Jump to content

EastEnd Susan

Full Member
  • Posts

    488
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by EastEnd Susan

  1. I attended Jackson from 1969-72, then went on for a year to attend SFA High, finally moving on to Pasadena High, where I spent a year prior to moving on to an almost 25-year career with the U.S. Air Force. I finally retired from the AF back in 2000, opting then to relocate to Phoenix, AZ., where I remain to this day.

    When I Googled Jackson Junior High this morning I sort of stumbled across this site. My God! This is so nice! Looking at the various pics, especially the one of Susan standing in front and off to the side of the campus on the last day of school in 1972 almost brings me to tears of joy. Now I'm not a guy who's prone to a lot of sentiment, but I have to say--that REALLY tugged at the ol' heart strings.

    My name is Robert Sikes, and I played on the football team (Leopards!) for Coach Hermann all three years of my attendance. God, I feel like Al Bundy right about now--remembering all the fun times, hard times, competition, girlfriends, good guy friends, teachers, laughter and tears, the pain of trying to fit in with certain groups but frequently unable to do so...and on and on!

    A few years back I returned to Houston in order to make the arrangements necessary to bury my Mom. Despite all of the pain that was involved with making that horrible trip, I knew I had to include a trip to the old neighborhood. I was a bit shocked at just how the East End looks after so many years away, but there were a few aspects of the area around Jackson's campus that had remained intact just enough to make the ol' nostalgia juices flow like a river. I even saw an old friend who I barely recognized from back then. Sadly, he had turned into a street person, an alcoholic, and had little recognition of me.

    Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this post. I hope to hear at least one reply from someone who might remember me. If not, oh well...it's still great reminiscing with everyone here. Thanks again.

    Rob

    Everybody will remember you, Robert. Glad you found us.

    • Like 1
  2. Yes. That shopping center is still there- at least part of it is. It made a "U" shape, and Texas Tumbleweed was in the back corner. 2/3rds of the shopping center was torn down to make way for a new Krogers. I remember the original, existing section housed a Wiener's and Walgreen's (it's now a River Oaks Diagnostic/Imaging).

    Was this close to the bowling alley? I think it was called Fairlanes?? And was there a Mr. Gattis Pizza close? Or am I at a different corner? I do remember going to the Parkview and eating at the Sizzler next door.

  3. Well, it's certainly relevant to the 70s in Houston, which is the topic. I was only 15 at that time, but I used to ride my bike from home in the East-end along Brays Bayou to Herman Park just to hang out on the hill on week-ends. It was probably as close as Houston came (not very) to the Golden Gate Park scene in SF. I remember that people would climb to the top of the roof over the theater to smoke their joints or pipes so they woudn't get busted. It was groovy,man.

    That scene didn't last very long.

    We used to slide down Hippie Hill on blocks of ice. We would get huge ice blocks from the ice house on Harrisburg and put them in coolers and drag them to the top of the hill and away we went. This was at night of course. We were the cause of all the ruts in the hill. Sorry.

  4. That place has 'evil' written all over it. I don't think I'd even want to step inside. And someone earlier in this thread mentioned the existence of a strange bathroom that looked more like a locker room with toilets lined up against the wall. Well Mr. List was quite the sexual deviant, as it turns out, although he claims he never made anyone do anything they didn't want to do. One of his regular house boys was quoted as saying that he vomited after being asked and paid to watch List in action with some fresh meat he picked up in Montrose. I'm guessing it was some pretty hard-core stuff. Check it out online. :o

    Evil is right! I felt strange for days after I went there. I could'nt get the place off my mind. Climbing up on the wall and getting the pic of the staircase really gave me the heebie geebies. I was feet from where the murder took place and the atmosphere was just chilling. I felt like I was being watched the entire time. I had taken a brick from the front entrance as some sort of macabre souvenier but took it back and tossed it in the yard. No bad karma for me!

