36 replies to this topic

[Vertigo58]

I'll buy a cheeseburger for the person that can give some insite as to what were the reasons for having them and or why they are now gone?

I recall since childhood that every Friday afternoon at twelve o'clock high the air raid siren would start and last for about 3-4 minutes. Does any one know from what building it came from? It was so bizarre and seems to come from all directions maybe the machine was revolving? We kids would all gather and watch our clocks to see when it would kick off like a New Years countdown. My mom said it reminded her of WWII bombings Europe. What was scary was on occasion it would go off by mistake and freak out everyone at school.

The Goodyear Blimp would appear like a little hummingbird mostly in the evenings. We would be watching TV or something and someone would say whats that humming sound? Oh it's just the blimp. We would run outside and see it right over head with its bright digital advertising board flashing above. It was so cool, sometimes it would show "Coca-Cola It's the Real Thing". I think the hanger is still up north somewhere and only recall seeing it when we would go to Huntsville State Park or Lake Livingston. The blimp pulled out and split rather abruptly. Maybe it was too expensive to maintain? Miss both of these fun memories of Houston.

[TheNiche]

Vertigo58, on Thursday, February 1st, 2007 @ 12:22pm, said:

I'll buy a cheeseburger for the person that can give some insite as to what were the reasons for having them and or why they are now gone?

Threat of nuclear war and to give the people the tiniest sense of hope and survivability. Cold War ended.

Advertising. They aren't gone.

[RedScare]

Enjoy that cheeseburger, Niche.

[CDeb]

The old hangar is now the site of a Lowes and Home Depot on the west side of I-45 across from Spring High School.

I remember that Goodyear just wanted to bring it home to Ohio. I believe that particular ship is in Akron now.

Edited by CDeb, Thursday, February 1, 2007 at 1:33 PM.

[brerrabbit]

The article I read way back in the day said that Goodyear put the Blimp here as part of a program that would regionally base blimps in several areas of the country so they would not have to travel so far. I think at one point they had four or five of them. The blimp business sort of became competative in the late 80's and early 90's as Met Life, Fuji Film and several other companies started floating their advertising messages on blimps and Goodyear retracted a little due to competition.

As for the air raid sirens, they were all over town. I grew up in Southeast Houston near Telephone and Griggs and the one we heard every Friday at noon was the one located in the Houston Belt and Terminal railroad yard behind the Sears warehouse on Griggs. My Great Uncle worked for HB&T and I used to ride with my Great Aunt to pick him up a lot of days and we would take OST to Produce Row and pick him up in the switching yard there. Once the whole cold war threat thing was over they discontinued the whole air raid siren thing. I remember as a kid attending Golfcrest Elementary we used to have drills where we went into the halls kneeled facing the walls and practiced our duck and cover position. Like that was gonna help! In later years I was convinced that the whole duck and cover thing was just someones cruel joke that was merely preparing us to bend all the way over and kiss our butts goodbye if the bombs ever showed up.

[texianjoe]

The air raid sirens were at all the schools. They were big yellow horns on top of telephone poles. They were tested every Fri at 11:00 and we would have to line up and go stand on the playground. Where we would be safe from a nuclear blast (he said sarcastically). We also practiced for a nuclear event by getting under our desks and putting our hands over our heads and heads between our knees. I still haven't figured out if that was for safety reasons or so we could kiss our butts goodbye.

The Goodyear blimp base was behind what is now Planet Ford which at one time was Chick Smith Ford "On 45 north RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO THE GOODYEAR BLIMP BASE." Of course it doesn't sound right without the nasal sound.

joe

[Vertigo58]

brerrabbit, on Thursday, February 1st, 2007 @ 3:03pm, said:

The article I read way back in the day said that Goodyear put the Blimp here as part of a program that would regionally base blimps in several areas of the country so they would not have to travel so far. I think at one point they had four or five of them. The blimp business sort of became competative in the late 80's and early 90's as Met Life, Fuji Film and several other companies started floating their advertising messages on blimps and Goodyear retracted a little due to competition.

