FilioScotia

The photos are great Pris, but, speaking just for myself, I really wish you hadn't done this. I don't think it's a terrific idea for the world to know how easy it was for you to get into the West mansion. That story is now "out there" on the Internet, complete with photographic evidence. I hope others with motives that are, shall we say, not as pure as yours, won't see it and decide to go in and take some of the expensive antique fixtures and sell them on the antiques black market. Things like that really do happen, and there really is a black market for architectural antiques from famous old houses, buildings and even old graveyards. The Fayette County Judge told me last year that in recent years they've been forced to beef up sheriff's department patrols around the famous Painted Churches that dot the countryside in that area. He said several of the beautiful old churches have been broken into and many 19th century paintings and statues have been stolen. They caught three guys in the act one day a couple of years ago in the Dubina community near Weimar. A deputy drove up and caught them loading a U-Haul truck with stuff from the church. The judge said he thinks it may be due in part to all the publicity the Painted Churches get in newspapers and on television around the state. Publicity is a double edged sword. Let us hope the same doesn't happen at the West mansion, and that the new owners will take steps to secure the place, and soon.

Flat broke? Are you kidding? Hughes was worth billions. He never had any kids anyone knows about, and he also never made out a will anybody could find. That's why there was such a hellacious court fight over his estate and his corporations after he died, and that fight is still going on. Check out the movie Melvin and Howard. It's the story of a Utah low-life who claims he gave Hughes a ride in the Nevada desert one day in 1967. His name was Melvin Dummar, and he went to court claiming the grateful Hughes promised to leave him more than 150 million dollars in his will. He even produced a promissory note he said was signed by Hughes. The courts ruled the note a fake and threw the claim out, but THIS STORY IS NOT OVER. More than 30 years later, Dummar is still trying to get his hands on that money. Absolutely true. Check out this story on MSNBC from just a few months ago. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15538092/ The very determined Dummar also left a faked Hughes will on a desk in the main offices of the Mormon Church in Salt Lake City a few weeks after Hughes died. When it was found, Dummar claimed he knew nothing about it -- until his fingerprint was found on the envelope. His fingerprint also was found on a library book about forged Hughes documents, which happened to include samples of Hughes' handwriting. A court ruled that Hughes had died without leaving a will, and his estate was divided among a number of relatives. But now here comes Dummar again, with a new lawsuit claiming he was cheated out of money that was rightfully his. I haven't been able to find out how the judge ruled, or if he's ruled at all. Stay tuned.

Hughes is buried alongside his parents in a small family plot in Glenwood Cemetery. For a few years after he died, the plot was open and unfenced, but the unending tide of inconsiderate sightseers walking all over it forced the cemetery to install the iron fence with locked gate. As you can see in the above photos, the plot is on one of the roads leading through Glenwood, his grave is clearly marked, and it's easy to find if you know where to look. As for Hughes and Houston, even though he was born and raised here he never cared enough about Houston to keep living here when he had a choice and the wherewithal to leave. When he inherited his father's oil field equipment company and fortune he got out as fast as he could. He left immediately for Hollywood so he could start spending his money romancing movie stars and making movies. Politics had nothing to do with it. Hughes Tool pretty much supported him for the rest of his life, paying for his movies, his aviation exploits and innovations, and his famously expensive life style. Even though Houston always regarded him as a "favorite son", he never "really" came back in the sense of maintaining any sense of residency. For Hughes, it was a case of being "from" Houston, not "of" Houston. Ironically, his aides were trying desperately to get him back to Houston when he died.

You're right, and I was probably being a little too sensitive. I also spent a lot of hours of my misspent youth playing miniature golf, and even working at one in Pasadena when I was a lot younger. I'm talking about the family-owned miniature golf course that was at the corner of Shaw Street and North Witter in Pasadena. It was owned and operated by the Pomeroy family, whose house was on the other end of the same corner lot. In the mid 50s, they also put in a dozen or so ground level trampolines when those things suddenly became popular. You may recall the trampoline craze died out pretty quickly because so many people were breaking their ankles, arms and legs on those things. For those too young to remember ground-level trampolines, they were installed over a pit about two feet deep. They were fun, but dangerous for the unskilled.

