brucesw

Los Troncos has been talked about here, too. I remember I posted a postcard, possibly earlier in this thread.

I stumbled on this last night while rummaging around, looking for a photo of the old Mrs. Baird's bakery on W. Gray (I get distracted easily). Story Sloane writes this feature for Houston Lifestyles emag using some pictures from his great collection at Sloane Gallery and a couple of years ago published this one about old restaurants. I know what the mystery cafe is. I wonder if he's got all ten winners yet. I'm still working my way through all the other articles but there are some great photos.

I have no idea but obviously there are lots of family ties in the restaurant business in Houston, so why not grocery stores?

I had forgotten all about Pasternak's. It was there when I lived in Montrose in the 70s but I never went. I don't know why since there was a shortage of grocery options in Montrose. As I recall, a used furniture store later occupied the space, not a junk or antique store, just used. I think the name was Alabama Furniture and it later moved up on Yale.

Welcome to the club.

The murder of Billy Bodenheimer was for my generation what the Dean Corll-Elmer Wayne Henley case was for a later generation - a brutal awakening to the horrors of the real world. Well, it was for me, anyway, if not my whole generation. There were probably lots of my generation as well as older people who didn't want to hear anything about the case at all. Our next door neighbor's grandson who came to visit in Lake Jackson regularly went to school with Bodenheimer, though he was older and didn't claim to be his friend. Earlier in the decade, whenever we came to town and went out to visit relatives in the Heights, we passed right by the spot where the body was found; I have never been able to remember seeing such a yard, though. I remember thinking that if I had lived in that neighborhood, Billy probably would've been a playmate of mine. I followed the case, mostly in the Chronicle. I wanted to know who could/would commit such a crime. The rapidity with which the police announced the arrests was shocking and the story told by the police made no sense to me even as a kid. In 1950s Houston, a gang of black boys gang rapes and murders a white boy - yeah, sure they did. They all wanted to die and their knives weren't sharp enough to cut their own throats so they just thought they'd get the state to do it for them. I didn't keep up with the trials, though. Once they were indicted there was never any question they'd be convicted. I saw the Press article when it first was published and it answered a lot of questions for me. It was the first time I'd heard anything about the case in decades. People didn't want to talk about this crime then and never have, much.

Interesting about everybody's reaction to Roman Meal. I had no idea it was so popular. According to the website, it was originally a hot cereal and had some ingredients that are trendy today. It was supposed to be good for you but wheat bread was supposed to be good for you too and Roman Meal tasted a lot better. I think I'll have to pick up a loaf sometime and try it. I drove over on Washington today; they sure don't brag about that place being a bakery. It's a Sunbean outlet store and I did see a Flowers Bakery sign behind the burglar bars at what I assume was the entrance to the main building.

There have been several discussions of the Gulf lollipop with pictures posted in this forum. The weather ball was atop the Continental Oil/Conoco building on Main, also discussed before with pictures in this forum. Bank of the Southwest had it's name in big letters on two faces of the building, not on top. There are probably pictures in this forum, also.

We never cut the crusts off at our house except occasionally if mother was making finger sandwiches for a party or something. I haven't bought supermarket bread in ages - I had to check over the weekend to see if Rainbo was still available and it wasn't at my neighborhood grocery but apparently it's still being made. But I remember supermarket bread not being as soft and squishy as today; maybe just because I was a kid. Yes, there weren't many options, certainly not where I lived. Loaves came in one size and the slices in one thickness - there was no thin sandwich bread or jumbo loaves. There probably were no supermarket generic breads. We occasionally had a loaf of wheat bread, but not often. I never heard of Federal. Both Three Brothers on Braeswood and Alfred's in the Village opened in 1948 I think. Surely they both offered rye and pump. My aunt who lived in the Heights had resettled to West U by the late 50s/early 60s and discovered Three Brothers and introduced us to the hard rolls. We often came home from visiting her with a big bag of rolls and maybe a loaf of 'French' bread. And another supermarket bread I remembered - Roman Meal. I don't know when that first appeared but we loved it and that was our go-to bread from then on.

