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asktheteacher1st

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  1. I only just now read about Bodiddle's and The Surf drive-in. Just FYI, since your interested in area history. Bodiddle's was an interesting idea. About a third of it was like a little 7-11 before 7-11s, the middle was a bar that was open front and back. When I was about six, my mom sent me inside that part one time after my dad so he could pick up our order. They used to have a big jar of oysters on the counter and a sign that said, "Win $1 if you can swallow one whole." Then way down below in tiny print, it said, "The last guy couldn't, as you can see." It was supposed to be a grand joke. Most of the men were on more than their first beer and thought it really funny. The rest of the place had a jukebox and a fast food type place. There was no place to sit inside and you placed your order at the one window they had and they would announce your name when it was ready over a loud speaker. There was a huge hand-painted sign outside it that was the menu and included hamburgers for twenty cents and BBQ burgers for twenty-five. Most of the guys there worked at Dow like my dad. He was in accounting. But everyone stopped going for a long time once when we drove up and the sign said 'Hamburgers 25 cents and BBQ burgers 35 cents." That was the last time I was allowed to go for the BBQ burger. Dow Badische has been around many years. it was there when I was growing up. Uhm, not that I'm old or anything. In fact, I was quite young all my life. I have to ask, what do you mean that one beach is less expensive?? There's a charge? And what happened to the bridge? I can't find out anything except it's gone. It's too bad you never tried the Root Beer stand. Mr Antonelli made it himself. There was no root beer like it. The recipe had been handed down for generations, at least two that I know of. My mom and her sister used to walk over there after school and get some whenever they could. He made some ice cream at one time, too, all handmade. When I was about three he gave me some pistachio. I wasn't sure about eating green ice cream, but he could always hug me into anything. I was thrilled when he was still running the stand so I could take my own boys to see him when they were young. He still remembered me even after I was gone for ten years. He was really getting on up there at that time. Still made the root beer. Didn't want anyone else to touch it. My mom had a lot of affection for him and we used to visit pretty frequently. I remember being upset after meeting him the first time and hearing people calling him, "Old Man Antonelli". I thought it was just his name. So I called him that. I told him, "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Old Man Antonelli." (I thought I was Shirley Temple.) He was always gracious to everyone that I knew of and just laughed and laughed when I said it. Then he told me what it meant and I was no longer pleased, I was embarrassed to meet him. But of course, he talked me out of that, too. Going in to LJ was always the same when I lived there from, well, we're not going there, remember? From 288 up past the roller rink and Restwood and then on into town. I'm not great with street names as I was traumatized as a young tike dealing with streets called This Way, That Way, Center Way (though no north or south), Winding Way, Which Way and Thatta Way (kidding.) But there were, I think, seven of those names like that in downtown LJ. I always thought that Lake Drug was downtown. It used to really intimidate me to go there by myself. It was so BIG. ha! I would get turned around and sometimes when I was with my mom I would lose her. I was very, very young at the time. I knew about every grown-up who worked 'downtown LJ' , though.. The barbers, the guys at Piggly Wiggly, the ladies shop that had the terrible word 'brassieres' painted in gold lettering on the bottom of one of their windows. I had no idea what that was exactly, but the place was full of all kinds of underwear and I hated going there. We also lived on Acacia. Right down the street from one of my friends, Kathy Greenburg. Her dad, Jack, owned the photography studio. There was a great little bitty park on the corner there where I and Kathy and a couple of other friends could play softball. Or at least we could throw the ball and try to hit it before we got tired of that and went in to play dolls. (Kathy had this amazing collection of dolls plus international dolls covering the top of every wall of her room still in their boxes. Her mom wouldn't let her play with those. That always broke my heart. I was always determined to get Mrs. Greenburg to change her mind about that, but I never did. Are there no places online where there are just miscellaneous photos of Freeport and all the other towns from the beginning of photos? Of people doing various things, just being people. Kids playing, the mosquito man spraying the DDT and all us kids riding our bikes right inside the big cloud of 'fog' right behind him? Or the long lines at the elementary school in Angleton getting the shots, then later the sugar cubes of, maybe, polio vaccine and parents sweating bullets until they found out if their kids got the shots or the water? (They just knew that getting the vaccine would give the kids polio. It was a little scary and a few kids had polio already.) The schools the way they were I was there: Freeport Junior High Indians and BHS? Or Main street in Clute with the Dairy Dream or King? Kids swinging on the grapevines at the Lake Park? Teens from the 40s going to Antonelli's? The old Avenue B when it was a long row of shotgun houses and Dow was moving families in with families who were already living with families? The ultra cool Woolworth's that gave goldfish away to all the kids when they opened? And the fire?Some shots of 'Skid Row' by the levee of the River, that little street that at the time didn't even have a real name to it? Lots of homeless men with brown wrappers all up and down the street? The old skating rink in the tent off of 288 or the newer one in Clute? Or that little library in Freeport where the older lady would let you stay all afternoon and read? The one that was so dark and cool and felt so good to bare feet after they had been hopping across the hot pavement all the way to town. Or Bubba Rape? Whatever happened to Bubba Rape? My aunt was once engaged to him. I have noticed that other towns have set up or someone there has set up a site like that and hoped there was one somewhere for Brazosport. Thanks for the patience.
  2. OK. Now I can't shut up about it. This nostalgia can be a bit overwhelming sometimes when you find others with similar memories. I used to ride my bike to the LJ theater every Saturday afternoon. My Girl Scout hut was only a block away as well so I would sometimes drop by to see if one of the moms were there and needed any help. When I went to the theater it cost less than a quarter to get in and candy was a nickle. So was the Coke and pc. My dad used to give me thirty-five cents every Saturday morning and I would race out and get my bike and ride around until the box office opened. What was the woman's name who worked there? I know she was a friend of my parents and was very nice. I quite liked her. I sure remember that coke machine. I used to almost drop my popcorn and candy (Zero bar) trying to time digging the cup out of it's slot where it seemed to nearly always stick in time for the coke to hit it instead of the drain. I managed about half the time. I had to hurry so I wouldn't miss any of the serial before the movie. Of course, I'm talking about truly great movies like Forbidden Planet, The Blob and Space Children. I just may be a tad older than you. Ha!
  3. I started doing some genealogy a few years ago when I realized that I had nothing to do between 2 and 4 a.m. It made me realize how connected I still am to that area, even though I moved away after high school and have not been back since the 70s. I think nearly half of Restwood is made up of my relatives. I was born in the Dow Hospital. We lived in LJ, Freeport, Clute, Oyster Creek and Surfside at one time or another. My maternal grandfather was a brick mason and builder and built a lot of the beach houses in the 30s and 40s. My uncle owned one of the department stores in Freeport and was a Chamber member and all that. My mom and her siblings all graduated from Freeport High School (my junior high), which is the one that is used for storage now, I guess. My family moved to Freeport/Oyster Creek back a little after the turn of the century (20th) and before 1920. I have and have had aunts, uncles, cousins, great aunts and uncles, grandparents and great grandparents all there. Though you never get away, so I understand why they stayed...now. Didn't then. I couldn't wait to move to the 'city'. Now I miss it. At least my particular slanted memories of it. )
  4. WOW You're related to Mr. Antonelli??? I loved that man ... all of them. All the way back to the late 40s and my mom before me. I used to work at the Weingarten's across from Restwood when I was in the tenth or eleventh grade at BHS. So glad to find this spot. Are you still living there?
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