Ashikaga

Yes, I remember overhearing the radio playing there in Houston back in the early 1960s. Two car dealership commercial jingles are still in my head: Chuck Davis Chevrolet and Tommie Vaughn Ford. Last year Tommie Vaughn died at age 87.

Throughout the 1960s, black & white TVs were all that we had. It wasn't until 1971 when my parent's bought their first color TV. I remember the brand name was Curtis Mathis. I don't know if that brand is even made anymore. If we had bad reception with the black & white, my dad had to buy an antenna called "rabbit ears." I remember watching some fairly good shows in Houston back then. I was watching the Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964 when The Beatles made their first American appearance. When all of the girls started screaming, I heard my dad say: "That's silly! That's stupid!"

The car on that postcard looks like a 1930s/1940s model. The car says that the rooms are air conditioned. I didn't know that air conditioning existed back then.

I've seen some digital cameras that resemble this old one.

Is the Tennyson Hotel a ritzy joint that charges a minimum $200 a night like the Four Seasons Hotel?

Yes, I also remember a Henke & Pillot's store from back when I lived in Houston (1962-64). It was located on a "Y" where Telephone Road intersected Reveille. It later changed its name to Kroger. It was right across the street from the Monterey House restaurant that we ate at. Is Los Tios a chain restaurant? Even though Taco Bell is classified as a fast food restaurant, I wonder if it is the chain that has replaced Monterey House/El Chico/Felix? If Los Tios isn't a chain, then I know of no other Mexican restaurant chains. But maybe you do.

I guess that it's just like my belief about Stuckey's, that new chains are taking over. It looks like the days of Monterey House/El Chico/Felix are just about over. Maybe there's a new chain of Mexican restaurants taking over. But I only know of ones over here, such as Casa Ole. What Mexican restaurant chains are over there in Houston? Or maybe Taco Bell is taking over the whole country. In 1981 I worked at Pancho's Mexican Buffet in Houston. As far as I know, that chain folded. Maybe I'm also wrong about that.

To me, that's a good amount of channels you can watch and not have to pay for.

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has thrown out part of Tom DeLay's map, what does that mean for the mid-term elections four months from now? Are those districts that the Court said negatively affected minorities in the Houston area?

I've been reading a recent issue of Consumer Reports magazine here in the library (July 2006). It has quite a few pages devoted to an article called "The Right Digital Camera For You." Yes, it discusses 3 megapixels as what you call a bare minimum. It says that it depends on what you want to do. If you want to print your photos, you should have between a 3 and a 5 megapixel camera. If you don't plan to print, you just want to look at your photos on the computer, or post a photo ad on the Internet, then a 2.1 megapixel would be enough for that. Who knows? I might just stay with buying the Fuji disposables. Some people say that 35mm photos are better quality than digital photos. I'll probably continue getting them developed at Wal-Mart, then scan and post them on the Internet. I've seen photos on the Internet taken by both kinds of cameras. Regular 35mm photos appear to look clearer than digital photos. But I might be wrong about that. The only difference that I see is convenience and time. You have to drop them off at Wal-Mart, wait a few days for them to be developed, and go pick them up. But if they are better quality, the wait might be worth it.

Now you just made me remember something. I completely forgot about those Terry's Restaurant's on both sides of IH-10. But I think that as far back as the late 1970s/early 1980s they folded. I thought I saw both of them boarded up, out of business. Maybe I'm wrong. Yes, I do remember at least one Stuckey's, coming east from Houston just before Winnie, on the eastbound service road. Wasn't there also another one across the freeway on the westbound service road? Maybe I'm thinking about another place. My opinion is that new roadside restaurant chains are taking over. Cracker Barrel comes to my mind. Stuckey's/Horne's are no longer as popular as they used to me. The Stuckey's website says that there are only two of them in Texas on IH-10, the one near Winnie and one in El Paso.

Yes, log on to "stuckonstuckeys.com." On the left, click on "Competitors and Spinoffs." There you'll see Nickerson Farms, Horne's, Atkinson's, B. Lloyd's, and Saxon's. Howard Johnson's had a distinctive orange roof. Stuckey's had a distinctive blue roof. Horne's had a distinctive yellow roof. My guess is so that people would be able to see it from far away and know that it was coming up and would exit and fill their cars up with gas and their stomachs with food.

Gnu, I'm trying to learn something about digital cameras. Someday I might get one. I'm studying megapixels. How many megapixels does your camera on your cell phone have, the camera that you took of the house that I used to live in?

On TexasFreeway.Com there's a black & white photo taken in October of 1958 of the split of Texas highway 35 and U.S. Highway 75 (Gulf Freeway). On the left of the photo you can see Joske's and Sakowitz there in Gulfgate.

I found a good website called SinisterCinema.Com. They have the horror movies that were mostly shown in drive-in theatres. I still don't understand why most indoor theatres didn't show those kind.

On CinemaTour.Com, there's a good photo tour of one of those 30 screen theatres in Houston.

KTRH has always been popular. Does anyone know how long it's been around?

Yes, many things about telephone calls have changed. You no longer have to wait until certain times of the day in order to be charged less for a long distance call. On most cell phones, you can call almost anywhere. And phone companies have a flat monthy fee to call anywhere, anytime. It's nothing now to call from Houston to New York.

I remember my mother simply calling them "baskets." She bought groceries from Weingarten's in the then-Gulfgate Shopping City. When I passed by there back in 1995, the name of it was McFrugal's. Someone on the forum said that it's now an H.E.B.

What I like about shared stadiums is that the scoreboard displays simply "HOME" and "VISITOR." There's no personalization of the home team's nickname. That means that any schools that play there can be easily designated. I never understood nicknames anyway. I guess they are used for the students to have a mascot to rally around. The nickname of my high school football team was called "The Trojans." Four guys would carry the Trojan named "IGOR" at the games. Yes, IGOR gave us something to rally around. But I wonder how it would be if there were no nicknames? You could simply say, for example, "It's North Shore against Baytown Sterling tonight." And during the same when a team scores, just say, "Touchdown, North Shore." Would there really be any difference between saying just the school's name or its mascot?

I try to look at photos such as these from a historical perspective. Say you're standing today on the spot where the Skylane Inn and Turner's Motel once stood. Look and try to envision those people in the photos who were once on that spot of land. Then you start to wonder if those people are still around. If some are, then you wonder where they are, what they're doing, what they now look like, etc. That's how I try to view what used to be.

I agree with you. My parents continue to write checks at Wal-Mart and at other stores. I keep telling them that there is no need to write checks because both of them have VISA check cards.

Yes, it is an excellent photo. I guess the lights were on to discourage any homeless people from breaking in.

Thanks. It was indeed a chain if it had 130 locations. The fact that it is now down to two shows that banana splits and sundaes must have lost their appeal. That was really some alliteration in their opening sentence.

--> QUOTE(Brian B @ Saturday, June 17th, 2006 @ 2:09pm) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Born in Houston but grew up in Dallas, told Kitirick(?) I wanted to grow up to be a garbage man, she had to go to commercial she was laughing so hard. Remember Ferrells(SP) on your birthday at the Galleria... with the crazy Ice cream antics? This was way after I left Houston, but still went with realitives in Houston on visits. Usually after being on the mountain ride at Astoworld. There was also one of these resturants in Dallas at Valley View Mall. There used to be a Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor in Parkdale Mall in Beaumont, but it's been long gone. Was Farrell's part of a chain?