When former McKees Rocks resident Leona Hannon graduated from McKees Rocks High School in 1965, she went right to work at the new McKees Rocks Plaza on Chartiers Avenue.

Giant Eagle was one of the original tenants and Ms. Hannon, who now lives in Moon, started working as a cashier while helping to stock and order health and beauty aids.

It was a job and a town she loved.

"We were very busy then. The whole plaza was busy. There was a Clabers, Winky's, Crivelli Chevrolet, and G.C. Murphy.

She could walk to work from her Island Avenue home, and she said many of her customers were also on foot.

"People walked to the store then. The kids and people walked everywhere. People didn't have to go to the malls. Everything people wanted was basically right there."

One highlight of her eight years spent working at the Giant Eagle was when she met Hank Aaron and Johnny Bench.

"They were in town for a baseball convention and came to the Plaza to give ice cream to the kids after one of the floods," she remembers.

Not only was the Plaza thriving throughout the '60's and early '70's, but Chartiers Avenue was a busy hub of retail activity, too.

"The Eat'n Park restaurant on Chartiers Avenue had car hops then. They brought the food right to the car," she said.

Up and down the street there were clothing stores, such as Goldblatt's and Silvermann's just for men, two women's clothing stores, and a clothing store just for little kids, she said.

A Buster Brown store was one of the busier shoe stores in town, she remembers; and, "everyone hung out at the Isaly's Dairy on Chartiers Avenue.

"There was Hershman's, Thrifty Mike's, and Miller's furniture, hardware stores, and even a Chinese laundry," she said.

There were plenty of businesses in the Bottoms section of town, too, she said.

"There were a lot of small grocery stores, bakeries, and plenty of little restaurants and bars, where the mill workers would stop for a beer or a fish sandwich, especially on Friday nights. It was a nice town. A lot of people didn't even lock their doors," she said.