riverrat

Cooks rink was the bomb. No a/c, just to 6ft tall fans that blew horizontally down the floor. There were also alot of metal poles for roof support, often used to as pivot point when going around corners. My parents went there as kids and said they had a lion that would stay inside at night for theft protection.

Except for the lion part, that's pretty much how I remember COOKS SKATING RINK.

Some older people I've talked to said that some roller rinks many years ago had a person playing an organ while people skated. I don't remember that even though I'm now 47. I just remember them playing records over the PA system. I remember the many times that I fell and busted my butt on the hard wood floor.

I'm a good deal older than 47 and I don't remember live organ music either, but the rink I used to go to was in Greens Bayou (close to the Armco Steel Plant) and not very fancy. I also suffered from the Butt-to-Wood syndrome...in fact as I get older I think I'm having a relapse!

Last week we had a thread on the Balinese which prompted me to look into the club.

I went to the Balinese site yesterday and was wowed by the history of this place. It was actually an illegal casino in the 40's which is why they initially built the long walkways into the club. It was frequented by huge stars long before Vegas was on the map. Stars like, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, George Burns, Benny Goodman etc, frequented the famous club.

Another interesting tidbit was the invention of the margarita at the Balinese. According to the website, a well known latin bartender used to make this particular drink, which he invented for Peggy (Margarate) Lee. Peggy would have him make the drink everytime she was in town, thus the bartender eventually named the drink, "The Margarita".

They also talked about the wonderfull "original" murals which have been completely restored, including some very expensive and original acrylic drawings.

The restoration of the club was taken on by Houston Attorney Scott Arnold who obviously has a great passion for the history and nastalgia of such a great piece of history.

There is to much history to mention, so if interested go to scottarnoldpc.com/br/.

Former Harris County Sheriff Johnny Klevenhagen's dad was a Texas Ranger who led the raid on the Balinese Room back in about 1957. They threw the confiscated slot machines, at least some of them, into the water below. It made a good publicity shot. There were also lots of illegal gambling sites along Highway 3 and Highway 146 from Kemah to Galveston. There is a great book available thru the Harris County library which documents gambling in Galveston County.

Funny you mentioned North Shore, I played against them in the OLD stadium, it was a complete joke. They did NEED new facilities. Their old locker room looked like something out of that movie "Hostel". I played in Stallworth stadium, which rivals some college stadiums still these days. I was fortunate. Katy football, well, continuously go to state finals a few times and money magically appears from boosters. I don't feel bad about N.Shore good fortune, they got an infusion of new money form wealthier families moving in that area, and it shows, they seem to have a decent team every year now, where as back in the 80's you couldn;t wait to play them because you knew it was gonna be an easy night.

I live about 1/4 mile from North Shore High School. It is a great facility and has been selected to host a college bowl game in 2007!! It is called the Senior Classic Bowl which is made up of college senior players who are no longer eligible for NCAA football and did not declare for the draft or were not drafted. It is mainly for these players to been seen by Pro Football Scouts but it will be televised by ESPN. One of the organizers spoke to the North Shore Rotary about a month ago.

Oh, I know where the money comes from, I should have put boosters in quotations "BOOSTERS". I will take you up on the night of drinking though.

TJ -

What happened to the Babe on the Treadmill avatar...she must have more skidmarks on her knees than Monica Lewinsky!!

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?

There was a skating rink in Greens Bayou (near Galena Park) called COOKS SKATING RINK that closed several years ago although the metal building is still there. Does anyone remember the traveling skating rinks that used to come to the outlying areas, like Channelview, once or twice a year. They set up a portable wooden rink coverd by a huge circus-like tent...like the ones they used to use for tent revivals. In fact I think sometimes they were one in the same. The skating got the kids in during the day, then they set up chairs on the rink for the nightly revival and offeing.

I remember them. There was also a cool one near South Houston H.S.

But do y'all remember those slides and you slid down on a carpet? There was a shell of one on Telephone south of Hobby until about 5 years ago.

Those were crazy.

You are right...Superslide was NOT a water ride...it was a carpet ride. I had forgotten. That one on Telephone was it.

Does anyone remember a waterslide that was on 610 & 59 somewhere?

