calgofo

Just to add some information about the airport that was located where the "new" high school was built. If you look at the picture you can still see the marks of the grass runways. This airport was moved to the H&H Guest Ranch. The west side of the airport was taken in when they built Drummet Blvd. for access to IAH from FM525 (what we all called Aldine-Bender). By the way 525 didn't go straight through. It stopped at Luthe, you had to make a right going east and then cut back to the right and then it came to a wye at Aldine-Westfield at the High School. There you took a right and went South until you turned left (East) again in front of the Elementary. The road then continued to Lee Rd. That was Bender, well the other side of Hwy59 was Bender. You had to go down to Lee to cross 59 and then go back up North. My 1st grade teacher lived on the East Side of 59 on Aldine-Bender, which was not FM525.

My older brother and Charles Aldrich worked at both airports while in High School. We moved there in 1949 and moved when we sold the last of our land to Shell for a service station at Beltway 8 and Claypool. My folks had a knack for buying land adjacent to property earmarked for highways and bridges.

Although steam engines were still in use in 1949 they no longer stopped at Aldine junction. Water is taken on every 100 to 110 miles, it still governs a "trip" for train crews to this day. Our land was rowed from what was supposed to have been a huge peach orchard. When we dug our first septic system we found old crates and stuff about three foot under ground.

The Okabayashi farm grew almost all your common vegatables which they sold at the Farmers Market downtown. My older brother worked for them when he was about 16-17. Mrs. Okabayashi would fix them egg foo yung for breakfast. The first time he got it he came home and made it for everyone. My dad never ate anything that wasn't separate on his plate and refused to eat it. I thought it was great and ate his and mine.

Very few of the roads were paved then. Hardy was alternately paved on opposite sides as you left Houston. Airline was paved as was Shepard. Aldine-Westfield was a well. When we were 12-13 we would walk Luthe Rd. to Aldine Mailroute and catch the Hardy-Hallsite bus to town (10cents)and deliver circulars for Dinwittie's for 50 cents a hundred during the summer.

In 1949 the area was still "free range" and many folks didn't fence, but just rounded up their cattle when they had to. Everyone fenced their gardens to keep the cows out. Most of the fenced land was for the dairy people (Spences, Millsaps, Greggs, Woodson and Satterfields).

W. W. Thorne is still alive, at least the last time I talked to Bill, Jr..

James

Interesting that Minoru Okabayashi was I believe interned for a short while during WWII. His son, Tommy Okabayashi served in the vaunted 442nd RCT (one of the most highly decorated of WWII).

The Lucky 7 Supermarket (aka the Fairview Supermarket) was at W Gulf Bank and Airline, just off the right of the pic. To my knowledge, it was the first supermarket in the area in question. Today it is some kind of auto repair shop and unless you knew it was a grocery store, you'd never be able to guess it now.

I looked it up in the old phone books in the Texas Room. Unfortunately, I can't now decipher my notes. On one page I have it being there (meaning having a phone number) in 1956. Yet on another page, I say it has a phone number in 1951. Oops! Which is right? For some reason I keep thinking it only became a Lucky 7 in 1956 and was simply called Fairview before that. But I somehow neglected to right that down. That was smart!

If you never went in there, count yourself as... pardon the pun... lucky. The neighbor who carpooled me to elementary school wold often stop there when she didn't have time to fix her kid lunch. I remember two things about the place. One was the cool sign the owner put on the courtesy booth that said the store was protected five days a week by Smith and Weston... you guess which days. LOL! Second was the gawdaful smell in the place. It was like they hadn't cleaned the place since the 1950s... be it 1951 or 1956!

As for the Kroger, I worked there in high school and college. My mom shopped there since it opened and a lady at our old church worked there from 1968 to the day it closed, including when I was there. She knows all about it. I remember the Piggly Wiggly not because we shopped there but because... don't laugh... I thought it was Porky Pig's store. LOL! What can I say... I was a kid.

As for W.W. Thorne... is the guy still alive? The Harris County Appraisal District still lists him as the owner of his house, but I figure the guy's gotta be close to 90.

I had totaly forgotten about this store. Your right the store did have the worst smell. A strange amalgom of oders. I remember the sign too lol.

My dad and uncle worked on the remodeling of the Krogers. My dad was the Superenintendant and my uncle was the carpenter foreman. Made for a quick commute...about 5 minutes but then my dad drove pretty slow. My mom shopped some at Krogers and Piggly Wiggly but she was more partial to Floreens, wich IIRC was up on airline. When I was in HS I worked at the Randall's.

Thanks for the info! I would love to read your research on the area as most of the old timers have left the area, plus I don't live there anymore.

I remember Hidden Valley, if I'm not mistaken in the 80s it was the only school in the district that offered bilingual education. I know for a fact Carroll didn't offer it, but they did offer deaf ED. As far as I know all of the kids with hearing issues (real ones) went Carroll.

