival that was in, of all places, the First Methodist Church in Irving which is where I went to VBS when I was a kid - they didn't have things like that at the Christian Science Church.  So yesterday I spent a couple hours walking around old downtown Irving and our old neighborhood.  Overload!  Anyway - here's some pictures I took - with captions. 

Irving Shoe Repair - It was just a couple doors down from dads' "Ray Willis Paint Store" in the early 1950's and it's still there now and a guy took in a pair of shoes while I was there.  Who repairs shoes anymore?  Back then you always re-soled shoes at least once!

Not at all as it was then so I just took a photo of the number - 120 S. Main Street.  Used to be dads' store.  Now it's a florist that looks sorta like a head shop once you're inside. 

Big State Drug store - opened in 1948.  Glynda had lunch at their soda fountain and later in the day I had coffee there.  Lots of old folks eating there - looks like their clientele will die off in a few years.  I also took a picture of a shelf of old prescriptions - looks like they have them all from the beginning!

306 High School Lane - Dad had it built while we were living next door at 704 E. Third Street - a house that he had built using concrete blocks.  Both are still there.

704 East Third Street.  I was probably 4 or 5 when we moved here.

On the right - Griff's Hamburgers - they were 5 for a dollar.  Straight ahead - the Irving Theater - movies for a quarter.  And to the right a convenience store - nickle candy bars and nickle cokes.  For $1.00 Linda and I could go to the movies and have a hamburger and coke afterwards.  (No sales tax then either.)

One of my favorite stores was the Army & Navy store.  It's still there only it's now called the Army & Navy Pawn Shop.  I bought my back pack for school there - army surplus - and they still have them and they are close to the same place in the store!

Different building and even a different denomination now - but it used to be the Presbyterian church.  My Cub Scout pack and Boy Scout troop met there and Suzie and I got married there.

A community building - it's where I went to take my tests to get my drivers license.

Around the corner was the fire station

The little white building was a barber shop and was where I got my hair cuts.  The house on the right faced one street and the little building faced another street.  It was just a few blocks from our house on High School Lane.

519 Union Bower Road - Herb and Meree sold it to us when they moved and it's where we lived when Bambi was born.

Dads' lodge - the same sign was there then.

I know I'm sounding like an old guy here but that's the way it is! 
And now I'm learning why old guys act like old guys and don't even care!