  5. Just learned something a little odd. Bill List was the biological father of Ron Carlton. Ron was the brother of Debbie Thornton, one of the victims in the Karla Faye pick axe murder. Bill left when Ron was three and he was raised by his step father. The police thought Bill List might have hired someone to kill Debbie because she was to testify against him for tax evasion. Not sure if he was also Debbies father.

    • Like 1
  6. It was built sometime in the mid to late 70's. It looked even scarier from the street, with the huge driveway and the way it just rose up out of the ground, backing up to the bay. You can see one pretty fuzzy image of it on Historic Aerials from 1981. If you use the "compare years" feature, you can see that later a small street with homes was built on the site. Nice homes, too.

    http://www.historicaerials.com?poi=4176

    That street on the property is part of the original driveway. The homes that now sit north of the street are on what used to be a very long reflection pond. Sure would'nt want to live there.

  7. 2ufyag2.jpg

    This is the back of the mansion that faces the bay. The front looked exactly the same as the back. There was a pool in between the front and back buildings with tons of plants and a walkway over the pool.

    2j1sdjd.jpg

    This is the glass covered area in between the front and back portions of the mansion. It contained the pool.

    2aaf441.jpg

    This is where Mr. List was shot. The partial door visible at the bottom right is the doorway to the garage. Smiley was waiting at the top of the spiral staircase with a shotgun. Mr. List was killed as he came through the garage door.

    • Like 1
  8. I got onto the property in the early 90's and took a couple of pictures. I'll scan and post them as soon as I find them. I used to have the original of the chronicle article. It had quite a few photos. Some color and some black and white. It showed how the kids tore the place up before killing Mr. List. I remember photos of food thrown on the walls, a knife sticking out of the wall and plants thrown into the pool. Very eerie.

  9. Yes it was, and I believe Baybrook had one, too. They were great stores for cigars back before cigars were trendy.

    I remember that place and yes it smelled great. I would go there to buy these extremely long cigarettes that came in different colors with gold filters. I was so cool.... NOT!

  10. Lynn was the one that was killed. Marion C. is still around. I found out from an old timer that Twins was on the south side of Lovett, sort of between Baja Sam's and KLOL that were on the north side.

    Marion E. Pantzer was shot and killed in "Just" Marion and Lynns on March 11, 1986. Her partner Lynn Hornaday was not hurt. The club was located at 903 Richmond. Twins was located in the 3200 blk of Stanford right behind the Chicken Coop and around the corner from Bacchus which was located on Lovett.

  11. The Wild Pair for the latest in Billy Idol or Adam Ant shoes.

    Our girlfriend's wanted us to look as close to these guys as possible. <_<

    The girls (we all knew anyway) wanted to either be Joan Jett look-a-likes or the Cindi Lauper/Valley Girl look. :wacko:

    lowe_i.jpgPat20Benatar-7.jpgCindyLauper.jpg417771.jpg

    Ooh! The Wild Pair! My grandmother took me to the wild pair at the Galleria back in the early 70's and bought me a pair of dark brown leather desert boot looking shoes. I remember they cost 38 dollars which was a bundle for a pair of shoes back then. 38 years or so later I still have them, they still fit and I still wear them. I've gone through many shoe laces but I still love them and the old saying "you get what you pay for" is so so true. The rest of my clothes were from Foleys, Joskes and Size 579 shop.

  12. What exactly happened to Austin? Can't say it was due to blacks as they never really populated the school..what event caused the school to shift from white to heavily hispanic?

    My parents have said alot of times, hispanics were counted as whites in the classroom during integration but what is it like that at Austin?

    Its mostly hispanic now because most white families moved from the east end in the 70's and 80's. They moved to places like Sagemont or north of town. In the 60's my street had only one hispanic family. By 1975 there were only 3 white families on the street. We moved to Kirkland South in 1975 because my grandmother didnt like the way the neighborhood was "Changing." I personally wanted to stay. I still love my old neighborhood and visit as often as I can.

