WillowBend56

Tyler--best place of 8 locations I have lived in Texas during my lifetime!

Lived there as a kid 1961-1962.

Always a must-stop place to eat at when we drive west of Ft. Worth on I-20.

https://www.smokestack.net/

Across the interstate is this neat museum on Thurber's coal mining and brick making past:

https://www.tarleton.edu/gordoncenter/

Had reservations there for 4 days in September.

That got cut back to Fridays and Saturdays only about a month before we showed up.

Then 24 hours before we were to check in, we got a call that Indian Lodge was closed until early October 2020

because some of the staff tested positive for COVID-19.

No alternatives were provided or even a list of places.

We ended staying here in Ft. Davis on short notice and liked it: Mountain Trail Lodge

https://www.mountaintrailslodge.com/

Two summers ago it was hard to find a place to overnight between Big Spring and Van Horn for less than

$200 a night.

A few weeks ago I drove Pecos to Abilene and saw an explosion of new motels and all sorts of temporary

housing.

A.J. Foyt Chevrolet where I bought my 1978 Chevy Nova!

Check out the new book from University of Texas Press on River Oaks and Highland Park
http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/ferhig

We lived at 5111 Stillbrooke (west of Post Oak).  Before homes were built up behind ours circa 1956-57, we could see all the way to the RR tracks along S. Main. I never recall seeing any lights flashing in the distance when the noon whistle sounded. 

After seeing it for many years, I finally attended mass at Annunciation on February 3--a Novus Ordo mass, in fact.  Before mass, a couple who married there in 1950 came back for photographs and renewal of their vows.

What a gem! Definitely a Nicholas Clayton design.  It's a smaller space inside than it looks from the outside.  I noticed none of the windows opened .  I wonder if that was the case before air conditioning came along.

The adjacent Incarnate Word Academy looks relatively new.  When was it rebuilt?  Wasn't there a parish school in the same block?

Found my copy of he official souvenir guidebook.

Exhibitors were:

Bell System

Coca Cola

Kodak

Falstaff Brewing

Ford

Frito Lay/ Pepsi Cola

GE

GM

Gulf Interstate Insurance

Gulf Oil

Humble Oil

IBM

Lone Star Brewing

LDS Church

Pearl Brewing

RCA

Sermons from Science (Alive Inc.)

Southern Baptist

Woman's Pavilion

States & Nations: Arkansas, Belgium, Bolivia, Canada, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, France, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Venezuela, and the OAS.

Advertisers included: Continental Airlines, Braniff, Frost Bros., Continental Trailways, Gibson's Discount Stores, Joske's, King Ranch, and others.

What a fabulous getaway place! My wife (NJ born) never suspected West Texas held anything of beauty or interest until she spent a few nights here:

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/state-parks/indian-lodge

It's a great base from which to explore. Note the nearby attractions mentioned in the web page.

My family also went to Hemisfair in 1968. I was 15.

I best recall the interactive movie theater and the Mexican pole dancers (no, not that kind!).

I have the guide book too. Interesting to see which companies advertised in it.

The train ride and weather were great! Lots of folks turned out at the depot in Houston to see it leave. The train itself was almost full. It had to wend its way around the east side of Houston until we got to Mykawa and then we started cruising. Part of the reason for the trip was the transportation of two restored passenger diesel locomotives to the Galveston Railroad Museum and of course it's official reopening since recovering from Hurricane Ike.

The museum had to scrap or sell a fair amount of its exhibit equipment. They were just too far gone from the ravages of salt water.

Here's what the train was about:

http://www.railpictures.net/album/419/

Lunch at Gaido's was a nice interlude until we left back to Houston around 3:30 PM, returning at a faster clip.

If you missed riding the TEXAS LIMITED to Galveston back in the 1990s, there's a one-time opportunity on November 10, 2012 to ride there again as part of a commemoration of the revived Galveston Railroad Museum since the devastation of Hurricane Ike. The route will be over the former Santa Fe line instead of the GH&H line that the TEXAS LIMITED traversed.

Scroll down to the very bottom of this link to find the large trip icon and click on it:

http://www.galvestonrrmuseum.com/

Historically there were three railroad routes to Galveston and one electric interurban route from Houston.

Growing up in the Willow Bend area in the 1950s, we kids would expect to hear a noontime whistle from one of the industrial businesses off South Main. I never knew which business it was. I'm pretty sure it was not the Southern Pacific Railroad. Anyway, it was a signal to "warm up" our televisions for lunch-time cartoons.

We swam at the Shamrock's pool in the late 50s. I don't think my parents had any kind of special membership or pass. I think they just paid an entrance fee.

Great pool! It seemed HUGE. It was HUGE. The diving boards were formidable to a kid like myself.

Movie theaters in Houston have never had it so good before or since!

http://www.cah.utexas.edu/db/dmr/image_lg.php?variable=e_bb_1659

This was not the draw for me as a kid about going to Foley's at Christmas but perhaps it was for one of you!

http://www.cah.utexas.edu/db/dmr/image_lg.php?variable=e_bb_0389

How about a late Santa Claus appearance from yesteryear caught on film by Bob Bailey Studios?

http://www.cah.utexa...iable=e_bb_4792

and

http://www.cah.utexa...iable=e_bb_4791

and

http://www.cah.utexa...iable=e_bb_4790

and finally

http://www.cah.utexa...iable=e_bb_4789

Enjoy!

While talking with my mother tonight about Westbury back when all was new, she mentioned something about a street of houses near Westbury Square that had a "gingerbread" theme to their exteriors. She thought it odd for the times.

Anyone else recall those homes or the street they were on?

It's Christmas 1958 or 1959. The best place to indulge your dreams of getting accessories to your Lionel train was Foley's downtown Houston. They had a Lionel layout, catalogs, and all the stuff some young boys like myself lusted after.

I also lusted for the Lionel layout on the Captain Kangaroo show.

Found an updated link to this church:

http://www.stkevork.org/

Sevfiv: I'd say your photo overlay of the spur is right.

I don't see the streetcar line parallel to South Main. Is it hidden under the wing of the aerial survey plane?

_{In the photograph, I can see the faintest hint of a railroad dump. You would not suspect what it was without looking at the map first.}

_{It is the final stretch of the spur that curves on past the power station and heads over to what---the main administration building?}

I asked my mother about Meyerland.

She recalls grocery shopping at "Hinky Pinkies" as she called it. Also clothes shopping at Meyer's (sp?). Both of us recall the escalators there for some strange reason.

She vividly remembers the furnished model homes opening around Meyerland. The night sky lit up with spotlights. The one model house with a completely enclosed swimming pool.

She also mentioned a "new" strip mall that opened up around 1955-56 on OST. A cousin won a Davy Crockett coonskin hat there in some contest or giveaway!

If you look at maps of Houston dating from the 1910s and 1920s, you'll notice a rail spur from the old SA&AP (later Southern Pacific) mainline down to the Rice campus. [The San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railway paralleled today's Southwest Freeway.] One purpose of the rail spur was to service a coal power plant on the campus. Anyone seen old photographs of the rail line or the Rice power plant? It would appear the spur left the mainline and traversed what later became Greenbriar Dr.