legolo

I remem(ber the Malibu Grand Prix murders. I graduated high school in 1987 and we used to go there to play video games and ride the go karts my freshman year. I think it went out of business after that incident. I remember spending a couple of summers at Astroworld. Remember when HISD would reward kids with perfect attendence with a full free day at the end of the school year? That "free day" was always a total zoo. I used to get the "93Q"? season pass the summers of middle school and spend the entire summer there with my best friend. I remember seeing concerts in the back lot throughout the years (Molly Hatchet, Heart....). We would ride the Cliffhanger over and over until we couldn't stand up straight. I have older memories of a farmers market/flee market with an ice rink next to what is now Memorial City. I also remeber one of those pony ride parks out west on Westheimer. In high school, we used to go to a laser tag that was somewhere off Bellaire and Gessner (?) I only remember the general location - it was made in what had been an old Safeway grocery store I think and had a second story catwalk where you could view the players below and read on TV screens what the scores were.

Wow....I've been skimming through this and it really makes me homesick for things that will never be again. When I was in middle school, the manager of the San Francisco Steak House lived in my neighborhood. His daughter was my age and she had a bunck of their T-Shirts and bragged about being on the trapeze. I think it was a tall tale since she was so young at the time but you never know - life was a bit more relaxed back then. I was also a mall rat at Sharpstown since I had gone to Sharpstown Middle and a few of my friends lived in that area. I vividly remember the food court and blowing a lot of quarters on air hockey. Remember the days of Tiffany? Kind of scary.... My first job after freshman year of high school was at a movie theatre just north of what was Trader Vic's at Westheimer and Gessner. The last time I looked, the movie theatre is long gone and is now a dance hall. I grew up in the Gessner/Westheimer area and practically lived at the Galleria with several years of skating lessons and following my dad (an artist) up to the mall to work on weekends. I even later spent the summer after my sophomore year of high school working as a waitress at Farrell's Family Restaurant. I only had one odd experience that year when the father of a birthday boy (about 12/13) wanted to know if his son could pull off my leg garter for a hefty tip. My manager turned all sorts of interesting colors at that request! Farrell's also owned The Coquery which was next door and kind of a cafeteria style restaurant. My dad was good friends with the manager for years and would set up his rig and do caricatures at the entry way to help him get more of a crowd. He also taught a basic art class there for awhile through HCC. I can't tell you how many weekends I spent skating, haunting the Farrell's candy shop, and the Joke shop. Does anyone remember the theatre that was just down the way on that level? I remember that was where I saw the first Star Wars and how they made a huge deal about the new speaker system that they installed specifically for that movie. I also saw Legend there (remember all the hayfever fluff?) There was also a wonderful book store on the same end as the Coquery that had a children's nook. It was great for grabbing the latest thriller/sci-fi and ducking into to read a few chapters first to see if it was worth my babysitting money. I also miss a great little steakhouse that was just off of Richmond and Hillcroft? named Dirty's. It was part of a small chain and had the biggest chicken fried steaks I have ever seen. Now I'm stuck in the frozen north and missing a Houston that is completely gone.