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carol802

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  1. carol802
    Anyone remember when a weekend couldn't pass without a car making the circle and heaving (the quarterbacks) a salvo tab at Mecom fountain. They knew they hit it if ten minutes later they made a slow driveby and saw bubble land. Kinda like a lawn dart or washer toss type game. The newspapers would pout about how the detergent wasn't good for the pumps but it was our only version of snow.
  2. carol802
    The Sharpstown was much younger and nicer than the S.Main. I often went to the Sharps rather than the S.M. because things seemed a little more high tech and cleaner. They also had a huge snack bar and playground.
  3. carol802
    Oh wow, man. The Animals, The Who, Quicksilver, The Byrds, Chicago, The Elevators and who did InaGadadavida? Iron Butterfly? And the Catacombs. I saw ZZTop in a little hole in the wall in Beaumont in maybe 68-69? No long beards yet and we were almost sitting on top of them.
  4. carol802
    I think I went to every rock concert that came through Houston in the mid 60's thru late 70's except for the Beatles, Hendrix and the Stones. The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Rascals, Cream, Lead Zepplin, a great performance of Jesus Christ Superstar and brain freeze many more. Loudan Wainwright had a new guy as the opening band name Bruce Springsteen. Most were held at the Coliseum and a few more intimate (Moody Blues, James Taylor) were held at the Theatre in the Round. Billy Joel (didn't say HARD rock) was at the Music Hall. I saw the Eagles twice and I think the second time was held at what became the Compac center? It was new & shiny and remember waiting in the long bathroom line when they played Hotel California. Seperate place! I saw Pink Floyd at the L.A. Coliseum and when they played "Learning to Fly" they had waited for a plane to descend over the coliseum on it way to land at lax. They bounced hot pink lazer beams off the belly of the plane. It was awsome. Anyone else out there remember any of the concerts?
  5. carol802
    There's a post above saying "carol, I think I can see your house" (and you can) and it has the best aerial shot of the drive-in area in the late 50's. Guess you have to be a baby boomer to remember the S.Main at it's peak. Just the concept of the drive-in seems alien to todays kids (anyone under 35). I don't know that I would be going to one today. I don't even go to the indoor cinemas anymore with the luxury of home use dvds and large screen hd tvs, remotes with pause (and no lines at my bathroom or snackbar)!! Good question for an anthropologist. Did our culture kill the drive-ins or did the demise of the drive-ins change the culture? The S. Main Drive-in (if memory correct) was the first drive-in in Texas and was built in 1942(?). I'm fuzzy and am cheating at not looking it back up this moment but I will. At the time it (and the gambling casino, that I imagined was Tara) were out in the middle of nowhere between true Houston and Sugarland. Not sure when the pie shaped 9 hole golf course bordered by what would become the extension of W. Belfort, S. Main (entrance) and Stella Link was developed or when it disappeared.(I had thought the "links" were named after some woman named Stella till a new found website friend told me about the old railway stops). The golf course was there when I moved to the area at 5 and was still there when I moved in 71. It was on it's way out as a mainstream family drive-in by the early-mid 70's and was going the way of the Red Bluff in Pasadena and was showing soft porn (by today's standard there wasn't anything different than you would see in a pushing the limit R movie today). They put up a tall steel fence about that time but it couldn't overcome my younger brother's ability to look out the upstairs back window. I don't know when they tore it down but it was a visual concept shock to me to see the industrial park there.
  6. carol802
    Anyone notice the photo website is calling the area Fort Bend,TX? What's up with that?
  7. carol802
    In the 1957 photos I can see where the land for 610 (crossing Stella Link) is vacant. If you look north past the drive-in and up Stella Link you will see where W. Belfort cut through and (I think) Corpus Christi Cath church & school. That area was pretty vacant & I remember it that way when riding my bike to school. When you go further north you will see the circle drive for Shearn Elementary and one row of houses facing the school. Behind them you will see the vacant 610 land. When they started mounding the foundation for the overpass we had the best times on our bikes.
  8. carol802
    Oh that is a great map site!! Thanks so much. If you zoom in on the last residential street before Willowbend (Woodhaven) you'll see a car in the back driveway of the 7th house from down from Stella Link and our house was the 8th. We moved in August of 1958. The complex to the west side of the drive-in was an industrial warehouse & self storage warehouse type of place (best I remember) and south-west was the old mansion-casino. Does anyone know if that place was built to be a casino or was an older home redone? I saved that map website & I'm going surfing! Thanks again.
