nm5k

There used to be a hamburger joint named "Luke's" at the corner of Willowbend and Post Oak. Vastly better than Burger King down the street. Further to the east on Willowbend, near railroad tracks, was a barbecue place who's name escapes me. I still remember the smell of smoke had permeated the walls after years of operating the indoor pit.

 

Luke's became Anne's, which is still there as far as I know, and is basically about the same as Luke's. Or at least I never

could tell a lot of difference...

 

The Bar B Q place at Post Oak and Benning was Post Oak Ranch.

 

 

 

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Memories for the area just out side the loop in zip coeds 77096 77035 & about 1/3 of 77025

Willow Bend on the West side of the train tracks where the baseball field about 5 to 7 yrs ago their use to be a place that sold plants there still is a old brown metal building that still stand

 

South Main & Willowbend there use to a golf course wierd thing about it it was so close to the street bet a few times people driving by got golf balls through there window

 

#1 When the dino's roamed the earth, that was the site of Mel's Bar B Q. 

It burned down if I remember right, and was the plant store a few years later.

 

#2 I worked as a caddie there 2-3 times in the early 70's.

 

 

 

Wonder if they ever finished all the work they were gonna do on that thing. I was thinking it was semi dry

docked for rust repair, but haven't kept up with it.. I once spent the night on that thing. We ran a ham radio

special events station on that in the early to mid 80's.. We set up our station in the CIC as I recall. They still

had the old radar sets in that room back then. We worked most all bands, and even had a 1200 watt amp

set up. it was winter, and I almost froze to death on that thing at night.. The metal conducts cold big time..

During the day, I had pretty much the run of the ship, and got to check out most everything worth looking at,

except for the closed off sections. The radio room was closed at that time. I hear it's been restored now,

and has some ham gear set up I think.  It was a hoot..  Wouldn't mind doing it again some day.

 

 

 

Dang Michelle, you have had some nice Fords.. I once had a 1960 Falcon coupe kind of like your red one.

But mine was green. Had the mighty 144 cid six in it. Almost a bulletproof car. I never managed to kill it,

and it still ran fine when I finally sold it off. Wish I would have kept it now, as it would be pretty collectable.

I still have a 1968 F-250, and I also have a 1974 F-100, but it's in the garage and I haven't driven it in a

while, although it still runs fine. Still drive the 68 quite a bit.. The buckets were a semi rare option on the 68's..

Not really connected to the Ranger in that year.. IE: a 68 Ranger didn't have buckets, unless you special

ordered them, and you could order buckets with any of the trim levels in 68, if I remember right.

Didn't have to be a Ranger. But like I say, they were pretty rare, and you hardly see them on most 68's.

Regular ole Bench seat in mine.

 

My first car was a 1965 Chevy Impala Sports Sedan. That the version with no pillar between the

front and rear side windows, and the rear window came to a sharp crease at the top back, rather than

the more curved version of the regular Impala Sedan.. Had a 396, and was faster than a scalded house cat.

My dad bought it new off the showroom floor, and I inherited it as my first car when I started driving.

My everyday car now, besides the trucks? A fairly boring Toyota Corolla.. I bought it when gas was sky high,

and I wanted a gas sipper.. I do have to say, it's been flawless and I haven't had a single problem with it so

far since I bought it in 2007.  So it has been a good car, if kinda boring..  :/ And does sip the gas, which helps

on the semi long trips I often take.

I remember in the 60's, I always liked T-birds because of the pseudo airplane interiors, gauges, etc they

had back then.

 

 

 

 

 

I tend to agree. Blood and Money is the only book really worth reading about the story.

I never liked the movie, nor the other book too much at all. But also Blood and Money is a good

book as far as getting an image as to what Houston was like in those days. Pretty accurately

descriptive in many ways.

I even went as far as to purchase a second original hard cover version off fleabay a year or

two ago. The only let down was there are no pictures in it, like there is in the paperback version.

But I have both versions, so I guess I can live with it.

I used to have an autographed copy, as my mother knew Thompson, but it runnoft somewhere

over the years..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not sure how I got it in my head that there was an indoor pool.. Maybe I was confused to the location

being as it was so overgrown at the time. I can see from the older pictures that you could loop around

the driveway without stopping even in the old days. So I guess what I thought were carved out driving

trails in the overgrown grass, were actually tracings of the original drive that looped around the garden

area, or whatever it was, east of the house. I think it was the summer of 1974 when we went there.

I remember I was driving the first car I had back in those days, and I'm pretty sure I was 17 at the time

as I remember that summer pretty well.  In the 1973 archive image, it doesn't look as overgrown from the

air as it actually was that next summer we were there. I vaquely remember we went there one night late that

summer, and the police came and ran everyone off. I think that was the last time I went there.

And I guess it was 2 years later when it burned down. At that time, I didn't have any real clue as to it's history.