In the Vintage Neon Signs thread, a question was raised about a sign for Fair-Maid bread. I don't recall ever seeing the sign and I don't remember Fair-Made bread at all. Perhaps it just wasn't distributed where I grew up (Lake Jackson) or my mother never bought it. The breads I remember as a kid in the late 40s/50s were Schott's Holsum and Mrs. Baird's. As I remembered it, Holsum disappeared in the 50s and was replaced by Rainbo but according to what I found online, Schott's Holsum became Holsum Sunbeam bread. Here's a story from the Galveston Daily News, 1951, on the arrival of Schott's Holsum bread on the island with some of the history of the bakery. The Schott's bakery was (?)/is (?) located on Washington, just east of Montrose. The Schott's bakery building lacks the curb appeal of the old Baird's bakery on West Gray. We went past that one frequently on the way to visit relatives in the Heights but seldom went across on Washington and I'm not sure it was even there back then. Here's a little history on Little Miss Sunbeam. Holsum was also a brand name used by other bakers. Anybody else remember Holsum bread?

We went to that Sears very often when we came to town and I don't remember the sign at all. However, it would have been very unusual for us to be there after dark. Beyond that I have been trying for days to remember Fair-Maid bread and can't. Perhaps it wasn't distributed where I grew up (Lake Jackson) or maybe my mother just never bought it. The breads I remember from the 40s and 50s were Schott's Holsum bread and Mrs. Baird's. Edited to keep from hi-jacking the thread.

I don't know if Caddy got rid of the plastic ducts in 54 but my memory is that GM introduced the wraparound windshield in 54 on Olds, Caddy and Buick (Chevy and Pontiac didn't get it until 55). That does look like a wraparound windshield but otherwise I agree the body looks more like a 53 model. The 54 Caddy should have had lines very similar to the 54 Olds. I guess I haven't eaten at a drive-in like that in decades; I forgot some of them served beer. Come to think of it, I don't think I've had beer in a clear glass bottle in a long time, either.

In the right rear corner of the cabin you can see the clear plastic a/c duct coming up out of the rear window shelf. The blower was mounted in the (humongous) trunk. This duct position would indicate factory-installed air, at least it did in the 54 Olds 98 which my family had. The duct fed into the ceiling of the cabin and individual outlets over each door. The outlets consisted of a a grill and a rotatable nozzle to direct a stream of air at your face or away, etc. Dealer installed air, in the Olds, anyway, would have entailed two plastic ducts, placed closer together toward the center of the rear window shelf, open-ended, blasting a/c into the cabin over the heads of the rear seat passengers. I cannot clearly remember what the unit looked like in the front seat but I don't think there were any a/c vents on or under the dash just fresh air, and the under-dash console was not that big; I seldom sat in the front seat of that car. Presumably the differences between the Caddy and Olds factory or dealer installed air would have been only cosmetic. I have not been able to find a picture of the cabin vents over the doors but in this pic of a 54 Olds (ours was green and white) you can make out the a/c fresh air intake scoops on the rear fender, just ahead of the tail lights, where fins would subsequently sprout. This is what the Caddy's intake scoops would have looked like, I think. So this Daddy could not only afford to buy a new Caddy with factory air but also take his family out for a night on the town. Interesting that he's drinking a bottled drink instead of a fountain drink. Wasn't there a Stuart's on Main near Sears? ETA: Not to sidetrack the thread but note the 'autotronic eye' in the left corner of the Old's dash, a device wihich sensed on coming headlights and dimmed yours automatically and was a real riot when you came upon an intersection with flashing lights.

The Homer's building looks bigger to me now; it may have been added on to. I do not ever remember a Kroger along there but I didn't start driving that section of Bissonnet very regularly until the early 80s. I remember the pharmacy. Directly across the street was Hillcroft Pharmacy and at one time in the 70s I understood they were the only 2 pharmacies in the whole city open 24 hours a day. Both had drive-thru windows for after hours. I stopped at that Whataburger sometimes on the way home from bars; I think there was a bad crime incident there and it closed down a few months later if I'm remembering correctly. The academy building on the right of Homer's would have had a rather irregular and small parking lot for any sort of retail establishment (I think the Homer's lot was separate, not continuous). I wonder what the Salvation Army Thrift Store across the street was? Looks like it had an area for loading docks on the right side. I can't remember anything other than the Salvation Army store. There is a Value Village on the corner next to the SA, so a discount store of sorts lives on in the neighborhood.

