cowboybud

The economy, Wal-Mart, and online shopping have killed malls around the country. I live near West Oaks and it's pretty much dead except for Macy's and Alamo Drafthouse.

I live there and concur.

A lot of the now-ghetto apartment buildings in SW Houston were "swinging singles" hotbeds back then. At some point (in the early 80s I think), a law was passed barring "adults only" complexes, putting an end to that scene.

It was a Randall's. The Safeway (later Appletree) was at Airline @ West Rd across from Aldine High School. It was a Fiesta last time I was there.

The Airline @ West Road location was (may still be) a Fiesta also. Bellaire @ Winkleman (west of Hwy 6) - was a Weingarten, then an Appletree, was vacant for years, now a "party hall/events center".

Perhaps sometime after WWII? I suppose that some schools passed on 12th grade before then, since it was expected that young men would leave school and join the military when they turned 18. Re: Coors beer; I remember my dad drinking Coors as a kid, this would have been in the 70s. And as any good movie fan knows, taking Coors beer east of Texarkana is bootleggin'.

The BelAir as well.

Are you referring to the Western Swing? The other building is (and always has been) a convenience store/gas station. The Jack In The Box is (was? I haven't been in that area in several years) further north on Airline, out of the picture.

My sister moved to Mission Bend (where I now live) in 1982 or so; Hwy 6 was pretty barren, just an occasional strip center, office building or subdivision. The KOA campground was still there; Foley's had just opened at Westheimer (FM 1093), but West Oaks Mall wouldn't be built for a few more years. Bellaire had just been extended to where it now dead ends in Mission Bend (I don't know why they don't just extend it all the way to 1464).

Hard to believe that "Gunspoint" was once a vibrant, semi-upscale area.

Atlantic League They're an independent league, with players that were passed up by major league organizations. Unless they're adding more teams in this part of the country, it's not going to work travel-wise (current teams are all in the northeast).

Anyone know exactly where in Sugar Land the transmitter building was?

According to the article in Sunday's Chronicle, this theater will eventually re-open as part of the Plaza Americas remodeling/rebranding.

It wouldn't have been called "Greenspoint Dodge" back then, since the "Greenspoint" name wasn't in existence until the mall opened in the mid 70s. Cal's dealerships on the west coast are still open. Didn't they finally re-shoot the Thunderbolt commercial a few years ago?

historicaerials.com goes back to the 1960s...there was a subdivision where Greenway Plaza is now.

Pretty sure that's what it refers to, as Exxon used to be Humble Oil.

The West Oaks store actually opened around 1981 (when Hwy 6 @ FM 1093 was the middle of nowhere), with the mall following a couple of years later.

I remember that place.

The TDHCA sign now has "CANCELLED" spray painted on it.

I remember a big arcade in that area, but I don't remember it having batting cages and boats.

North Freeway between West Rd. and FM 525 in the Randalls Center. It opened in the mid-70s and was there until Sage went belly up. The space became a Walgreens and, as far as I know, has been vacant (along with most of the center) for several years.

Walgreens has been around Houston a LOT longer than that; there was one on Long Point near my grandmother's old house that had been there since at least the 50s. You're thinking of the one in the Randall's center by Aldine, which opened around 1975.

As others have said, North Oaks wasn't a mall per se; there was a center court that had some small storefronts, the AMC theatre and an arcade (there was a rear entrance/parking lot to the theatre accessible from Stuebner-Airline/Veterans Memorial). I remember Target, a clothing store of some kind (Weiner's maybe), a Wyatt's Cafeteria and I think another restaurant there.

QUBE (which became Warner Amex, which became Warner Cable, which became Time Warner cable) was the first in my neighborhood.

KIKK remained country (although tweaking their format, first to Texas-centric country, then to "Young Country"), up until the early 2000s when the station flipped to smooth jazz. They recently flipped to dance/top 40 and are now known as "Hot 95.7".