As for the air raid sirens, they were all over town. I grew up in Southeast Houston near Telephone and Griggs and the one we heard every Friday at noon was the one located in the Houston Belt and Terminal railroad yard behind the Sears warehouse on Griggs. My Great Uncle worked for HB&T and I used to ride with my Great Aunt to pick him up a lot of days and we would take OST to Produce Row and pick him up in the switching yard there. Once the whole cold war threat thing was over they discontinued the whole air raid siren thing. I remember as a kid attending Golfcrest Elementary we used to have drills where we went into the halls kneeled facing the walls and practiced our duck and cover position. Like that was gonna help! In later years I was convinced that the whole duck and cover thing was just someones cruel joke that was merely preparing us to bend all the way over and kiss our butts goodbye if the bombs ever showed up.

That explains why we could hear it so clearly we were blocks away at Stephen F. Austin High School across from the East End Baseball Park. So it could very well be coming from all directions/schools. I do recall bomb threats at our schools from time to time. Teachers would be discreet but we kids knew better. That shrill still gives me goose bumps.

I also recall that blimp hangar seeming like it was 100 miles away from Houston. Thats how big & fast wev'e grown! Suffrin Succatash!

[dbigtex56]

Existing topic: Air Raid Siren On City Hall
Be sure to check out the links with the .wav files - crank up the volume!

[DMac]

Next time you are out/about prowling the city or neighborhood take a good look @ your local fire staion. There are still many of the old CD sirens still standing 2day. I know while recently viewing many of my photos they keep showing up in the background.


Respectfully
Danny

[Mark F. Barnes]

I thought most of the sirens were at the fire stations! I know they were up in Dallas.

[texianjoe]

Mark F. Barnes, on Thursday, February 1st, 2007 @ 11:26pm, said:

I thought most of the sirens were at the fire stations! I know they were up in Dallas.

They were at most public buildings, schools, firestations, city and county buildings etc. Now they have those big speaker towers, at least in Pasadena and surrounding area. They test them every Fri at around 6 or 7 PM. You would think they would at least pipe music over them when they are not being used.

joe

[Parrothead]

I grew up in Kingwood, and remember hearing that sound, boy there was no mistaking the blimp was coming. Sometimes it would go so low over our house!! We ate it up, just loved it. Our neighbors across the street bought their daughter a ride with her friends for her 12th birthday. That had to have been some party!!

[Pumapayam]

So what happened to the actual blimp, destroyed?

[Vertigo58]

Pumapayam, on Friday, February 2nd, 2007 @ 2:28pm, said:

So what happened to the actual blimp, destroyed?

Like Cdeb said; it high-tailed it back to Ohio from whence it came. Kind of like an old elephant staggering back to the old elephant graveyard. However; it is probably still floating around up there somewhere I assume. Not elephant heaven but Ohio.
As Chrissy Hynde from Pretenders fame sang "I went back to Ohio and my city was gone". "A-O-Ohio"

[houstonmacbro]

CDeb, on Thursday, February 1st, 2007 @ 12:33pm, said:

The old hangar is now the site of a Lowes and Home Depot on the west side of I-45 across from Spring High School.

I remember that Goodyear just wanted to bring it home to Ohio. I believe that particular ship is in Akron now.

I was just telling someone that yesterday in class. They didn't believe that that area used to be an open airfield and blimp barn.

[CDeb]

houstonmacbro, on Friday, February 2nd, 2007 @ 6:01pm, said:

I was just telling someone that yesterday in class. They didn't believe that that area used to be an open airfield and blimp barn.

As Boy Scouts, we got a tour of the hangar one time while the blimp was there, but we didn't get to take a ride, unfortunately. The thing looked MASSIVE in person, though.

[Vertigo58]

Marty, on Friday, February 2nd, 2007 @ 10:23pm, said:

In the mid 1980's I would sit outside with my Telescope and try to see the pilots inside. Did the Blimp have a certain flight path it would take?

