nm5k

Hummmm, I can't believe I've never seen that place, being I'm close by.. I'm kinda confused on the location though.. This sounds like a good place to take my metal detector.. NE corner? Seems that would be kind of near the old Fluor <sp>? building... I'm confused.. I would like to check it out though.. Maybe I saw it years ago, but forgot about it.. I'd like to check it out. MK

I use my puter to record video, and transfer from VHS to DVD, etc.. My video card has a TV tuner, and I have a DVD burner I use to torch them off to disk. I can easily transfer any tape or DVD to DVD.. I have a SIMA video stabilizer that will take out macrovision from copyrighted material. Of course, I only use it under the clinical supervision of a dokter... :/ I record and burn a lot of movies... Often two or three a day just off the cable... I've got big shoeboxes full of DVD movies.. I've got two VHS machines tied to my puter for tape editing. Both are hi-fi, and the newer one is VHS-DVD both.. So I can play DVD movies on the sony, and avoid wear to my burn drive.. One thing that is handy, is most new DVD players also play MP3's, and some also do JPG's... My sony does both. So I can play my music disks on it too. My 21'' puter monitor is my "TV", and I run the desktop at 1600x1200 res. With the 720 res movies, and that display res, it's pretty close to HDTV. You can stick your nose right up to the screen, and hardly see any pixels. I go back to a normal TV, and it looks like a big dot matrix puzzle cuz the pixels stick out so much.. MK

One of the "community" channels on cable often plays a program on that terminal. It's often shown with other videos, such as ones of the rebuilding of the Conny that is at Kansas City. They also have shown a old video taken of Auther Godfrey while he was piloting an Eastern Airlines Conny back in the 50's. It's kinda funny in parts of it. They often show a in-cockpit video of the first flight of the KC Conny after they rebuilt it. I have the Houston air terminal show recorded on my puter, but the file size is a tad big to pass around... MK

Back in the old days Stella was it's own town. I guess it and "Stella Junction" are about the same thing. I've got a 1895 Texas map, and Stella is marked as a town, along with the others in that area. IE: arcola, juliff, etc, etc.. On that map, all the "roads" are actually the rail tracks. Stella was at the point where the n/s tracks that run appx along 288/521 intersect with the Southern tracks that connected Harrisburg and Richmond, etc.. Being I don't see the n/s tracks that ran parallel to Stella link road in the 1895 map, I assume they must have been built a bit later. Those are the same tracks that run through Memorial Park, and then south. They seem to call the intersection east of main, "West Junction". It's interesting comparing the old 1895 map with all railroads, and say a later highway map. The highways obviously followed the RR tracks in most cases. I notice that the 1955 map calls the Holmes/Knight intersection as "Pierce Junction". Another weird thing is on the 1952 map, they show a town listed at Main/Chimney Rock. "Lotus, TX". But in the 1955 map, they show that as "Heackers, and just east of Fondren as "Nichols" . They show dot markers as if these were actual towns.. Kinda weird.. I cropped the Houston area on the 1895 map with the railroads, and the 1938 map, with highways. Note that Westheimer was once it's own town too.. They show the Sam Houston airport on that 1938 map. MK

Yep, I think it was that way a good while into at least the 70's. I remember if you were going north on main, you went around that curve, that was kinda underground, with sort of a "cliff" on the east side of the road. I forgot when they built the elevated southbound part, but it was there in the early 70's. MK

Yea, ch 2 has always had trouble. It's mainly the frequency being used. Ch 2 is the lowest TV freq in use. Appx 54-56 mhz I think..?? On the other hand, ch 11 and ch 13 are both a good bit higher in freq, and the higher frequencies seem to handle urban areas better for a given power level. I'd have to get out a book to see what freq ch 13 is, and I'm too lazy, but I think it's in the 215+ ?? mhz range.. Of course, UHF is over 300 mhz, and higher as you go up. Again, the shift in freq's cause a change in the propogation. I think most UHF stations need to run quite a bit of power unless they don't mind snow reports.. Many of the off brand stations don't, and thats why they are usually pretty snowy unless you are close to the antennas. BTW, most Houston TV station antennas are south of town near Dewalt.. So it's the people up north that will probably have the most trouble on the big three VHF stations. MK

