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nm5k

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Everything posted by nm5k

  1. nm5k
    Yep, Pepper was there when I was. He might have been principle at that time though. I remember Rivers Lodge, and also a new Asst. Washington if I remember right.. I forgot who was the head principle out of that bunch.. It was either Lodge, or Pepper. I don't have a yearbook to double check.. MK
  2. nm5k
    The best way to get your bearings is probably by using main and it's center "cross-overs" as a guide. IE: it's easy to see where the entrance is in the 47 and 60 pix. You can see the entrance from main in each, and the center crossing at that point. This crossing from main was just west of where Landsdown is now. The airport roads are darker than the new streets in the 60 pix. I was comparing them the other day, and judging from the crossings on main, what is now Chimney rock, would be just about at the end of the runway threshholds looking east. Note that Chimney rock is just west of the first crossing east from the one in front of the airport. That crossing is also east of that road/easement, or whatever that runs to the water tower. In the 47 pix, I seem to faintly see that easement just past the runways. I think the next two crossings are the motor hotel area, and I think the clutter of buildings near the top of the pix, to the left of main is Post Oak. I think the bend in the bayou you see in the 47 pix is actually near the gasmer/willow intersection, but not totally sure. That would be about where the old Westbury Hospital would be. That airport covered quite a bit of area. I think you would be able to see W. Airport in the left part of the 47 pix, if it had been there at that time. MK
  3. nm5k
    O'Bryan was supposably once worked at the TSO in Meyerland. That where I first got specs when I moved to Houston. I might have even seen the guy at some point.. The boat shed where a lot of the Dean Corll bodies were dug up is not far from here. Yep, halloween went dead after pixie man did his deed.. But also.. The 4th of July has always been lame in Houston. Why? Cuz ever since I've lived here, fireworks have been illegal. In KS, etc when I was young, we could and did shoot fireworks anywhere we danged well pleased. That all ended when we moved to Houston. They had banned fireworks in like 68? or something like that due to too many houses burning down. And much of that was due to the dangerous wood shake shingles many houses used back then. MK
  4. nm5k
    >So it's completely covered now by Westbury? That's a shame. For the airport >I mean. Thanks Yep, that whole westbury south took it over. The long SE/NW runway crossed what is now W. Airport between Chimney Rock and Hillcroft. If you've driven that section of W. Airport, you've driven over Sam Houston airport. Supposably, the actual airport property extended to nearly the Willow Bayou, but of course, I'm sure the runways stopped pretty well short of that point. The old entry road from Main is totally gone too. A soundwall is there now I think. As far as I know, there is no visable trace of the old airport that I know of. If you drive thru the neighborhood, which I have a zillion times, you would never know. In fact, like one of the other posters, I've lived in Westbury since 69, and I just found out about it myself in the past year. I keep an eye out hoping to run into to old pilots that might have flown there in their early days. MK
  5. nm5k
    Looks weird with no shopping center on the other side of gasmer/chimney rock.. I went there 73-75. Back then, there was a coffee shop across the street. "Jims Coffee Shop" if I remember right... Mobil station on the corner. And then the various stores, and the grocery store on the end next to the bayou. That was all there when I moved here in late 69, so they must have built all that pretty quick if that pix is 66. As far as the layout, buildings, etc, the 66 pix is very close to what they had in the 70's. The building by the water tower was the oceanography building. By the time I went there, Burdine was there on the east side of the school next to the volleyball/handball courts, and also the apartments next door on gasmer were fairly new at that time. Kind of weird seeing no east side street in that pix... I do seem to see what I think are the driveway/parking lots for the apartments across the street on Chimney rock. Probably were fairly new.. When I went to westbury, those that drove cars either parked on one of the side streets, or in the school parking lot.. In that recent sat pix, I kinda wonder where in the heck they are parking... The lots are full of temp buildings.. The new westbury is a different school from the one I went to. I didn't realize they totally bulldozed the old place. I thought they just gutted and rebuilt the old building to newer standards.. But I never really looked that close. Remember when HISD first got A/C in the classrooms... I do.. That was when I was at Johnston...Bout 70-71.. They used those ceiling hung units tied into a big chiller.. Worked ok I guess, but if the chiller went down, naturally they all went down.. The kids today probably wouldn't know how to act with no a/c.. But it was the norm when I first started school. It was a big deal when they finally broke down and installed air conditioning. MK
