Panama City Beach, 1970s part 1

[@williamstalvey6920]

Had so many fun times with my friends, my brother and parents. The Fountainbleau hotel, Finland across the street, the Reef motel, Captain Anderson's, the dive shops, what wonderful rich times I cherish to this day. Thanks for the nice clip.

[@habituallearner7680]

Thank you so much! This brings back so many precious memories of our yearly vacations during the 60s and 70s.

[@billuscredellus]

THANKS!, We went almost every year in 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's. Great Memories!!!

[@jonathanmitchell9886]

Thanks for sharing this. It's pleasantly eerie how recognizable the old PCB is, even after the passage of decades.

[@parliman3536]

The Miracle Strip, Petticoat Junction, Ghost Town, Juggle Land, Gulf World, Water Slide, endless Arcades, GOOD FRIENDS and Dune Riding on the beach. Sand as white as snow, it was truly PARADISE. These are the memories that keep me strong.

[@dukejohnson99]

I regret not going to Petticoat Junction in the 80's

[@bostrickland4970]

Lived in Panama City from 1970 to 1986 was spoiled on the gorgeous white sand beaches of the emerald coastline the 🏖 still looks gorgeous. Been all over the world now in 2020.... but glad to say the coastal area west coast Florida is the Most Bueatiful Beaches in the WORLD 🌎 ! !

[@habituallearner7680]

Wow. I'm jealous! I always wanted to live there.

[@williamstalvey6920]

Amen to that, none can compare to the white sand and the Gulf!!

[@majorkade]

Thanks for uploading this. My family took summer trips to Panama City Beach in the 70s and 80s. It's still a part of our lives. We're from the Dothan, Alabama area (town of Headland). Just this past summer I took my wife to PCB simply for a walk down memory lane. Lots of changes, as expected, but still enough of the past to bring back the nostalgia.

[@dukejohnson99]

Remember when you could take 2-lane Back Beach Road (98) to avoid the traffic? Now it's just as bad, and it's a 4-lane

[@majorkade]

@@dukejohnson99 yes. Traffic is awful.

[@floydallan783]

Great video. Brings back memories of the best decade ever

[@donnacouch5995]

Took me back to my childhood with both my parents. Miss those times. Thank you for the memories

[@williamstalvey6920]

It was the best back then; go to the beach all day, Captain Anderson's and Miracle strip Park!!

[@Badfingerbabe777]

Thank you so much , my family went here in the 70's and 80's, so much has changed. I miss the way it was, wish I had this on DVD.

[@maxspurlin2002]

Badfingerbabe777 A lot has changed , still a fun place .

[@gp5rm6]

Nice! That had everything- tombstone territory, petticoat junction, castle dracula, volcano, tower...

[@Havaseet2]

1:18 I used to live a few blocks from the Sui-Slide. I spent many weekends there during the summer of 82

[@rob-robi]

0:24 I used to airbrush t-shirts across the street from the Surf Hut in the early 80's, ( at a place called 'Casablanca') We'd sometimes walk across the street to visit the Surf Hut, was a life time ago. Surf Hut had a floor of all beach sand, it was a unique cool place. What a different life, we were in our early 20's making art all day having fun, flirting with tourists. Back then the artists on the beach had some kind of code, no one was 'allowed' to draw out anything with a pencil onto the shirts or hats, everything had to be pure free-hand airbrush lol . We screwed up here and there but we sure learned how to do it well. Oh man the cajun girls were something to see, and so many others from around the area , long before fast junk fake foods had fattened young people up. Saw some of the most gorgeous girls ever back then. Made some good money for the summer for a few years. One of the most amazing things we'd see was 'alabama day' or something like that, 100's of cars , trucks came to town from all over Alabama with rebel flags on every other one of them or every one of them , every car blaring 'Sweet Home Alabama' Never seen nothing like that ever before or since, a massive parade .

[@HWPcville]

Lots of memories! As a kid in the 60's it was allowed to sleep on then beach. My family would camp right off the highway next to the beach in a station wagon (a car). My mother cooked on the tailgate and we slept on pallets (sort of a sleeping bag) on the sand. Right across the highway were public showers, picnic tables and trampolines. For a small price you could jump for 5 -10 minutes and this was before they became a common childhood item. Somewhere along the beach was a roller skating rink which was open all around which made it possible to watch the skaters (I didn't know how to skate) and hear the music. Such memories. Thanks for posting.

