Ashikaga
-
Posts
1,058 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by Ashikaga
-
-
I remember when we didn't have to put in area codes!! (that ages me!!) but I wasn't born yet before the Letters were numbers thing. Was this a nationwide thing or just a Texas thing?
It was nationwide. You didn't have to dial the area code if you were making a call within it, just dial 1 and then the number. Now if you want to make a long distance call just 20 miles away you have to dial 1+AC+number.
Last year I worked as a substitute school teacher. I tried explaining to the students what a telephone looked like and how it worked when I was their age. I would say to them: "It had a dial with holes in it. You would stick your finger into one of the holes and turn it to the right, then let it return back."
Who else out there remembers that?
Chet Cuccia
-
Man it really trips me out how many of yall are from southeast, I feel like I'm hearin family members talk when I read yalls posts. I'm 3rd generation southeast myself. My grandparents lived in the magnolia/manchester area and my parents were from right there off broadway by milby, sellers bros., ingrando park, etc. Am I the only one who swam at glenbrook public pool, and jumped off the dreaded "hightower"? When I was up there as a kid I used to look out in the distance and see the skyline and think, "man I wanna live there one day, and now I do so ha, take that "your supposed to stay in the hood" mentality! Does anyone remember a place called "the mark" across the street from milby in the early 80's during the explosion of breakdancing? It was an arcade and a place to battle (breakdance "fight"). Supertrack closed???? Wow that's the end of an era.
Talk about how time flies! The last time I went to any amusement park was to Astroworld back during the summer of 1978. 27 years ago!
Chet Cuccia
-
"If we had stayed there, I wonder if I would have attended one of those schools (Ortiz and/or Chavez). Like I said, we moved away back in 1964."
Ch
-
Park Place now has over 1,000 people. I wonder if a new elementary school will be built in the area.
Park Place feeds into brand new schools (Ortiz Middle and Ch
-
the land was regraded. so the whole "underground" is gone.
Just a big swath of flat land with the new stores on top.
Well, are there now the "standard" stores that you would find in most malls (Sears, J.C. Penney, etc.)?
Chet Cuccia
-
Except for what I mentioned above. Not a thing left. Just memories! Jind of sad but the place was really getting shabby looking anyway. And the majority of the stores and shops were all closed and boarded up years ago! It was like walking in a ghost town. The old Bowling alley had been closed for years and was only used for storage.
Well, would you happen to know what was done with all of that underground space which that bowling alley occupied? Is there some other business down there which you have to decend stairs to?
Chet Cuccia
-
I still play basketball at the little park there from time to time.
Did you once attend Park Place Elementary School? If so, when?
Chet Cuccia
-
Still there..but probably not as you remember it. It was rebuilt and expanded several years back. HISD bought up a lot of the nearby homes and closed off part of Joplin.
Check out the info on the current classes here:
Park Place Elementary Home Page
Here are two pictures of the new design from the architect, SHW
Sorry, couldn't locate a pic of the old buildings.
Thank you. Yes, I would think that after over 40 years old buildings would be torn down and replaced. Like I said, I only attended Kindergarten there. We moved away from Houston in the summer of 1964 and we never moved back. We visited a few times when we would go to the zoo or to Astroworld.
Chet Cuccia
-
The only things left to remind you of the old Gulfgate mall is the bridge over the 610 loop and the signs. Even the old Movie theatre is gone! There is a Metro transfer station there now. The bridge is currently closed but it is also under renovation. They plan to use it to expand the parking area for the Metro area if I understood correctly.
Wow! If you say that the movie theatre is also gone, then there are no longer any remnants of the former Gulfgate Shopping Center. Well, that's life/business!
Chet Cuccia
-
I attended Kindergarten at Park Place Elementary school from 1963-64. Is it still there? Does anyone have a photo of it?
Chet Cuccia
-
Hell no. Too many fond memories of Almeda mall to want to see it go and maybe another instant neighborhood go up on that land. I was really bummed to see the old Almeda 9 East theater had been torn down and something was already going up.
Does anyone out there have any photos of what Gulfgate looks like now?
Chet Cuccia
-
Even though I have a clear recollection of things when I was 3 and 4 years old, my memories of the Playland races are a bit fuzzy. But there may have been underlying reasons for that. I remember the very first circus I went to, and all I remember from the event is standing on the steps of the house still crying about the poor guy who someone had shot out of a cannon.
I may have been frightened of the races, or maybe by a crash or two. I just don
-
Cool forum. I just found it a while ago.