  6. nm5k
    Thanks for that. Good pix of westbury in 1947.. I wonder about them saying it opening in 1941 though... My 1938 map of Texas "humble oil" shows it being there in 1938. Or at least it shows an airport.. Maybe there was a previous airport at that site under a different name, but you would think not, if Meyer donated the land.. Wonder if he was the same Meyer that owned Meyer Speedway that opened on the other side of Main Street. Wonder what all those billboards were for heading into town on Main... Also... Main looks weird... Was is that dark median thing in the middle of the lanes? Looks like some kind of dividing strip or something, but hard to tell. You can see Willow waterhole bayou meandering along in the upper top left.. That plane in the foreground almost has the wing profile etc, of a P-51 mustang... The twin on the lower left looks kinda like an old Beech D-18... Can't make out the tail too good though.. That airport is all houses now.. I bet most of the people living on top of that place don't have a clue it was once there.. But it has been gone nearly a half century now.. MK
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  10. nm5k
    Hummmm, I can't believe I've never seen that place, being I'm close by.. I'm kinda confused on the location though.. This sounds like a good place to take my metal detector.. NE corner? Seems that would be kind of near the old Fluor <sp>? building... I'm confused.. I would like to check it out though.. Maybe I saw it years ago, but forgot about it.. I'd like to check it out. MK
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  12. nm5k
    Back in the old days Stella was it's own town. I guess it and "Stella Junction" are about the same thing. I've got a 1895 Texas map, and Stella is marked as a town, along with the others in that area. IE: arcola, juliff, etc, etc.. On that map, all the "roads" are actually the rail tracks. Stella was at the point where the n/s tracks that run appx along 288/521 intersect with the Southern tracks that connected Harrisburg and Richmond, etc.. Being I don't see the n/s tracks that ran parallel to Stella link road in the 1895 map, I assume they must have been built a bit later. Those are the same tracks that run through Memorial Park, and then south. They seem to call the intersection east of main, "West Junction". It's interesting comparing the old 1895 map with all railroads, and say a later highway map. The highways obviously followed the RR tracks in most cases. I notice that the 1955 map calls the Holmes/Knight intersection as "Pierce Junction". Another weird thing is on the 1952 map, they show a town listed at Main/Chimney Rock. "Lotus, TX". But in the 1955 map, they show that as "Heackers, and just east of Fondren as "Nichols" . They show dot markers as if these were actual towns.. Kinda weird.. I cropped the Houston area on the 1895 map with the railroads, and the 1938 map, with highways. Note that Westheimer was once it's own town too.. They show the Sam Houston airport on that 1938 map. MK
  13. nm5k
    Yep, I think it was that way a good while into at least the 70's. I remember if you were going north on main, you went around that curve, that was kinda underground, with sort of a "cliff" on the east side of the road. I forgot when they built the elevated southbound part, but it was there in the early 70's. MK
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  16. nm5k
    You can see al-beto's mexican resturant at the left edge of the fountain. I worked there when I was in high school. Those are pictures taken when the square was pretty new. They later did away with all the shrubs and plants, and paved the whole shebang... Just to the right of al -betos is a door that leads to apartments upstairs. Back when I worked there, they had a *really* hot girl that lived up there.. I mean a hottie deluxe... She used to come down and eat on the weekends. Everyone that worked at the resturant used to drool every time she came in. We had quite a partying crew there.. I could tell a few hundred stories... I remember when we worked there, after we got off work at night, we used to prowl the town and visit all the places they talk about on these forums... Like blue light cemetary, some weird "hollow" place in river oaks, etc.. I remember going to some place in river oaks, but 30+ years later, danged if I can remember much of the details.. I just seem to remember "hollow" being part of the name. At that time, I was 16-17. Drove a 65 impala with a 396. One of the other guys drove a chevelle with a 396. Another drove a big boat chrysler with a 383.. We all used to race on the freeways all the time after work. Back then, you could hit 120 mph + fairly easy, cuz the traffic was light at night. We used to do 100 plus all the way across town. We never got stopped.. Lucky I guess... MK