[@lovewalk101]

My heavens this is beautiful! Pure gold!

[@tamrn007]

Thank you for this. I have precious memories growing up going to PCB every summer. My grandparents had a home down on sunny side. This is how I remember PCB , not the way it is now.

[@voodosforever]

I was stationed at Tyndall AFB from 1978-82; being from MICHIGAN and ohio, the beaches were new to me! I thought the businesses were pretty tacky, but the sand and surf were great. You are correct- the area is now heart-rending. And Destin... criminal.

[@1stGeorgiaGirl]

Wow, brings back many memories. Thanks for sharing

[@martylawson3545]

Killer! I felt like I did when I was a kid in the backseat of my parents car and just arriving at the beach. That first glimpse of the gulf you yearned for and its also the saddest when you see it disappear when your leaving. All the old attractions and the tower are deeply missed. I have been going there since the 60s and camping at st Andrews with my parents. If not the campground then it was Gulfcrest motel. Great music. Were the antlers above the girl on purpose? Lol.

[@habituallearner7680]

I am right there with you in remembering that first sight of the water. We'd come in on 331 and right around Phillips Inlet, I knew Hwy 98 and the beach were *just* on the other side of those white dunes. The last time I went down there, which was many years ago, it was all high-rise condos/hotels, very cold and clinical looking, not nearly as much fun as it was back in the sixties and seventies.

[@dsav9755]

Lost my dad may of this year, Thanks for the memories of the great times I shared with my Dad and Mom..we loved the sand dollar motel/hotel..does anyone else remember the atvs that you could rent and ride on a section of the beach? anyway thanks again.

[@vincentkelly4752]

+D Sav : I just saw this post you posted 1 year ago. I am looking for any photos of the Sand Dollar motel and have been unsuccessful so far. We vacationed there every year as a kid. A lot of great memories. Do you have any or can you point me in the right direction? Thanks,

[@JohnVance]

This is super weird, but I'm also looking for photos or info on the Sand Dollar Motel in Panama City Beach. My family was very poor growing up, but in 1990 we scraped together enough money to take the only family vacation we ever had, and we stayed at the Sand Dollar for a week. It was the first time I'd seen the ocean, I had a blast.

[@robertrukidding3055]

Yes! I remember the Honda ATC 90s that they rented, and the guy with an extraordinarily dark tan!!

[@whoopdiddydo]

Reminds me of Panama City when I was a little kid. The place is hardly recognizable today. Thanks!

[@treytrill1066]

nobody hardly goes there any longer ☹️

[@hellisharrow483]

@@treytrill1066 nah we get a stupid amount of people down here still, i will say it has died down a bit

[@jonathanmitchell9886]

The real PCB. Thanks for sharing this! (Does anyone remember the Sea Witch Motel in Sunnyside?)

[@robertquigley5869]

3 years later is my reply. Yes, a lady I went to Bay High School with lived there in the motel office living quarters. Seawitch is still there at the Kelly Street intersection.

[@stanmeadows2551]

John, thank you so much for posting these wonderful memories. And Rodger Williams rendition of Clair de Lune sets the whole thing off. Please if you have any more videos of old Panama City Beach weather it's the restaurants, motels restaurant beach scenes or Front Beach Road are Thomas Drive please post them. Would love to see any videos that are out there of one of the greatest places ever!

[@stanmeadows2551]

Also the Floyd Cramer try to remember fits wonderfully well

[@jimrockford4968]

Thank you for the memories.

[@maxsmodels]

Jungle Land, the Miracle strip amusement park and the cars. Glad I lived then and there.

[@jimmyc2895]

I remember so much of the old places now gone from my childhood. It's still my happy place but like most things it has changed for the worst

[@williamstalvey6920]

Priceless video, love Panama City Beach!!

[@joelpackard9702]

I loved it!so many memories of the good ol days!priceless!

[@kain91939]

this brought back a TON of memories. i recognised everything even barry's. this was the PCB of my youth.

