lowspark
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Posts posted by lowspark
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Just remembered Globe's motto:
Everything under the Sun
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I also remember a Circus themed restuarant on Westhiemer right there by or in the same location at Texadelphia and Papadeax.
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Anyone else remember those restuarants.
That restaurant was called (of all things) Circus. It was owned by the Pappas family who owns Pappadeaux which now sits on that site. They also used to run a restuarant called The Strawberry Patch which served the most wonderful strawberry muffins and you could order a "flower pot of salad". That location is now Pappas Steakhouse.
The Railhead died around 1980 or so. We had a high school banquet there in 1978 and I remember it going under just a couple of years later.
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Don't some of the Antones carry a lot of the same things also?
In some cases I've been able to find some oddball things at Whole Foods, but they are a bit expensive.
Yeah, the original actual Antones do carry some of that -- I think there's one on Kirby & O.S.T. Most of the other Antones are just sandwich shops now (franchises?) so they don't carry any of the groceries.
And yes, they have those water pipes at the Droubi's on Hillcroft near Bissonnet which I think is their main location.
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You're right about Droubi's. I actually know them (I am half Lebanese). But, they only have the one location, so unless you live nearby, Fiesta is usually closer.
They actually have several locations, although yeah, not as many as fiesta. It's worth a trip every once in a while if you're looking for those kinds of things at a good price. Droubi's locations
Of course Fiesta might be just as reasonable -- I never shop there because there's not one near me. I've also never been to the farmer's market on Airline, but have been thinking I ought to pay them a visit. Is it worth getting up super early on Sat morning?
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It depends on what the other half is.
I find it nearly impossible to find grape leaves anywhere but Fiesta.
Looking for grape leaves (and other middle eastern foods) at reasonable prices? Try Droubi's. They also sell shawarmas and falafel which are very good. Their baklava is 50 cents per piece!! WOW! And I buy Romano & Parmesan cheese there for about $6 per pound instead of paying $11/lb & more at other stores. Check out their bulk products -- olives, nuts, dates, all at reasonable prices.
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Battlesteins, anyone?
I worked at Battlestein's one summer while I was in High School. Switched over to Foley's that fall, lots more business so we didn't stand around with nothing to do. They got bought out by Beall's I thought -- at least the one in Sharpstown Mall did.
This was back in the days when retail stores were closed on Sundays and only opened till 9 pm on Mondays & Thursdays. We used to stand around Mon & Thurs night with an average of about 4 customers a night. The ceiling in that store sort of looked like the underside of an egg carton, and we'd kill time by throwing some light weight object up to the ceiling to see if we could hit the high points.
It was that summer that Battlestein's FINALLY got electronic cash registers. Before that we had cash drawers and hand wrote tickets & figured in the tax manually. My sister had worked at Battlestein's a few years before that and they didn't even have cash drawers -- instead, they wrote up the ticket and sent that along with the customer's money or credit card to the cash office via a canister similar to what you see in drive-though banks. Isn't that funny!?
Thanks for letting me reminisce.
Back on topic, I also remember Sakowitz II on Nasa Road 1. I worked for IBM (for Nasa) for a semester in college so I used to drive out to Clear Lake every day, and I shopped at that Sakowitz II sometimes at lunch. It was a pretty small store with not much selection.
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I guess you and my son must have gone to the same elementary school for a year or two before we moved in 1968. You would be a year older than he. The name of the school slips my memory. We still communicate with our old neighbors that lived across the street. They moved there in 1961, same year as we did, and they still live there.
Anderson Elementary.
My mother remained in that house for until she passed away a few years ago.
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'One's A Meal'
Brooks System Sandwich Shops
Fine Food For Everyone
Brooks System Sandwich Shop At 9047 South Main St.
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El Chico is gone and has been for years. Guess you can call it demolished because I'm about 99.9% sure that building is no longer in existence.
Funny thing is that El Chico became just another run-of-the-mill TexMex place later, but back in the day of the restaurant pictured above, it was a pretty fancy place. I remember my parents getting dressed up for a night-on-the-town type evening to go out for dinner there. They didn't take us kids to such a fancy place! Funny to think of El Chico that way, or any TexMex place, but that's how it was back then.
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Didn't the Weingartens become "Apple Tree"?
You are right about Safeway. They buy nice stores and make them cheap. I remember when the Randalls on Shepherd and Westheimer was so crowded you couldn't park. Now it is so empty I figure it's just a matter of time before they close. It looks like a discount mart.
Yeah, they became Apple Tree after Safeway couldn't make a go of them and I guess sold out. Then all the Apple Trees closed.
It's the same way with the Randall's on W. Belfort & S. Post Oak -- used to be packed, now it's empty.
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We should go back to that.
I'm not sure about this, but I think that back then you didn't actually buy your phone, it was somehow leased from the phone company, and they came in black or funky green.
Oh yeah. You had to rent your phone, and pay for it every month in the phone bill. And a princess phone cost extra. So did colors. WHAT A RIP OFF!
Then in about 1980 or so, you had to turn in your rented phone and buy your own. They were pretty expensive to buy back then too!