  13. I do admit that my years at Austin were the best and most fun years ever. My homeroom was just next door to the (then) 3rd floor lunchroom. You could see all the way south to the Gulf frwy from that lunchroom and when the tall windows were open the breeze would pass thru very nicely. I can still hear the sound of everyone walking across that very shiny, waxed wood floor.

    Our homeroom teacher was Mrs Spinks who taught homemaking, so we kids always sat at tables with ovens and cooked cakes/desserts near us (torture).

    Our lockers were right in the path of all the students going and leaving lunch at all 3 lunch times so were always chatting and cutting up with nearly everyone that passed by. :D Everyday was an event. Maybe thats why I still enjoy being around big crowds. It was a learning experience but I truly miss the fun.

    I made it to the last 2 reunions and was floored to see some of my original teacher's & faculty appear at that big (all classes) Austin reunion a few years ago. It was sad to hear of the ones that have passed away but was so cool to see the nice ones that used to urge me to continue my education, crafts & artwork.

    I am forever grateful. :blush:

    2hs691z.jpg

    My homeroom was IN the lunchroom. I had Mrs. Marler for homeroom. Heres a pic of how the lunchroom was painted in 1975. I'm not in it as I was the one taking the pic but my seat was the one right under the big red arrow. I faced the tall windows and remember the view and the breeze quite well. I guess there were about 8 or so classrooms with homeroom in the luchroom.

  14. It's funny how several business's near Austin HS catered to the students. There were very nearby ice cream shops/florists, etc.

    Mustang Malt Shop (across the street) had green/white colors and a Mustang kicking in the air on the sign? Pretty sure. Place closed by 1978?

    Atchinson's or there is that florist caddy corner and still there to this day! Could buy your sweetheart a corsage and of course Homecoming arrangements too. It was such a big deal for the cheerleaders or other girls to show off around homecoming with all the long ribbons and bells, etc.

    Heap-o-Cream Ice Cream Shop on Telephone Rd (next door to Leonard's Dept Store) here is where many kids from all schools would hang out and then there was Frank's Grill too.

    Pretty much all along or near Dumble and most of Near EE intersections was like a small town America. Everyone knew and spoke to everyone. :D

    Mustang Malt Shop was closed before I got there in 72. we sat over there on the benches to smoke before school. I was SO cool. lol. They tried to reopen it during 74 but the school made them close it down after a week since we were NOT suppose to go off campus during school hours. I put my order in and paid them before school and they would bring my lunch across the street. After it closed we went back to sneaking off campus.

  15. Hey vertigo, you remember how we weren't suppose to leave campus for lunch? Well, of course a bunch of us still did. We would either end up at Itallian Beef House or a little hole in the wall called Phifers. I think thats how it was spelled. It was located on the end of a little shopping strip not on but near the corner of Telephone and Dumble. Could have the the same strip where Lerners was. They had really good food. It was a tiny place with a counter with stools and booths down one wall.

  16. A tad off topic but whenever I hear of any reunions I get images of that mascot "Stevie" galloping around on the old auditorium stage. I used to crack up when he would emerge out of now where during pep rallies and freak out the unsuspecting crowds of students. It was always a mystery whom was underneath all the garb. Hilarious. :lol:

    In 1973 it was Alex Morales as the head and Michael Crawford as the rear. I dated both of them. The horses butt was much more fun. We are still close friends after 35 years.

  17. Oh what the heck, now there is a topic just for Stephen F Austin HS located on Dumble street.

    mustang%20logo.jpg

    There is a recent mailing to sign up for a grad directory that will list all graduates dating back to when the school first opened. Need current biographical info for the directory.

    Anyone interested can call Toll Free 1 866-783-7609

    Kelly J. Hardy

    Harris Connect Directory Office

    http://www.harrisconnect.com/

    Call so you (or family) can be included!

    There were a few additonal comments from others that attended Austin on the Jackson Jr High topic. If anyone has any past photos/stories join in! :D

    I called them and updated a couple of weeks ago. Also payed my 99 dollars for the book. Hope its better than the last one. Go Mustangs!

×
×
  • Create New...