  9. carol802
    I bet you are right about the late night teenage parties back then. I could see it after the drive-in went dark so no doubt that was many of the kids leaving & going there. I also imagined the history more like "Gone With the Wind" thinking that the house was much older than the 30's. Do we know that it was newly built by Mr. Freedman or an older home & grounds taken over & livened up? Someone may have told me as a child about it's casino past and I thought I was seeing ghosts! Sounds like it would make a good backdrop for a book.
  10. carol802
    Oh my goodness! That's it. The northern portion of land across the road (Old South Main Loop I think) is where the S.Main drive-in was later built. I will look at the threads. It always fascinated me. I love this website.
  11. carol802
    Does anyone have info on the old mansion (looked like a plantation house to me) that was at the curve on S. Main on the right past Stella Link but before Hiram Clarke? It was on the right on what seemed to me to be a rise. I looked on Google and can see what I think is the outline for the old house and a driveway up to it. I used to look at it through binoculars from my upstairs window facing Willowbend. I imagined it was some sort of 30's gambling casino. There was always something going on late at night in the 60's because I could see comings & goings after the drive-in went dark. Is there any history/articles/books about this area prior to the late 40's early 50's when they started building neighborhoods for returning vets? Woodhaven and Woodcraft (off Stella Link before Willowbend) were some of the first neighborhoods. Lots of tear downs and MacMansions going up on Woodhaven. There couldn't have been much out there and I wondered how much of the land the homeowners might of had at the time. Thanks for any input. I love this website.
  12. carol802
    Wow, Flipper! Thanks for sharing that. That's awsome. I was wondering how I was gonna get a shot like that without another bonk on the noggin! I discovered the little bubble cameras in Google last night. We don't have that detail on the views of our bumpkin neighborhoods. On the South Main driv- in spot I posted I said I had watched the drive-in out my bedroom window. I could see the window like I was standing on Willowbend. Made me want to duck and cover! Thanks everybody for letting me dive in to your site!
  13. carol802
    That's it! The Price's I remember was in the late 50's & 60's. Google shows a jack-in-the-box there now. We (my mom & siblings) didn't travel far off of Stella Link/Weslyan in those years from South Main to 59. I went to West University Elementary & Shearn (& Johnston JrH, Westbury & Madison), and shopped at the Weingartens at Montclair shopping center & the one south of Braeswood. We would go to Weiners or to the Bellaire theater or our pediatricians office that was across the street from the theater. They put up an A&W at the (Southwest?) corner of Stella L & Bellaire in the late 60's early 70's. We went to the Prince's on S.Main as a HUGE treat. I'm recovering from a major head injury. This website that I found only a week ago has been a God Send! It has helped re-fire memory points that weren't that great before the accident! It is bizarre what I remember now triggered by the strings here. Visualizations, scents, tastes and feelings that all have to do with my itsy-bitsy part of growing up and being a part of the Houston history.
  14. carol802
    I had seen in one of the older strings about old theaters that there was some confusion from a younger crowd as to why they would not have put El before Capitan. Just thought I would throw that in there since I got a good look at it the other day. I also saw the Bellaire turned Whole Foods. We used to go on Saturday mornings for the kiddie shows but I mostly remember going to see Romeo & Juliet in Jr High and getting my first big smooch with a boy with braces on his teeth. Also on that same side of Bellaire but past Stella Link was the Prince's hamburger stand where you talked to the prince/clown head to order. Across the street at the corner was a Weiners where I clearly remember the seperate and unequal bathrooms and water fountains.