And yes, I do remember rotary phones. You can still see them in old movies sometimes. I remember telling my kids about them, and I said, I hated phone numbers with too many zeros. You had to rotate that dial ALL THE WAY AROUND, and wait for it to come all the way back! How funny that all seems now.
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I lived up the block and around the corner from you, at that time, on Landsdowne, about a block south of W. Airport. I remember that 7-11 too. From your description of your 7-11 purchases, it sounds like you were just a kid then. Did you know that Ron Stone of KHOU-TV fame lived on the same block as you at that time?
Boy, it's a small world! Yeah, we bought that house in 1963, I was three years old and lived in that house until I got married. I did not know that about Ron Stone! OK, this story might not strike anyone else as funny but it's a memory for me.
When Ron Stone was anchor (actually I think it was after he had moved over to KPRC), he used to end his broadcast by saying, Good night Neighbor. I (as a teenager who thought I was clever) used to say, Neighbor! I don't even know where he lives!
Little did I know, he actually WAS my neighbor at one time.
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Funny thing about Safeway, they have a nasty habit of coming in and buying a highly successful grocery chain in Houston and turning it into... well.... Safeway.
They did the same thing with Weingarten's in the 70s. Turned them all into Safeways which eventually went out of business. They didn't learn their lesson and did the same thing with Randall's now. OK, they're not out of business. YET. But what a difference between what Randall's was -- what made them the best grocery store in the city -- and what Randall's is now.
HEB did phase out the Pantry name in Houston. I think they weren't sure about the Houston market and used those Pantries to get familiar with it. Now the former Pantry stores which are still in business are no longer called Pantry but they're still small stores with little selection. I do shop at one but not as much as I used to as they've raised a lot of their prices.
Wal-Mart Neighborhood store is the newest thing near my house -- it's just a grocery store, no regular walmart merchandise.
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The old South Main Drive-In!! I loved that place when I was little. Notice how it says And Kiddie Amusement Park on the sign? I remember going to the drive in movies as a kid, and the minute we arrived, I'd say Bye to the parents, and run off to play in the park. It had a bunch of swings & other typical playground equipment and it was located on a grassy area exactly in front of & underneath the screen. I'd play there for who knows how long, and only go running back to the car for a drink or a snack.
Funny, how you could let your kid go running off to some playground in the dark and never worry about them back in the 60s. Can you imagine anything like that today?
Oh, and I remember my parents getting dressed up to go to the movies at the Majestic when I was young. My father used to get tickets for movie debuts/previews which were apparently a big deal back then. The also went to the Gaylynn movie theatre in Sharpstown when it was brand new.
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Actually, you got Slurpies at 7-11.
You get Icees at Sears's pop-corn stand. And now they have them at Burger King.
Yeah, 7-11 switched to Slurpees at some point. But back in the early - mid 60s, they sold ICEEs. We practically lived at that 7-11. It was on the exact corner of my street, and we were 2 houses in from the gas station on the corner on the opposite side of the street. I remember the ICEEs and I remember them switching to Slurpees.
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There was a Globe on the northeast corner of Bellaire and Hillcroft. It was right across Hillcroft from the Sharpstown drive-in theater. Sage was on the southeast corner of Beechnut and Post Oak (now 610) right across from Meyerland. What occupies those locations now?
Torchlight answered about what occupies the old Sage location now, but I don't think anyone answered what sits on the old Globe location at Bellaire & Hillcroft. It's now a Fiesta Grocery Store. And across the street where the old Sharpstown Drive in was is now a strip center which I can't recall what is in it now. It was a Safeway a long time ago.
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PArkview was mine back in the 60s. Back then everyone in parkview was PA9 or PA3. That's it. Then they added PA1 numbers. I live in that area now and my number is PA6 or actually 726-.... And of course lots of other exchanges cover this area now.
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I took the Ghost Walk tour and yes, we stopped in at the Spaghetti Warehouse where Sandra mentioned the cold spots & other ghostly happenings. There are apparently several other "haunted" places in Houston which she covers on the tour. It was a couple of years ago when I took the tour and I don't remember much of it now, but it was definitely a fun experience.
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There was a 7-11 across the street from my house when I grew up on the corner of W. Airport & Chimney Rock. That was in the 60s. When 7-11 pulled out of Houston, it became a local no-name store and changed hands/names several times.
We used to run back & forth to that 7-11 to get chocolate bars (10 cents), gum (5 cents for a 5 pack of wrigleys or 1 penny for bubble gum), and of course Icees -- cola & cherry were the two flavor choices. Those were the days!
The U-Tote-M I remember was on Westheimer just inside the loop. It was a brick building and I believe it's still there as a convenience store but I don't know the name. I'll have to make it a point to pass by there & notice.
Butler Stadium At 13755 South Main St.
in Historic Houston
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I remember Meyer Speedway, I was just mentioning it to someone the other day but couldn't remember what it was called!
It was right next door to Butler Stadium (which is still there). We lived on W. Aiport and could hear the sound of the cars racing, so we actually went over and sat in the stands and watched a few times. This was probably around 1965-66 or so. My feeble memory says it was free to watch but there may have been a small charge.