The Berry Center doesn't "sponsor" those religious group meetings. The CFISD rents the facility out to them. I think a local church uses it on Sundays. A week or so ago it was the Jehovah's Witnesses regional conference. And by federal law they can't discriminate. If a Muslim organization wants to rent the large hall for an event, they must be allowed or the district would be charged with discrimination. That's how it is when you hold a facility out for lease to the general public. You have to accept just about anybody who comes in with the money. I can't wait for PFLAG or Gay Pride to hold a big event and try to rent the Berry Center. I'm told the rents are pretty high, and they should be. It's going to take a lot of lease income to pay for that place. High school sports won't even scratch the surface of the 81 million it cost to build that place.

What you say is correct, but at the risk of being labeled "terminally anal", Camp Logan wasn't the site of the actual rioting. The riots happened in two places, both several miles outside the camp, when a crowd of black soldiers started moving toward downtown. Here's how one local history website describes it. "The acts of violence took place in two locations along Buffalo Bayou. The first was the suburban residential community of Brunner, located on the north side of Buffalo Bayou and centered at the intersection of Washington Avenue and the modern Shepherd Drive. The second scene of rioting took place on the south side of Buffalo Bayou along San Felipe Road, now known as West Dallas Avenue, in a residential area of the Fourth Ward known as the San Felipe District." You can read the whole story of the riots, and check out a map showing the route the rioting soldiers took and how the events progressed at http://www.hal-pc.org/~lfa/BB55.html Oh yes. My thanks to nm5k for posting this incredible set of photos. They're great. It's like looking backward in time.

I'm not one of those people who wakes up every day hoping someone will do or say something that offends me, but your ranking of miniature golf courses with snake farms and dinosaur parks is just pure elitist snobbery. You may be surprised to know that miniature golf has been one of the most popular family pastimes in the country since the 1950s. It's always been one of the few places families could go for good clean outdoor fun at a reasonable cost. There were any number of miniature golf courses, individually and corporate owned, but Putt-Putt was and still is the most familiar. Putt-Putt is the copyrighted name of the biggest national chain of miniature golf courses in the country. At one time, Putt-Putt had courses all over Houston, but it's now down to just one Houston area course, on NASA Rd One in Webster. It has survived because it has managed to change with the times. Here's how Putt-Putt describes itself on its website. "Today, Putt-Putt is transitioning into mini amusement parks with multiple attractions for children and adults. These new Putt-Putt Fun Centers may include go-karts, batting cages, kiddie rides, bumper boats, game rooms, laser tag, climbing walls and more." I'm guessing that changing tastes in entertainment and rising land prices put a damper on Putt-Putt's growth prospects and caused it to shrink. Even so, it's still thriving and growing again in other parts of the state and around the country. Check out the Putt-Putt website. http://www.puttputt.com/home.html There's even professional miniature golf, complete with a tour of tournaments and touring pros. Here's the website of Pro Putters of America. http://www.proputters.com/ The timing of your posting is perfect Subdude. The PPA Texas Open is going on this weekend at the Putt-Putt in Webster. Laugh at them if you want to, but I'm betting a lot of those guys are crying about it all the way to the bank. And, oh yes, I played at a Putt-Putt course on the Gulf Freeway somewhere around Edgebrook or College Avenue.

How big are the windows? Are they regular size? Or small and narrow? Many 19th and early 20th century buildings had basements with ceilings that were slightly above street level, to accommodate transom type windows near the ceiling, that could be opened for ventilation. That's also why old buildings and houses also had transoms over the interior doors -- for ventilation. In days of old, all houses and buildings were built with ventilation in mind. It's how they survived before air conditioning was invented.

I give up. With apologies to Thomas Gray, "where ignorance is bliss, t'is folly to even try to be wise."

Well, that's progress, coming from you. There may be hope for you yet, but it's incredible that you appear to have bought the myth that high school sports pay for themselves. "They don't even come close to supporting themselves -- anywhere, and it's amazing that an otherwise intelligent and educated person would say such a thing." Those aren't my words. You know who said that ? A former Texas Education Commissioner, in the early 80s, in response to a well known high school coach who was speaking out against HB 72, which created No Pass No Play. The former commish had to wait till he retired to speak that heresy in sports crazy Texas. Getting back to the point, I will always believe that if the CF board had been completely truthful and up front about what that 81 million dollars was going to build, voters would never have approved the bond issue. It seems clear to me that the board also believed that, and was afraid the bonds would be defeated for that reason, which is why they chose to be so deceitful about it. Now they're coming at us again, with the largest bond issue in CFISD history. 807 million dollars. Here we go again. Assume the position people. It's coming.

