FilioScotia

Wayne Henley has been eligible for parole since 1983, and he applies every chance he gets, but he's turned down every time. Apparently nobody on the Parole Board wants to be remembered for putting one of the Houston Mass Murderers back on the streets.

The City Auditorium wasn't all bad. In fact, I have some very good memories of it. In the mid 50s, I was there every Wednesday for rehearsals of the Houston Youth Symphony Boy's Choir. We rehearsed in the 2nd floor lobby behind the balcony seats. It was a large cavernous space with incredible acoustics. The Houston Youth Symphony Orchestra also rehearsed there the same day right after the choir, and they were arriving as we singers were leaving. Naturally some friendships --and some lustful pursuits -- developed. Hotblooded 13 year old that I was, I was definitely interested in some of the nubile young orchestra members, especially one particular hot looking cello player. She was also interested, so we would sneak off to some of the City Auditorium's many dark corners for some adolescent making out. Nothing more than some passionate necking and groping, regrettably, but it's where I got my first serious kiss. She was the teacher, and to this day, more than 50 years later, I can remember how those kisses tasted. Sadly, I can't remember her name.

"...When I was 16 and 17 years old and a student at Robert E. Lee Sr. High I used to work as an usher at tons of rock concerts at the Coliseum and Music Hall. All you had to do was show up about an hour before the concert started wearing slacks, dress shirt, and a tie. You did not get paid. This was back in '74 and '75...." I did the same thing in the early and mid sixties, when I was a student at San Jacinto College. A lady named Ruth Fredrickson, who worked for the Music Hall, I think, had the job of lining up ushers for all the shows and concerts. She put the word out to local colleges and high schools that students who would work as unpaid ushers could get in to see the shows for free. All you had to do was dress respectably and show up. I ushered at a couple of dozen shows of all kinds between 1964 and 66. It was SO easy. Just escort people to their seats, and take your pick of the empty seats when you were done. Most of the time, there would always be a bunch of empty box seats, and it was great to enjoy groups like the Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul and Mary, and others from the high price boxes.

I've heard this story all my life, and it's always from someone who knew someone who saw it, or was related to someone who saw it. Personally I don't believe it. I think it's one of those urban legends. I say that because Gene Autry was never known for having a self destructive life style. He was as straight-arrow as they come, and one of the rare people in movies who had a knack for the business side of the industry and an eye for what would make money. Here's what the Internet Movie Database says about him. "In 1940, he was the 4th highest grossing box office attraction according to Theater Exhibitors of America. The only stars above him were, Mickey Rooney, Clark gable, and Spencer Tracy. By 1948, Dell Publishing was printing over 1,000,000 Gene Autry Comic Books per year. Gene Autry was #49 on CMT's 50 Greatest Men of Country Music, and he also had 2 songs on CMT's 100 Greatest Songs Of Country. Everything Gene touched seemed to turn to gold. He saw the future of television early on, and he formed his own production company, Flying A Productions, which, during the 1950s, produced his TV series "The Gene Autry Show" (1950), "The Adventures of Champion" (1955), and "Annie Oakley" (1954). He wrote over 200 songs. A savvy businessman, he retired from acting in the early 1960s and became a multi-millionaire from his investments in hotels, real estate, radio and television stations and the California Angels professional baseball team." Autry did the rodeos because he enjoyed getting out and seeing his fans -- not because he needed the money. That's why I don't believe the story about him falling off his horse dead drunk. I think it was Plato who said "Live your life so that when people speak ill of you, no one will believe it." Or words to that effect.

The Texas State Hotel in downtown Houston has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the nation's official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation. This is good news of course, but let's not forget what this really means. The National Register is only a list of places that some people regard as "worthy of preservation." Being on the list does nothing to preserve a historic structure, and it provides no protection from demolition by developers. It just guarantees the developer will get some negative publicity when the deed is done, and that's about it.

