Poppahop

There was one on Bellaire just west of Strake / St Agnes until about 1987 or so. 

Here's my story on the bombing from earlier this year.

If so, please email me: john.lomax@houstonpress.com

Does anybody have a pic or pics of the mansion we could use for a Houston Press article?

I suppose so.

Now Magic Island catching fire during Ike might well be another story...

John Carrick & his Mom ran Sand Mountain. I was a bit young to make The Jester, but did go to the Mountain. John was in San Francisco at the time & he'd sent back a copy of Jefferson Airplane's first album, which was often played between sets. (Just on the cusp of Folk Rock.) Janice Joplin was making a name for herself Out There; she'd played the Mountain--again, just before my time. Mrs Carrick was heard making unkind comments about her (ahem) orientation.

Townes, Guy & Jerry Jeff weren't "big name performers" back then; they were just beginning. Jerry Jeff went off to DC to form Circus Maximus (more "Folk Rock"). Just before he left, he played a brand new song--"Mr Bojangles." Which made his fortune. And he made it back to Texas in time for Cosmic Cowboy days...

And I remember Townes, debuting the first serious song he'd written. It was "Waitin' Round to Die."

The other day I read that Jerry Jeff wrote "Mr Bojangles" upstairs at Sand Mountain.

I drove by out there a few months ago. The site is now a sort of resort catering to Hispanics -- all the signs are en espanol. The area is thickly wooded and there a few trash dumps and ramshackle houses scattered around.

It had really odd hours -- it is closed on weekends or something like that.

Ah, cheap beer, I see. How much do they need to spend on their beer?

Maybe they should be sipping Pinot Grigio instead. It makes more sense to drink wine when walking the streets, as I know from experience that walking with beer makes the beer go flat fast.

I worked at 806 Main St. for 2 years and I tried to avoid the tunnels at all cost. After sitting in a cubicle all morning, I enjoyed going outside at lunch. On rainy days, I used this great invention called an umbrella. On hot days, I'd just walk slowly so as to not break a sweat.

Even when I used things down in the tunnels, I'd reach them via street level (like walking to the Bank One Bldg and then heading down to the Becks Prime down there).

The tunnels always felt crowded and the air felt dirty...sorta like sitting on an airplane for multiple hours.

I'm pretty much with you on that, but as for umbrellas...I bought one about five years ago and on the day I took it to the office, my wife predicted that she would never see it again. I thought, "I'll show her." So I pretty much forgot about it, for about a year, and then one day a bad storm blew in just as I was walking out the door to the light rail. "Good thing I have that umbrella," I thought. So I went and got it and opened it up near the Exxon building. And here's the thing -- the very first time I opened, a high gust of wind just shredded it to pieces. Absolutely picked it clean. So my wife never did see that umbrella, and I never even used it once.

last time I checked, the Marq-E's business was booming.

Then the last time must have been a long time ago.

I work downtown and I wish the tunnels were gone, except when I have to walk somewhere in the rain. The tunnels and huge surface parking lots are the main reasons Houston's downtown is still struggling after dark.

That is so cool. I am happy to report that the church still retains and follows traditional mass and the long time parisoners for the most part still bring the whole family. On recent Palm Sunday everyone gathers in the outside courtyard for the blessing of the palms. Then follow back inside for the remainder of the mass. Very traditional. I must mention they have some of the best singers in a choir I have ever heard. Must hear live.

There is also St. Nicholas (2508 Clay; est. 1887, oldest traditionally black parish in town) and Holy Rosary in Midtown.

What have all the saucy bootblacks gone?

Sounds like the title of a Decemberists song?

That would be awesome to see!! Can you post it somewhere?

Working on it.

My dad just had some Super 8 footage made into a DVD and there's probably three or four minutes of Kiddie Wonderland on there. The footage dates from 1972 or '73. There are also a few shots from the Rodeo Carnival and others shot on a snow day here. There's some cool scenes of hippy girls on the corner of Westheimer and Mt Vernon pelting cars with snowballs.

I have a picture of my mom, Bidy Lomax, hanging out backstage with Jerry at one of those shows.

Thanks JHC.

Yeah, after you clarified the location of the Weingarten's I figured it must now be the Sellers Brothers store. That one is several notches above the Davis Food City that closed.

There's a Spec's next door to the Sellers Brothers, and a dollar store, and a Burke's Outlet in the strip.

There's a Shipley's down there still near the strip mall and a funny little restaurant run by a Korean family that can deep-fry the hell out of anything you want two different ways. (London-style or Cajun.) It's really good, but every meal you eat there probably takes 12 hours off your life.

Further south, closer to Shearn, there's a Vietnamese-run "You-buy, we-fry" seafood store that is said to be very good. I've only bought raw seafood there, and it was good.

Bleak as my portrait was, I meant to leave you feeling somewhat encouraged. Things have turned around a lot in just the 15 months I have lived near there. What's more, the difference between now and 10 years ago is huge. That little pocket of ghetto is getting smaller every month. Cruddy apartments are being replaced by nicer townhouses, and there's even a Catholic Montessori school back there now too.

Farther south, there's a huge Jewish school (the Weiner School) and some of the ball fields for the newly merged West U and Brays Bayou little leagues. Yes, it's still kinda sketchy around Bellfort, but again, nothing like it was five or ten years ago.

Instead of driving all the way to the Galleria, I'm sure people from Neartown/Montrose/Midtown/East End/heights would go downtown if retail actually existed downtown.

People from those neighborhoods rarely go to the Galleria. In the nine years I most recently lived in the Museum District, I went to the Galleria maybe twice, both times mainly just to take a walk. Just about everybody I am friends with feels the same. There's no real need to go there.

As for the shootings, wherever there are drunks plus guns, that's gonna happen.

DT is not Dodge City by any means, it's just that every shooting down there gets tons of attention. I am sure that the Club Next incident was not the only incident in H-Town that night.

I live between Brays Bayou and Bellaire a mile or so up Stella Link from Shearn.

There are still some rotten apartment complexes east of Stella Link, although they are relatively small and it does seem to be getting better slowly but surely. There have been a few shootings there the last couple of years -- I often see the 3800-4000 blocks of O'Meara (and adjacent cross streets) in crime reports. (The most recent one was back in January -- a Saints fan and a Bears supporter got into it over a playoff game and shot each other dead.) I have also been propositioned by skanky ladies of the night at what probably used to be the U-Tote-Em of your youth.

Just inside the loop, the hyper-ghettodelic Davis Food City supermarket (maybe the old Weingarten's) just went out of business. You couldn't even take shopping carts in and out of the shopping area there -- they had turnstiles before you got to the food. I am assuming it closed for lack of clientele, so that is probably a good sign.

The crumminess of Shearn is holding the property values down for now. If they can turn the school situation around, there's no real reason that neighborhood would not take off, almost to the extent of Braes Heights and Ayrshire.

Roznofsky's moved to W. 34th and TC Jester.

Also, someone upthread mentioned Bellaire Broiler Burger. It's still there where it always was.

Randall's has hands-down the worst instore piped-in music of any of the chains here. They are still playing Muzak.

Was it the Rising Star?