I guess it varied depending on the mission. I can say that it almost always passed around near East End of Houston, 45 & Wayside area.

[EastEnd Susan]

brerrabbit, on Thursday, February 1st, 2007 @ 1:03pm, said:

The article I read way back in the day said that Goodyear put the Blimp here as part of a program that would regionally base blimps in several areas of the country so they would not have to travel so far. I think at one point they had four or five of them. The blimp business sort of became competative in the late 80's and early 90's as Met Life, Fuji Film and several other companies started floating their advertising messages on blimps and Goodyear retracted a little due to competition.

As for the air raid sirens, they were all over town. I grew up in Southeast Houston near Telephone and Griggs and the one we heard every Friday at noon was the one located in the Houston Belt and Terminal railroad yard behind the Sears warehouse on Griggs. My Great Uncle worked for HB&T and I used to ride with my Great Aunt to pick him up a lot of days and we would take OST to Produce Row and pick him up in the switching yard there. Once the whole cold war threat thing was over they discontinued the whole air raid siren thing. I remember as a kid attending Golfcrest Elementary we used to have drills where we went into the halls kneeled facing the walls and practiced our duck and cover position. Like that was gonna help! In later years I was convinced that the whole duck and cover thing was just someones cruel joke that was merely preparing us to bend all the way over and kiss our butts goodbye if the bombs ever showed up.

I went to Burnet Elementary in on Canal in the 60's. They had, maybe still have a big yellow siren in the northwest corner of the playground that went off at noon every friday. We would all watch the clock and cover our ears right before it started. The last time I drove by there was about 2 years ago and it was still there although that part of the playground was a small parking lot.

[Suite8F]

I copied this from a post I made on the Air Raid siren thread:

I believe the Air Raid Siren downtown was still being used until at least the late 80's. It was not on City Hall, however.

The Siren belonged to the County. I know that in the late 60's -early 70's it was on top of the Family Law Center. The new Harris County Courthouse was still being built. My mother worked for the county judge at the time (Bill Elliott) and the siren was on the roof directly abover her office. He was officing there until the new courthouse was complete. We used to get on a tiny private elevator that went from the lobby to the county judge's office on the top floor. One could hear the siren for miles and miles. The siren also rotated. When it went off you could hear it vaguely until it rotated to face your direction and then it was quite loud, even in the museum district. Then it would rotate away and you would wait until you could hear it again. It was a very low wailing siren. I loved it. I would wake up on Fridays and I could hardly wait until noon to hear it.I don't know if the siren was moved to the top of The County Courthouse bulding or not.

I can't believe that my post has the words Eleanor Tinsley Park on it. I hated that wretched, hideous, old hag and celebrated when she was no longer part of city government and now her name is on my post. Eeeeeeeew.

[ProHouston]

I grew up near Stuebner Airline and Louetta and the blimp used to come around ALL the time. It was super cool. I actually got to ride it one time when it was my brother's birthday. It was awesome, that this just floated through the air, we had it take us right over our house. Those were the days.

Does anyone remember after the blimp left and the hangar was empty, Genesis used the hanger for their soundstage before kicking off one of their tours. I think it was the Invisible Touch tour. My friends and I would drive over there just to listen to the band from outside, it must've been around 92 or 93.

[Vertigo58]

Does anyone remember after the blimp left and the hangar was empty, Genesis used the hanger for their soundstage before kicking off one of their tours. I think it was the Invisible Touch tour. My friends and I would drive over there just to listen to the band from outside, it must've been around 92 or 93.
[/quote]

Wow! What a rare opportunity that was! A rock concert in the hangar, unreal.

I am kinda glad I filmed The Rolling Stones at The Astrodome back in 81 w/8mm film. We went the day before to get before the crowd & during the crowd. I knew it would be worth seeing one day and reminicing with others one day.