Here's the info on Kitirik from Channel 13's website: By Melanie Lawson Long before Mister Roger's Neighborhood, Sesame Street or dozens of other children's programs, Houston had its own TV star for kids. She was the good luck charm for a station with an unlucky number. It seemed natural for channel 13 to have a mascot dressed as a black cat. And to the thousands of kids who grew up watching Kitirik every day, she was truly the cat's meow. Her name is Bunny, but at age 23, she became a cat. Bunny Orsak answered an ad in 1954 at a TV station that hadn't even gone on the air yet -- channel 13. Bunny Orsak/"Kitirik": "They said, 'We have in mind a station mascot and we want her to dress as a black cat.'" So her mother made a hat with ears and a tail attached to black leotards. Bunny drew on the whiskers. Bunny Orsak/"Kitirik": "I can do that to this day, without even looking." In those days, everything was done live, so she read commercials, station breaks, even mail and introduced cartoons. A contest gave her a name -- Kitirik -- by putting i's between the station's call letters, KTRK. Then came a studio audience, and the bleachers were filled with excited kids on live TV. But the carousel was the biggest thrill, reserved for kids having birthdays. Carl McReight clearly remembers his ride on the carousel -- his fifth birthday, in 1971. Carl McReight/Appeared On "Kitirik": "It was like, wow, this really is it, she really is there. Wow, she really does dress like a cat." And he remembers what happened after the show. Carl McReight/Appeared On "Kitirik": "I remember she started crying. I remember asking my mother why is Kitirik crying, because being that small it was really devastating to see someone like Kitirik crying. And mom explained this was going to be the last show." Bunny Orsak/"Kitirik": "I found it out that afternoon, before I did the show. ... I wished I could have finished the year of the kids who had been waiting to come on their birthday, and I wished I could have explained it better." These days, she works out regularly and at age 69, she's still trim enough to fit into her old leotard. Bunny's had nine lives since Kitirik, from business owner to great grandmother. The retiree divides her time between Lafayette, Louisiana, and Ruidoso, New Mexico. Her two sons live in Austin and the Woodlands. Bunny Orsak/"Kitirik": "I just loved doing it and to have someone come up to me and tell me they enjoyed it makes me cry." (Poster's note: That article was written in 2000, when Bunny was 69 years old. She's 76 now. I grew up watching her on TV too. Now I really do feel old.)

I talked with Dene Hofheinz Anton a few weeks ago, and she said she cries every time she drives past the site where Astroworld used to be. Recall she helped her father Roy Hofheinz build Astroworld in the late sixties, and was the park's Marketing-PR director for some years after it opened. She personally created and designed most of Astroworld's array of shops and attractions. Dene is the one who wanted a huge glass globe outside the front gate but she couldn't find a glass company that could make one that wouldn't cost a fortune. Then she remembered the old Weather Eye that stood atop the old Conoco Building in downtown Houston, at Main and Polk, next door to First Methodist Church. It had been taken down in the early sixties because of complaints that the blinking light was a hazard for airliners coming in to Houston International (now Hobby) Airport, but it was just the right size and precisely what she had in mind. She tracked it down to a local warehouse, painted the outline of a world map on it, and moved it to the front gate of Astroworld, where it sat greeting park-goers for many years. Now you know.

