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Retama

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  1. Yeah, I remember the Riverside which was on a bluff just north of I-10 in the Four Corners area. Magnolia Gardens was further up the river. It did burn down, but I can't remember when. Very popular place. HarrisCountyEx, I have seen that site. I used it to look up the date my dad saw Elvis Presley live: April 25, 1955 at his high school auditorium in Seymour, Texas. Stuns me to think that Elvis went through that grinding schedule to play in towns of sometimes no more than 2,000 or 3,000 people in gyms and small clubs. Check it out: He plays Cook's Hoedown in Houston (located on Telephone Road) on the 24th then hauls it 400-plus miles to play two dates the next day, the first inWitchita Falls then an hour south to Seymour. After that, he goes all the way out west to Big Spring. That a a damn rigorous schedule. Judging by the Google pics, the old Magnolia Gardens building is long gone. I remember they had a big circular drive in front of it.
  2. I don't see any threads here regarding Magnolia Gardens which was, for years, a popular music venue where country-western acts as well as early rockers like Elvis, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash played often. The place sits on the San Jacinto River, I thought in the Cloverleaf/Channelview area north of I-10, but I believe that it is actually north of old Highway 90. The old memory is pretty unsteady about this since I haven't been there since about 1973 or so. It had a big open-air dance floor and bandstand in its heyday. When we would fish the San Jacinto, my dad liked to motor over there in the boat and talk about all the people who played Magnolia Gardens. By that time (the 1960s) I remember that it had a restaurant/club that overlooked the river and they used to have boat races. Singer Rodney Crowell wrote about seeing shows there on his 2001 album The Houston Kid (which any HAIFer who prowls the history board should have). Any memories, relics of the place?
  3. We had a Globe, a Woolco, a K-Mart and a Gibson's in Baytown. I do remember the Sage stores and those ads. There are still some Gibson's Discount Centers around, including one in Kerrville.
  4. I rented my prom tuxedo from a shop in Baybrook Mall in the spring of 1979 when the mall was brand new. I worked in the office building at Glenwest and West Bay Area Blvd. in the 1980s and watched them overhaul the mall twice in that time. one of those overhauls was the addition of the Macy's (now Dillard's).
  5. Wasn't Howard Lee also married to Hedy Lamaar? I know a guy who used to date Hedy's daughter.
  6. I used to spend a lot of time in this area as a young police reporter and I heard some wild tales about it before I ever saw it from an old Houston cop I used to know. This is the "Little Pearl Harbor" section made famous by its vice rackets and killings and by blues singers like Weldon "Juke Boy" Bonner who wrote songs about it. The area was in very sad shape as far back as 1980 when I first saw it: lots of abandoned and burned out buildings. It was essentially an urban ruin back then created by the drug plague. Crime drove a lot of people out. Dopers would squat in the empty buildings and burn them down. The owners didn't have the money or the will to rebuild and the place was just wiped out. Same thing is happening in inner city Detroit where there are so many open, unpopulated areas that wildlife are moving back into them. I drove back to this section of Fifth Ward earlier this year and was stunned at the block and blocks of empty lots where the grass is reclaiming the sidewalks and even the streets.
  7. I have a TON of Astrodome memories: Taking my grandfather to Astro games when he came to visit in the 1960s back when the home team had the shooting star jerseys ... Booing the hell outta Pete Rose and, yes, Lasorta as well (hats off to you, missmsry). Rusty Staub, the "Toy Cannon," Cesar Cedeno, "The Big Red Rooster," Nolan Ryan, so many memories ... Lived and died with the Heartbreak Oilers ... Hoyle Granger, Garland Boyette, Jerry LeVias, Kenny "Double Aught Buckshot" Burroughs, Fred Willis, Dante Pastroini, Billy "White Shoes" Johnson, Earl Campbell etc., etc. Saw them beat Joe Namath back in 1972 for their only win of the year. The Luv Ya Blue years were absoloutely electric. My brother and I loved the old Oilers and hated the Pittsburgh Steelers. We used to wait late after games outside to get the players to autograph our programs. Bluebonnet Bowl: Saw SMU beat Oklahoma (with Steve Owens) on the last play of the game in 1968 (The first ASTRO Bluebonnet game). UH versus Lou Holtz's NC State team in 1974 was one of the best games ever, ended in a 31-31 tie. Texas came from behind to beat Colorado in 1975 with the Tyler Rose. Texas Tech and Nebraska in 1976 was a good game as well. Saw the last Bluebonnet Bowl, Texas and Pitt (with Ironhead Heyward) in the Dome in 1985, I think. Saw many, many high school games under the Big Top, including Baytown Sterling vs. San Antonio Lee (with Tommy Kramer) in 1972. Saw lots of UH games there as well including the 60-40 Cougar win over UT. Jackson for UH set an NCAA record with three pass intercepts run back for TDs in that one. Saw the USFL Houston Gamblers AND we were there watching the WFL Houston Texans the night John Matuszak was served a restraining order on the bench. Heisman Trophy winners I saw play in the dome: Steve Owens, Earl Campbell, Andre Ware, Pat Sullivan First rodeo I went to was to see Eddie Arnold. Also saw KC and the Sunshine Band, The Mavericks ... too many to name. I covered games there as a sportswriter, sat in the club level for a couple of rodeos back when they had the fancy restaurant/saloon, watched pre-season Oilers games from a new "luxury box." Does anyone remember the concrete tree that was down at field level under the stands? There was also an arcade down there. I used to like to go to the ramp in front of the visitors' dressing rooms after warmups/before the start of games to give enemy players the stinkeye. My dad is related to the actor Michael Parks and in the mid-1970s he invited us to the Astrodome to visit and be extras in a movie that was being filmed there called Murder at the World Series. That is still one of my favorite memories. But my best memories are of playing and practicing in the Dome as a high schooler during the playoffs. After all the games I had seen there, actually playing on that field was a huge thrill. I remember running my finger across the bright green Astroturf and bringing up a cloud of dust. The seams in that damn carpet (which were zipped together) were deadly and sliding across the plastic grass would take your skin right off. I remember how surprisingly cramped the home dressing rooms were with entry ways so low you had to duck to get through them and located way up the ramp.
