They tore down the old Shotgun Sam’s Pizza Parlor on Sheridan Road just north of 21st Street.

That building hasn’t been Shotgun Sam’s for decades but it is etched in my childhood memories.

You didn’t go to Shotgun Sam’s for the food – you went for the experience. I really did not eat there much but I went by there hundreds of times. It had an old-timey atmosphere, like a bar without the alcohol. (I think they did sell pitchers of beer but I never drank any).

I remember that on weekends, Shotgun Sam’s had live music. There was a lot of country music, bluegrass (with a banjo) and a little bit of southern gospel.

The restaurant had a great radio spot: “I’m Shotgun Sam, the pizza man, I run the Pizza Palace. I’m Shotgun Sam – that’s who I am. And my horse’s name is Alice.”

I’m sure the restaurant was named after the cartoon character Shotgun Sam – a diminutive gunman with a giant hat and facial hair on the Bugs Bunny Show. There weren’t many pizza parlors back then (everybody sells pizza now) and Shotgun Sam’s was a night of adventure and fun.

It’s sad to see the building torn down.

I felt the same way a few years ago when they tore down Sheridan Village Shopping Center at Admiral Boulevard and Sheridan Road. Of course, they replaced it with a drug store and empty lot. It seems like very intersection has a drug store or a bank (or both).

I went to school at Burbank Elementary School and Bell Junior High School. Burbank was turned into an “annex” and Bell became an elementary school. (At least those buildings weren’t torn down).

I spent many a day wandering through the shops of Sheridan Village. When it opened, it was innovative because there just weren’t many shopping centers. It had two stories and there was a ramp that you could drive up to the second floor parking lot.

My favorite store was T.G.&Y. – kind of a Wal-Mart before Wal-Mart came to town. It had all kinds of knickknacks and it was cheap. For Halloween, you went to T.G.&Y. to buy a mask and a plastic pumpkin to put your goodies in. Next door was J.C. Penney. That was a great store with friendly sales people. I bought clothes there, especially Sunday dress up stuff.

On the northeast corner of Sheridan Village there was a Rexall Drug Store (I think that was its name). It, too, was old timey. It had a soda fountain. If you ordered a malt, they would pour it in your glass and then give you the metal mixing bowl with a little extra ice cream.

We didn’t have air conditioning at our house growing up and we would go to that drug store where it was chilly in the summer and read the comic books for free until the clerk told us to stop or buy one.

On the second floor of Sheridan Village, there was a Borden’s Cafeteria. I loved to eat there. You picked up a tray and walked through as you selected you meal. That was a treat for a kid.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment was when they got rid of Bell’s Amusement Park at the Tulsa Fairgrounds. The Bell Family are wonderful people and the rumor is they may resurface with another park sometime soon.

Everyone loved Zingo, the rollercoaster. It was a thrilling ride. I enjoyed the miniature golf course. It got torn down. When I was a kid, I blew $4 at Bell’s one afternoon. That was a fortune back then but it was well worth it.

Bell’s operated during the Tulsa State Fair. They tore Bell’s down to put in a parking lot. Sally Bell, the former Tulsa County Republican chairman, gave me a commemorative brick from Bell’s that I really like.

The Will Rogers Theater used to be on 11th Street just west of Yale Avenue. They tore it down decades ago and now a church is there.

It was a fancy theater with a full balcony. I remember going to a show there in the early 1960s.  A friend and I started to go up the stairs to the balcony. An usher (they had ushers back then) stopped us and said we couldn’t sit up there. We didn’t understand why but later I found out that the balcony was reserved for black people and white people were supposed to sit downstairs.

I suppose it’s not realistic to expect things to endure. Buildings are torn down and new businesses pop up. That’s progress.

But some of those old buildings, pizza parlors, amusement parks and cafeterias added a unique flavor to Tulsa.

What will these next generations remember as their landscapes are altered?

Witty comments…

• I was thinking of getting German Shepherd once but I didn’t’ want to learn another language just to have a dog.
• If at first you don’t succeed, hide all the evidence that you tried.
• If you have an opinion about my life, please raise your hand. Now put it over your mouth.
• I got a new phone today. My old one failed the swimming test.
• I want to change my name on Facebook to “nobody.” Then when I see someone posting something stupid, I can like their post and it will say, “Nobody likes this.”
• If I won the award for laziness, I would send somebody to pick it up for me.
• Never play poker with the world’s fastest animal. He’s a cheetah.
• If Cinderella’s shoe fit perfectly, then why did it fall off?
• You know the oxygen masks on airplanes? I don’t think there’s really any oxygen. I think they are just to muffle the screams. (Rita Rudner)
• I wish I was a kid again so everyone would be proud of me for taking a nap.
• An apple a day keeps everyone away … if you throw it hard enough.
• Why do they call it “beauty sleep” when you wake up looking terrible?
• You and I are really more than friends. We’re really like a small gang.
• I put the “pro” in “procrastinate.”
• A true friend is someone who thinks you are a good egg even though they know you’re slightly cracked.
• All you have to know about celery is that it’s made up of 95 percent water and it’s 100 percent not pizza.
• My neighbor asked me if he could use my lawnmower and I told him of course he could – as long as he didn’t take it out of my backyard.
• It was me. I let the dogs out.