Bubba

Tomball should really go with a second high school. Magnolia just opened a second high school this year. They were very creative with the name too. So in addition to Magnolia High school, there is now Magnolia West High school. Kind of the same situation with The Woodlands High school and College Park The Woodlands High school.

It's about time. The Lord & Taylor building has sat empty for over two years. They are finally gonna demolish it and redevelop the site. Here's the full story.

The steel for the new Wachovia Bank branch is going up. I wish they'd start up my Amegy branch.

Do you know for certain that Amegy is building/opening in Sawyer Heights? That would be great. I have waited for a branch in this area for ages.

Rice grocery stores had some low end stores for a while called PriceBuster.

Mervyns also high tailed it outta Dodge, I mean Houston.

One of my favorites was Childrens Palace. It was a toy store.

There was also a Highlands Appliance & Electronics store here too.

Some folks are getting takeovers/mergers/buyouts confused due to the fact that when a store pulls out of the market, there is usually a competitor ready to buy up as many of the locations as possible. A good example is Venture. When they left Houston, KMart was able to get the largest amount of locations and open their stores in them.

Eagle, Gemco, Pharmor, Weiners, Montgomery Wards, Woolco, Woolworth & Globe are some of the many that just closed up shop and weren't bought or taken over by anyone.

I've seen these T.V. things before.

Yup, Murphy USA, the gas stations at WalMart had them for a while here. They did provide a mute button so you would not have to be blasted and made deaf while you pumped your gas. Thank goodness they were removed!

Speaking of poor food, has anyone else seen "Po' Folks?" When I was in college, it was a chain in Pennsylvania where people of modest means could go out for a respectable dinner without feeling bad. I remember there were a few locations, but I don't think it's really taken off. But then, with this economy, now could be the time!

We had Po' Folks here at one time. There was one on I-45 N & Parker Rd. & another on HWY 249, which was FM 149 back during that time. They had a peanut butter & jelly sammich on the kids menu. They had some country singer fella doing their commercials.

I've noticed that too and it's driving me crazy! Why does EVERY corner have to be filled with banks and pharmacies -ugh?!! When they cut down all those wonderful trees at the corner of Clay and Barker Cypress to build another gas station, pharmacy, and a bank, I was ready to protest. I'm not even an environmentalist type (LOL), but enough is enough!

As someone who dislikes all the clear cutting too, I was very please when Woodforest built their branch on FM 2920 in Tomball. There was a huge tree there and they built the building around it, leaving it lots of growing room. Believe it or not, even WalMart in Tomball saved a couple of very large trees directly in front of their store. Probably helped by public input, but they did listen.

Yup, Houston had A&P, TG&Y & Weiner's. In fact, I think there may still be a TG&Y located on Aldine Mail Rt. Rd.

I agree fellas. It does seem we are being way over banked. I know of a shopping center in the Woodlands where HEB is the major tenant. Of course they have a Wells Fargo branch inside, but every pad space in front is occupied by a bank. There are five banks in a row, right next door to each other, not to mention the other bank branches across the street in other shopping centers.

Then there is Woodforest National Bank. They have an instore branch at the WalMart on 242 & I-45 and then just outside have a freestanding branch on 242. They also have one freestanding branch directly across the street from another freestanding branch on FM 1488 in Magnolia, with no plans to close the older one.

BTW, Woodforest has several 24 hour full service branch locations in selected WalMart stores and now Capital One is opening most of their Houston freestanding branches on Sunday too.

Didn't the Weingartens become "Apple Tree"?

Nope. The Weingartens were long gone before AppleTree came along. When Safeway announced they were pulling out of the houston market, there was a buy out by local employees and thus AppleTree was born. There are still a couple of AppleTree stores in the Bryan/College Station area. That owner tried to make it in Spring with an AppleTree store at I-45 & Cypresswood, in a former Albertson's location, but didn't make it more than a year.

The Starlite Drive-in was open for almost a year and one partner ran off with the money so the others sold out and it just recently opened again under the name Litestar Drive-in.

Litestar Drive-in

There is also a new one just west of Tomball, in Hockley, near Waller called the Showboat Drive-in.

Showboat Drive-in

There was also a Mclendon 6 screen drive-in located on I-45 North at West Rd. back in the early eighties. It was the first one that I had been to that you tuned your radio in for the sound. When they later sold out, the shopping center that replaced it is still called Mclendon Town Center or something similar.

Yup, my wife worked at the Best Products on Greens Rd. in the late 70's.

I remember their catalog had all the one of a kind buildings pictured along with what city & state they were located in.

I grew up in the HI exchange. HIGHLAND, I guess. Our number was HI2-9839, later becoming known as 442 exchange on the northside of Houston. My cousins lived near Northline Mall and had OX5-0930. OXFORD exchange.

Just taking inventory of phone numbers just for my immediate family, we have:

1) Home number for the wife & I.

2) Home Fax number.

3) My cell

4) Wife cell

5) Teenagers home number

6) Daughters cell

7) Sons cell

8) Toll free Home number

No wonder we are adding more and more area codes.

Did Houston have any Grant's? That was the local discount department store when I was a kid.

Yup, we frequented them often. I remember the ones on N. Shepherd. Hwy 59 North, and Little York Rd. I grew up on the northside.

Went to the Globe stores on Hwy 59 North and N. Shepherd too.

Also had a Danburg's Department Store on Jensen.

Went to the Shopper's Fair which was on N. Shepherd & Crosstimbers.

Also frequented a Dugan's Drugs on Homestead Rd. that later became Eckerd.

Dang, I'm old.

Citizens Bank was merged into Southwest Bank of Texas, which later changed their name to Amegy Bank of Texas.

I saw information on this several months ago and there hasn't been any update since.

The Delicious Life