I have pictures dated 11/03/06 showing the station with two of the canopies still standing. I'll post them when I get them up somewhere. The building was painted white and had red trim and was Oasis Insurance. The next time I saw them, probably at least 4 months later and maybe a year or more, the canopies were gone and the building was painted yellow. When I first saw the station the stone on the back of the building was charcoal gray and I guessed it had been a Phillips 66 station in a previous life. I found pictures online of several Phillips stations with flying saucer canopies including the St. Louis Phillips 66/Del Taco/Starbucks flying saucer, saved by preservationists. Around the same time frame there was another station with the flying saucer canopies on I-10 @ Lockwood, southwest corner. I only saw it twice and didn't have my camera with me either time. The second time I saw it the canopies were on their sides. It did not look like storm damage so I guessed the station was being razed but I haven't been back by there in a long time. I didn't have a clue as to the brand but I guessed not one of the majors. The station had been unused for years.

Homer's (home improvement/hardware) occupied the 'supermarket' space - succumbed to Builder's Square and Home Depot. That's even the Homer's sign. The building was vacant for a long time. A discount store tried to make a go in the building to the right . I seem to recall it had 'elephant' in the name or something, ran some of the stupidest TV ads I've ever seen, lasted only a short time. I'm not sure if that was a new building but I think it was. I don't recall which for sure which building was turned into the academy first but I think it was the discount store. I don't go by there as much as I used to. Edited to correct earlier posting that the discount store occupied the Homer's building.

Deleted in favor of following post.

Bumping this thread again. I found this site today while surfing around. Some great old pics including Antonelli's in it's original location on 2nd street, the JC Penney's, Bodiddles, the Surf Drive-In, the entrance to the AP Beutel Building at Dow and more, all mentioned up-thread, and some images lifted from this thread. Also, I recently visited the relatively new Freeport Museum. Many of the displays relied quite a lot on framed newspaper clippings, still, there were some great images of the aftermath of hurricanes, some nautical relics, etc. Worth a visit if you're down that way.

The picture helps; I was trying to remember that one. Reminds me of Curry Ford on 2nd Street in Freeport. Other Ford dealerships in Brazosport included Angleton Motors on what is now 288B, close to the County Courthouse complex. I think that building is still there, converted to county offices; I'm going down that way this weekend and will check. The Ford dealer in West Columbia was Clyde V. Lee Motors, which I can't place but was probably on TX 35. Here's the photos in the Bob Bailey Collection at UT labeled Ford. Many of cars, a few of dealers including several of Raymond Pearson and one I'd never heard of, Alsbury-Burke.

Are you familiar with Houston Arts and Media? Their HAM Slices of History air as fillers at the end of programs on Channel 8 and they've produced a number of longer documentaries. They used to have a 30 minute weekly program on Channel 55 (repeated during the week a couple of times) that was my favorite show on TV at the time. I wish some other broadcaster would give them a slot but the problem with TV production is it's very expensive and time-consuming on top of the researching and gathering of the content. Their current work tends to cover material that predates any of us posting on HAIF but the old series covered some much more recent history. There is also JR Gonzales Bayou City History blog in the Chron.

I never kept up with the club scene much as I was never much of a club person. I worked remotes from a few on assignment but never any in the Galleria area. There have been some mentions of Roxy here on HAIF, probably over in the Dining Shopping and Entertainment forum or possibly the Historic Houston forum, depending on how far back. Have you used search?

There was an upscale cowboy bar on the West Loop for a time. When Bud Adams announced he was moving the Oilers to TN, KILT sponsored a 'Boxes for Bud' drive there. I'm not sure of the name but Post Oak Ranch would be a good one for a bar in that neighborhood. It was on the northbound feeder to 610 as I recall, between Westheimer and San Felipe. That whole area is completely different now.

Originally one of the roast beef franchises, Roy Rogers Roast Beef IIRC, before Luke's.

