Ashikaga

Yes, as a matter of fact there was once a First Pagan church in the Montrose. It is no longer open, however.

Subdude,

You'll never cease to amaze me as to how you come up with almost everything!

Two that come to mind during my time there in the mid-50's are Frank Ryan (Quarterback-Browns) and King Hill (Quarterback-Eagles).

Yes, I remember that Frank Ryan majored in some kind of advanced science or engineering.

I just noticed this, subdude! you said their slogan was "cathedral of the common man"

look closely at that rendering...My driver is waiting for me to get out of church! Common man!?? pbbbbtthh!

Doesn't he look like a chauffer?!

(probably just a guy in a hat..but anyway..it is hard to tell)

The lady to the right is very classy too but I guess everybody was back then...getting all dressed up to travel, etc. especially for church.

Are there any Satanic/Athiest/Heathen places of worship in Houston? The U.S. guarantees freedom of religion.

well, if you could have rolled the clock back beyond forty years, you could have gone tuition-free (as long as you were white)...

More like 42 years. I just read in an encyclopedia that Rice started charging tuition in 1965.

The 4.8k number includes grad students (about 1.8k or so) leaving the undergrad population at nearly 3,000 looking to grow to 4,000 in the next decade or so. As for C-USA, sorry you missed the nine or so years Rice was in the WAC playing such schools as Hawaii and Boise State.

What did WAC stand for?

The 4.8k number includes grad students (about 1.8k or so) leaving the undergrad population at nearly 3,000 looking to grow to 4,000 in the next decade or so. As for C-USA, sorry you missed the nine or so years Rice was in the WAC playing such schools as Hawaii and Boise State.

That same encyclopedia said that Rice initially allowed no more than 450 undergraduates to enroll each year. It changed that in the 1960s.

C-USA baseball is going to be top-notch this year.

Check out the 2006 College Classic Tickets this Friday at MMP.

When trying to think of Rice athletes that went professional, the only name that comes to my mind is Tommy Kramer. Does he reside in the Houston area?

Now I see how behind the times that I am. I found out today that the Southwest Conference no longer exists. I remember Rice University was one of its members. Now it belongs to C-USA West. But I also found out that Rice's current enrollment is 4,835, twice as many as someone else on this forum reported.

I sure wish that I could turn back the clock 30 years. I would have tried to attend Rice.

Well, that's certainly their goal, but, as critical as I am of Wal-Mart, I don't see that happening anytime soon. Certainly, Wal-Mart exerts a huge influence on other big retailers: they have to adapt in order to compete. HEB and Kroger are experimenting in some markets with larger-format stores: they're not quite as massive as Wal-Mart Supercenters, but they do offer a wider selection of general merchandise than traditional supermarkets. Kroger has also responded to pressure from Wal-Mart by lowering their prices.

At the same time, supermarket chains are concentrating more on niche marketing. HEB Central Market, Kroger Signature, Randall's Flagship (Safeway "Lifestyle")--these generally target more "upscale" shoppers and carry a selection of merchandise not found at Wal-Mart.

Obviously, smaller markets cannot sustain higher-end grocery stores, and that's why I think your observation is more true for smaller towns and cities than it is for major metropolitan areas. In these places, Wal-Mart will be (or already is) the only retailer of any consequence.

I know less about pharmacies than I do about grocery stores, but Walgreen's and CVS seem to be pretty healthy. These days, one can't swing one's proverbial dead cat without hitting a drug store.

I did say "in due time". I know that it won't happen overnight. I predict that in about five years, you'll see a lot of vacant boarded up buildings of what used to be Kroger, Randall's, Walgreen's, etc.

From the article:

"The memo acknowledged that Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, had to walk a fine line in restraining benefit costs because critics had attacked it for being stingy on wages and health coverage. Ms. Chambers, Wal-Mart's executive vice president for benefits, acknowledged that 46 percent of the children of Wal-Mart's 1.33 million United States employees were uninsured or on Medicaid.