But even in it's run down shape, I could tell it must have been a pretty fancy place in it's day.

The grass and weeds must have been 3 ft tall when we were there. It was pretty thick as I recall.

Hard to believe it's been 40+ years since then.. Where did all the time go... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Used to go to a place called the "Diamondhead" club?? I believe it was.. Back in the mid-late 70's..

I think that was in the village or nearby.. We used to go there on cheap pitcher night and

drink mass quantities of golden beverage while watching bands like Allan Haynes, and such..

Didn't really spend much time in the village area other than that.. I do recall seeing Eric Johnson at

the old Tower theater back in the mid-late 80's or thereabouts.

 

 

 

Been collecting them for years here, but not limited to Houston..

Have a few thousand of them on my drives. I have many of Houston, including a boat load of the old Main street houses,

several panarams, etc.. I've got a lot off of the Library of Congress, and a few other sites.

One place I check quite often is "Shorpy's" site.. Lots of good pictures there, and I like it because most are large images,

and most have been tweaked up and sharpened. So they look good.  Quite a few new ones pop up every few days.

It's amazing how high quality many of the old large glass plate images and such were back in the day.

An example jusr recently posted there.. 110 years ago. And sharp as a tack.  I also like the old gas station images and

such. There are many of those there.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/18666?size=_original#caption

The truck crash was May 76.  So would be around that time frame until maybe 1977 or so.

Never really went in any other bars around there. Theodores the restaurant had a bar upstairs

where I got adult beverages free or half price, "can't remember which", so hardly went anywhere

else.  I imagine everything looked about the same, except 40 years fresher.. The restaurant, 

which was in an old Westheimer house, burned down several years ago. The store next door

was there, even back then. Back then, all the houses on Avondale were in pretty good shape

as I recall.

 

 

Best I can tell from the various sources, they seem to think the oak has been there since around

the beginning of the cemetery founding. Which was the 1870-1880 range.

So... if it's from 1870, I suppose around 143 years.. That's a pretty long time for a typical oak tree.

It's getting so heavy on the ends of the branches that they have a few cables, supports and such

to hold it up in spots. 

 

 

 

 

 

The walking tour showed this ad as the tour went past 304 Avondale

 

When I worked there, Theodore "Ted" had bought out Scruggs, and both the club on the

sidestreet, and the restaurant were named Theodores. I worked for the restaurant..

Hardly ever set foot in the club.. This was the time period as the ammonia truck crash.

I was behind that ammonia truck and saw the crash while on the way to work at Theodores

that day.

 

 

 

 

Parked many a car in front of that house in a past life..lol   I once worked at Theodores as a valet parker

back in the later 70's..  :/

 

 

Noticed another had posted some images from Glenwood. I have a few I took around the

beginning of last year.. I'd like to take some more if I ever get around to it. A few notable

graves I haven't got to yet.

That monster tree is something else. I don't think I ever posted these here, but if I did and

forgot about it, sorry about the dupe.. 

 

http://home.comcast.net/~disk200/cem1.jpg

 

http://home.comcast.net/~disk200/cem13.jpg

 

http://home.comcast.net/~disk200/cem14.jpg

 

http://home.comcast.net/~disk200/cem15.jpg

 

http://home.comcast.net/~disk200/cem16.jpg

 

http://home.comcast.net/~disk200/cem17.jpg

 

http://home.comcast.net/~disk200/cem18.jpg

 

http://home.comcast.net/~disk200/cem19.jpg

 

http://home.comcast.net/~disk200/cem20.jpg

 

http://home.comcast.net/~disk200/cem21.jpg

 

http://home.comcast.net/~disk200/cem22.jpg

 

http://home.comcast.net/~disk200/cem23.jpg

 

http://home.comcast.net/~disk200/cem24.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

***If anybody is still visiting this site and has access to the Westbury60.jpg picture that has been mentioned on this site and the Plane Crash in Meyerland site, could you please post the picture again.***

 

Is this the photo you're talking about?   http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=2490

 

It probably is.. But the original is a higher resolution.  Which is this one..

You should be able to click on this one to see full res. Well, maybe not after

posting it..

This is the full res link..

 

http://home.comcast.net/~disk300/westbury.jpg

 

I've never seen any.. It was the typical victorian era 2 story type of house. Or I think it was two

story anyway.. It also had a large attic. When it was open, they had both outdoor and indoor

dining areas, and I believe a bar area if I remember right. Seems like the bar was on the

second story.

BTW, I'm almost positive the name of the restaurant was Theodores when I worked there.

I do not remember it being E.T. Scruggs. And the club around the corner was also called

Theodores at that time.. It's been so long, I can't even remember "Theodores" last

name.. We called him "Ted" as I recall.. I remember his parents used to come in a lot also.

