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SchwinnChopper68

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  1. Best memories. Buying those long white candy dot strips at Rumpleheimers, taking them home and eating them while watching The Invaders. Finding a 10 inch blue plastic Gemini capsule that had two working doors for the astronauts at a novelty shop. Buying black light posters in the head shop. Eating the best pepperoni pizza with thick cheese while listening to Mr. Bojangles. So many memories from that place. Not to mention Sage department store and their caramel popcorn as you exit the store. I remember some underground cave like shopping area I think near downtown. That place was dark and moody with the best vendors selling so many great artistic and craft ware items. There was one shop there that sold underground comics. Not sure when they stopped doing this but when I lived across from Johnston Junior High from 65 to 72 every Friday if memory serves me correct the city would blast out the air raid siren for 1 minute at 12 noon. I know for sure they don't do this anymore but when I went to Kolter elementary the 3 or 4 maids would sit by the silver 50 gallon trash cans and have us throw all leftover food and meat in the 3rd trashcan. Those maids would pick through that 3rd trashcan and keep all the good stuff. Believe it or not. Westbury Square Houston TX Memory.mp4
  2. Never had breakfast on the train with KiTiRiK but went to 3 or 4 live broadcasts and sat in the bleachers while she sashayed by. Back then during the Jerry Lewis telethon channel 13 kept the studio doors open. Anyone could breeze in and grab yourself live photo ops that were broadcast all over the city. My friends and I used to be camera hogs to see who could get the most airtime with us looking busy in the background.
  3. I don't think I have ever read anyone talk about it on HAIF but I really got my push into motorcycling from a minibike track that was very close to a major mall if not on the outerskirts of the mall property. I can't remember the exact area. I think for about a buck you could rent a minibike and follow a long serpentine path around the park. I think I must have been their best customer. This was around 1967-68ish. I got pumped as a kid on a bright red Honda 305 in 63 and that ride never left my memory. Since then I have gone through a ton of bikes. The ol 74 RD350 tweaked, ported and piped to the max was one of my all time favorites. They just don't make them like that anymore. 53 horsepower and a hair over 300 pounds. That thing was like a bat out of hell. I used to put 750s to shame. When we came to the curves it was hasta la vista baby!! No matter what they were riding.
  4. Those that stand head and shoulders above the rest get hit with the most eggs. No worries, 95% of them were more than likely from one person.

  5. Let's go back in time to when life in Houston was simpler. Ready? http://cruzintheavenue.com/TakeMeBackToTheSixties.htm Did that video bring a lump to your throat? Try this one on for size. "When Life In Houston Was In Black and White" http://oldfortyfives.com/WhenLifewasInBlack&White.htm
  6. If you mean inside Meyer Brothers and if memory serves correct there were escalators to the second floor. There was a fairly compact Boy Scouts area upstairs that we visited often. If you mean outside then I'm not sure. There was the second story for loading and unloading so perhaps yes somewhere. More than likely though the loading area would be using elevators.
  7. I moved into Willowbend in June 1965. I lived directly across from Johnston Junior High. I had forgotten about the Benellis at Westbury Yamaha. I was more into mini enduros and rupps. From 1969 From mid 60s What trip to Westbury Square was complete unless you stopped here on the way home.
  8. Prodigy was mid 80s. I remember seeing the service displayed in the local Sears in 1985. Never gave them a try until 93. Very unique service with great chat boards IMHO. Used them until Netcom ambled along.
  9. Yah, Kings was the best!! You would pick up the phone to order. I think they were red phones like Batman. If you had the right table you could watch the person in the kitchen as they picked up the phone and took your order. I would die to find a place today that made those cheese sandwiches dipped in crumb batter. I can still taste it after all these years. Their onion rings were not too far behind either. While you are at it save me a brick from the front of Village Inn Pizza.
  10. Hmm...in the 80s I lived in there were cell phones (I had one) and there was a pre 1993 BBS type internet. Remember 2400 modems and compuserve? In general yes, cellphones had not yet become the addictive commodity they are today where you even hear someone in a public bathroom stall talking to his wife while doing his bidness. I have never been able to figure that one out and more than likely I never will.