We had lots of issues with the teachers when I went there that I will not get into now. I don't know if it was common just at Carroll (going to Aldine High makes me think it was), but the teacher were very strict back then. Many of the teachers had been teaching there for years. Corporal punishment was commonly used and I don't remember a single student getting suspended (unlike today). Yes I was one of those kids that were in the office at least once a month for something minor that was a big deal to them and yes my parent consented to CP. They pretty much kept a tight leash on the students and they didn't put up with any back talking. The school was mostly middle to lower middle class White just like most of the Aldine area. In fact if it wasn't for the Acres Homes bussing the school at the time would have been almost exclusively White with a hand full of Americanized Hispanics. The change they have today happened over several years, but happened rapidly in the late 90s after many of the veteran residents kids graduated and they sold their houses. Most got close to 3 times the original purchase price.

A little more history about Inez Carroll. Sometime in the 1970s one of the wings caught fire during the night and they had to be renovated. I remember the classrooms on that wing had more of a late 60s/70s look to them. The teachers told us several times about the fire. I'm sure there would have been a news story on it. This is getting long so I'll save the rest for next time.

Yes corporal puisnment was used. Recieved plenty of it but in my day they didn't give a damn wether your parents consented or not. They just did it.

I grew up in the Aldine area in the Northline Terrace subdivision near Gulf Bank Rd and Sweetwater. I attended Inez Carroll elementary on Raymac Street as well as Aldine High School. Inez Carroll at one time was known as one of the best elementary schools in Texas. I just discovered last week that the old Inez Carroll building was torn down. It appears to have happened about 4 years a go now. It's pretty sad that everything I remember about that school is gone.

It got me wondering when the different schools were built and what additions have been added to the schools over the years. Here is what I remember about the school when I first started attending it in 1981. I remember they expanded the library around 1982 (I remember the contruction). I remember in 1st grade they removed the old radiator from the classrooms as they were not used anymore. Looking at different aerials of the school it looks like they added the chiller and cooling tower sometime between 1964 and 1973. I wonder what it was like not having A/C before then. They also added a wing on the back of the school between 1957 and 1964 and added new front and side section to the school between 1964 and 1973 which included expanding the cafeteria. It looks like the gym was added between 1973 and 1981. I remember the walls in the main hallways were redone in the early 80s. They moved the school to Gulf bank between Sweetwater and Airline in the late 90s.

Areal of the school in 1957

Areal from 2002 before it was demolished.

The front of the school scanned from my class picture.

I can tell you what it was like. It was hotter than hell. You sweated all day and your hands and forearms stuck to any paper you were writing on. Sweat would drip off your face and cause spots on your paper. The smell was a combination of perspiration and old chalk dust. It was miserable but in my case it wasn't much better at home. We had a window unit but were too poor to run it that often. When the temp would get up into the mid 90's my mother would wait till I got home which was usually about 3 or so. She would close off the living room,which is where are unit was, and would turn it on and by 6, it was off. Man do I remember how wonderful that felt. I lived for those couple of hours. After 6 we just used fans till the next day. Even till this day I can't sleep with out the noise of a fan. I swore then and there I would make something of myself so I could afford A/C at least. Last year after Ike my part of town was w/o power for 14 days and man did that bring back some bad memories from the hood. My Aunt still lives over there on Raymac . Shes lived there nearly 50 years.

Thanks for the info! I would love to read your research on the area as most of the old timers have left the area, plus I don't live there anymore.

I remember Hidden Valley, if I'm not mistaken in the 80s it was the only school in the district that offered bilingual education. I know for a fact Carroll didn't offer it, but they did offer deaf ED. As far as I know all of the kids with hearing issues (real ones) went Carroll.

We had lots of issues with the teachers when I went there that I will not get into now. I don't know if it was common just at Carroll (going to Aldine High makes me think it was), but the teacher were very strict back then. Many of the teachers had been teaching there for years. Corporal punishment was commonly used and I don't remember a single student getting suspended (unlike today). Yes I was one of those kids that were in the office at least once a month for something minor that was a big deal to them and yes my parent consented to CP. They pretty much kept a tight leash on the students and they didn't put up with any back talking. The school was mostly middle to lower middle class White just like most of the Aldine area. In fact if it wasn't for the Acres Homes bussing the school at the time would have been almost exclusively White with a hand full of Americanized Hispanics. The change they have today happened over several years, but happened rapidly in the late 90s after many of the veteran residents kids graduated and they sold their houses. Most got close to 3 times the original purchase price.

A little more history about Inez Carroll. Sometime in the 1970s one of the wings caught fire during the night and they had to be renovated. I remember the classrooms on that wing had more of a late 60s/70s look to them. The teachers told us several times about the fire. I'm sure there would have been a news story on it. This is getting long so I'll save the rest for next time.

Actually it had two fires. The first one was minor just a little roof damage. The second fire was the one that really did the damage. I lived on shane street 2 houses down from the school and I remember going out to watch the fire fighters put out the fire. Both were arson and both were started by my next door neighbor. He later went on to an illustirous career at Texas Dept. of Corrections.As for the year, it had to be sometime between 1969 and 1971 because I had 3rd grade class in that part of the building.