Memories Of Clear Lake

[TheNiche]

Vintage marketing materials, care of the Clear Lake City Green Space Preservation Committee:

PDF (4.4MB)

MS Word (2.8MB)

I thought that the artwork and photos might interest some of our historical types on the forum.

[crunchtastic]

Wow! thanks Niche! I was an infant in 65 when my folks moved to a less fancy subdivision off 518 in Friendswood. My dad worked for IBM at the offices across from the JSC. We spent a lot of time in Clear Lake since there were more amenities there, visiting friends, etc. What a trip. I used to play on that very rocket slide.

[KimberlySayWhat]

That rocket shaped jungle gym in the first brochure looks so familiar, but I've never lived in Clear Lake.

Anyway, thanks for posting those. I love looking at things like that. Things seemed so charming back then.

[TJones]

Wow! thanks Niche! I was an infant in 65 when my folks moved to a less fancy subdivision off 518 in Friendswood. My dad worked for IBM at the offices across from the JSC. We spent a lot of time in Clear Lake since there were more amenities there, visiting friends, etc. What a trip. I used to play on that very rocket slide.

Cool! Our parents worked together at IBM. SWEET !

[MidtownCoog]

Re. the Rocket Shaped jungle gym, they were mass produced and all over the country back then.

Up in Garland (maybe Plano) they are fighting to preserve theirs. The city wants to get rid of it and make a new park. I hope they get to keep it.

I don't think there are too many left.

On another topic, some High School friends lived in Clear Lake Forest. Some of the homes remind me of Greenwood Forest. Is there any connection between the two?

[TJones]

Yep, the ol' Rocket ship. They had one at Herman Park for years, and also one in La Porte at Sylvan Beach, which I think is still there.

[KimberlySayWhat]

Then I must have played on the one in Herman Park and that's what I remember. I wonder if there were any at Lake Houston. We used to go there quite a lot when I was young. I haven't been there in so long. They had some live buffalo. Are they still there?

[crunchtastic]

Cool! Our parents worked together at IBM. SWEET !

Cool. Did yours stay at the NASA office? Mine moved downtown and then to Woodway. Dad was a lifer and actually got a Rolex after 20 years. Of course, the last 10 years of his career was one crappy early retirement offer after another. He hung in for full retirement.

I'd like to find one of those rockets and preserve it-- in my backyard. Speaking of backyards, did anyone else wonder why in the brochure, the shiny 60s family was having what appeared to be mugs of cofffe while they grilled kabobs?

[KimberlySayWhat]

Didn't people drink coffee with everything back then? Just like kids drank milk with all their meals (gag).

[sevfiv]

I'd like to find one of those rockets and preserve it-- in my backyard. Speaking of backyards, did anyone else wonder why in the brochure, the shiny 60s family was having what appeared to be mugs of cofffe while they grilled kabobs?

haha! i'm thinking kettled mai tais.

they all look quite...mellow

[MidtownCoog]

I think I remember a Rocket at Lake Hosuton. The park there (Dussen) is nice and pretty good shape. I don't remember seeing a rocket now though.

[TheNiche]

Speaking of backyards, did anyone else wonder why in the brochure, the shiny 60s family was having what appeared to be mugs of cofffe while they grilled kabobs?

Did you happen to wonder why the two kids waterskiing were doing it in winter, while all the usually-lush foliage in on the shore was dead? Or why a church looked to have been converted from prior use as a Pizza Hut franchise?

[tmariar]

Thanks for those!

I remember the rocket-ship playground being across from the Rec Center, at the intersection of Ramada and Diana. As kids, we called it the "rocket park", which I think is also what the area where the Saturn V was displayed at JSC was called. Close by were the little league fields, and we would eat frito pie out of frito bags slit along the side at the games. The Rec Center was where everyone I knew growing up did swim team, dive team, gymnastics, etc. I remember biking to the Rec Center so early it was still dark for practice, and being able to slip in between the bars to get in if the coach hadn't arrived yet and be alone with the grackles (I think they were grackles - we called them "recorder birds" or "announcer birds" because they made near-electronic-sounding squawks like the PA system at meets). At meets, we ate big taffy sticks. Before the local library was built, there was a temporary library set up in a mobile-home-type building in the parking lot of the Rec Center.

Love the photo of what looks to be the early Clear Lake Elementary School gym/stage (the cafeteria would have been on the other side of the stage). I played a lot of dodgeball in there, and was in plays and spelling bees on the stage. By the time I was in 5th grade, they had built an outdoor gym, which is where we played dodgeball. I remember kickball being played outside, but maybe we played inside (like in the photo) if it was raining.

Safeway supplanted the Piggly Wiggly pictured at some point - and I think Hancock Fabrics went into the old Piggly Wiggly space. There was a TG&Y at the other end of that little strip center for some period of time. And there was a little hobby store in there at some point as well - possibly later. The Dairy Queen was across El Camino, behind the butcher's shop. And the movie theater where I saw Star Wars was close by as well.

I think my dad worked for Singer Link and/or Ford Aerospace in those days. Funny to think that a sewing machine company made a serious foray into aerospace.

My parents should have some more photos from that era. Someone was asking for CLC 60's photos recently, and I meant to ask my parents what they have. I have some from the early 70's, but they're mainly of our little cul-de-sac in Camino South. With the "Clear Lake City" water tower in the background of at least one. (I think we lived in Oakbrook West (or possibly even Brookforest) by the time the city was annexed - but I remember everyone tying yellow ribbons on their trees for that. Someone even had a sign they would update in their yard for a while after annexation that showed something like "[X] days of occupation". Guess annexation wasn't welcomed by all.)

[MidtownCoog]

I remember the old Singer building at Bay Area and Space Center.

I also remember the "Free Clear Lake City" bumper stickers.

[TJones]

Did you happen to wonder why the two kids waterskiing were doing it in winter, while all the usually-lush foliage in on the shore was dead? Or why a church looked to have been converted from prior use as a Pizza Hut franchise?

I don't think it's winter, it is just dead foliage over in Taylor Lake maybe.

Oh, and my mom worked at the JSC IBM location until she went to Ole Miss back in 1970, she was pregnant with me when she helped put the first man on the moon.

[tmariar]

On another topic, some High School friends lived in Clear Lake Forest. Some of the homes remind me of Greenwood Forest. Is there any connection between the two?

I don't know of any connection. I don't know Greenwood Forest, but I'd think they would be formally related only if they were both Friendswood Development neighborhoods. I didn't see anything on the internet linking FDC and Greenwood Forest, but I only looked quickly. (Found this, re Kickerillo Companies.) Maybe they were just both developed at the same time, so that the houses look similar.

[Retama]

I remember the rocket-ship playground being across from the Rec Center, at the intersection of Ramada and Diana.

And that is where it remains to this day, right next to the Little League fields. I pass it every time I drive over to visit my mother. I played there when I was a kid back in the 1960s, but then it seemed like it was waaaaaaaaayyyy far from everything. That rec center wasn't even there then. My sons played on that same rocket.

I also played on the one at Hermann Park but I do not remember one at Sylvan Beach.

[musicman]

And that is where it remains to this day, right next to the Little League fields. I pass it every time I drive over to visit my mother. I played there when I was a kid back in the 1960s, but then it seemed like it was waaaaaaaaayyyy far from everything. That rec center wasn't even there then. My sons played on that same rocket.

I also played on the one at Hermann Park but I do not remember one at Sylvan Beach.

i forgot i had taken this shot til i read this thread again.