Under fire because less than 45 percent of its workers receive company health insurance, Wal-Mart announced a new plan on Monday that seeks to increase participation by allowing some employees to pay just $11 a month in premiums. Some health experts praised the plan for making coverage more affordable, but others criticized it, noting that full-time Wal-Mart employees, who earn on average around $17,500 a year, could face out-of-pocket expenses of $2,500 a year or more.

The theme throughout the memo was how to slow the increase in benefit costs without giving more ammunition to critics who contend that Wal-Mart's wages and benefits are dragging down those of other American workers."

A couple of questions:

How does the fact that 46% of the children of Wal-Mart's 1.33 million U.S. employees are uninsured or on Medicaid stack up against other large retail corporations?

Why is allowing employees to pay just $11.00/month a sensible way to handle skyrocketing health costs? This doesn't seem realistic to me, and the figure of $2500.00/year for out-of-pocket does not seem unrealistic either. How does this compare to other corporations?

It will be interesting to follow this story, because as Wal-Mart leads, others will follow, good or bad.

Open question: Have any of you ever met and talked with any Wal-Mart employee who is happy with their job, their pay, their benefit package, their company? I haven't yet, still searching...

My personal belief is that Wal-Mart will run out H.E.B. Pantry, Randall's, Fiesta, Kroger and all of the other stores in due time. Even pharmacies like Walgreen's, C.V.S., etc.

Texas History 101

While it can boast about the more than 6,300 ships that passed through its waters last year, the Port of Houston started out as a mere loading point for cotton on the way to the Port of Galveston.

by Kimberly Jeffries

The Houston Ship Channel is, no doubt, a fire-breathing force to be reckoned with. The leading U.S. port in foreign tonnage, and second only to the Port of South Louisiana in total tonnage, it’s the core of the petrochemical industry and a hotbed of international trade.

But the Port of Houston hasn’t always been the sixth-largest port in the world. While it can boast about the more than 6,300 ships that passed through its waters last year, the Port of Houston started out as a mere loading point for cotton on the way to the Port of Galveston, which according to the Handbook of Texas was widely considered the “best natural port in Texas.” The cotton would travel from Houston down the fifty or

so miles of the channel on riverboats or barges; when the cotton arrived in Galveston Bay, it would be transferred to seafaring ships and thus enter the international market. Galveston, which was declared a port of entry by the Congress of Mexico in 1825, is the second-oldest U.S. port in the Gulf of Mexico (the Port of New Orleans holds the top honors). By 1900, Galveston was number one in the U.S. in exporting cotton, and third in the country for exporting wheat.

That same year, Galveston’s momentum as an international port was halted by a storm that hit the afternoon of September 8. The Great Hurricane, as it came to be called, wreaked utter mayhem on the island, killing between six thousand and eight thousand residents. At the time, the city’s highest point of elevation was 8.7 feet, so the 15.7-foot storm surge left much of Galveston underwater. Winds between 130 miles per hour and 140 miles per hour pummeled Galveston, and with no seawalls to protect against damage to structural foundations, more than 3,600 buildings were ruined. The Great Hurricane remains the deadliest natural disaster in national history.

In the years after the storm, as Galveston struggled to regain lost ground in the trade industry, the Port of Houston thrived. The idea for the Houston Ship Channel was conceived years earlier, in the 1850s, by unhappy Houston merchants who disliked the Galveston Wharf Company, which ran the Port of Galveston. The businessmen envisioned a route that would bypass Galveston, and after the Civil War, they created the Buffalo Bayou Ship Channel Company and then convinced Congress to declare Houston a port. Responsibility for the channel passed through multiple hands throughout the course of its development, but it was under Charles Morgan’s direction when a channel from Galveston Bay to Houston was dredged. The federal government bought the channel in 1890 and has since been responsible for its maintenance. The Houston Ship Channel was officially completed in 1914, and five years later the Merry Mount brought the first direct shipment of cotton from Houston to the international market. Within ten years, Houston became the number one port for cotton in the U.S., taking the title from Galveston, fifty miles southeast.