It's the reporters who know that good stories don't need to be embellished who become great story tellers. They know the importance of the first rule of good story telling: "Less is More". Dan Lauck is a master at that. I've always been fascinated and impressed with his very classy "minimalist" style of reporting. You're right, there are plenty of embellishers, and almost no story tellers here at the local level. The good ones move on to better paying jobs with a network, or retire because of physical infirmities, the way Dan is. I'm one who will really miss him and I wish him well.

They are synonymous. All good reporters are good story tellers. The skills go hand in hand. It's the all too rare ability to tell people what is going on in intelligent, interesting, clear, uncluttered and concise language that grabs your attention and is easy to understand. Presenting the story as narrative, instead of just spouting facts. Dan Lauck is one of the rare TV reporters who does that very well, and KHOU's loss is also our loss. "Reporting" skills can be taught, but you're either a born "story teller" or you're not. And if you can't "tell the story", you're not a good reporter. You're just a hack, and unfortunately, Houston media is full of people who fit that criterion.

It's a good thing you never said it because you would either be lying, or you would be the one suffering from terminal naivete. Sports and athletics contribute NOTHING to the quality of education in public schools, and they are an enormous drain on resources. When I think of all the money this school district spends on sports and sports facilities, and how that money could be going directly into the classrooms to pay for education programs, maybe even pay teachers a little more money, it makes me want to throw up when people like you stand there and parrot the tired old myths about the importance of sports. It is unconscionable to spend 80 million dollars on a sports facility that would impress the ancient Romans, and require teachers to buy their own classroom supplies out of their own pockets. Come to think of it, the Romans and today's sports crazy school boards have a lot in common. They know that bread and circuses keep people happy, and less inclined to think about how corrupt their government is. Plus

If you can point to one single thing that an 80 million dollar sports and athletic complex contributes to the quality of education in Cy-Fair schools I would love to hear it. Does anyone around here know the story of what happened in the Spring Branch ISD back in the 90s? It seems that in the 50s, 60s and 70s, SBISD couldn't stop building schools to accommodate all the families moving into that area of Houston and the Memorial villages. It went from one high school to four in just a few years. Then all of a sudden, in the 80s, they noticed that enrollment in their schools was declining precipitously. A study showed that all those families who moved there 20 and 30 years earlier had run out of school age children. It also showed that almost no new child-bearing couples were moving in to replace them, because the Spring Branch area was no longer the semi-suburban "bedroom" community it once was. It had become just one more crowded neighborhood deep inside a crowded city, and not an especially desirable place to raise a family. The declining enrollment forced SBISD to close several schools, including one high school. I predict the same thing will happen in Cy-Fair in about 25 years, because this district is already showing signs of approaching critical mass. I think the same demographic disaster that hit Spring Branch will be repeated in Cy-Fair a generation from now, and it will come to pass that some of these resplendent educational palaces will be closed and sold to developers. It's also probable that the successful buyers will probably be related to the Superintendent and some school board members. Nothing surprises me out here anymore.

I know the difference between a deduction and a credit. I was only saying that the local tax CAN help you on your income tax, by giving you a slightly bigger itemized deduction. Nobody's school taxes will go up 1000 dollars. Even a tax increase of ten cents per $100 of assessed value would only raise the tax bill 200 dollars on a 200 thousand dollar house. You'd have to live in a million dollar house for your taxes to go up a thousand dollars, and I don't think there are very many million dollar houses in Cy-Fair ISD. But I do agree completely with your larger point, which is that the CFISD board is guilty of profligate out of control spending on very expensive capital improvements, some of which are highly questionable from the standpoint of "need", and the board doesn't appear to care what we the people out here think about it. The question is: what are "we the people' going to do about it? The answer is nothing. We're going to silently roll over on our backs and let them keep doing it to us. Isn't that what we always do? When was the last time CFISD board members were not re-elected over the way the board does business? And school board members are subject to recall elections, if people get angry enough. That's not bloody likely. I've always said that if America's founding fathers could have seen ahead to what taxation WITH representation looks like, they wouldn't have said a word about George III's taxation WITHOUT representation. It's all a moot point for me. Our kids are grown and gone and we can't itemize anymore. We're now just living for the day when I can retire and move us the hell out of the CFISD, and that's just one year, ten months and 2 weeks from now.

The higher the better. Look at the upside, and yes there is an upside. Higher local property taxes give you a bigger federal income tax deduction next April. Nothing's all bad. Even higher local taxes.

If you check about five postings back, you'll find one with my name - Filioscotia -- on it that boxes in the quote from northbeaumont that appears in the first posting at the top of this thread. Then I say "Say what? etc". I'm getting confused, but that's a permanent condition with me. There's always a light on for me down at the Home for the Bewildered.