You can see al-beto's mexican resturant at the left edge of the fountain. I worked there when I was in high school. Those are pictures taken when the square was pretty new. They later did away with all the shrubs and plants, and paved the whole shebang... Just to the right of al -betos is a door that leads to apartments upstairs. Back when I worked there, they had a *really* hot girl that lived up there.. I mean a hottie deluxe... She used to come down and eat on the weekends. Everyone that worked at the resturant used to drool every time she came in. We had quite a partying crew there.. I could tell a few hundred stories... I remember when we worked there, after we got off work at night, we used to prowl the town and visit all the places they talk about on these forums... Like blue light cemetary, some weird "hollow" place in river oaks, etc.. I remember going to some place in river oaks, but 30+ years later, danged if I can remember much of the details.. I just seem to remember "hollow" being part of the name. At that time, I was 16-17. Drove a 65 impala with a 396. One of the other guys drove a chevelle with a 396. Another drove a big boat chrysler with a 383.. We all used to race on the freeways all the time after work. Back then, you could hit 120 mph + fairly easy, cuz the traffic was light at night. We used to do 100 plus all the way across town. We never got stopped.. Lucky I guess... MK

http://maps.yahoo.com/beta/index.php#maxp=...=29.65722&mag=1 Sorry bout the long link... Anyway, if you look at the sat pix, the "A" arrow will be pointing at the intersection of Craighead, and Old Main loop. You can see old main running ne/sw.. Ok, see the "dividing line where the neighborhood with houses switches to cleared land? The line runs exactly n/s. That line is about the midpoint of that section of old main. On the southside of old main, that dividing line was the west boundery of the gambling joint. There are still curb markers at the point of the entrance, but they are not showing very well in that pix. That would be just east of the driveways to what I think is pro-mark. There is a clump of trees pretty near where the old house, etc used to be. I see there are new buildings, street just south of where the gambling place was. Thats brand new.. Wasn't in the last sat pix I saw of that area, just a few months ago.. Note the fresh white concrete... I had been to that place a few times in the 70's. Went in the old big house, and also saw the swimming pool, etc, which was off in another building. It was pretty ramshackle even then... He left in the early to mid 50's when they had a local gambling crackdown. Went to Vegas and started the Sands.. Think it was the Sands anyway... BTW... Note the lawn sculpting in that overhead pix... Big diamond with a circle in it, and the big star east of the driveway. In the 70's, we drove through on that same driveway, and you could loop the place and come back out. But in the 70's, it was real overgrown and thick. Not like the sculpted lawn you see in that pix. Now, in 2006, it's all mowed pretty clean again... :/ MK

I'm not totally sure, but from what I've heard, the foundations near the bayou are from camp logan.. I think barracks, or ' whatever... They had a hospital, etc, but seems it was more towards the area of the golf course. MK

There is still one section of old main that is still pretty well used. It runs from appx craighead?, to nearly main street, but I'd have to check a map to see how it hooks up. This is the section of old main that the old Jake Freedman "Domain Privie" gambling house used to be. He was Caroline Farbs grandfather BTW... It's torn down now, and all that land is fenced field now. There are still a few people living around that area, and the pro- mark drumstick company is about at that location. I remember in the 70's, there was also a regular house on the same side of old main as the gambling joint, but farther east, closer to main. But it's gone now... I drove by there a few months ago. So...Whoever bought all that land, must have probably bought out the whole block and fenced it up.. That land is probably worth buckoo bucks.. I wanted to metal detect at the old gambling site, but it's all totally fenced, and the land has been bulldozed over I think. Makes me wonder if the old swimming pool at that joint is still under the ground... :/ Band names... I came up with one a while back while I was chatting about the common use of "superglue" to mend and seal cuts in the fingers of geetar players.. As an example SRV was an avid superglue user when he got cuts in his fingers... I thought... Hummmm.. Sounds like Finger Bondo... They said.... Hummmm... Good name for a band. I can see the marquee now... Modern Appliances, featuring guest star, Finger Bondo... :/ MK