  8. I went to a few dances at Sylvan Beach in high school. For an interesting treat, drive down the road to see Ross Sterling's mansion on the bay. It's a small replica of the White House. A buddy of mine used to know the caretaker of the place and we were able to go inside once. It was in sad shape and that was 20-plus years ago.
  9. I wondered about when that concrete was poured, Filio. A number of bodies Corll buried in the Heights might be under a parking lot behind where Corll's old candy biz was located. There used to be some folks around Pasadena who remembered Corll oddly cruising around some of the neighborhoods there as early as the mid-1960s. Trouble is, the homosexual angle to the murders caused them to keep their mouths shut, least they be thought to be in the same company. This terrible crime still fascinates me, in part, because I remember it so well as a 12-year-old kid and because I still cross threads of it today: my mother-in-law has a beach house near where some of Corll's victims were buried. We also frequently travel across Lake Sam Rayburn, passing very near a second burial place Corll used, through Broaddus, where he spent time, into San Augustine where Henley was held briefly. When I worked for the Pasadena Citizen I talked to people who had some interesting things to say -- verifiable things -- about Corll. By chance, at the funeral of a family friend, I talked to a guy who knew Dean Corll through another teenager (not Henley or Brooks) and went to one of the periodic shindigs they'd hold. He told me about some odd and scary stuff that went on and said he feels certain that he'd have been a victim if he'd continue to go back, but he didn't.
  10. Yeah, those boatsheds on Silver Bell are still there. Drove by Corll's Pasadena house just the other day. Corll told a boy he was having an affair with that he would never take him into the back bedroom of the house on Lamar and did not say why. According to a Pasadena cop, that room was in the back on the southwest side of the house, same room in which Corll was killed. It is believed that some bodies are buried in the backyard there. Vince's Bayou runs behind the place but it has concrete banks. Other related spots: The Westcott Tower (I have no address) -- Corll lived there with Brooks and Henley was a frequent visitor. Neighbors reported hearing weird stuff and seeing lots of kids coming and going. The Hart's Chicken Joint near old Hamilton Junior High in the Heights -- frequent pickup spot for Henley and Brooks. 402 W. 16th Street Heights -- Corll lived here. 6363 San Felipe (an apartment complex, I believe) -- Corll lived there and Henley told cops Ruben Haney was killed there. The Place One Apartments on Mangum -- Corll lived and killed there. The Princessa Apartments on Wirt -- Corll lived there and took the lives of several victims there as well. My brother once bought a house where a double murder/suicide took place. Apparently, a teenage girl shotgunned her parents while they slept then killed herself. I used to go over there to do yard work before he moved in and then after he moved out and was selling the place. Knowing its history made the place creepy. My mind tended to regard every odd noise as a ghost.
  11. Thanks for running that down. If you read Ralph Cushman's book Young Bussey, Young Stud, it talks about Bussey hanging out in Root Square, meeting Barrow and bringing him home for supper. Raymond Hamilton was once one of the most wanted desperadoes in the country. Twenty-four reefers in a single day? What a viper!
  12. There really wasn't a Baytown until the Humble refinery was completed in 1921. The "Humble Camp" there was right up next to the refinery entrance. If you go down to Old Baytown (remember, Baytown was once three different cities, Goose Creek, Pelly and Baytown) the camp was in the now empty and open grassy areas across from the old junior high school. The town was built next to it. Go down to the Baytown History Museum on Defee (a great museum by the way) and you can see photos of the old Humble Camp there.