  17. nm5k
    http://maps.yahoo.com/beta/index.php#maxp=...=29.65722&mag=1 Sorry bout the long link... Anyway, if you look at the sat pix, the "A" arrow will be pointing at the intersection of Craighead, and Old Main loop. You can see old main running ne/sw.. Ok, see the "dividing line where the neighborhood with houses switches to cleared land? The line runs exactly n/s. That line is about the midpoint of that section of old main. On the southside of old main, that dividing line was the west boundery of the gambling joint. There are still curb markers at the point of the entrance, but they are not showing very well in that pix. That would be just east of the driveways to what I think is pro-mark. There is a clump of trees pretty near where the old house, etc used to be. I see there are new buildings, street just south of where the gambling place was. Thats brand new.. Wasn't in the last sat pix I saw of that area, just a few months ago.. Note the fresh white concrete... I had been to that place a few times in the 70's. Went in the old big house, and also saw the swimming pool, etc, which was off in another building. It was pretty ramshackle even then... He left in the early to mid 50's when they had a local gambling crackdown. Went to Vegas and started the Sands.. Think it was the Sands anyway... BTW... Note the lawn sculpting in that overhead pix... Big diamond with a circle in it, and the big star east of the driveway. In the 70's, we drove through on that same driveway, and you could loop the place and come back out. But in the 70's, it was real overgrown and thick. Not like the sculpted lawn you see in that pix. Now, in 2006, it's all mowed pretty clean again... :/ MK
  18. nm5k
    I'm not totally sure, but from what I've heard, the foundations near the bayou are from camp logan.. I think barracks, or ' whatever... They had a hospital, etc, but seems it was more towards the area of the golf course. MK
  19. nm5k
    There is still one section of old main that is still pretty well used. It runs from appx craighead?, to nearly main street, but I'd have to check a map to see how it hooks up. This is the section of old main that the old Jake Freedman "Domain Privie" gambling house used to be. He was Caroline Farbs grandfather BTW... It's torn down now, and all that land is fenced field now. There are still a few people living around that area, and the pro- mark drumstick company is about at that location. I remember in the 70's, there was also a regular house on the same side of old main as the gambling joint, but farther east, closer to main. But it's gone now... I drove by there a few months ago. So...Whoever bought all that land, must have probably bought out the whole block and fenced it up.. That land is probably worth buckoo bucks.. I wanted to metal detect at the old gambling site, but it's all totally fenced, and the land has been bulldozed over I think. Makes me wonder if the old swimming pool at that joint is still under the ground... :/ Band names... I came up with one a while back while I was chatting about the common use of "superglue" to mend and seal cuts in the fingers of geetar players.. As an example SRV was an avid superglue user when he got cuts in his fingers... I thought... Hummmm.. Sounds like Finger Bondo... They said.... Hummmm... Good name for a band. I can see the marquee now... Modern Appliances, featuring guest star, Finger Bondo... :/ MK
  20. nm5k
    Used to go to the weinersnitzle near Bissonet and Hillcroft.. Gone now.. As far as a few close by.. Westbury Square had a few that are all closed now. You had Village Inn Pizza, Bull n Anchor, Al Betos, Rumpleheimers, and maybe some I forgot about. The buildings for Village Inn and Bull n Anchor still stand. Bull n anchor was in the old run down shell of a building to your right, when you turn into Home Depot from W. Bellfort. Al Betos and Rumpleheimers, which were both near the fountain, were both torn down to make room for the Home Depot. I think Al Beto's would be about on the far back corner where they now sell lumber, etc.. :/ I once worked at Al Betos's, I was the daytime manager when I was about 16 or 17.. Also worked at Bull n Anchor for a while later on.. I imagine that the owner of Al Beto's , "Gilbert Villasana<sp>?" is now dead. I haven't heard from him in years. Mike Shields used to be the owner of Bull n Anchor... No tellin what happened to him... The building that held Village Inn has been sitting unused for years, but is still there.. Dang...I forgot about China Cottage...It was next to B&A, and I think it's basic building still stands too... China Cottage was the last of those resturants I actually ate at.. I used to do their refrigeration, walk in cooler, etc work until they closed down.. All those places had pretty good grub.. MK