I saw Grand Hotel at the Parc III (didn't remember the name of the theater) ca. 1972-73 and had my '68 Volvo vandalized in the parking lot. Not exactly what I expected a block from River Oaks. The theaters were on the ground level, west end of the strip center, right on McDuffie as I recall. Tiny auditoriums, very, very plain. i think I've been in theaters with bigger restrooms than the auditoriums of the Parc III. I don't remember that grocery store as anything other than a Kroger. After the theaters disappeared there was a Soup and Salad at about the same location. Re: the Shamrock 4. When I worked at KAUM we held a screening of Performance with Mick Jagger there. That was released in the fall of '70 and the theaters were very new. KAUM was on the 16th floor of the Fannin Bank at Holcombe and Main, now a Wells Fargo? I was surprised how small the auditoriums were. There was very limited seating so lots of listeners had bought tickets to the other films showing and were trying to sneak into the Jagger film. I went out to the concession stand during the movie and quickly abandoned that idea because of the crowded lobby and the long line, then I had to fight my way back to my seat. The theater staff was making no attempt to police the situation, probably wisely. The whole time I was there I kept thinking of Valians. That was the first multiplex I'd ever been in but a year or two later I saw a movie (can't remember the name) at the Gaylynn (?) Twin (?) at Sharpstown and the theaters were not brand new but I don't know how old they were. One full sized auditorium, one smaller but still larger than the auditoriums at Shamrock or Parc III. Does a twin-plex count as a multi-plex? Of course there had been twin drive-in movie theaters long before that.

I moved into my present home in Aug, 1992. It wasn't long afterwards that I started getting flyers about a new HEB Pantry opening near me at the corner of BIssonnet and S. Gessner but I can't remember for sure when it opened. I was glad to have another grocery store option in the area but I was familiar with HEB from Austin and didn't regard it as a very good option. There was an HEB just 5 blocks from the last place I lived in Austin and I only went in it once, preferring to go to Kash Karry (sp?) or Handy Andy. The latter had a few stores here in the 70s and I regularly went all the way to the one on Voss that later became a Randall's Flagship. HEB also put a store into an existing space at S. Braeswood at Chimney Rock in Meyerland. That store was slightly bigger than the newly constructed one but still small by standards of the day. Since I was new to the neighborhood I'm not sure what was in that space previously. I wouldn't claim that either store was the first in Houston but I think HEB opened multiple stores about the same time. The stores had banners strung across the front proclaiming the slogan H.E.L.P. which stood for Honest Extra Low Prices. They also promised to open a new check-out line anytime there were more than 3 people in line and they were very good about that. They stunted the first few weeks with very good specials on Blue Bell ice cream. I liked the new store; it was a better option than the small, run down Kroger at S. Gessner and S. Braeswood. It was very small with narrow aisles, reminiscent of grocery stores from decades earlier. It carried all the basics but it could be tough to get around in the store when it was crowded because of the narrow aisles and the produce department, the most important part of a grocery store to me, was very small. At about the same time, a Food Lion opened on S. Gessner at Creekbend with much less hoopla and I shopped there too. I read in the Chron at the time that HEB had planned to enter the Houston market but moved up their plans to try to block Food Lions' entry into the market. Both chains were positioned as low price, I think. The FL was a much larger store with wider aisles. FL offered a few items that were new to Houston including Vidalia onions, which I had heard of but never seen, and a Vidalia onion relish. These days you can find the relish products at lots of places but I think at the time no one was carrying them. All of the stores carried only select grade beef. I thought the FL beef was a little better than HEB but they sliced their steaks very thin. One product I really liked at FL was their knockoffs of Pepperidge Farm cookies which were very good and much cheaper than the name brand product. I became addicted to the Chocolate Chunk Macadamia Nut cookies. I had a problem with HEB. I was constantly getting over charged at the checkout, mostly by 'operator error' rather than the wrong information entered in the computer resulting in the wrong price showing up on a scan. This happened at both stores with different checkers and I came to the conclusion it was a company policy to try to do this. One example involved being charged 3 times for the same item. I always caught it but got po'd and gave up shopping at HEB until the FL closed and I had to go back. I hardly ever shop at HEB anymore. The small pantry on Bissonnett is now a private school and the FL is now Valley View Elementary (HISD). The Meyerland HEB is still open but I refuse to go there after repeated frustrations at the checkout.