Firebird65

The greatest history nugget I ever found at the Texas Room was a copy of the 1948 San Jacinto High School yearbook. What's so great about that, you ask? Well, as you may or may not know, I've researched and written an e-book on the history of the Aldine High School football team. (I used to post about it on here a lot in another long-since dormant thread on Aldine area history). Anyway, I had found via old newspapers and the UIL all of the scores for every regular season and playoff game Aldine has ever played, EXCEPT one. And that was a game against San Jacinto's B-team in 1947. (Back then, varsity teams would sometimes play against sub-varsity squads. Not sure why.) The game was not reported in any newspaper and the UIL does not have a result, just the fact that the game was played. The 1947-48 Aldine yearbook did not have a score. But the Texas Room had a copy of the San Jac yearbook and it did list that Aldine's varsity team beat San Jac's B-Team 20-0. Now, at last, I had every score for every game! Last year I did find the same yearbook on Classmates.com. But in 2007, hey that was a big deal to me.

I do not believe you can check out anything from the Texas Room. In fact, I am quite sure of it. They've renovated the place since I've been there last, but the second floor, when I was last there, was divided into two sections. On one side was a repository of books and materials you had to ask the receptionist to get for you. On the other side was the so-called Texas Room, which, in addition to tables and chairs, had the less valuable books, the directories, the maps, the Key Maps and the photographs. At the entrance was the small desk where you checked in. There was no place to check out anything. You could view whatever you wanted at the tables, but you could take nothing out of the room.

Perhaps not, but it sure beats looking at some thinly disguised real estate magazine while at the doctor's office. Not sure where you live, but whenever I go to my doctor or my wife's doctor in either Sugar Land or Katy, there must be a million different ones, all with the same ads for either real estate agents or other doctors, and all with "articles" on said agents or doctors obviously written by a PR agency. So yeah, Houstonia may not be a paragon of journalism, but there certainly are worse things to read.

Ah, yes. Thank you for mentioning that. I had forgotten about those special procedures. Would be good for Purpledevil to know that in advance before going. The first time they asked me to sign in and list what I was looking for, I was a little taken aback for a moment. They don't ask that at the regular library and at first I was a little put off by their asking.

Uh, no. And no desire to. But yes, the traffic there is beyond horrible. The music was extrememly loud there too. My parents could hear it clear as a bell, same as if they had a radio blaring on the backyard picnic table at their house more than a mile away in Northline Terrace. Talking abut those flea markets, I picked up a copy of Houstonia magazine recently that detailed the best Tex-Mex and Mexican restaurants in Houston. The article was fatally flawed, in my professional opinion (B.A. Journalism - UH), because quite a bit of it was written by Robb Walsh. Nothing against Walsh - he is an expert on Tex-Mex food and has written many books on the subject and of course, authored numerous reviews for the Houston Press. Unfortunately, he is also now a part owner of a Tex-Mex restaurant (El Real), so that should disqualify him now as an impartial reviewer. However, putting that aside, the article is divided into Tex-Mex (which supposedly Walsh didn't write, nudge-nudge, wink-wink) , Regional Mexican and Seafood. Under the Regional Mexican, Walsh did list such renowned places as Hugo's AND, believe it or not, Taqueria Buey y Vaca, which just happens to be in the food court of the Airline flea market of the same name. How weird is that?!? So I guess if you want great authentic Mexican food, you can either drop big bucks at Hugo's, or go slumming at an Airline flea market for the same experience at a lot less cost. LOL! Here are the starting dates for the Airline flea markets (at least the ones in existence in 2008, when I last updated my list): 1981 - Sunny 1981 - Sin Ta 1982 - Airline 1999 - De Buey y Vaca 2001 - Mercado SabaDomingo 2004 - Day-to-Day The De Buey y Vaca flea market opened in 1999, but that taqueria in the food court with that same name predates it. Exactly when it opened, I couldn't tell you, as it is part of a food court, and thus does not have its own address. But I do know seeing the name "Taqueria de Buey y Vaca" in the 1980s. For some reason, it sounded funny to me and the name always stuck in my head.

You're speaking of 9410 North Freeway, of course. I can help you there. Here are all the restaurants I could find that have been at that location from its opening until I quit updating in 2008: 1974 - First Mate (seems it didn't last long and the site was vacant for quite some time) 1985 - Frenchy's (ate there quite a bit while in college) 1989 - Magic Wok 1993 - Bar-B-Que Express 1995 - Taquito Joe 2003 - Wings-n-More Now, apparently it is a BreWingZ.

No, no, you don't want to go to the downtown library. That's a different place. You want the Julia Ideson Library, which is the old city library downtown a block or so away. It was replaced by the current downtown library in 1976 and now serves as the home of the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, which ishoused in the Texas Room on the second floor. For whatever reason, this goofy site will not let me post the URL for you. Unbelievable. Anyway, just Google or search for Julia Ideson Library Houston. As I said, it's a great place to spend the day. The are old phone books, the Coles Directories, maps, Key Maps, aerial photos, regular photos and magazines about Houston's history. There are also many books that aren't on display you can request to view, but can't check out. You'll have a great time.

