Earlydays

On another thread that I can't find right now someone, probably Subdude, has posted a picture of the old Weldon's Cafeteria on S. Main. Here's what the 1961 Chronicle Dining Guide had to say:

"Weldon

Don't forget about Sonny Looks, Gaido's and Angelo's on 610 & S. Main, Howard Johnson's on Bellaire at the railroad tracks (killer ice cream!,) the Mariner on Westheimer and for bars...Dome Shadows and Napoleon's Retreat. How bout Bill Williams in the Med Center?

Does anyone remember Ari's Grenouille and Los Troncos on Westheimer, West of Montrose?

They were good places to go to in the 60's.......I believe Ari's survived for quite awhile, but Los Troncos burned down at some point.

Sand Mountain was a coffeeshop in a house on Richmond Ave. with music on the weekends. Among the regulars there in the late 60s were Guy Clark, John Vandiver, Townes Van Zandt, and Jerry Jeff Walker. performing stage was in the front room, but musicians were hanging around there all the time. if you dropped by on a weeknight with your guitar you might find yourself sitting on the floor in what was once probably the dining room of the house in a guitar pull with one or more of the above musicians.

when Sand Mountain closed Anderson Fair opened and kinda picked up the Sand Mountain vibe, but when Sand Mountain closed it was the end of a scene I still miss 40 years later..

When my wife and I were dating in the mid 60's we used to go regularly to Sand Mountain....and La Maison.

Cool. I was at that show also. Do you have anymore jpeg's of old music posters/handbills?

I saw this show in 1969 at the Coliseum...outstanding!

there was a gaido's on south main...subdude posted a postcard:

http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/haif/i...ost&p=36402

i have some gaido's-houston stuff at home - i'll see what i can find

You're absolutely right....my wife and I ate there on our first anniversary in 1968.

It was there for many years.

What I remember most about Gourmet Hamburgers was their little chocolate mouse desert in a cup. God those were good. Great burgers to. Absinthe 1900 is right about the correct location of the one on Kirby. And I remember the one on Alabama also. Lived right down the street from it.

I also remember the Gourmet location on Alabama, near UST....great burgers. I used to live on West Main.

great school or greatest school?

I have to say that I got a great education at UST and really enjoyed the "small school" atmosphere.

Hard to beat when famous artists of the 1960's like Claes Oldenburg, Willem de Kooning, etc. showed up on campus....or you were sitting in Welder Hall next to Michelangelo Antonioni talking about Italian films.....

Class of 1968

The poster from the "Rock Jubilee" at the Coliseum on Oct. 5 (1969) brought back memories. My wife and I attended that show (Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Byrds....), it was shortly after Woodstock.

Seeing all the posters, etc. brings back a lot of memories. I was at the University of St. Thomas in the 60's and I remember going to some of those places.

Along with the 13th. Floor Elevators, the International Artists label also had a very avant-garde band, the Red Crayola, that came out of the University of St. Thomas. They went on to play at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival.

Does anyone remember which show was sponsored by the Alvin Furniture Warehouse....was it Don Mahoney's or Utah Carl's show??

The Westbury Square thread reminded me about this article which I had not exposed to the web. It provides history of the airport from its origins in 1941 to the article date in 1947.

As noted in the Westbury Square thread, the airport property is bounded by present-day South Main, Chimney Rock, Hillcroft and West Bellfort.

http://houstonfreeways.com/images/sam_hous...ew_complete.jpg

Here's more information on Sam HoustonAirport.....

http://www.members.tripod.com/airfields_fr....htm#samhouston

Does anyone remember Alfreds on Stella Link? The restaurant wasn't that great but the deli in the front was wonderful! I think they were on Marvin's report quite often though.

They had great roast beef sandwitches.....I also remember the original Alfred's that was on Almeda.

"

Meyer opened in the mid to late 50's and was a 1/2 mile paved banked oval. Ronnie Chumley was a regular winner in the modifieds in the 60s, he ran some when the late models replaced the modifieds in the 70's.

Terry Labonte won the late model championship in ~1975, without winning a race.

I finished third in the "Bronco's" in 79 or 80.

NASCAR ran one race there, the 1971 "Space City 300", won by Bobby Allison.

They had a big annual race on the 4th of July weekend called the Liberty Bell 300.

Names that come to mind are, Joe Plowman, Freddy Fryar, Larry Schild, Phil Cronin, Bill Blumrich, Bill White, the Bettenhausen's, Jerry Schild, Greg Davidson, Neil Bonnet and Bobby Allison, Charlie Ritter, Walter Ballard, H.B. Bailey, Munson Stoddard sp?, George Nash.

PS:

Here are photos from those days.

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y103/Nift...eedway/?start=0

My Uncle and Dad raced at playland and my mom was reportedly the first woman to flip a stock car, in 1949 at Playland in the powder puff.

I'll upload a few pics when I get a chance.

rh

I remember running an autocross at Meyer's Speedwy in the late '60's...it was a lot of fun to run a sports car on the track.

Several days ago I happen to drive by what used to be Westbury Square and almost did not recognize it. In fact I was a little surprised that any of it was still there. I got curious about what had become of it and found this forum in a web search.

The last time I saw the place was probably in the early 80s or late 70s. I grew up in the Houston area and Westbury Square was THE PLACE to hang out when it was in its hey day, even if you did have to drive all the way from Bellaire or Spring Branch : ). I was still young and impressionable so the place seemed almost magical to me. I worked part time for a while in a store there called Cargo Houston that was like Pier 1 Imports, only much, much better. I can remember what most of the stores were and where they were. Behind Home Depot is where the main parking lot was and the front of Cargo Houston faced the fountain, the remnants of which can still be seen through the wooden fence behind Home Depot. There was also a really cool restaurant, book store and clothing store facing this same main parking lot. The other stores I remember, I think, where a Pizza Shop, a oriental import shop, a Dutch or Danish import shop, a glass art shop, a photography shop, and an high end outdoor equipment (hiking and climbing, etc.) shop sort of like REI. They also had stores at Town and Country and eventually in the Galleria (all apparently out of business now). The guys that owned Cargo Houston also owned a place there called the Candle Shop. I believe there was also a Baskins and Robbins or something like that across the fountain from Cargo Houston. I also think there were a small number of upstairs apartments within the square and above the shops.

I would be interested in history about he place including pictures, list of stores, maps, etc. It was a great place to hang out, shop and work, but I don

I wonder how the Starlite will do? If I didn't live so far away I would gladly go to it. Not necessarily for the movie, but to re-live the experiences of my youth.

I remember going to 25 cent Saturday matinees at the El Capitan in the '50's......

I have never seen one of those in Houston. I am sure they were around at one point, but I am pretty positive they have no pressence here now. James Coney Island always had the market for dogs.

I have to say that the current hot dogs at James' Coney Island don't taste nearly as good as they used to taste at the original location, next to the Houston Shoe Hospital down town. I remember going there as a young boy in the '50's.

Now that we have DVDs, do you think that movie theatres will eventually die a natural death?

...only when every home has a 60"" plasma screen, DVD-HD and Surround Sound.

I went to college in the '60's at UST and knew the members of the Red Crayola, a very avant-garde band of the day.....

What a find! KFMK was the first 'free form' FM rock station of the late 60s and preceded KLOK and KAUM. Check out KILT's special about drugs on Houston's college campuses.

http://vasthead.com/Radio/radio_works.html

Wasn't KFMK one of the first "album rock" stations in the whole country, not just Texas?

I remember going to a SCCA Sports Car race that ran on the streets surrounding the Astrodome, in the '60s...

I remember the monorail well, it was very close to where OST intersects with S. Main....