  21. nm5k
    They already have as far as I'm concerned. But cable and VCR's started all that.. I haven't been in a theater is so long, I forgot the last time. But I was a taping fool with the VCR's, "have a few hundred movies taped", and am quickly falling in line with the DVD age, being I now have a burner. I'm burning movies nearly every day, and naturally get better quality with the DVD's than the old VHS tapes. I just recorded and burned to DVD "the shining" tonight as an example. I was just at fry's this evening getting another 100 pack of DVD's and the matching jeweled cases.. I burn a lot of video... I get near HDTV quality if I watch them on my puter. I use a 21 inch monitor, and run my res at 1600x1200. You can't hardly see the pixels at all. I go back to a regular TV, and the pixels stick out so much that it's like a dot matrix puzzle.. I'll probably get a true HDTV TV card pretty soon. They are getting pretty cheap. I'm using a ATI-9800pro all in wonder right now.. I edit the video before I burn em, so cut out all the commercials etc.. You can colllect a heck of a lot of movies just off cable TV, if you have the time to waste... :/ I've got a "sima goDVD" video stabilizer that I use for macrovision foiling.. MK
  22. nm5k
    "Jones".... Wonder if that was an old ad for Jones Apothocary...Kinda looks like their old sign vaguely... MK
  23. nm5k
    I writ.... I remember in the latel 60's, 70's, you could hear the cars at the speedway every friday night, even here at the house, which is near westbury square. Actually, thinking about it, I think it was every saturday night... Been so long, I pert near fergot... But I think the noise on fri was usually the bands marching at butler at football games. Sat was race car night... I myself was in the westbury marching band, and played drums. So I added to the racket on some of those fri nights in the 70's... MK
  24. nm5k
    I'm not sure about Meyer speedway. I guess it was about the middle to late 70's when they shut it down. Yep, was at the corner of Hillcroft/blue ridge and main. Butler stadium is just to the east on the same side of the street. The old Sam Houston airport entrance was across the street from Butler stadium. The old main street airport was farther uptown just south of OST if I remember right. Both of those airports are now covered by houses... I remember in the latel 60's, 70's, you could hear the cars at the speedway every friday night, even here at the house, which is near westbury square. They even ran a nascar championship race at meyer I think about 1974 or somewhere along there... I think Bobby Allison >sp?> won if I remember right. MK
  25. nm5k
    Not sure...I drive past there all the time, but never really pay much attention. I know at least one of the older motels is still there, but can't remember which one it was. It's on the west side of the street south of OST I think. I remember when I moved here there was another motel right about at main and the loop. But danged if I can remember the name of it offhand... It may well be torn down now, but I never really paid that much attention. It was on the west side of the street, a bit south of sonny looks. Like I say, I think it was almost at the loop 610 corner, on the west side... I'll think of the name one of these days... I stayed there a full week in 1969. What is wild is to look at the surroundings in some of those pix. Like open prairie.... The 10,000 block of main was nearly out in the sticks in the old days. Once upon a time, there was an airport on main between what is now hillcroft, and chimney rock. "Sam Houston". That was really out in the sticks... There was also another main street airport a bit closer to town, fairly close to where the loop is. I don't remember that holiday inn...Must have been gone when we moved here. That car in the pix looks like a 50's chevy.. maybe a 56... I was going through pictures at one of the archive sites, and was looking at all the pictures of the fancy houses that were once on main near the downtown area. Lots, and lots of them... That street has changed a lot since 1900. MK
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