Seemingly pretty much everything in that area is now a taqueria. Not that I have anything against tacos... I love 'em. I could eat them every day, and there are several times in my life where I've made a pretty good run at doing just that. But how many taqueria's does the Upper Airline area need?

Well, as I said, there were at one time two pizza places in the shopping center - Square Pan and the Original Pizza. There may have been a small clothing store in there for a time, but I could find no record of it. I do believe, but very much stand to be corrected, that a big space in there was devoted to Sharon's Dance Studio, which seemingly half my female Facebook friends went to. I found the Facebook discussion of it in the "You Know You're From Aldine" page, but it makes no mention of the location. As for the remainder of the place, it seemed to always be some kind of seedy club or lounge. I didn't bother to track those. I do know the small, two-story building at the front of the property housed the offices of Edgar Reeves' State Farm insurance business. Have to get a shout out to that 1953 graduate of Aldine High and who provided me with so much information on the founding of Aldine High School and the town of Aldine. EDIT: Wow that didn't take long. I should have done this first. I am looking at the 1979 Aldine High Roundup yearbook and as I suspected, there is an ad for Sharon's Studio of Dance. The ad gives the address as 157 W. Dyna, which would be in that shopping center. Oh, and I forgot to mention, I got the rest of my information from Coles Directory, which is kind of a phone book sort of thing that lists businesses by address rather than by name or phone number. In other words, you can (and I did) grab a Coles Directory from, say, 1977 and look to see everything that was on W. Dyna at that time. By comparing years, you can get an approximate date of when a business opened. Copies going back to the 1930s are available at the Texas Room in the Julia Ideson Library downtown. It's a great place to while away some hours and learn about the history of Houston. However, note that the Coles Directories only cover the Upper Airline area starting in the early 1960s. Before that, they only covered up to about Little York Rd.

Dairy Queen #64 opened on W. Gulf Bank between Airline and the North Freeway in 1969. Sometime in the late 1990s it became some sort of Mexican restaurant. The last I checked, that restaurant had closed and the place was abandoned.

I happened on this discussion and am delighted to see talk about the area I grew up in. I think I can help you out here. I've done pretty extensive research on the retail businesses in the Upper Airline corridor. I can tell you that JoJo's and Moon Palace were located at 185 W. Dyna. The Jojo's opened in 1976. It became Moon Palace in 1992. The Red Lobster was located next door at 181 W. Dyna and it opened in 1974. The Burger King at 187 W. Dyna was the first restaurant along the road. It opened in 1972. Steak and Ale opened at the end of the street with a 10718 North Freeway address. Then came the Red Lobster. Pizza Inn at 171 W. Dyna opened in 1975. Jim's Coffee Shop (now the Mambo Seafood), Bobby McGee's Conglomeration, El Chico and Furr's Cafeteria also opened in 1975 in the Deauville Shopping Center, which has a North Freeway address, but is also along W. Dyna. Jojo's opened in 1976. Square Pan Pizza at 163 W. Dyna and the Ground Patti at 171 W. Dyna opened in 1978. Jim's Coffee became Champs in 1979. The Ground Patty became the Original Flying Pizza in 1980, which was really odd as it was only a few feet from Square Pan. The Jojo's became Co-Co's Family Restaurant in 1985. China Border took over from Steak and Ale in 1998. Mambo replaced Champs in 2003. I stopped updating after 2008 because as I live on the westside, it's hard to keep up with things in the old neighborhood. Anyway, hope that helps the memories and the conversation.

I grew up in Northline Terrace, just down the street from Ricardos, and I think we only ate there twice. The sole reason I even remember doing so is because the kids in the neighborhood always made jokes about that's where the neighborhood's stray dogs ended up. (I'm sure that happens in pretty much every neighborhood, of course). So naturally I was, as a 10 year old, quite concerned with what exactly was in my beef enchiladas. For whatever reason, my mother and father always preferred Monterrey House or sometimes Panchos (at that time on far away Long Point) in the 1970s.

I used to love that Saltillo platter as well. Good ol' Monterey House. My most vivid memory of the place (besides the candy, of course), was when I took a girlfriend to the one on Rittenhouse in 1987. We were at the time the only customers in the restaurant (it was at an off-peak hour after lunch and before dinner). We ordered our food and the waiter walked into the kitchen and immediately walked back out with our order. No more than two minutes could have passed, if even that. The kitchen doors were still swinging from when he walked in when he walked out. It is the fastest I have ever been served at any restaurant anywhere, anytime... including already prepared buffets and ones where I had phoned in my order ahead of time. My girlfriend went nuts. She could not believe they had even cooked our order in that short an amount of time. Actually, I couldn't believe it either, but I was hungry and didn't care. Yeah, Monterey House was good food at good prices. But there's simply no way they'd make it today. Too much competition, for one thing. There's a Mexican restaurant every block in Houston now. And people's palates have become more sophisticated about Mexican food to where Monterey House's simple combos just wouldn't satisfy anyone. But I sure enjoyed it while it lasted.