[@scottymac62]

I worked at the Chateau Hotel in the summer of 79. Good stuff!

[@williamstalvey6920]

What a great beach, great times, thanks for posting. Unfortunately, not the charm now, as it had back then.

[@ParrotHead1980]

Hey John, I have been trying to get a hold of footage like this of panama city beach in the 70's. I have been going down their since 1975-2013 every other summer and if you have these clips on DVD of the strip and old motels driving through front beach rd, let me know. Would love a copy to just remember again the good times of being there as a kid, and seeing what panama city beach use to be like when I was growing up. Memories of this and saint Andrews state park too. :) Great footage!

[@GettnBooted]

Thanks so much for this...I grew up mostly in Tally but PCB was my second home, I wish my family had bought real estate there LOL...I was out there laying in dunes...real tall sand dunes on Thomas drive and I was in my late teens and even then I was thinking to myself, this is probably the last time it's gonna look like this...and I started crying a little and btw I was right...I had family in town ( all gone now ) and even the smell of the paper mill to this day can make me go all woogy with memories. Smells like rotten cabbage but hey it fed my granddaddy and his family ( he worked there ) and even it brings back memories. GB

[@KJNOLA13]

Thats sad. I remember the good ole days when PC was like that. Fiesta was the best spring break hotel for sure!

[@marylynneroberts1021]

Ahhhhh!!! How I remember!!! Thanks😃

[@pete49327]

Thank you, great memories. The video is titled as part 1, I can't find a part 2, etc., a link to others much appreciated if still available. Thanks again.

[@ricka.2148]

Definitely a beautiful beach then & now. Like so many different places PCB had to change with the times. It's a way of life, to be better. If u don't u will be left behind. I went there then & I still go there.

[@runswithwolf7498]

You could really enjoy the beach then. They should have rebuilt the Tower. That was an ICON.

[@DMRThanh]

WOW! That gas station at 1:34.. is where my parents opened up a tiny seafood market in mid-80s.. Tommy Cai Seafood Market if anyone remembers.

[@Michshnly]

Maybe i should start taking some home videos now in 2018. In the year 2058 my kids could say omg look at how young dad is. Wow look at that old fashion car from 2015.

[@tevinlucas9153]

Beautiful footage! I’m a local here in Panama City do you mind if I use some for a visual I’m putting together?

[@PyrosPelagics]

i wish i could remember the mom and pop motel my mom and dad got every year for us in the early, late 80s.. i remember it being 2 stories, and the guy at the entrance lobby was the same guy every year and knew us. i remember he had mounted fish and game on the walls behind the desk. I loved the souvenir shops back then. I remember crying because i wanted a shark in the bottle before leaving pcb one year, and wanted to go up a tower i dont remember what it was.. but was closed even back then.

[@dukejohnson99]

Had plenty of chances to go to Castle Dracula, but never went. One of the things I regret of not seeing since it burned down. I wonder why the WMBB tower was taken down?

[@alahatim]

Can i go back?

[@jimrockford4968]

Not like it used to be. I remember the sui slide. And Holiday Inn.

[@derekhall1934]

Jim Rockford I need to hire you !

[@williamwade6739]

my family has owned property there since the 40s r house still stands today. i wish i could have witnessed it like this

[@tybo8107]

Miracle strip amusement park!!! Starliner!!

[@robertleach230]

Man I loved the volcano

[@randywilson7781]

Nice!

[@airmax334]

oh snap the fiesta they tore that down years ago it was sad that was the best hotel for PCB spring break

[@jimrockford4968]

That was me and my dog.

[@terryhobbsiii]

Goofy golf is still there in 2019

[@rowan1325]

💟💟💟💟

[@rf-bh3fh]

Later 70’s by some of the cars seen and the price of gas.

[@scottymac62]

And that's no bull!

[@jeffhobbs72]

this is dated wrong , this is the early 80's

[@southwriter]

1979.

[@paulshamblin6260]

Yes developers ruined it. It will be corporate and chain restaurants. Big box stores. Drunk obnoxious college kids.

[@urbngrla]

Thats the early 80s

[@scottthomas3594]

We use to stay in a rental house in the neighborhood across from the blue dolphin..Where the small pond is...Right down from the carousel and Thomas' doughnuts