  11. When I grew up there was no air conditioning in the schools. On cold winter days there was the furnace all along the windows. That's where you would hang out for 5 or 10 minutes before class started to get warmed up. At least the ones that walked or rode a bike to school did. The ones arriving by mom's car had no need. In the summer when things heated up, the rear closets in the class were a particular point of interest. Remember no air conditioning. All we had was one HUGE fan in the corner blowing. Well the rear classroom closets was where you would hang your jacket, hat, etc.. and place your lunch. Some in metal lunch buckets, some in paper bags with baggies or waxed paper. So imagine this. A closet tightly closed for 4+ hours, in a very warm classroom suddenly gets opened at 12:30pm to line up for lunch. I swear, on some days I thought I would pass out from some of the smells in some of the lunches. I learned to hate sardines at Kolter. Remember when some teachers had blue hair?
  12. Yah, I think the mosquito sprayer trucks were a pied piper magnet for every kid in the city and his dog. I remember one time a kid on my block was going full out gonzo in the cloud and crashed at top speed into the back of a parked car. Thought he was dead. He jumped up and said "I'm OK!" DDT, Malathion, who knows what was in that white cloud. When we used to go to the drive-in they sold a mosquito coil you would light on one end and put it on your dashboard. I think it was called PIC. They had commercials for it on the screen before the movie started. Where I grew up they had some minibike/motorcycle trails on the north side of Braes Bayou around Chimney Rock heading west for 3 or 4 so miles. Most of the time we would just ride in bottom of the concrete bayou trying to avoid the slime in the center that would cause us to wipeout and go down for an always thrilling 50 foot long gooey sideways slide. I remember riding about 2 or 3 miles west and on the north side there was a huge open field with a GIGANTIC long hill covered with bushes and trees that had a trail starting at one side ending at the other side with a pretty scary (for me at least) 60+ degree rutty, bumpy hill. That place was always packed on the weekends with the older kids on their Maicos, trials, DT 250s and SL 175s.
  13. This post was composed under the magical qualities of Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell. As I was reading the post about new toy stores in downtown Houston I was struck in particular by one line. "the time I grew up in where there was an actual culture" The talk continued on about all the meaningless electronic doodads for kids taking the place of their childhood. With that in mind let me share with you how I grew up in Houston. Does any of it ring a bell? DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN...? All the girls had ugly gym uniforms? Coaches could say bend over and grab your ankles then you and your buddies knew what was heading your way? Your elementary school principal would grab the standup mike while sitting at the end of teacher's lunch table and scream into it that the entire lunchroom is now on 10 minutes of silence or else? A gang shooting was something that happened a long time ago in 1920s Chicago? It took five minutes for the TV warm up? Nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got home from school? Nobody owned a purebred dog? When a quarter was a decent allowance? You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny? Your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces? All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done every day and wore high heels? You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, all for free, every time? And you didn't pay for air? And, you got trading stamps to boot? And they had clean bathrooms? And they asked about your family? And you got a free case of 10oz cokes in bottles with a fill-up? Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box? It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents? They threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed. . and they did? When a 57 Chevy was everyone's dream car...to cruise, peel out, lay rubber or watch submarine races, and people went steady? No one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked? Lying on your back in the grass with your friends and saying things like, "That cloud looks like a .." And playing baseball with no adults to help kids with the rules of the game? Stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger? And with all our progress, don't you just wish, just once, you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace, and share it with the children of today? When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited the student at home? Basically we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! But we survived because their love was greater than the threat. When they had funny hidden images on the Yellow Pages cover? Take a break... and go back... back to a time ...before the Internet or PC or the MAC ...before semiautomatics and crack ...before PlayStation, SEGA, Super Nintendo, even before Atari ...before cell phones, CD's, DVD's, voicemail and e-mail ...way back... WAY... way... way back... I'm talkin' bout hide and seek at dusk Red light, Green light Red Rover...Red Rover... Playing kickball and dodge ball until night fell Ring around the Rosie London Bridge Hot potato Hop Scotch Jump rope YOU'RE IT!! Parents stood on the front porch and yelled (or whistled) for you to come home - no pagers or cell phones Did your dad have a special whistle for just you? Score 2 points. Mother May I? Hula Hoops Seeing shapes in the clouds Endless summer days and hot summer nights (no A/C) with the windows open The sound of crickets The mother of all waterbugs on your bathroom floor