In about 1973 a company called SUPERSLIDE built the first waterslide I remember on Telephone Rd at Almeda Genoa. A friend of mine who is a Nasa Engineer was involved because they needed a P.E. to sign off on the design to get a city permit. I think they built others around town. They weren't in business too long because one of the promoters ran off with all the money. The one on Telephone stood for years in the middle of a junkyard.

I miss Tony Mandola's Blue Oyster Bar on the Gulf Freeway near Park Place. That was me and my wife's favorite place...especially during their lunchtime happy hour: $2.00 beers, $0.25 oysters and $0.10 boiled shrimp!

I also miss the old Fusion Cafe at Main and Alabama. After it moved to Rice Village, it seemed to lose some flavor....and some "flava". It wasn't the right setting for soul food.

If you like seafood AND are old enough, you might remember:

1. Jimmy Walkers (now Landry's in Kemah)

2. The San Jacinto Inn (near Battleship Texas)

3. Tomek's (we'll make the location a trivia question).

I remember 3 great seafood restaurants; TWO you have probably heard of but never visited and ONE that I bet not one person on the board ever heard of:

1. Jimmy Walkers (now Landry's in Kemah) 2. The San Jacinto Inn (near the Battleship Texas) 3. Tomek's (if you remember, you tell me).

Yeah, 57 bird you are right. Norman was a hard charging competitor.Unfortunantally we lost Norman in 2005.Yes I did go to Arrowhead, of course I was just a kid,but I would tag along behind Johnny Reiff, the car owner for Billy Griswold, I didn't drive anything there 'cuz I was way too young.Norman raced there alot,

as did Billy Wade,Doc Cossey, Buddy Rackley,A.JFoyt, Quinten Steinman,Don Burton, Cecil Elliot, Tubby Gonzales,&Billy Griswold. Griswold, Doc Cossy,Don Burton,Cecil Elliot, & Johnny Reiff,& Norman Peirce & of course Billy Wade are all gone now, I miss them all,but I owe them all alot. Those guy's taught me alot, not only mechanical & driving stuff, but kept me away from most bad things life can tempt you with while growing up.I still see Norman Peirce jr. a lot, he's pretty much like his dad, but he was never very interested in driving.

In the late 40's and early 50's there was a dirt track located in Channelview near the intersection of Sheldon Rd and Bear Bayou. It was active until about 1955 at the latest because I learned to drive on the old abandoned track in about 1958. Anyhow, it was only open on weedends and mostly stock cars built by local junkyard operators raced there but occassionally midget races and modifieds ran. These were mostly drivers from out of town (Houston was considered a long way off from Channelview in the 50's before I-10 was built.) I cannot remember any drivers who raced there but am sure some of the ones you have mentioned made the circuit.

I don't know the EXACT spot but it was out off of tri-cities beach road (FM 2354)..across the drawbridge over Cedar Bayou (or where the bridge was - gone since Alicia), past FM 1405 and to the right....just before Beach City.

I have tried to find remnants but have never located any. Probably several hurricanes wiped it out.

there are bay houses near there now.

I think there is a historical marker out there for it, too

here is a link to the general location:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=be...77,0.037293&t=h

That point at the end of the road is Houston Point, supposedly where Sam Houston's house was.

In the early 1950's I was in the Indian Guides which was a Father/Son organization of the YMCA styled somewhat like Cub/Boy Scouts with regard to outdoor activities like camping and crafts. We spent a weekend at a camp located off TriCity Beach Rd in Baytown. The facilities were not unlike Army barracks. I have an old Trinity Bay fishing map published by Buddy Bray's Pearl Distributing Company from 1962. It indicates not only the location of the YMCA's camp, located at Houston Point, but also Camp Allen for the Episcopal Church located a little further north and a camp owned by the Methodist Church just north of Umbrella Point. Given the residential development along the west side of Trinity Bay, I doubt much is left of ANY of the former facilities.

How about another drive-in I know:

Here is an aerial over the Decker DriveIn in Baytown. If memory serves me, it closed down in the early 80's. maybe Tjones has a better recollection?

It is currently (and ever since it closed) a mobile home storage lot. All of the drive in structures have rotted since then.

