Wow! malvie and boogaloo - thanks for the wonderful memories! I stumbled upon this site a few weeks ago and have now spent far too much time avoiding other work reading all of this. A few things I remember, to add a little to this thread. Hubby and I moved here in 1978, living in a Harold Farb complex on Gessner near Bellaire, then bought a townhouse on Pagewood, right behind Emerson Elementary. I worked at Best Products for a while and remember driving by the Cadillac Club someone mentioned somewhere here. Yes, definitely not Cadillac! When we first got here I did temp work for a very nice townhome development - Hudson on Memorial. Very upscale townhomes. I also temped for a few months for two law firms in a bank building on 610 - O'Quinn, Kerensky and Machinek (sp?) and Rogers, Rubenstein and Wright. It was always a mouthful to answer either phone line. Worked for Channel Z too, offices on Post Oak and 610. Then worked for Richmond Tank Car in the office building next to the Marriott. Hamburgers by Gourmet was a favorite lunch run back then, I think it is an erotic lingerie store now. I remember keeping an eye on the gas lines at the stations right there too, running down to get in line as you saw cars starting to line up. While living in that area of west Houston, we frequented Baby Jane's Log Cabin on Richmond on Friday nights. Dan Pastorini was a frequent visitor there too, often with a few sweeties on his arms. In '81 we moved out to "far west" Houston, off Barker Cypress Rd. It did not go straight through as it does today, but rather zig-zagged all over the place. Windsong Trail was known as Gertie Rice Rd and West Little York was a dead end at Hwy 6. I took a job in CFISD at the elementary school in Prestonwood Forest. Met a few other teachers at the parking lot that is now Park n' Ride to carpool to work. Highway 6 had just expanded to 4 lanes and there were maybe 7-8 stoplights all the way up to 249. I remember one fall, at the start of the school year, that West Little York suddenly cut through past Hwy 6 to the west, and Barker Cypress was getting straightened out. Seems there was a little bit of a scandal about Bob Eckels (IIRC) and that extension of WLY. Now there are probably 25-30 stoplights between I-10 and 249 along Hwy 6! Worked for a couple of summers temping in office buildings at the Barker Cypress end of a new development - Park 10! Rather than drive down BC to I-10 and up Hwy 6 to enter Park 10, those of us that lived off Barker Cypress just made a dirt road across the field to where Park Row ended. You just couldn't use it when it was rainy. Also the hill on Barker Cypress going up and over the dam was really steep back then. When they expanded BC they made the hill much more friendly. I remember the Barker Post office and the old timey buildings that were there with it. Seem to remember also, when they tore all of that down, there was a pool under or behind the buildings that I had never seen before. Also a nice little nursery over to the east (Baker Rd maybe) where Barker Cypress ended at I-10. One house I have often wondered about, and I have not really poked around here much to see if there is any info, is the house at the corner of Hwy 6 and West Little York. The land was cleared around the house a few years ago, and several of the buildings on the property were torn down, but the main house is there. It looks like it was very beautiful in its day. Wonder what its history is. Well, I am glad to find this forum and really glad to read everyones memories of West Houston! Looking forward to reading more here in the future!
