john Lopez

Do you still have the newt Johnson image?

The Fulton Bowling Alley in Fulton Village.

Thank you very much.

Anyone remember the name of the Creole restaurant on Richmond at about Stanford, just East of Montrose? It was on the south side of the street and in a house, I think. I ate there in late sixties, early seventies.

One basement club was Poor Willie's Pub, overlooking Buffalo Bayou. My band played there for a while. La Bastille was downstairs also..

That sounds like the right area. Simpsons SS diner was moved from Main street to a storage lot on north shepherd where they used to move & sell houses, in 1977. I tried to purchase with a partner but we got outbid by someone who wanted for their country home or deer lease?

Newt Johnson's Diner was in the area you describe, by the old train station, where main post office was built. I looked at the old diner building in the seventies, to possibly purchase it, out in a pasture off Hwy 59, Humble Area. Someone had moved it there on their family farm. It may have been a burger joint when they first moved it but by mid to late seventies, it was in bad shape.

We used to eat there at least once a week and at Mrs.Me's. They were the first Thai and Vietnamese places in town, I believe. Yes, the Tiger Cries were on our plate at each visit.

Unfortunately, WS suffered from a common malady in the Seventies, (in Houston,) white flight. As a few people of color began to buy in Westbury, there was a mass exodus to move further out. This was (and maybe still is?)a weird ritual in Houston. You can find many neighborhoods and subdivisions that suffered from this. I never quite understood the panic mentality but I was very aware of it's existence.

I hung out there a lot. I played in a few rock bands that played around market square, The Cellar, poor Willies Pub, etc. I almost got arrested for falling asleep in Love Street, "sleeping in a public place" violation. It was a cool place to hang in the sixties/seventies.

El Rancho on Canal?

I had some old photos at one time from drag races there in 1968, 1969. There would be some great race cars trailered out there to race for cash. Very illegal, I guess, but they were "private" roads, not city or county roads. That created a jurristictional issue. Races went off & on for at least a year. Some agency finally shut it down, but I can't remember details.

There was "the Village" theater, probably more I can't remember. I lived right by Al Ray. It is at edge of Lindale Park Subdivision, bordered by Robertson, Fulton, Cavalcade, & Loop 610, North. Irvington Blvd. runs through lindale. It is a really nice, near North side, neighborhood.