Retama

Yeah, I think you're right about that, I think it was Charlie's. We used to go there before going to football games at Rice Stadium. Thanks for the correction. For some reason, the names of places I used to go to escape me.

The house in the first photo you posted is my favorite, Amsterdam. I first saw it in a book about Houston (I think it was one of those Ray Miller books) and happened to pass by it one day while doubling back one afternoon.

I started going to the Village in the 1970s when I could drive. I remember the Village Theater (though I never saw a movie there) and the crazy toy store that was next door. We used to eat hamburgers at Miller's Café, anyone remember that place? Loved to park on the roof. Did Miller's Café move to Clear Lake (Bay Area Blvd. and Space Center)? I remember the American Legion Post. Back in the 1980s there was a great dance club on Kirby just around the corner from the Half Price Books where my wife and I used to go. It had Go-Go dancers in cages (what was the name of that place?). For awhile there was a theater next door to the hobby shop where I saw a few plays. They had a good group of actors. The Village has really gone upscale since I used to knock around down there. I kinda miss the old place.

Woah, I used to go to Record Rack all the time in the 1980s. I had no idea the place had been there since 1957. There was another great record shop on Westheimer across the street from the little Antiques Mall near Lanier Middle School. Does anyone remember what that place was called?

Found this photo of the Poe Elementary blast: Is this the playground next to the school?

Love his Alexander tie and her opera gloves! Very American.

Ah, you're right, FilioScotia, I confused Notre Dame's 1913 trip to Texas with their 1915 trip. Back in those days the football field was divided into a grid because you had to be five yards behind the line of scrimmage to pass and you could not run or scramble to throw. That's where we get the term 'gridiron' from. On the subject, does anyone know when the first football game was played in Houston? More specifically, when was the first high school game played here? Football was introduced to Texas in Galveston, so there should have been some early teams here.

In those days UT and A&M played twice a season one of the games being in Houston. The 1911 Texas-TexasA&M game at West End Park resulted in a melee between students. UT students paraded at halftime with brooms meant to symbolize a "sweep" of the Farmers. The cadets thought they were mocking their military traditions and took out after them. A UT student was stabbed in the head. Texas won 24-8. UT wanted to end the series with A&M after that. The games in Houston tended to have a lot of violence and drunkeness around them that fueled what was already a nasty rivalry. In 1911 Varsity (the Longhorns) beat A&M 6-0 and a riot ensued. According to Lou Maysel's book, Here Come the Texas Longhorns, gangs of angry Aggies roamed downtown Houston looking for people wearing orange to beat up. UT broke off athletic relations with A&M after that. Likely it was because Aggie coach Charley Moran used ringers. They didn't play again until 1915 when both were in the brand new Southwest Conference. The SWC was formed, largely to heal the rift between the two universities and provide some firm rule enforcement on eligibility. So, West End Park's association with the Texas-Texas A&M game has some interesting history. Rice played Notre Dame at West End Park in 1915, the same year that the Irish (called the Ramblers back then) upset Army with the forward pass. Knute Rockne and Gus Dorias were on that ND team.

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing this.

Found this on eBay:

My father knew Harry Kalas when he did UH football games on the radio. I had forgotten he did the sports on 11 in those days too. You can still hear his voice on NFL highlight tapes into the 1990s.

Great stuff, thanks for posting it. This is as close to a time machine as we'll ever get.

Historic aerials is fantastic, but I wish I could see Galveston in the 1950s. Still, you can watch the Brownwood section of Baytown fade out over time there.

Hey, good stuff! I never made it to Kitirik's carousel but a friend of mine did. And, yeah, for Houston in the 1960s that cat suit was pretty racy.

Here is a copy of an FBI memo on the meeting from 1961: This was obtained from this site devoted to Malcolm X's FBI files: http://www.wonderwheel.net/work/foia/