Today, the Houston Ship Channel hosts a proliferation of commodities that are a little more malevolent than fluffy cotton. Its top import and export is petroleum, and it also traffics petroleum products, crude fertilizers and minerals, and organic chemicals. With up to 190 million tons of goods coming in annually, such as in 2003, the Houston Ship Channel is a high-octane super highway. The channel’s considerable size and concentration of hazardous chemicals make it vulnerable, but the fear is that the attack won’t come from Mother Nature.

Excellent information! Is the Port of Houston the world's largest inland port?

I like those places in malls that sell those big pretzels with mustard.

Still missing:

Sunset Tea Room

DISH

Driscoll Street Cafe

The Spud-U-Like

Cookies, Goodies, and More

Empanada House

the original La Strada

Frenchy's on Shepherd

Sabine

Armandos

Quilted Toque

Sierra

The Magic Pan Crepery

and many more

Heights... Where have you been? Moving? Haven't seen anything from you for awhile.

Yes, those stores in the malls that sell those big pretzels with mustard. Also those restaurants that sell "gourmet" hamburgers with lots of toppings on them (mushrooms, jalapenos, etc.).

Well I am interested in photography and one of the members has a photo blog and I saw his pic on the blog and I happened to see him on the street.

I was in Wal-Mart Supercenter looking at the digital cameras. I almost bought one, but I decided not to for two reasons.

First, cameras "make me shutter".

Second, I just couldn't "picture" myself with a camera.

I think TV had more to do with their demise, BUT,

If I was 18 again and had the same car and the same sweet thang, I'd still prefer the Drive-In on Fri/Sat night...the drive-in wasn't about movies, it was about making out...remember? Like I said in another post, if you can date the daughter of the manager and get in free...could life get any better??

That reminds me of an item that I saw in MAD magazine many years ago:

"You know you're really married when...

You go out to the drive-in theatre to actually see the movie"!

look how small those trees are !!! They now almost engulf Broadway.

You might like "nudecards.com".

Any one remember Almeda Skating Rink, It's still operating but it appears not for much longer as the building is going to be sold. The rink is near Almeda mall and 45.

Some older people I've talked to said that some roller rinks many years ago had a person playing an organ while people skated. I don't remember that even though I'm now 47. I just remember them playing records over the PA system. I remember the many times that I fell and busted my butt on the hard wood floor.

Mike Rivest's Ultimate Theatre website lists these theatres. Some of them go back as far as the 1920s. Are what housed the Kirby and the Metropolitan extant?

Ah, the movie theatres of yesteryear! My belief as to what caused many drive-in and indoor theatres to bite the dust was the invention of the VCR. Stop and think about it. I think that I could safely say that most people would rather go to Blockbuster, rent a movie and take it home and watch it instead of having to get all dressed up to go out and pay those high admission and snack prices.

check this story in the Chron about the Starlite:

http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive....id=2005_4011112

I wonder how the Starlite will do? If I didn't live so far away I would gladly go to it. Not necessarily for the movie, but to re-live the experiences of my youth.

i remeber bowling under gulfgate mall. i was just going to post to see if i imagined it or if it was real, cool. I went to elementary school at the woodbridge baptist church next to the mall. So i remember going to a couple of movies at the gulfgate cinema too, i loved walking across that bridge over 610! most notably i remember seeing return of the jedi there, i'm only 29 in case you couldn't tell by how i might have aged myself. I remember going to the roller rink near almeda mall on the opposite side of the freeway from the mall. It's Cool recolecting these places.

i remember the push races and most notably they would play jump by vanhalen and when ever he said jump guess what happened everyone jumped, funny. that was just the mid eighties i guess. and of course couples skate, where if you had any nerve you would go ask that little red haired girl to skate with you! haha

I'm 47 and I vividly remember the underground bowling alley at then-Gulfgate Shopping City. I remember seeing that pedestrian bridge, but I never walked across it. In addition to Gulfgate, I remember us going to Globe Department Store which ran alongside Gulfgate on a street called Woodridge. There was also an amusement park called Peppermint Park. We also went to the Winkler Drive-In Theatre which was located on the corner of Winkler Drive and Flowers Street.

