TwainMark

Glad I found this thread.  I too was there for the tornado, in the dressing room.  Don't recall if we were getting ready or had just finished, but I do recall a young lady who was standing by the front door got showered in glass when it blew out and they rushed her to the dressing room, stripped her down and put her in the shower to try to wash off what they could.  Conflicting emotions for a hormone-ravaged teenager, to be sure.

I too played hockey there from the day it opened till I went off to college in 1976.  Worked there off and on also.  I'm betting some of us here know each other.  Met some of my heroes from childhood up north... Gordie, Bobby Hull and others.  Had some interesting experiences when they practiced there, such as the time I was sweeping behind the bench and goalie Don McCleod skated over in a panic and says "hey kid, I need Bobby, go find him, quick".  Bobby was Bobby Brown the trainer.  I track him down and say Don's in trouble, so he runs over to the bench and McCleod tells Bobby to get him a cigarette RIGHT NOW!  I thought that was hilarious; different times for sure.  

One thing I know is that it was torn down for the post office.  I remember being around when they built that as it struck me as a really cool building for a PO.  It was situated slightly east of IH and probably overlapped it's footprint a little bit. 

What I was searching for when I landed here was someplace I can purchase a copy of that photo from the Post/Chron archives or elsewhere.  Reason being that I am in that photo and still have an old copy plucked from the paper.  Found it recently when searching for something else, and it's getting pretty brown now almost 42 years later.  If anybody had any leads on that, I would be most appreciative.

I was actually looking for photos of the Ice Haus tornado in 1974 and got sidetracked by this thread.  I know there is an old thread on that, so I will go there to further inquire.

For now I thought I would kick in some memories of Memorial City.

Got to Houston in 1971 and we would spend a lot of time riding bikes on the trails on the east side of the mall, which I imagine is the horse riding area that was mentioned.   This was a pretty special place as it probably had the largest elevation changes in Houston that didn't involve a freeway overpass.   

On Sundays, when the mall would close, there would be car races in the parking lot.  Not kids and go-karts, but real racing with real cars.  I can't remember what they call this, but it seemed like it was some kind of car club or something.  They'd mark a course with orange traffic cones, run one car at a time.  Was pretty cool stuff for 13 yr old. .  

First time I saw Gone With the Wind was at that glorious movie theater, I'm guessing this was 1971.  Nothing like that movie on that big screen.

Somewhere in the area of the big theater was either a head shop or record store that sold concert tickets, and I recall getting there early and lining up for tickets to Jethro Tull; probably 1973, maybe 72.

Worked at Whataburger in the mall probably 1975.   Before that worked Jack in the Box on Kingsride.  Also worked off and on at the Ice Haus.

After I turned 16 I didn't spend much time there, other than to work at Whataburger.  One of my fond memories of that time was taking my grandmother, who lived in the apartments across... is that Barryknoll...,  to do a little shopping and then having lunch or dinner at what I guess was a precursor to Pappadeaux.  Can't recall the name, but it was a Pappas Bros. seafood restaurant on the east side of the mall.