HISD doesn't have attendance zones anymore. It uses an open enrollment policy that lets parents send their children to any school that has room for them. You don't have to live inside the loop to send your kids to Lanier and Lamar, but I guess it helps if you want them to ride a school bus or walk to school. Open enrollment has its upside and downside. Despite its obvious advantages, it's not universally popular. Check out this article in the Houston Chronicle several years ago. http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive....id=2005_3900502 Magnet schools are here to stay because they were created in the 70s as part of the district's effort to satisfy federal court desegregation orders. The goal of the magnets was to give parents an incentive to send their children to a particular school regardless of what part of town it's in. Here's info about magnet schools from an article in the Wikipedia: "HISD's magnet (Performing Arts, Science, Health Professions, Law Enforcement, etc) high schools are considered a model for other urban school districts as a way to provide a high quality education and keep top performing students in the inner city from fleeing to private schools or exurban school districts. Magnet schools are popular with parents and students that wish to escape low-performing schools and school violence. There are 55 elementary magnet schools, 30 magnet middle schools, and 27 magnet high schools. Some magnet schools are mixed comprehensive and magnet programs, while others are solidly magnet and do not admit any "neighborhood" students." Magnets were the precursors of districtwide open enrollment. The thinking behind magnets and open enrollment is that allowing students to attend the school of their choice removes the need for forced busing to achieve racial balance. Generally it has worked well because the federal courts haven't intervened since then, as far as I know. While it is true that many schools are predominantly one race or another, their students are free to go to any other school they choose.

It's sad, very sad, sometimes, to see a spot of bare ground where a nice hotel once stood. My memories of the old Astrodome Marriott include meeting a lot of pro baseball players in town to play the Astros. Back in the 60s and 70s, visiting teams stayed at that Marriott, and I frequently encountered them there on Saturday mornings when I went to get a haircut at the hotel barbershop. That's where I once spent a very enjoyable hour there visiting with Yogi Berra, who was manager of the NY Mets at the time. He came in for a shoe-shine, but he wasn't in a hurry so he hung around to shoot the bull with all of us in the shop. He told some great stories about those great Yankee players and teams of the 50s, and he allowed as to how catching Don Larsen's perfect game in the '56 World Series was the greatest day of his life. Yogi is one of the nicest, most unpretentious and down to Earth celebrities I've ever met. And I can tell you he's not the amiable dummy a lot of people think he is. I had a similar experience with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, when I interviewed them in their suite at the Astrodome Marriott one day in the late sixties. They were in town to be the headline guests at the Livestock Show and Rodeo, and the words "nice", unpretentious", and "down to Earth" could have been invented to describe them. I had them to myself for an hour. No PR people, no handlers, just Roy, Dale, and me, getting the most enjoyable and memorable interview of my entire life, and having the time of my life talking with one of the most famous and most loved show business couples in the country. I'll never forget how Dale kept bustling around in the kitchenette keeping our coffee cups full, while sharing stories of their lives and careers. I have a lot of regrets, but losing the tape of that interview is one of my biggest, and as a radio reporter, I didn't think to bring a camera. As someone who grew up with their movies in the 40s and their TV show in the 50s, I wept genuine tears when they passed away. The Astrodome Marriott Club is also where I took my wife-to-be on our first date, and spent the evening enjoying the music of Ray Rogers and the Bojangles, with their special guest, a talented young local singer named Lisa Hartman. Today I can look down at that bare spot of ground in that photograph, where that hotel once stood, and say I had some very very nice times there, once upon a time. So sad.

I'm not trying to discourage you, but you should know that, in Texas at least, and in Houston, there is no kind of "historic" designation that will prevent people from tearing down old homes or businesses. State Historical Landmark designation won't do it, and even being on the National Register of Historic Places won't do it. Every historic preservation group in this state has been trying to get the legislature to pass a preservation law with some real teeth, but commercial developers have too much power in Austin for that to happen. Same story at Houston City Council, where developers are in complete control. Even people in the Heights haven't been able to get historic protection, but some good people in the Heights are hanging in there, trying to fight the good fight. Here's their website: http://www.houstonheights.org/index.htm You could also contact the Old Sixth Ward Historical District, which is also fighting a losing battle to preserve that area of beautiful old 19th century homes just west of downtown, north of the bayou and south of Washington Avenue. They can probably help you get started. Here's their website: http://www.old6ward.org/ The Texas Historical Commission is also a great source of information. It has programs and procedures for doing precisely what you are proposing. Here's a direct link to the FAQ page on the THC website. http://www.thc.state.tx.us/faqs/faqhp.html