You're right. It IS weird. I cut and pasted that quote out of the first posting in this thread, which was made by "northbeaumont". I have no idea how your signature got attached to it when I replied to it. But my point is the same.

Say what? Did you know that bowling is the most popular sport in the United States? All the other sports played in this country combined, amateur and professional, don't come close to matching bowling in the numbers of people participating. Bowlers outnumber them all. Bowling lanes are everywhere. You just haven't been noticing them.

LOLL no he didn't set them by hand. They were called "pin-spotters", and they used a big triangular shaped rack with holes big enough for the pins. The rack was lowered to the floor, and the holes would widen just enough to leave the pins standing when the rack was raised out of sight. Most alleys had two sets of pins for each lane, which allowed the spotter to stay a little ahead of the game. He had one set in the rack ready to put down as soon as the other set was knocked over and he could clear them out of the way. Today's automatic pin-spotting machinery still does it the same way. A fresh set of pins comes down instantly after the first set is cleared. The machinery then sorts the downed pins and slides them upright into the rack to get ready to go down again. On a busy night the pin-spotters of old worked their butts off, and yes they also had to roll the ball back to the bowler. That was usually done first, followed by resetting the pins. Depending on how fast the pin-spotters could do their thing, games could move right along almost as fast as they do today. You could always tell when the spotters were getting tired though. The games really slowed down.

I think the Pasadena that people of my generation remember is already gone. Just a few weeks ago, I took a drive through the old part of Pasadena to see what my old neighborhoods look like now. I grew up there in the 50s and 60s, and lived at several addresses till I graduated from PHS in 1961. Our first Pasadena address was on Park Lane in the Gardens. Later on, we lived on Lawrence Street, also in the Gardens, on Pomeroy St. on the north side, just a few doors down from the Pomeroy family, and on Camille, two doors off Harris in the old Revlon Terrace neighborhood. All those areas were nice places to live -- back then. It was depressing to see what is now happening in those areas. Everything north of 225, especially that little area around Pomeroy Street looks like "Little Nuevo Laredo". The Gardens were on the way down when I lived there in the 50s and it's just awful to see them now. Some of the people there have some pride and are taking care of their homes, but most of the houses are slums. There's no other way to say it. Most of Revlon Terrrace appears to be holding up better than the Gardens. In fact, it wouldn't bother me to live there now. I didn't go through Red Bluff Terrace, or any area south of Southmore, so I don't know what those parts of town look like now. The old "original" Pasadena, the area bounded on the north by 225, on the west by Shaver, by Southmore on the south, and on the east by Tatar, excuse me, Pasadena Blvd, used to be one of the nicest areas in the whole east part of the county. It was built in the years before WWII, and it was noted for its lovely tree-lined streets, well maintained cottage style houses and green lawns. Not any more. Anyone who remembers what it looked like as recently as 30 years ago would weep if they could see it now. It's clear that the people who once lived there and took pride in their lovely suburban neighborhood don't live there anymore. Many have moved south to the annexed areas south of Spencer Highway and Fairmont Parkway. I won't be making any more trips back to Pasadena. It's just too depressing.

Wow. That's amazing. Of all the places on earth I would have expected to stay dry forever it was Pasadena. Then again, I guess all the annexations over the years have brought in enough voters who drink to outnumber the Baptists and other "churchianity" folks who kept the original Pasadena dry for so long. I wonder how many people in the "old" Pasadena even speak English.

That's the probable explanation. The annexed areas were wet when they were annexed, but there must be a "grandfather" clause in the law that allowed them to stay wet. It makes sense. KK's pub? Compares to Kay's? Sounds like a place I would enjoy a cold one or three. I might drive over to my old stomping grounds and check it out some time.

Unless Pasadena has voted itself "Wet" since I lived there 30 years ago, you have it backwards. It's Pasadena that's dry. Deer Park is wet. Pasadena has been dry for many decades. I grew up and went to school there, and we always had to drive to South Houston or Houston to buy beer. People who live there now still do. You own a pub in Pasadena? Which one? Is it really in the Pasadena City Limits? I'd like to check it out sometime.

I have it on good authority from someone inside UH administration that UH is leasing the property from Schlumberger. UH originally wanted to buy it, but the state wouldn't allow it without full environmental inspections. Schlumberger wouldn't give consent for the inspections, so there was no sale. UH is just a renter. I don't know the terms of the lease, but UH is essentially free to move out at any time.