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yak23flora

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Everything posted by yak23flora

  1. Strange. My daughter got married last year, June 11th, at the Ronin venue (pretty great place btw). It seemed to us that Night Shift was open and doing fine, there were people in there watching the Astros game that evening. Hmm...
  2. The 610/45 exchange by Gulfgate has always been screwy ever since they built it. Weird exchange between 610/45/35 and there used to be sneaky ways to avoid traffic coming off 610 eastbound to 45 southbound by going underneath it all passing the Metro station.
  3. I would assume the Interurban was standard gauge rail if it could connect to the industrial lines here and there. Interesting.
  4. I shared these pics back in '07 but the links are now broken. Figured I'd post them again - these are black and white photos I took downtown and in the ward next to UH in 1989 or so. Lots of things that are not longer there.
  5. Ahh the 80s. I graduated high school in '86 and went to UH for the rest of the 80s. I agree with some of you folks that being a jobless student colors my view of the 80s. I watched my dad's pump and compressor business go bust with the oil downturn, and saw him have to resort to selling cars. But my parents hung on. As for me, it was a wonderful decade. I remember feeling safe enough even in places where I probably shouldn't have been. Cruising Westheimer, checking out the bum camps under downtown bridges, sneaking into concerts at the Summit (you could if you knew the ways in). Astroworld for hours on end, all the things everyone has said. I loved it. I just read this whole thread - thanks for the memories.
  6. OK so it isn't houston but its close enough I hope. In friendswood, along Clear Creek in the woods off Oxnard Park, there is a foundation and a brick chimney, some old chain link fencing, and what I believe looks like a spillway. I know there was a sawmill on Clear Creek early in the 20th century but this looks a bit later. Anyone know what this is?
  7. I was a Boy Scout, went all the way to Eagle with palms. Troop 656 at Park Place Lutheran Church in the mid 70's to early 80s. That troop had a long history going back into the '40s but when I was in it, we had a mix of folks and some kids from the rough neighborhood there. I saw my first mugging happen while at a scout meeting. Overall, we had an awesome troop and it was a great experience.
  8. Just FYI. UP is in the process even as I type of nearly finishing a complete rail upgrade on the line at east out to League City with plas to rehab the entire line to the UP yard on the Island. The rail is now modern, continuous welded rail. This line sees 6 to 10 trains a day plus a local that services the handful of industries along the subdivision. It was stated on an industry train forum that UP desires to minimize trackage rights on the BNSF Galveston sub through pearland-Alvin-Santa Fe, increasing freight commerce on their own Glaveston line makes the most sense. Speed should increase a bit but part of speed restrictions along the UP Galveston sub is busy grade crossings liek Bay Area Blvd. There is talk of long term plans to elevate Bay Area and other major grade crossings, and at one time talk of a connector near Ellington to the Bayport facility since the old SP line along 146 is cut at Kemah and a large section abandoned. The studies can be found on the TXDOT website. Most traffic on the UP Galveston sub along Hwy 3 runs at night, just heard a wailing horn half an hour ago. Its a well used and moderately busy line with clear intentions to make better use of it for freight. Running high speed would require much more than track upgrades in my opinion. In some areas the track is nearly in people's back yard and there are significant risks with running trains through such subdivisions at commuter speed. The many, many crossings pose a safety hazard as well. Once on the Island, old right of ways could easily be re-tracked, but I don't think its a passenger friendly route without major investment, double tracking (some places offer no room for double tracking), grade rasings and a user base that is not time-challeneged.
  9. There are huge gar in Clear Creek and Clear Lake, saw one last year while boating in the creek, 5 to 6 footer just hanging out like a log. Spotted gar are more common and like the clear water upstream from I:45 bridge and past Challenger Park. Alligator gar don't mind living in mud. Sims Bayous had alligator gar in the 1990s, we used to hang out at MacGregor park skipping class at UH occasionally in the late 1990s (that is Sims, or is it Brays?) Anyway, Buffalo Bayou has lots of catfish and gars as well, while metal detecting near the Shepherd bridge where the land was backfilled with debris from nearer town, I saw several spotted gar and some catfish. Cats, gars and some carp are plentiful in most of our bayous, and some of those catfish get really huge!