Running through the sprinkler Happy meals (at home, not from McDonald's) Cereal boxes with that GREAT prize in the bottom Cracker jacks with the same thing Ice pops with two sticks you could break and share with a friend ...but wait... there's more... Catchin' lightning bugs in a jar Catchin' ladybugs with your hand, making a wish then blowing it home Christmas morning Your first day of school Metal Man From U.N.C.L.E. lunch boxes 5 cent milk, 7 cent ice cream and 37 cent complete lunches Bedtime prayers and goodnight kisses Climbing trees Swinging as high as you could to try and reach the sky Jumping off the school's monster seesaw at the bottom then letting your best friend discover the true meaning of gravity Getting an ice cream off the Ice Cream Truck Leaving May Day "May baskets" on neighbor's porches, ringing the doorbell then running away Jumpin' down the steps Jumpin' on the bed Pillow fights Sleep-overs For once hearing "It's 10PM, Do you know where your children are?" A 13" black and white TV in your room meant you were RICH Runnin' till you were out of breath Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt Being tired from PLAYING Candy cigarettes Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles Coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes Drug stores with lunch counters and booths Black Jack, Clove, and Beemans chewing gum Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers. Each home had a small aluminum box on the porch to keep the milk cold. Newsreels before the movie P.F. Flyers Telephone numbers with a word prefix...(Paisley 3-6209). Party lines Dial back codes Peashooters Howdy Doody 45 RPM records/78 RPM, too Yellow plastic inserts to play your 45 on the 33 RPM Green Stamps Hi-Fi's Metal ice cubes trays with levers Freshly printed mimeograph paper Beanie and Cecil Roller-skate keys Cork pop guns Drive ins Studebakers Washtub wringers The Fuller Brush Man Reel-To-Reel tape recorders Tinkertoys Erector Sets The Fort Apache Play Set Lincoln Logs 15 cent McDonald hamburgers 5 cent packs of baseball cards - with that awful pink slab of bubble gum Penny candy 35 cent a gallon gasoline Jiffy Pop popcorn Home made peach ice cream with hints of rocksalt Hand held precision aiming of bottle rockets with a glass coke bottle Black Cat firecrackers with fuses that burned 3 times faster than normal Oh, I'm not finished yet... Kool-Aid was the drink of the summer So was a swig from the hose Giving your friends a ride on your handlebars Wearing your new shoes on the first day of school When nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got there When a quarter seemed like a fair allowance; and another quarter a MIRACLE When ANY parent could discipline ANY kid, or feed him, or ask him to carry groceries... and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it. Didn't that feel good? Just to go back and say, "Yeah, I remember that!" Well, let's keep going!! Let's go back to the time when... Catching fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends Scrapes and bruises were kissed by Mom and made better It was a big deal to finally be tall enough to ride the "big people" rides at the amusement park Abilities were discovered because of a "double-dog-dare" Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team No one worried about "getting hurt" when you played Red Rover. Getting hurt was normal for a kid Water balloons were the ultimate, ultimate weapon Older siblings were your worst tormentors, but also your fiercest protector Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-moe"? Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "Do Over!"? "Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest? The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was "cooties"? Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot? A foot of snow was a dream come true? Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute commercials for action figures? "Oly-oly-oxen-free" made perfect sense? If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED!!! War was a card game? Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle? Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin? AHHH...the good old days
  14. If you are interested in old Houston radio commercials from the 60s and 70s check this link out. This link is to KILT and KNUZ airchecks. Playing the airchecks will get you many local commercials for Houston area businesses from the 60s and 70s. Step back in time when you could actually listen to quality radio stations playing great music with little advertising. For other Houston airchecks see the links in the top left corner. Some date as far back as the early 60s. http://vasthead.com/Radio/KILT_KNUZ.html
  15. From: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=306623&page=2 Art Grindle, had a Dodge dealership at the corner of Westheimer and Chimney Rock. His commercials (I WANT TO SELL YOU A CAR), were very similar to Cal Worthington. He would be on early Saturday morning during Jungle Theater on TV and have a long line of cars drive thru during the commercials all Saturday morning long. Some would be smoking or towed across. Sometimes when he would beat his fist on the hood "I WANT TO SELL YOU A CAR" he would put a dent in it and the cardboard sign on the windshield for $99 he'd rip one of the 9's off and say "come and get it out of here!!!!!" He was a real kook on the air, but was a very nice mild mannered guy alone. ============ This is not quite Art Grindle (nothing shows for him on youtube) but he's getting there fast. What happened to the good ol days of truth in advertising? PC people need not watch. Love the part "Don't worry about the equipment, imagine all the fun you can have in the back". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOpnOclSWNg
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