Memories take center stage

Oh, man! There goes another piece of my soul. I took my first ballet class there. Marveled at the "huge" expanse of the gym, the smack of basketballs and volleyballs against the floors and backstops; the fact that there seemed to be at least a dozen games going on at once under that single roof. The Saturday night teen dances! How I waited breathlessly in my yellow-striped seersucker surfer shirt and white shorts for a boy who sometimes showed up ... and sometimes didn't. I did a lot of growing up that summer between eighth and ninth grade. And each time I've driven past the youth center in the many long years since, I've sent up a silent salute and prayer of gratitude. "Progress" bites down hard sometimes. I'll fiercely miss that old building.

Merry Wilson

I spent many, many days there playing baseball, dodgeball, basketball, swimming and so on. That place was my favorite babysitter. It was a part of our life back then and a place where you could go and parents didn't have to worry about you. I am sad to see the old building go. I drive past it often these days and it always gives me a warm feeling.

I started going there in 1958 when we moved to the neighborhood. I just about lived there in the summer and after school.

Many of my lifetime friendships were started there. Saturday kickball in the gym, hearing my first live rock 'n' roll at the Friday and Saturday dances. Football with the Gators. Baseball with Douglas Builders and Mickey's Chicken. Softball with the Yankees versus the All-Stars. Handball and squash with my dad and brother against the wall of the basketball court.

Other memories include Boy Scouts in junior high, two great coaches, Pete Stroud and Dick McKibben, state championship team in 1967, adult flag football with Norelco and Thanksgiving turkey bowl every year.

What I remember most about Northwest were the dances, particularly the sock hops. We used to decorate our socks; of course our dresses had to match! (So many crinolines that only two of us girls could fit in the back seat.) I remember one Easter winning a prize by decorating my socks with bows and soft, fuzzy chicks.

I particularly remember dancing to Chances Are and something by Chuck Berry that started off with "Up in the morning and out to school." Then, the twist came in! The sound used to reverberate all over, impossible to translate what anybody was saying but the MUSIC - fabulous beat - wonderfully loud! And HOT! Just moving to the beat all night long - dancing with everybody. No wonder I never weighed over 70 pounds!

I attended summer (play) camp at Northwest Rec Center in the early to mid 1960s. My fondest memory is of the trampoline. I remember when it was my turn, I would jump and jump and do as many forward and backward flips as possible. Other kids would get mad because I didn't want to stop and give someone else a turn.

Other memories I have are how hot it would get in the gym after we would play running/racing games. Also being able to walk over to the pool for swimming lessons. And right now, I can almost smell the glue in the craft room.

I have lived two blocks from Northwest Community Center since 1960. I was only 5 years old then but as soon as I was old enough, I, my brother, sisters and friends were at Northwest daily. I remember that my parents had to pay about $2 a year per membership for each of us.

My fondest memories of Northwest were the huge slide they had on the playground, swinging on the swings and being able to touch the tree with our feet if we went high enough.

A trapeze would drop from the ceiling for us to practice our circus tricks. Northwest had an art room, teen room (for which my mother had sewn all the cushion covers for the couches), a game room in the front where we played mancala (with stones from the parking lot after the marbles were lost), and hours of free play and creativity. Nancy Bell D'Amico

Having moved here at age 8 in 1956, and living near the youth center, I have many fond memories of that facility. I remember learning to play chess, watching old movies like King Kong in the game room, and playing four square and tetherball. Being short, I rarely won unless playing my 6-year-old sister. I remember braiding necklaces at arts and crafts. I remember Coach Barney spinning the merry-go-round so fast I was sick for hours.

I also remember the sad summer day my sister and I were photographed by an Evening Independent photographer looking at the body of a poor, lost dolphin that died after swimming all the way from the bay, ending up in the drainage creek in front of the youth center.