  15. carol802
    Thanks for the info. That's it! I have probably seen in from different angles over the years but that straight line towards it like a runway after making that 610 curve heading north puts a whole new dimension on it. I lived in Houston for 32 years (worked at St.Lukes when they began the twin towers in the early 70's) , moved to Southern California for 10 years and enjoyed L.A.'s everchanging skyline, then moved to the Beaumont area (zero "skyscrapers") and have been here for 13 years. Not regularly seeing the Houston skyline makes me appreciate it even more when I see these buildings from different angles. They are truly captivating. If you haven't seen that building from that angle in a noon slighty gloomy day it's like they had they direction in mind when they designed it. That picture from that angle doesn't do the building justice. I look forward to seeing it at night from that 610 Bellaire direction & see how the lighting edges that art deco look. Thanks again! Also passed the Capitan Theater on 225 and it still looks great and yep! still no "El"
  16. carol802
    This probably should be elsewhere on this site but I think the folks I have seen responding on this section might know. We went to the Medical Center again today & were early so we drove past S.Main on 610 and looped around to Bellaire so I could see my old stomping grounds, Meyerland Plaza. (Bought Sgt Pepper & first stereo headphones there). It looked great! Area doing better than I had assumed. I hadn't been that way in maybe 20 years. As we headed towards Bellaire exit looking North on 610 somewhere up ahead (at 59 maybe?) is this HUGE gothic/art deco/Bat Man looking skyscraper. It struck me as Beautiful and Looming. What is that? Where is it? How long has it been there? Thanks!!
  17. carol802
    I worked at the Weingarten's on Stella Link just south of Braeswood 1969-1971. I had grown up 5-18 down Stella Link & Willowbend & shopped there with my parents most of my life. Before moving to that area we had lived off Drake Street & Weslyan & shopped at the one at Montclair. I just about died in that parking lot! I was 4 & my mom was going to the store & was leaving us kids home with my dad. I wanted to go with my mom so I snuck out to the old station wagon & hid in the back under a blanket. Planned on springing up & yelling peekaboo when we got there. I started thinking about it & decided it wasn't a good idea so I stayed under the blanket. It was summertime. It was freaking hot & I was in a locked car & too young to figure out how to unlock the doors or roll down the windows. My mom found me almost dead. When I had fully recovered she tore my behind up.
  18. carol802
  19. carol802
    Anyone remember Meyer's Speedway? I told my husband I took drivers ed (Westbury 1969) on a racetrack and he doesn't believe me! It was great! Seems like it was down S. Main past Post Oak by the stadium we used to have our football games at.
  20. carol802
    My siblings & I would walk up Stella Link to the entrance & they would let us in for free. Amazing what we used to could do as children back then. We would walk to the back rows & turn the speakers up all the way. Alot depended on the direction of the wind but we are talking backyard, 2 lane road & wide back end of the drive-in. I loved Playland park. That rollercoaster was great! And the pony rides at KiddieLand.
  21. carol802
  22. carol802
    You are exactly right. This was a guy who I had known since elementary school and he was a very kind, quiet & shy "bookish" kind of guy. It was very sad because it had been known (by the HL&P linemen) that he had been a roomate (don't remember how long,etc) of Corll's & back then if you were gay (never thought he was) you didn't stand a chance in that extreme macho environment. Not to mention a possible gay lover of a monster. He was just flat hounded out of the place. I think some of them had questioned themselves as to why they never thought that Corll was a monster when they had been working with him every day. What is strange for me is that I hadn't thought of any of this IN YEARS until I found this website the other day and started scanning the post. As soon as I saw "Storage Story" it came rushing back like a flash flood. Along with the posts about Don Mahoney & Jenna Clair, Kitirick, Cadet Don and so many other childhood POSITIVE memories. I'm going to look for some of the books mentioned & I hope for my old friends sake he's NOT in them. Peace to the victim's families.
  23. carol802
  24. carol802
    I went to Westbury 68-69 & 69-70 then got zoned to Madison my senior year 70-71. I thought it was the end of my world. Westbury was one of the greatest schools in HISD in every way and I had gone to Johnston Jr H with all the same kids. It was very tough on us "Transfers" but the Madison kids couldn't have been nicer to us & tried to include us in everything. It turned out to be a great life experience & the zoning did what it was designed to do. I went to school with black kids (Madison was about 1/2 black 1/2 white) for the first time. It was a heartbreaking start to an awsome year.
  25. carol802
    I found this great website today when I googled the South Main Drive-In. There seemed to be some confustion of it's location on an old string. The South Main was located at Stella Link and South Main with the back bordered by Willowbend. There was a dirt road that cut off to make the front right entrance & exit to the left of the screen. I grew up on Woodhaven which was the last residential street off of Stella Link before Willowbend. Our house had a back driveway on Willowbend. We watched literally thousands of movies from 1958-1971 from our upstairs picture window that was in perfect alignment to the screen. It was awsome.
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