  13. Speaking of Root Square, where excatly is it and what is its history? An old neighbor of ours when I was growing up said that the unemployed used to camp there during the depression. I have also read that it was a gathering place for some eclectic and eccentric types, political radicals, crimminals, oddballs. What's the word?
  14. Just to add a bit to what MWKellner gave us about Cedar Bayou HS: Voters in Cedar Bayou ISD and Goose Creek ISD (Baytown) opted to consolidate in March of 1954 (this is why Goose Creek is a CISD). As a result, a new elementary school was built (James Bowie), CBHS was closed and students there moved to Baytown REL while the Cedar Bayou High building was kept and made a junior high campus only. I played football in old Cedar Bayou Stadium as a boy in the Optimist Club Junior League, at Baytown Junior High and as a freshman at Baytown REL. It was ancient and had only one bank of stands. The coach who had success at Cedar Bayou High was the late Bob Barfield who later coached at Pasadena High for many years and took the Eagles to the 1958 4-A state title game.
  15. Although I never went there for that, I often saw celebs -- both local and international -- at the Galleria. Once, in the 1990s, I was walking on the second level and paused to lean over the rail. Straight across, on the other side, was Lyle Lovett in a suit shop being fitted. His hair gave him away! Over the years I have crossed paths with about a dozen or more well-known people and never once stopped to ask them for their autograph. The closest I came to coming up to one was Sheena Easton back in the mid-1980s. She was so hot and I was a strapping young blade just out of the Marines, but she had another girl and couple of guys with her so I just let her pass. *Ahhhhhh*, the beautiful music we could have made. LOVED the Sam Houston bookstore. I'm old enough to remember when The Gap was an exotic place and the only one in the whole city was in the Galleria.
  16. Oh yes, I do remember the Fun Shop. it satisfied much of my fake vomit and garlic gum needs for many years. There was also a terrific newstand streched out along the wall of one of the offshoot corridors on the ground level of the Galleria. It carried a ton of stuff including foreign magazines and newspapers as well as regional sports magazines and newsletters. it closed it the mid-to-late 1980s. My friend's sister lived in an apartment across the street from the Galleria and, yes, I was surprised to discover that you could easily enter the place and wander around a bit after hours.
  17. I have been fascinated with this house since I first passed it more than 40 years ago when my dad began work at NASA. Over that time I have seen a number of features disappear from the lawn and apartment buildings slowly begin to encroach upon this beautiful place. Hard to believe that NASA Road 1 was just a shell trail when this home was built.
  18. I had totally forgotten that. That area was so well known as the "Gulfton Ghetto" that I would not be surprised.
  19. Who remembers the old City Auditorium (which stood where Tranquility Park is today next to city hall, I think) which was mentioned above? Johnny Ace killed himself by losing a game of Russian Roulette there on New Year's eve 1954. Notorious Don Robey was said to be involved so, who really knows ...
  20. Yeah, Bobby Wright was my government teacher. He used to turn his Rice ring upside down and bop me on the head with it. He was one of three different guys who QBed the Owls in 1958. I used to see him around when I'd go back to Baytown from time to time. Crazy cat. I knew Sultis was a Rice grad. Mr. Pete still had a mind like a steel trap when I'd talked to him about six years ago. Don't forget that Henry Armstrong also played football at Rice and coached football at Del Mar JC in Corpus Christi. I still think they should have named the new high school for him. I recognize your name as well, MWKellner, from the old Suicide Squad days!
  21. That's right. The NCAA specifies that to play at the Div. IA level, you must play in a stdium that seats at least 35,000. This reminds me of a story Marvin Zindler did about Rice Stadium. Back during the 1985 Bluebonnet Bowl, a black member of the crew televising the game happened to notice that in a concession area by one of the restrooms the faded word "Colored" designating the black restrooms from Jim Crow was still (barely) visible at the Stadium. Marvin struck another blow for civil rights by demanding university officials paint over it, which they did. So, yeah, not much in the way of work done out there until 2006 when they made some improvements. Didn't get out there to see them, however.
  22. I watched Oswald's Ghost, it was pretty good. PBS did an even better documentary about Oswald called, "Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald?" It was very spooky and it revisited many of the old places where LHO lived in the past, particularly his old New Orleans haunts. Damn good.
  23. My old high school, Baytown REL was full of Rice grads and the football team had long and old ties to Rice. My coach, Ron Kramer, played on the 1957 SWC championship team with King Hill and Dial and Frank Ryan who QBed the Cleveland Browns to the 1964 NFL championship. Our family doctor was George Walmsley an REL gridiron great and a member of the Owls' 1947 Orange Bowl Championship team. Rice's beating of Purdue in West Lafayette on the same day in 1934 that Texas beat Notre Dame in South Bend help give the SWC national recognition. Rice Stadium (opened in 1950) was built to hold 72,000 because people were crazy for SWC football and the Owls often played before capasity crowds. Rice is one of only a few universities that has played in the Orange, Sugar and Cotton Bowls. The Owls were the SWC's 1994 co-champions.
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