The ages of the schools had nothing to do with it. It was the ages of the children in the district. The SBISD didn't have enough students of high school age, and there weren't enough children in the elementary and middle schools to justify keeping six high schools open. Two high schools had to go. That's what happens when young child-bearing families stop moving into a school district. In the 50s and 60s, thousands of those young families were moving into the SBISD to get out of the Houston ISD, but at some point that influx leveled off and stopped. By that time though, SB had expanded until there were six high schools. Gradually, in the 70s and 80s, enrollments at those schools declined to the point where it finally became painfully clear that two schools had to be closed and sold.

The Spring Branch ISD was created when it was outside Houston in the suburbs, but Houston has grown so much it's now almost entirely inside the Houston city limits. The district also takes in several smaller up-scale "enclave" cities that were created in the 50s to avoid being annexed by Houston. They became "enclaves" when Houston expanded outward and around them. All that happened before the Extra Territorial Jurisdiction Law was passed in the early 60s, giving Houston control over a five mile wide strip outside its city limit line. Also, the Spring Branch district once had more high schools than it now has. Over several decades, when it was a suburban school district, young families moved in by the many thousands, and the district grew to accomodate them. At one time, there were five or six high schools. Then in the late 80s and early 90s, the district stopped growing because it had stopped attracting young couples of child-bearing age. All their children were graduating and, in some areas, almost no children were replacing them. The district was forced to close Spring Branch and Westchester High Schools and sell the properties. I predict the same thing is going to happen in the Cypress-Fairbanks School District several decades from now. Cy-Fair is the fastest growing school district in the state, with 8 high schools, and two more scheduled to open next fall. It pleases me to be able to say my two children went to one of the two schools that don't have the word "Cypress" in their names. Personally, I think the school board out here needs to get a grip and lose its obsession with that word. Here's the list: Cy-Fair 22602 Hempstead Hwy, Cypress Cypress Creek 9815 Grant Rd., Houston Cypress Falls 9811 Huffmeister Rd. Houston Cypress Ridge 7900 N. Eldridge Parkway, Houston Cypress Springs 7909 Fry Rd., Cypress Cypress Woods 16825 Spring Cypress Rd., Cypress Jersey Village 7600 Solomon St., Houston Langham Creek 17610 FM 529, Houston Cypress Lakes (opening fall 2008) 5750 Greenhouse Road, Katy Cypress Ranch (opening fall 2008) 10700 Fry Road, Cypress By the way, having a Houston address doesn't mean it's "in" Houston. Many areas outside the city limits have a Houston address. I have no idea why. As for your final question, a "magnet school" is a specialty high school that, along with the usual 3-R's, has a curriculum designed to steer students toward a specific career. Houston ISD has magnet schools for professions in medicine, engineering, law enforcement, even the visual and performing arts. It's like a trade school at the high school level, except it prepares students to pursue a particular field when they get to college. Magnet schools were created in the 1970s as a way to integrate the schools racially. The school board eliminated attendance zones to allow students to go to any school they choose that has room for them. The federal courts accepted the idea of career oriented magnet schools in every part of town, and open to every child in the district, as an alternative to forced busing, and it has worked, by and large. Houston schools are successfully integrated as far as the federal courts are concerned. Yes there are many high schools that are more than 95 percent black, but students in those schools are free to attend any other school in the district they can get into. With magnet schools spread out everywhere attracting students of all races, something resembling "racial balance" is achieved.

Actually, I heard Waugh was named for WWI. So many guys from that neighborhood came home from France telling stories about that "waw" they fought in "over there", they put that word on a street. They spelled it "Waugh" to make it look like it was named for somebody, instead of being named for the "waw".

FYI: Those old WWII style army barracks that looked like a big half pipe were called "Quonset Huts." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quonset_hut They were made of molded corrugated steel, and the army loved them because it was easy to ship them anywhere in pieces and they could be assembled and put into use quickly.

