Vintage shots from days gone by!

Yes, seen it a few times. The guy was a train wreck behind the scenes, eh? Thanx, Gary

 

DO NOT Google the store name for more pictures of the parking lot.......just take my word for it.

 

Hahahaha the full name originally was "Two Guys from Harrison" it was a discount store chain in New Jersey

 

I made that mistake the other day with another Google search for a photo - yikes

 

Roseburg, Oregon - before the 1959 dynamite explosion.

 

Had to google that one

In the early morning hours of August 7, 1959 a fire at Gerretsen Building Supply Company ignited a truck parked on the adjacent street. The truck was carrying a two ton load of dynamite and four and one-half tons of ammonium nitrate. The subsequent blast leveled eight city blocks. The explosion created a crater fifty-two feet in diameter and twelve feet deep.

Three hundred businesses within a thirty block radius were damaged by the blast. Of those, seventy-two were declared structurally unsafe resulting in major repairs and renovation. Twelve buildings beyond the eight block perimeter were condemned. The face of Roseburg changed forever in an instant. The explosion eventually became commonly know as "The Blast."

Mr. Pat Sullivan, a bystander very near the Blast site that night related the following story:

"I was about twenty feet from the intersection on Pine and Oak and I could see Don De Sues in his Centennial police uniform outlined against the truck. Bill Unrath and somebody else, I don't know who it was, were standing by the Coke building. Assistant Fire Chief McFarland and another fireman were standing down by the fire truck. A real good heavy blaze was going at that time. It was reaching well up. As I was running down, I started to see the sides of the truck starting to bulge and I hit the dirt. Thank God for Korea. And that was the last time I saw Don De Sues... l got hit in the chest with a piece of metal. I started to get up and the suction of the Blast knocked me down again. The piece of metal went through the pack of cigarettes I had just bought and lodged in my chest. At that time there were no lights whatsoever. Everything was completely dark except for the electrical cords that were bouncing around on the streets that had been blown down from the deal..."


more here http://www.cityofroseburg.org/visitors/1959-blast/

 

Not quoting you loudbang, but this sounds odd for such a small town.
Population of Roseburg was a little over 11,000 in 1960.
I don't think there was anywhere near 300 businesses in the whole county.

 

Don't know but there are a bunch of replies on google

 

There used to be one in Newington, CT..Went out about 1980..Maybe Caldores for a while now is Walmart..

 

The search for that store was safe until you searched the images tab.

 

The quote is used on the City of Roseburg's site, so a thirty block radius could possibly hold that many businesses (down to the single employee businesses as well like a seamstress and barber). Pendleton back in the day had easily that many - not so nowadays.
http://www.cityofroseburg.org/visitors/1959-blast/

 

Three hundred businesses just seemed unrealistic having grown up in a small Oregon town. If it had said three hundred structures, that sounds more plausible.

 

There used to be several in Connecticut. I remember a friend of mine got a job in one shortly after he got married (his first "real" job, now with a wife and kid to support.) About two months later, they announced they were closing all stores and going out of business. Story of his life...