Not sure if this might interest anyone, or if it would apply to anyone here, but I wanted to alert everyone just in case. I went to a local antique store today, where in the corner they had a stack of old yearbooks. None were from my high school, unfortunately. However, I did see one from Spring Branch Memorial High School and I couldn't believe which yearbook it was. It was the very first edition, Volume 1, from 1963 (Memorial opened in the fall of 1962). The book was in mint condition. And, get this, they wanted exactly $1 for it. That's right, a single dollar. I went to Aldine High School. I've written about the history of the school and posted about it here in the past. I've been fortunate enough to have seen the first-ever yearbook from Aldine (1940) and was even more fortunate that its owner allowed me to scan it. It's an invaluable piece of history about the school. Well, for anyone who went to Memorial, here your chance to gain a similar piece of history about your school for practically nothing. If you are interest in it, let me know and I'll post the location of the antique store. Otherwise, I might just go buy it myself and donate it to the school (although I'm sure they have at least one copy already).

Interesting.

No, Sharpstown doesn't. But TWENTY YEARS AGO someone was killed in the Greenspoint Mall parking lot, and for whatever reason, that trumps all. The Soviet Union dissolved... we've had four presidents, three governors, four mayors... grunge rock came and went... the internet went from a pipe dream in then Senator Al Gore's imagination to an essential reality today... a kid born the day the shooting happened would be in college today... in other words, change is all around, yet in all that time, whenever you think of Greenspoint, you think of "Gunspoint," even though it was twenty years ago. I say that not to condemn the place... I'm a big backer of Greenspoint and the Aldine High School area... I'm just stating a fact. That place will never come back, and that's a shame. You can put all the lipstick you want on a corpse, but at the end of the day, it's still a corpse. Having spent a lot of my youth and having worked at the Greenspoint Mervyn's from 1992 - 1995, I wish i weren't so, but that would be denying the obvious.

ROTF! Man, nothing slips by you. Red Scare is right. Your posts are freaking hilarious. You ever think of writing for a sitcom? You'd be a natural.

Maybe the protestors are inside the store... shopping. LOL!

I know people who work at the store are too busy to be reading this forum now but congratulations to the new Heights WalMart on your grand opening today.

Are you talking about the Food Town where the Big Texan Lanes bowling alley used to be? If so, I don't think that was ever a Weingartens. Before it was Big Texan Lanes it was a department store called Grants. Closest Weingartens was in Northline Mall, I believe.

Got some more information of the beginnings of the education in the Aldine area. I was wondering the other day about the origins of Harris County Common School District 29 (the county-run predecessor to Aldine ISD). Went to wikipedia to see if the Aldine ISD page had changed since last I had visited it. Lo and behold someone updated the wikipedia page with a lot of great info, just what I was looking for and needing. According to the latest wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldine_Independent_School_District District 29 was founded in 1884 with the consolidation of two north Harris County school "communities" - Westfield and Higgs - into a single district. The Westfield school started in 1876. No starting date was given for Higgs. Now with this new information several more questions surface. I sure hope whoever posted that info to wikipedia reads this board and can find the answers. When was the Higgs school started? The Aldine community's first school wasn't until the early 1900s ( I think I read somewhere 1904 was the first school, which was replaced by a larger building in 1912). When did Aldine become part of District 29? Or was it always part of the district? Also, the way the page now reads, the Brubaker school apparently was part of another district that was dissolved and Brubaker became part of District 29. What district was that and when did that happen? The wikipedia page also mentions the Hartwell School, which had 8th and 9th grade high school classes and I do believe has been discussed in this or some other Aldine thread. This school was District 29's first attempt at a high school and existed sometime in the late 1900s and early 1910s. It closed sometime after 1914 and before 1927.

I saw that two and at first I thought it was going to be another scoreboard. As it blocks half of the train tracks, guess the choo-choo is going away. Not to hijack your thread, but I have a question as well about Minute Maid Park. I've noticed the last two years that they won't sell you the $5 outfield upper deck seats on the day of the game any more, claining they are sold out. Ha! More than half of the seats are empty in those sections during the game, so what's up with that? Are they trying to force you to buy a more expensive seat? Well, I figured if they were going to force me to buy a more expensive seat I didn't want, then one bad turn deserves another. I bought a $13 view deck seat and went and sat in the field boxes. Does anyone know what the story is? This has now happened to me several times in the last two seasons.

The Airline Fina #1 opened in 1968 at 9601 Airline just north of West Mount Houston. I don't know when it became a Chevron, but your timeframe sounds about right.

Thanks youbetcha! Yeah, anyone who wants one, it's free for the asking. Haven't updated that area history in about three years. It's just too hard to do living on the westside. Too much going on in the area now. But even missing the last three years, it's still a good read.

I lived in Northline Terrace, but sometimes I'd ride my bike through Hidden Valley as a kid and yeah, the smell could get pretty strong. Wasn't like a Channelview or Pasadena kind of smell, but even fried chicken can be overpowering if the wind is right.