There are also lots of damaged mobile homes in there too.

The whole place looks like heck.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=baytown,++tx...08786&t=h&hl=en

I remember the old Decker Drive-In quite well. In the early 60's I dated the daughter of the manager. Her name was Charm Bengtson. She finally got tired of me because all I ever wanted to do was go to the movies...guess it was because we got in for FREE!! That and the fact that I went away to college and she stayed in Baytown...long distance romance is hard to keep up at that age! Due to increasing development along Decker Drive since its completion as an expressway, which only took 50 years to get done, I'm sure the property owners are just waiting for the right offer.

I am a little too young to remember it much less ride it....but i would have liked to.

i believe this is the book you are thinking of:

http://www.cera-chicago.org/b-133.%20Houst...rth%20Shore.htm

Great book with a lot of pictures. I checked it out of the library several years ago...seems like I got it through the county library and they had to request it from Sterling Municipal Library in Baytown.

I particularly liked the pics of those weird combo bus/streetcars MoPac ran on the line in the 50's and 60's.

The Houston Electric book also has a little information of the HNS. It's a good book too.

http://members.iglou.com/baron/book-info.htm

A few years ago, someone in Highlands found an old streetcar from the line in Channelview and is restoring it. I haven't heard anymore about it though.

That is the book. I have also read the second book you referenced. I don't know anything about a restoration project but the HNS book did talk about one of the cars being in a train museum in St. Louis, which is where some of them were made. The combos were called Autorailers. Like many ideas involving merging two technologies, they apparently were not very good railcars OR buses (rough riding) and they were replaced with the Railbuses which were used until the interurban was discontinued in 1961. I grew up about 1/2 mile from the track close to the San Jacinto River crossing and used to walk the trestle to Highlands. Never had any close calls but heard (probably exaggerated) about kids getting caught and having to climb down the pilings to get out of the way.

I just discovered this site...what a great place for us Baby Boomers to reminisce about what for us were the "Good Ol' Days".

Does anyone remember the last electric interurban built in the U.S. (1927) ?? It was the Houston And Northshore Railway Company (H&NS) which connected Houston with Baytown (Back when it was Baytown, Pelly and Goose Creek). It ran east through Jacinto City, Greens Bayou (just North of Galena Park), Channelview, Highlands, McNair and on to Baytown, passing through the Humble Oil plant (now Exxon Baytown). I never rode it but a lot of people did, especially during WWII, when the Channel industries were booming. There is a great book available at the Baytown Library (possibly County and City also) on the history of this Railway with lots of pictures and history. If you have a thought or question. pls reply.

My mom worked for the Commanding Officer of the SJOD during the war (WWII). The Army was still using Draft Horses at this facility and my mom bought one sometime during her employment and brought it home to Channelview. I don't remember much except her name was Dolly and she was white. The base might have been closed after the war but them along came the "Korean Conflict" as it was first known so the base stayed open. During the late 50's and early 60's the Army was still detonating bombs there. A siren would sound briefly then one would hear a distant BOOM, not unlike thunder. It finally closed in about 1963. There are referneces to this facility on the internet, but all are brief. It seems that there may still be some buried Phosgene and Mustard Gas bombs somewhere on the property. Public tours on a special railcar were conducted during the 50's...I was on one such tour when I was in Jr. High. It was located South of Market Street and East of Penn City Road and had its own dredged channel and dock facilities.

Go to your browser and type SAN JACINTO ORDNANCE DEPOT...that's how I found this site, which linked to the first post about SJOD.

Having grown up in Channelview, I well remember the Brunson in Baytown. Did you know there was also a theater in Channelview called the SANJA? It opened in the late 40's and closed in the early 60's. During the segregated 50's, black patrons were only allowed into the balcony, which had its own entrance up a flight of stairs on the outside of the building. The SANJA was owned by the same theater company that owned the BRUNSON in old Goose Creek and also the BAYWAY in old Baytown. There was also a theater in Pelly. During the early 60's, I dated the daughter of the manager of the DECKER DRIVE-IN. Her name was Charm Bengtson. I think she finally got tired of me...all I ever wanted to do was go to the movies...I guess because we got in free!!