I have several memories of the Northwest gym, but one stands out more than others. In the late 1970s, when Boca Ciega High School was on split sessions, the tryouts and practices for the freshman basketball team were held in the mornings at Northwest before school started.

Making the team and practicing at that gym gave me the opportunity to start a basketball career. This allowed me to play all four years at Bogie and then attend SPJC and the University of Buffalo on a basketball scholarship. Without a doubt, the gym was my home court!

Our family moved into the Tyrone Garden area in 1952. Our three sons were 6 months to 7 years old. The whole neighborhood was full of kids and young families. There were woodlands from 17th Avenue W - no roads and a creek where 58th Street is now. I helped collect money from the neighborhood to get the center built.

My family lived several blocks behind Biff-Burger back in 1957. When we found out that a youth center was being built, my parents would let me walk to that area and watch. I was so excited! I was only 13 at the time and 58th Street wasn't even there yet. I would walk through that huge, tall, grassy field and deep ditch to get there.

I was there for the opening and was one of the first teens on the council.

My favorite spot was in a room at the front of the building, which was a music room. We had a little record player and a bunch of 45s and we danced all day. One of the counselors there was a young man named Chad. He was a really good dancer and danced with me whenever he had a few spare minutes.

I grew up on the Disston Ridge at 52nd Street and 48th Avenue N in the 1950s. Our neighborhood at that time was made up mostly of retirees. When Northwest Youth Center opened, all of us kids in the neighborhood were beyond happy.

I was 15 when the doors opened. We would run to the center almost every evening, Monday through Friday those first two years, approximately 11/2 miles, to play basketball, wrestle and lift weights with our weightlifting instructor, Barney. He looked like Mr. Universe to us skinny kids. At 9:30 p.m., the doors closed and we would run all the way home. Who needed TV when there was the Northwest Youth Center?

At the close of the 1957 year, the mayor of St. Petersburg plucked me out of Florida State University to come and work for the St. Petersburg Recreation Department. He was intent on painting the "green" benches pastel, building new youth centers, bringing new businesses and industries into the area and proving to the world that St. Petersburg was more than a retirement city. He wanted to get the word out in a hurry that "youth" was indeed part of this city he loved, and a vital part at that.

Those black pipes that run through the beams of the Northwest Center, on each side, were placed there in order to hang the circus equipment. Bartlett Park was the main headquarters for the circus and later Woodlawn, but we placed feeder training spots at all youth centers.

My memories from Northwest Rec Center are back in 1991-1992. I was going to school down the street at Tyrone Middle School, and my first summer after sixth grade was spent at the rec center, as were many to follow. I was a junior leader that summer and I had my first crush on another camp coach. I hope my daughter will enjoy the new gymnasium as much as I enjoyed the old one.

My family, with four children, moved to the Suncoast from Michigan in 1968. Our oldest daughter, Paula, who was 15, had become deeply involved in gymnastics up North and immediately wanted to find either a private gym or a public recreation center to continue her training.

When she called around to gyms, the answer was, "Do you mean acrobatics?" It soon dawned on us that gymnastics had not caught on in the South as it had across the northern tier of states.

Paula finally went to Northwest Recreation Center. She was told that they had some gymnastics equipment but no one qualified to teach. But they rolled out the equipment and she began her own training. Soon children asked if they could try the balance beam or the pommel horse, and she put together a class. As time went by, Northwest obtained more and better equipment, and the program expanded.

Over the last 25 years, Kinney Karate has provided martial arts instruction at Northwest Community Center. It would probably be safe to say that collectively, participants have lost tons of sweat due to the lack of air conditioning at Northwest.

We endured endless hours without fans, AC, no heat during the winter and limited ventilation. The fact that so many students sacrificed extreme personal comfort is an important testimony to the endurance, perseverance and devotion of our students. Despite the hardship, they came, often filling the gym with 40 to 50 students at a time. We backed up traffic on 22nd Avenue N every Tuesday and Thursday night.

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