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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

You can owe the "Big O"!!

Do you remember that advertising slogan?  You should if you were stationed in Norfolk anytime before the early 1970's.  The "Big O" Naval Tailors was a landmark on the "Strip" in Norfolk.  Admiral Tausig Avenue was a two lane street, with bars, cheap jewelry stores, and a couple of Naval Tailors, biggest of all, was the "Big O".  I bought my first set of gabardine Blues there.  Had liberty cuffs and everything!!  I was hot sh#t!!  Or, at least I thought I was.  I had a locker there also.  Why a locker, because we could not wear civilian clothes on or off the ship!  Chiefs and Officers could, but not enlisted personnel.   So, we would leave the ship in a dress uniform, go to our "Locker Club" and change into some civilian clothes, go on liberty, get drunk, go back to the "Locker Club", try to get our dress uniform on correctly, and walk back to the ship!  Sounds bad, but it was a lot of fun!!  I guess you just had to be part of the Navy at that time to appreciate it.  But, that was the Navy I joined.  What about you?  

Today, Admiral Tausig Blvd is a four lane divided street.  There are no bars, no "Locker Clubs" and no rip off jewelry stores.  That may be better for our "Blue Jackets".  But I really miss the old "Strip".  It was an adventure.  
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4 comments:

  1. Jim Strieter, YNC USN (ret)October 20, 2011 at 9:29 PM

    The Big "O". How well do I remember this scab. I was a lowly YNSN assigned to the ship's armory (USS LAKE CHAMPLAIN CVS 39). One of my task was to get a fellow lowly SN to fill out the slip of paper that the Big "O" would mail to the ship requiring payment of some merchandise bought on credit. Every payday, I could count on at least 5 shipmates having to buy $5.00 money orders so I could mail it to the Big "O". The Navy served as there collection agency.

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  2. Jim Jennings, USS Robert L. Wilson DD 847 1964 or 1965.
    I bought a necklace for my mother from the big o, paid it down to $ll. The next bill I received, the 11 had been changed to $77. I turned it over to the legal officer and never heard from them again. I well remember "the strip". I had one of the big o's cigarette lighters. Got my ass kicked on "the strip" one afternoon.

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  3. I spent many years in and out of Norfolk. I would love to see some old photos of the strip. I still remember going under that train bridge and then past the strip. I also remember when they expanded the strip up the road toward Fleet Landing. That is when they build those recreation clubs that had saunas and steam rooms. You could play a basketball game then spend a few minutes in the sauna then go to the steam room. It felt great during those cold winters. I was on the USS LaSalle (LPD-3) and the USS Mountrail (APA-213).

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  4. I guess Taussig Blvd. really took the place of East Main Street after it was destroyed to "redevelop" the area in the early 60's. Was Taussig a big Navy street at the same time as Main was? I guess there were Naval Tailors on Main as well. But I know a guy who had a bar on the 100 block of Granby Street before 1960 and he says that East Main Street was a "sea of white" on the weekends. Joe

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