I have no idea when or why it was changed, but at one time the street we now call West Dallas was named San Felipe. It ran from the west side all the way into downtown. I know it was San Felipe as recently as World Wars One and even WWII, because newspaper accounts of the Camp Logan race riot in 1918 said the rioting soldiers advanced toward downtown Houston on San Felipe Road. Also, the City of Houston built that big public housing project just west of downtown early in WWII, and named it San Felipe Courts, for the street that ran along the south side of the project. Does anyone have an old map that shows the original route San Felipe took going west out of downtown?

It may come as a shock for a lot of people on the day-shift -- who think everybody in the world keeps the same hours they keep -- that there is a huge subculture of people who keep completely different hours. There are day-people, like MidtownCoog and me, but there are also a helluva lot of night people out there who sleep during the day and work or stay up all night. Supermarkets and other retail outlets are wising up to that fact and that's why more and more stores are staying open 24-7.

I don't know if this is any help, but in those days there was a well known grocery store named Sacco Brothers Groceries at 2816 Blodgett. Like I say I don't know if this will help because Blodgett and Hadley are at least a couple of miles apart, but they're in the same general area. I'm not 100 percent sure of this, but I think the same Sacco family now owns that religious supplies store on San Jacinto just south of downtown.

That neighborhood along and on both sides of Houston Avenue just north and just south of Washington Ave is one of the oldest in the city. It's just north of the Historic Old Sixth Ward, where many homes date to the pre-Civil War period. It's not out of the question that this house on Weber could date to that time. If I had the money I'd buy it and restore it. I'd love to know what they're asking for it.

Frank Ryan went to Rice in the 50s and was a second string quarterback behind the better known starter King Hill. After graduation in 1958, Ryan played quarterback in the NFL for 13 years, playing for the LA Rams, the Cleveland Browns, and the Washington Redskins. He was elected to three Pro-Bowl teams and helped lead the Cleveland Browns to their 1964 NFL Championship. Ryan attended Rice during the off-season and took a PhD in mathematics from Rice in 1965. For several years in the late 60s, he taught spring and summer semester classes at Rice. He retired after the 1972 season, and since then he's pursued careers in government, academia, intercollegiate athletics, and the corporate world.

You may be interested to know that the master plan to restore San Jacinto to its original state was developed in the early 90s, long before the budget crunches of recent years. It has nothing to do with money, or lack of it. Yes, NASA is a government agency funded by taxpayers, but that doesn't and shouldn't mean that taxpayers should be allowed to just walk in off the streets. The JSC and and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida are regarded as prime targets for terrorists precisely because of what they mean to the American people. They must have tight security and restricted access, and we just have to get used to it. I miss the good old days too, when you could drive onsite and walk around pretty much wherever you wanted to look. It ain't that way anymore.

Thanks for clarifying something I've wondered about since 7th grade. We boys swam nude, and we just assumed the girls did too. We never knew for sure, but I can tell you we fantasized out loud about that -- a lot. I never could muster the nerve to ask any girl I knew if they also went nekkid in the pool. And, oh yes, the pool at Burbank JH was indoors in a large room with no windows and completely sealed off from prying eyes. It's just amazing how things have changed. In the 50s -- those dull, puritanical and sexually repressed FIFTIES -- nude PE swim classes weren't a big deal and nobody gave it a second thought. Today, it would be a giant scandal, and any teacher or school administrator who would even suggest it would be locked up and branded a sex offender for life. He or she would be on CNN and You-Tube within 30 minutes.