  10. I used tp play ball there too, for 9 years. I remember when the Brio site was Dixie Refining and in operation. The part on the north side of Dixie Farm/Choate Rd. was the "storage" facility, we used to sneak in over there and throw things into the open storage pits that seemed to stretch for 100 yards. They had a huge ruptured storage tank on its side there too, and the whole place was wierdly cool. Southbend was razed and today it remains undeveloped, I pass there once or twice a week. There is new development across from the site on Beamer, south of San Jac. A low cost housing place sprang up recently targeting college students but few college students live there. On the lot abutting Dixie Farm and Beamer, where starving cows used to roam, new development is going in muich to my disgust, I remember when all of this area was pleasant country and hold memories. Progress, I suppose, more cookie cutter suburbs. Someone mentioned the undeveloped land between Ellington and Friendswood around 45 and FM 2351. This is still a producing gas and oil field and Exxon Mobil has storage facilities in the salt domes underground. I work for an oilfield services company and have looked at this area wondering why it has (happily for me because I like the coastal prarie) not bee developed. ExxonMobil still has crews working this field daily, monitoring and maintaining. It is in decline, but better production techniques keep it worth the while. This field was first drilled in the 1920s and 30s, part of the Hastings field complex, much of which has been sold and developed. With a pretty large gas storage facility underground (I've been told one of its compressor station is on Rex Road at Beamer by the Heritage Park subdivision) I don't know what would be involved in selling.
  11. Hey I dated a girl from that church! I used to attend Park Place Lutheran accross the street from Methodist and remember thinking that their church looked much more cool than ours.
  12. B-29s were converted to B-50s and flown more commonly as KB-50 takers. They flew well into the 1950s IIRC. There are very few B-29s that are preserved, most being scrapped or converted to the KB-50 role. The B-29 that the CAF has ("Fifi") is the only one flying today. It didn't get flightworth until 1974 and wasn't anywhere near Houston then, but flew from China Lake NAS to Harlingen TX. Not saying it wasn't a B-29 you saw but getting one of those down in Houston would be a pretty hard feat unless it was a major airfield. PB4Y-2 Naval Bombers (Naval version of the B-24) had a glass nose and these were used for firebombers for decades, they tend to get laid up in hangars and warehouses in odd places.
  13. When they were putting in the metro station where the old theater used to be, I was saddened. But being an opportunist, I asked for permission to metal detect where the hill used to be that we kids used to roll down toward the feeder road. They were teraing it out and leveling the thing. I had a day before they put up the fences. I found $15 in silver coinage from the 40s thru 60s, lots of clad coinage, and some miscellaneous junk jewelry, one hotwheel, and a high school ring from 1966, Jones I think, it was bent and the stone was missing. Tons of pop tops and pull tabs as usual. It was one of my best days ever metal detecting, and knowing what went on at that site to empty pockets (rolling down hills does that) and knowing exactly where we all would land made a banner day!
  14. Someone posted about the italian deli in Almeda Mall, that was Samperi's and they had a brick arch facade. I loved the smell of that place! They were right in the middle of the commons where the Christmas train would be assembled each year and where recitals and events would be held. I worked at the JC Penney in Almeda mall back in the 80s before its decline, and grew up in the area, I loved that mall! Gulfgate, wow, I remember that too. Not the details you folks recall, but I do remember Joske's and the diner in the Walgreens. I also remember the diner and the aquariums in the Woolworth's at Almeda mall.
  15. I remember a place in the 1970s calle Old Hickory Stick Restaurant. It was somewhere on Telephone Rd. I think near Stubbs, and had what appeared to me (as a kid) to be a huge HO scale train layout somewhat modeled after Houston. I used to love to go there just to look at the trains. The large case it was built into a wall and the lights were timed to give night and day effect. Am I dreaming this up or do I recall correctly. What a great find if anyone had some old photos. Oh yeah, hello! I'm new here. Edit: It would help if I had used the search function, someone posted a postcard with Old Hickory Stick in this thread: http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/haif/i...?showtopic=3151
  16. Me too, it is an excellent look at Houston in the rail era, magnificent pictures and so much detail that any local history buff can hardly do without this gem.
  17. I found a Weingarten's token while metal detecting at Ellington Field a few years ago, which reminded me there was a Weingarten's at Edgebrook and I-45 that became a Minimax, and now I don't recall what it is.
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