Yes, there was a roller rink on Loop 610, just west of Gulfgate Mall at Telephone Road.
It was a trailer supply company after that and is now all rebuilt with new retail buildings.
The whole Gulfgate landscape has changed a lot in the last couple of years but you do remember the roller rink in the correct place.
Anyone remember the big oil fountain inside of Gulfgate Mall?
Thank you. I thought that I remembered one somewhere around there. Like I said, I lived in Houston from 1962-1964. Four stores stand out in my mind from Gulfgate Shopping Center: Weingarten's, Newberry's, the toy store in the corner, and the underground bowling alley. I remember my mother telling me that we couldn't go into Joske's or Sakowitz because those stores were for rich people.
Chet Cuccia
-
Yes, what is left of them are now Monterey's Tex-Mex. Still good eating too.
I sure miss those candies made with brown sugar.
As I said, there's only one Monterey House remaining over here. It's on 11th Street in Beaumont.
Chet Cuccia
-
In the 1960's my dad said Houston had a unique dialing code (like a bunch of letters instead of numbers) can someone give me any more info on what that was like. I'm REALLY curious!
He found an old menu from "Juniors" and when the Astrodome opened which had these "letters" instead of numbers. I hope someone knows what I'm talking about. Its hard to explain. :-/
The only letter exchange that I remember in Houston was NAtional.
Chet Cuccia
-
Today's Houston Chronicle had an article about the 53-story Heritage Plaza building. It said that a company in Atlanta, Georgia is buying it. Is that good or bad? The article also said that 70 percent of the building is vacant.
Chet Cuccia
-
Sorry I wasnt around in the 60's. My memories of this skating rink - which was located on Easthaven to be exact - are from the 70's.
Thanks again. I'm 47.
Chet Cuccia
-
There used to be a skating rink between winkler and i-45 on the southeast side of town. Perhaps that's the one you're remembering?
It might be. My memory isn't accurate all of the time. But I do remember (1962-64) going with my parents to the Winkler Drive-In Theatre on Winkler Drive. "Subdude" posted an old aerial photo of Gulfgate Shopping Center under "The East End" category. At the top of the photo you can see a drive-in theatre. That was the Winkler. I've been trying to find out about that theatre for at least six months.
An aerial photo is better than no photo at all. But I'm still hoping that I stumble across someone out there who has a close up picture of the Winkler. Do you personally have any information about it?
Chet Cuccia
-
Maybe it's because there are lots of us computor nurdds on here?
I lived on campus when I was in college. I lived on the third floor. One day a girl asked me if I lived on the "nurd" floor.
Chet Cuccia
-
I don't remember exactly where it was located but I loved going to the old Polar Wave Ice Palace for ice skating back in the '50s. My Mother had also skated there in her earlier years so I know it wasn't a new rink at that time. After it closed, they made ice skating available periodically in the old Houston Coliseum Downtown.
The last time that I went to Houston was back in 2002. On IH-610 I remember seeing a business called "Levitz." The skating rink that I think I remember was somewhere in that vicinity.
Chet Cuccia
-
9100 South Main
King's Court
Demolished
9300 South Main
White House Motor Hotel
Status?
9350 South Main
John's Restaurant. This may have become the Poly-Asian restaurant later.
Demolished
9604 South Main
Las Vegas Motor Hotel
Extant
9810 South Main
Sonny Look's Sir Loin House
Demolished
9901 South Main
Elliott's Steak House
Demolished
10015 South Main
Mitchell Inn
Extant
10200 South Main
The Yacht Restaurant
Demolished
10319 South Main
Holiday Inn Motel
Extant
That Sonnys and Sir Loin's resemble a place that I went to in Beaumont back in the 1970s called "Steak and Ale." Were there any "Steak and Ale" restaurants in Houston? I don't think that the one in Beaumont is there anymore.
Chet Cuccia
-
What about the Copacabana Night Club At 8150 South Main St. ?
-
1
-
-
I'm amazed at how detailed your memory is!
Most, but not all, of the time my memory has been fairly accurate.
Chet Cuccia
-
Oh wow. Really?
Here: http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/bus...ta/s/sharps.jpg
It amazes me how you and the other guys on this forum come up with photos, maps, and other info so quickly!
Chet Cuccia
Gulfgate Mall History
in Historic Houston
Posted
The grocery store that we went to in Gulfgate back in the early 1960s was called "Weingarten's." Someone else in this forum told me that it is now a "Big Lots."
Chet Cuccia