Hey people get a grip. In the 50s, it was HISD policy at Junior Highs and Senior Highs with swimming pools for students to swim nude. That''s how it was when I went to 7th and 8th grade at Burbank Jr High in the mid 50s. The reason given was that ragged swim trunks and threads from torn and ragged trunks clogged up the drains, so they eliminated the problem by doing away with the trunks. Also, swim classes were not for recreational swimming. They were strictly supervised and they taught swimming skills. One day a week, we went to the pool for PE class instead of the gym. Boys on one day, girls on another. And FYI, the gender segregation was total. Boys' PE coaches supervised the boys, and girls' PE coaches supervised the girls. And -- Vertigo58 -- there was nothing creepy or scandalous about it. It wasn't a big secret and it really wasn't a big deal. Nobody thought anything about it. Countless thousands of current baby boomer adults -- including me -- learned to swim in those swim classes. I have no idea when the policy changed, or why it changed.

State parks have been in financial trouble for years, but budget cuts of the past decade have just about killed many of them. That's why places like San Jacinto State Park have to charge admission, but you're right - the fees don't come close to paying the bills. Many parks are crumbling and falling apart due to lack of proper maintenance and upkeep. And yes some of the smaller parks have been sold because almost no one comes to them, and money to maintain them has been non-existent. This sorry situation might improve now that the legislature has decided to use ALL the money from the state tax on sporting goods on state parks, as was originally intended when the tax was created in the 1990s. That tax brings in about 100 million a year, but the lege has been tapping that fund for "other uses" for years, and leaving only about 30 million for state parks. This year's session voted to dedicate ALL the funds from the sporting goods tax to state parks, and the TPWD is enjoying an immediate infusion of money for the parks system. Take a look at all the new job postings on TPWD's website. They're hiring -- everywhere. http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/business/jobs/ "Acres and acres of grass area where people used to come to have a picnic have been lost to brush that has grown about 3 feet high." There's a reason for all the high grass. For some years now, the TPWD has been working on a master plan to restore the San Jacinto Battlegrounds to the appearance it had in 1836, as much as is possible. Really. They want it look less like a state park, and more like the important historic site it is. That means fewer park amenities and more emphasis on letting it return to its natural state. Here's everything there is to know about the Park's Master Plans. http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findade...texas/new.phtml I agree with your complaint about not being able to get into the Johnson Space Center anymore, but it should be remembered that JSC is a major US Government facility, and it became a VERY secure government facility on September 11, 2001. Even so, long before 9-11, all the space artifacts that used to be on display in the JSC Auditorium had been moved off-site to Space Center Houston. NASA higher-ups didn't like having tourists wandering around all over the place, so they just moved the tourism off the base. If you don't work on-site and have proper ID, or don't have a valid and verifiable reason for being on-site, you're not going to get through the gate. And that's just the way it is. Welcome to the brave new world of tight security.

Bert Lynn had an afternoon kid show that was Channel 2's answer to Kitirik on KTRK. His show was "Looney Town", and it had the same format and layout Kitirik had. A gallery of local kids age 5 to about 8 or 9, hosts Uncle Bert and his steel guitar named "Stringy", silly games, cartoons and repartee with the kids. I was a card carrying member of Looney Town. I recall it not being as popular as Kitirik because Lynn just didn't project the warmth Kitirik had with kids. She really liked kids and the kids loved her and you could see it in the way she did the show and inter acted with the kids. No matter how hard he tried, and he did try, Lynn couldn't match that, and I remember his show went away a long time before Kitirik's run finally ended. Bert Lynn owned a music store -- Lynn's Music -- on the southeast side of town, somewhere around Park Place and Telephone Road I think. I remember going in there for some reason in the early sixties, and I saw Lynn in the back giving guitar lessons to some kid who looked to be about 10 or 11. I could tell Lynn was tired and just going through the motions. Lynn wasn't just a musician and TV has-been. He was a smart entrepreneur with a good eye for what would make money. In the late 60s, Lynn got the first Texas franchise to sell Hobie Cats, a line of small catamaran sailboats that proved to be very popular here on the gulf coast. He opened a sailboat and catamaran dealership that's still doing business on the Gulf Freeway feeder just north of Park Place. Lynn's Sailboats. I think one of his sons runs it now. Bert passed away some years ago.

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