Used to go to the weinersnitzle near Bissonet and Hillcroft.. Gone now.. As far as a few close by.. Westbury Square had a few that are all closed now. You had Village Inn Pizza, Bull n Anchor, Al Betos, Rumpleheimers, and maybe some I forgot about. The buildings for Village Inn and Bull n Anchor still stand. Bull n anchor was in the old run down shell of a building to your right, when you turn into Home Depot from W. Bellfort. Al Betos and Rumpleheimers, which were both near the fountain, were both torn down to make room for the Home Depot. I think Al Beto's would be about on the far back corner where they now sell lumber, etc.. :/ I once worked at Al Betos's, I was the daytime manager when I was about 16 or 17.. Also worked at Bull n Anchor for a while later on.. I imagine that the owner of Al Beto's , "Gilbert Villasana<sp>?" is now dead. I haven't heard from him in years. Mike Shields used to be the owner of Bull n Anchor... No tellin what happened to him... The building that held Village Inn has been sitting unused for years, but is still there.. Dang...I forgot about China Cottage...It was next to B&A, and I think it's basic building still stands too... China Cottage was the last of those resturants I actually ate at.. I used to do their refrigeration, walk in cooler, etc work until they closed down.. All those places had pretty good grub.. MK

I had trouble getting that to play very well.. It would start ok, but then the video would freeze in place, but still hear the audio as it d/led the stream.. I'm still wondering if thats private property.. I'd hate to get out there and find out I was trespassing the hard way... IE: farmer with a shotgun, or sheriff dept, etc.. I've pretty much come to the conclusion that was manmade.. Just too perfect a circles, and cross, to be random...Also, I seem to see the circular "mow marks" on the high pix... If thats a fluke, it's a pretty good fluke.. :/ MK

They already have as far as I'm concerned. But cable and VCR's started all that.. I haven't been in a theater is so long, I forgot the last time. But I was a taping fool with the VCR's, "have a few hundred movies taped", and am quickly falling in line with the DVD age, being I now have a burner. I'm burning movies nearly every day, and naturally get better quality with the DVD's than the old VHS tapes. I just recorded and burned to DVD "the shining" tonight as an example. I was just at fry's this evening getting another 100 pack of DVD's and the matching jeweled cases.. I burn a lot of video... I get near HDTV quality if I watch them on my puter. I use a 21 inch monitor, and run my res at 1600x1200. You can't hardly see the pixels at all. I go back to a regular TV, and the pixels stick out so much that it's like a dot matrix puzzle.. I'll probably get a true HDTV TV card pretty soon. They are getting pretty cheap. I'm using a ATI-9800pro all in wonder right now.. I edit the video before I burn em, so cut out all the commercials etc.. You can colllect a heck of a lot of movies just off cable TV, if you have the time to waste... :/ I've got a "sima goDVD" video stabilizer that I use for macrovision foiling.. MK

Judging from the look, I bet it once was a movie theater. Sure looks like one anyway... MK

I saw Pink Floyd play there one time.... :/ Pretty sure that was the place anyway.. MK I remember running track meets at dyer back in a past life... They used to run track meets at some pretty weird places... IE: seems I remember cross country meets on braes bayou, hermann park, some schools, etc.. We ran our state meets in Austin at some large campus. I was in the band all through school, and went to HS at Westbury. They had nearly all their games at Butler, which was pretty close by. MK

I was thinking the same thing. That old gibson was a pretty fancy model. If it's still alive, I'm sure it's worth quite a bit. The prices on those things are going through the roof. I don't have any old high end gibsons, but I have a 1960 gibson melody maker that I bought off fleabay for $600 in 2001. Going by the usual going bids on those lately, it's already doubled in value since I bought it. The 59/60 MM'ers were single cut like a late 50's les paul jr, and get a premium vs the later dual cut SG'ish MMers after 61. MK