I'll probably come to me some day.. It's wandering about in the fog.. :+

For some reason, I'm semi recalling that E.T. Scruggs was the original name, and Ted had

a partner at that time. They named the restaurant for one, "Scruggs", and named the club

after the other. "Theodore"

But.. Seems to me that Ted bought him out, and renamed both the restaurant and the club

Theodores. I think that's the story anyway, but don't hold me to it.. That was 35 years ago.. :/

It was a fairly hopping place at that time, particularly for the lunch crowd.

Used to work at the restaurant. Mainly valet parked cars, but also worked inside when

they got hard up for help. That was about 1977 or so I think. They had a club around

the corner, but I never worked there.

The building which used to be an old house burned down several years ago.

P.S.. It was 1976 when I worked there. I remember the ammonia tanker crash

happened when I was working there, as that was where I was heading when

I drove through that mess. "I was about 5 minutes behind the tanker when he

rolled off the interchange"

I checked when the crash was, and it was May 1976.

Here's another angle at night.

Dunno.. I just kind of wander around..

Sunday morning is a good time if you want to cut down the

traffic. But I've also gone in the afternoons.. Naturally,

the light is a little warmer early or late.

A few I've snapped.. Note that the one with the church,

I've cloned out the background buildings with sky to reduce

visual clutter.. :/ That was probably my favorite one of the

bunch.. Such a contrast of buildings..

Good pictures.. Some of those are real good for looking through an aircraft window.

I notice Southwest Maryland One parked in that "taking off for Austin" picture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6kGMYtkdVg

I snap a few of them when I'm in the neighborhood. I'll usually sit behind the fence

near Telephone and catch them going into 12R.

Shamu..

Spirit of Kittyhawk

Regular ole 737-700

Stone was anchoring at KHOU then, and a guy named Jerry Dale was Lasher's backup and weekend weather guy. When Lasher died, Dale was promoted into the full time weather job. /quote]

They show him in that video. They said he was the "voice" of KHOU, which I assume

means he was probably the one that announced the station ID's, etc..

Was Sid the one that was known for "ta-da-da-dum-ta-dum Presidio, Texas!" when announcing the hottest spot on the map or was that someone else?

Yep, that was him.. According to what I found when I did the search to verify the date,

that happened not long before the 10 PM news was to come on. One source said he was

out in the hallway.. They said Ron Stone came on to give the announcement, and then they cut

to a three stooges cartoon.. I'm not sure if that's right or not... Seems to be a

weird choice of programming to put on right after announcing something like that.

But maybe that's all they had ready to go at that moment to fill the air.. ??

I also ran across another obit about his wife. She died just this year. I think Feb 2011,

or thereabouts.

Sid Lasher.. I'd forgot all about that guy. Been so long..

I still remember the night he died right before the newscast

was about to start. I was thinking it was probably about 1970-71,

and a quick search showed it to be in 1971.. 40 years ago..

Note how primitive the weather map was back then.

I know Texaco had a lot of toys. Being my grandfather had a Texaco

station, I got many of them growing up. Mainly the late 50's, early

60's era. I remember having Texaco tanker trucks that looked like Tonka

trucks. Real heavy duty. Also remember one year we got fairly big Texaco

ocean tanker ship models. They ran off batteries and had props to shove

it around the bathtub, or wherever.

Some of that stuff is probably still lurking in attics waiting for collectors.

Mine are long gone, sorry to say. I think I may have pictures of them

somewhere though.

In this area there are still a few old gas station buildings around.

But I'm talking late 50's, early 60's era stations. Not the really old ones.

Most seem to end up being auto repair shops around here.

BTW, that station in Jefferson looks like a privately owned building

kind of like the deal my grandfather had. Or at least, it doesn't look

like any company station I ever saw. Except for the rock siding, it's

kind of like the one my grandfather had with that awning.

Which looked like this in late 60's. He didn't have a garage per say.

But there was a grease rack on the side of the building.

He changed the oil and greased cars outside. You don't that much these

days. He had a regular modern lift, but it was outside. I think he

cut the air off and locked the control handle at night so people couldn't

mess with it. :/

Anyway, he owned that building and Texaco gave him all the stuff

to dress it up into a Texaco station. Like the signs, little Texaco stars

for the building, etc.. Also.. much of the wood trim was painted Texaco

green.

My grandfather owned two or three service stations.

His first was a Standard/Esso station, and he was with

Texaco from the 50's until the late 60's or so.

He always owned his own buildings, so I imagine his

differed a bit from the usual "company" station with an

oil company built building.

Wanna see some good old gas station pictures?

Check some of these out. Probably the best on the web.

Click on the large images for the best detail.

The search did not bring up only gas stations, but there

should be quite a few to pick out. He's got quite a few

posted on there. Some are even in color.

http://www.shorpy.com/search/node/gas+station

>Only in pictures. But there were a lot of homes in the downtown area around the turn of the 18th to 19th

>centuries.

Er.. I should have said 19th to 20th century.. :/

Not many homes on Main Street in 1800..