Sure...along with snap the whip. It's where you would get in a long chain of skaters and the first person would grab the support pole in the middle of the rink and slingslot everyone around the end throwing off a few skaters each time. i dont know if anyone "won" that game...but we would do it.

I don't remember "Snap The Whip". You say that a line of people, holding hands, would let the first person grab a pole? I don't quite understand how that worked. But it sounds like it would have been a sight to see and to experience. What, did they skate in a straight line to the pole, or were they off to the side?

I remember couple skating. I liked the one when the girls would choose a guy.

I imagine there was. I was only about in the 5th grade and wasn't asking a lot of hard questions.

I've noticed in the supermarkets that NABISCO brands are not in big supply, mostly cookies. In Wal-Mart, Great Value is mostly there, also in shredded wheat and vanilla wafers, what NABISCO is best known for. Will Wal-Mart cause NABISCO to bite the dust?

No, I meant from being on the ground on your knees or your stomach with your head underneath the bottom of the "fence" tilted towards the screen for such a long period of time.

DriveIns.Com says that there is a drive-in theatre called the Starlite open in Porter, Texas, about ten miles north of the Houston city limits on U.S. Highway 59. It currently has one screen, and a second screen is under construction. Has anyone out there been to it yet?

Its website conveys the image that it's a family theatre. So I don't think that they will need to build a fence.

You could see. I can't even fathom it having such a thing these days.

Just think how tall that "fence" would have to be to fully protect a four story screen.

Also, the fence that was there didn't completely around it. It was similar to a large aluminum boundry that auto 'junk yards' have.

Yes, I double-checked David Snyder's comment on DriveIns.Com. He did indeed say that the Red Bluff Drive-In had a tall fence (he didn't say that it was wooden).

The Bellaire Skating Rink was actually located on Chimney Rock near Gulfton. I went there plenty of times in the mid 60's. Bayland Orphange was across the street.

I remember doing the Hokey Pokey at the roller rink. If you shook your leg the wrong way, you'd fall down and bust your butt. I also remember the races, especially the ones where one person would squat down while another person would push them. Sometimes the one squatting would lose his balance during the race and would fall, causing the pusher to trip and fall as well. Sometimes it was a chain reaction with other racers. Does anyone else out there remember these events?

here is another old postcard of the prudential building with a different view show the "piece of the rock" sign on top.

This is the view that I remember of that building of back when I lived in Houston during the early 1960s. I can remember being at some amusement park and seeing "the rock" neon logo from the rides.

More info

Yes, in that picture of the Santa Rosa Theatre that FOXMULDER took, you can see that it had been stripped of its marquee.

Go worst team in the NFL!

Now I'm thinking back to that Texas/Titans game. Did Kris Brown simply botch that field goal? Or was it a bad snap from center? Or did the holder have trouble placing it?

from the whoopin's dished out by our parents when they found out?....yes.

No, I meant from being on the ground on your knees or your stomach with your head underneath the bottom of the "fence" tilted towards the screen for such a long period of time.

Under.

After the movie, you must have had a terrible backache and/or a crick in your neck.

You could see. I can't even fathom it having such a thing these days.

Just think how tall that "fence" would have to be to fully protect a four story screen.

Also, the fence that was there didn't completely around it. It was similar to a large aluminum boundry that auto 'junk yards' have.

Oh, did you personally look over and/or through that "fence"? What movie were they showing that night, The Devil in Miss Jones? On DriveIns.Com it shows an X-rated theatre currently operating in Tyler, Texas called The Apache. It shows a photo of a small projection booth right in front of the screen. To me, it doesn't look like it would be an enjoyable experience to try to watch any movie there.