Well, I don't think he ever lost it, but he did have bad back problems , or something along those lines. He once had some problems with his son I think, and his wife died several months ago. I'm not sure if it's true, but I heard some story that said he was getting remarried and moving overseas to the Phillipines, or something like that. The rumor said he was selling all his gear in NV, and setting up to do radio shows overseas, I imagine with an internet hookup. As many know, he's also a ham, and I hear him on the air quite a bit. I've done a bit of digital slow scan with him and his bunch a while back, as we were testing some "beta" Digi TV software some guy wrote. He has been hanging out on 75 meters quite a bit at 3.840, but he may be off the air a while if he's moving. I just dialed up that freq as I type, and no Art.... MK I guess the main thing I would be worried about was trespassing on private property. I don't know if that's park land, or private..I had assumed private. I would like to take a hike down that old road with my detector though.. Might be a bust, but might catch a few old relics, if it was once fairly busy.. I just don't want to get out there and have some farmer with missing teeth come after me with a shotgun, and tell me I've got a purty mouth... MK I could borrow one...The guy I work with has one I know... I used it once to check the speedometer on my old truck.. MK

Pretty weird.. Do look manmade, unless some kind of visual fluke. You can almost see where it looks mowed down to make the circles. I see slight lines that looked like the mower went around in circles, but could be an illusion.. Yep, I also used to go to blue light back in the 70's , but the cops started chasing everyone off. You used to be able to park on Patterson, hop the fence, and no one would bother you, but the police started hassling parkers on patterson, so we didn't go anymore. I think there are actual "no parking " signs now if I remember right. It's been quite a while since I've been there. I've been at it both in the day, and also remember going out there late at night. Never saw any ghosts or blue lights though... :/ I did once see signs of some grave tampering though. There is also another small cemetary at the end of Patterson where it hits highway 6, unless they moved it. It's on the corner, and only has a few graves. But they always stood out to me as the headstones had pictures of the people buried there. They were pretty old graves, and the pictures were pretty old style oval pictures that were imbedded into the headstones, and covered with glass. Or I think anyway.. I'd love to hit that old road with my metal detector... How did you get past the gate? Are you the landowner, or know them? This is not the first time I've seen "veggie art" in the landscape, or lawn. I was looking at an old picture of "domain privee" which was a gambling house on old main street back years ago. We used to party out at that place also when I was a teen.. Anway, if you look real careful, you can see where they had lawn art out front. One was a big star that seemed to be trimmed from tall bushes, or whatever. Like that place, the star was set in a mowed down area to stand out better from the air. I think they had something else too, but I forgot. I'd have to look at it again. MK

Don't feel too bad.. I haven't been in it since 1964.. Still have pix of the event too... I have been to the battleship since that time though. In the middle 80's, I was part of a group that ran a ham radio "special events" station on the battleship Texas. That was a blast. We got to stay on the ship overnight, except that it got so cold that we quit a bit early. "Was in the winter". We had all our radios set up in the combat information center, which was about halfway up the bridge. Still had all the old radar sets, etc, etc.. I got to take a unguided tour of that thing the next day, and was able to really take my time looking at everything. The only part I couldn't really see, was the old radio room, which was blocked off at that time. In recent years, some local hams have redone that radio room, and it may be open now, but I'm not sure. I remember that thing got *cold* at night.. All that metal.... Nope...Didn't see any ghosts... :/ MK

I think case by case, and location vs the flight paths or airport probably the biggest issues. I know that as a ham, I only start dealing with the FAA if I'm close to an airport, or in a flight path. I'd have to look at part 97, but they have set guidelines. If I'm not close to an airport, or in a known flight path, I don't have to tell the FAA squat about what I do. I'm not sure about the 2k ft tower rule. That might be true, but not sure... If I remember right, I think one or two of the Mo city towers are actually slightly higher than 2000 ft, but I'd have to check. But if they are over 2k, it's only a small amount. Over the years, many of our ham repeaters have been mounted on those towers at various heights. But in recent years, many of the tower owners have chased off the hams due to insurance concerns, making $$$ off paying customers, etc.. I know many people that have rode up in those towers to work on the repeaters, but I never got the chance myself. They say you can see the gulf from up in those , no problem. They have elevators running through them to ride up to various levels. They often have to go up to do work on machines, or to change the light bulbs out. MK

"Jones".... Wonder if that was an old ad for Jones Apothocary...Kinda looks like their old sign vaguely... MK