[Jermaine]

I remember the big siren downtown...we used to hear it everyday (1970s) at noon. The big one was ontop of a building downtown...you could see it...it was a cylindrical mass of speaker-looking sirens. Seems like it sat ontop of the building that used to be the AT&T building.

And GENESIS DID use the hanger for the second leg of Invisible Touch rehearsals...as the first date (or an early date) was in Houston. It was the 2nd leg of the Invisible Touch tour...I think it was called The TONITE TONITE TONITE Tour...it was sponsored by Michelob beer. 1987/88

[bmil128]

I was very familiar waith the blimp having grown up from age 2 on several miles away in Spring. When I was 4 my dad received an invitation for a ride, and it being early on a Saturday, I passed it up to sleep in and watch cartoons. I know, stupid choice.

The blimp left in early 1992. The Genesis rehearsals were later that spring, a buddy of mine went several times and parked in the lot of the Loews movie theater across Louetta to hear Phil Collins wailing away on drums. The tour was after the release of We Can't Dance, the first stop was in Dallas and the second stop was here in the Astrodome in May of '92.

[Jermaine]

bmil128, on Friday, March 23rd, 2007 @ 1:26am, said:

I was very familiar waith the blimp having grown up from age 2 on several miles away in Spring. When I was 4 my dad received an invitation for a ride, and it being early on a Saturday, I passed it up to sleep in and watch cartoons. I know, stupid choice.

The blimp left in early 1992. The Genesis rehearsals were later that spring, a buddy of mine went several times and parked in the lot of the Loews movie theater across Louetta to hear Phil Collins wailing away on drums. The tour was after the release of We Can't Dance, the first stop was in Dallas and the second stop was here in the Astrodome in May of '92.

Thats right.
The cobwebs are thick: Im all mixed up. I coulda sworn it was for Invisible Touch (I was into Genesis back then).

I miss the blimp.
I remember that weird buzz...and my mom shouting to us across the house, 'The blimp is outside'. It always seemed to fly around my house about twilight.

[gonzo1976]

Jermaine, on Friday, March 23rd, 2007 @ 9:23am, said:

Thats right.
The cobwebs are thick: Im all mixed up. I coulda sworn it was for Invisible Touch (I was into Genesis back then).

I miss the blimp.
I remember that weird buzz...and my mom shouting to us across the house, 'The blimp is outside'. It always seemed to fly around my house about twilight.

Yeah, I remember there being a documentary about the tour rehearsals as well.

Remember one day (mid-80s?) when for like a day or two, Goodyear had TWO blimps in Houston? I think one was sent here to replace another. For a day or two you could see two Goodyear blimps in the sky at once.

Speaking of blimps, does anyone remember when Pink Floyd had a blimp over town to promote the 1994 Division Bell tour?

[Houston1stWordOnTheMoon]

gonzo1976, on Friday, March 23rd, 2007 @ 11:14am, said:

Speaking of blimps, does anyone remember when Pink Floyd had a blimp over town to promote the 1994 Division Bell tour?

I remember the concert. Raining and thundering and lightening that day.."we dont need no thought control"

[FreakyDude]

Vertigo58, on Thursday, February 1st, 2007 @ 1:22pm, said:

I'll buy a cheeseburger for the person that can give some insite as to what were the reasons for having them and or why they are now gone?

I rode in it in 1976. It was decommissioned to avoid safety hazards because of it's age. It was decided that it would not be replaced because their were already enough around the country.

The ride was pretty boring. Very, very, very slow!

[dbigtex56]

FreakyDude, on Friday, March 23rd, 2007 @ 3:10pm, said:

I rode in it in 1976. It was decommissioned to avoid safety hazards because of it's age. It was decided that it would not be replaced because their were already enough around the country.

The ride was pretty boring. Very, very, very slow!

Where did you get your information?

From 1969 to 1992, when it was moved to Akron, Ohio, the Goodyear airship America was based near Spring. The airship is one of three designed and built by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio. - Handbook of Texas Online
This matches up with what I remember happening at that time.