Firebird65

I knew people back in the day that referred to Colonial House as "Venerial House". Also, am I the only one who thinks Pollock looks like a 70's porn star?

Nope... I always thought the same thing... and when that commercial came out, I was too young to even watch a porn flick and still thought it. LOL!

I saw in the paper where Sysco is building a new distribution center in that area.

Yes, I saw that too. But I don't think that particular parcel is/was part of Friendswood's tract. I remember seeing Sysco's future location for sale on har.com a few months before they bought it and I'm pretty sure that's a different thing altogether.

It looks as at least part of Friendswood's land is listed as 432 West Rd on HCAD and is described as being 832,000 square feet. There are other parcels listed on some of the newer streets, such as Winding Bayou and Greens Landing.

Don't have an answer for ya, but I've got another example of something similar.

In the 1950s, someone filled out a plat for a proposed subdivision called Contreras Estates, which was to have been located at U.S. 75 (today's North Freeway) at Gillespie road, just south of Aldine-Bender and immediately west of today's Imperial Valley. The subdivision was never built, but I have seen the name on many maps from that period, albeit with no actual streets as with your example.

It's probably a good thing they never built it, because a good portion of the homes would have had to have been condemned in less than a decade to make way for the North Freeway. That's probably one reason the subdivision was scrapped.

Speaking of subdivisions never built, Friendswood Development announced some plans about a decade ago to build homes and apartments in the last rather large tract of land left in that area, the big expanse bordered on the North Freeway on the east, the Veterans Cemetery on the west, the Sam Houston Tollway on the north and West Rd on the south. One apartment complex was built just north of West Rd, but everything else just vanished. Anyone know the story behind this?

On the northside, West Mount Houston west of I-45 was once called Airline-Link Rd and east of I-45 it was once called Westbrook and Mosher, depending on the segment.

One poster mentioned how Fulton was once East Montgomery Rd... that also applied to Airline north of where it joins with Fulton.

Sweetwater was once called Hacker.

Aldine-Bender east of I-45 and west of Hardy was once called just Aldine Rd while the eastern segment between Hardy and U.S. 59 was Aldine-Bender.

Thanks for the great thread. My grandparents lived in Lindale Park and raised my dad there. They lived on Joyce Street, which was one of the last sections developed and was originally part of the golf course. I had two pairs of aunts and uncles who lived on Caplin in Lindale Courts.

They are all dead now, but I know my dad would have gotten a kick out of this thread.

Which leads to a stupidism I've run into: Every now and then Washington Mutual's automated "fraud alert" system would call my home phone because of some purchase I'd made in some Godforsaken corner of the Earth.

Even though it was unwanted, AT LEAST you got a call. You ought to be thankful, if only a little.

I have a Chase card which I seldom use (I'm cash and carry). A few years back, I had to go to a business conference in Memphis which required me to use my card. The conference was held in the Peabody, a swanky and expensive hotel. I hadn't used that card in months and all of the sudden it's being used in another town in a fancy hotel and at a fancy restaurant or two. That should have been an obvious red flag to Chase. But I got no calls whatsoever. I was pretty miffed and told the card company about it in not very pleasant terms.

Yes, I was the card holder and yes I was using the card, but in this case I was very disappointed no one ever challenged me considering the circumstances, even if it would have caused me an inconvenience and perhaps even a little embarrasment to have to prove who I was. After all, what if it hadn't been me?

Eric Gray, QB of the 1990 National Title team, lived back there...he got shot back there one night

How could Acres Home be zoned to MacArthur and Nimitz? That's a 20 minute ride......simply pitiful how they broke that area to fill a dang quota..

According to the 7/11/91 edition of the Houston Chronicle:

"Saturday evening, Gray was riding his bicycle along Goodson Street when a small dark-colored pickup truck sped by.

Detective Anderson said the truck swerved and forced Gray off the street. Someone in the truck then fired several shots at Gray, who was struck in both legs and buttocks.

The truck, which reportedly was occupied by two black males, was last seen heading east on Goodson.

Witnesses told police they heard five or six shots and investigators found several spent 9mm cartridge shells at the scene."

As for Acres Homes students attending MacArthur and Nimitz, if you go to the AISD web site, there are finally attendence zone maps for each high school. And you will see that each has a non-contiguous section of Acres Homes zoned to them. It's absolutely bizarre. I have found stories that indicate it has always been that way since Carver closed in the spring of 1978. Either the Chronicle or rhe Post had a story of one former Carver student's adjustment at MacArthur.

I presume that all stemmed from the 1977 court case against AISD. I know my parents were quite upset my sister was going to have to be bused to a school in Acres Homes against their wishes. We ended up going a private school for three years until I reached senior high and she junior high.

as for Aldine football...it's been told to me that Aldine didn't become a power until a powerful zoning change on West Montgomery that sent alot of Acres Homes to the school in the late 70s or early 80s....I believe that to be true as I knew quite a few folks who lived closer to Booker T. Washington were zoned to Aldine...Greenspoint changed alot also and the apartments became football factories for Aldine as some major talent came out of there.....mix those two elements together you have success (Westfield High)

That's true, but only to a degree. Aldine had some decent teams in the mid to late 1950s (winning the district title in 1958 and coming close in 1960), but the opening of MacArthur in 1965 took away half their players and the addition of Eisenhower in 1972 took even more. When you look at Aldine's past, some of their worst seasons (1965 to 1968 and 1973 and 1974) came directly after AISD expansion.

Yes, the closing of Carver in 1978 did move several very good Panthers to Aldine, such as Robert Gibson and Charles Benson. Those two players were highly instrumental in Aldine's 1978 district title team. But don't forget, Aldine was one win away from the 1977 crown too, losing the title only in the last game of the season, and Carver was still open that year.

When you look at a map, all AISD high schools split the former Carver attendance zone, so it wasn't just Aldine that got players. Students fome Acres Homes also attend MacArthur and Nimitz as well as nearby Eisenhower.

As for the Greenspoint area, that's in Nimitz's attendance zone. I don't believe any of the people who live in the apartments along Greens Road ever went to Aldine as those apartments were all built after Nimitz opened in 1978. I stand to be corrected, however.

Why is it that when a cop shoots someone in this town, all the news stations immediately want to focus on are interviews with the "shootee's" family members accusing the police of abuse of power? Here's the latest example from KPRC - Channel 02.

Really? When would they have time to interview the shootee's family? They're all rushing to hear what Quanell X has to pontificate (if the shootee is black) or Johnny Mata (if the shootee was hispanic).

Media should be biased. There's nothing wrong with it. It is what freedom of the press is all about. What are probably the two best newspapers in America, the Wall St Journal and NY Times, are both biased (in different directions) and make no bones about it. Much better biased quality than bland pabulum like the Chronicle that goes out of its way to avoid offending anyone. When people gripe about biased reporting, what they inevitably mean is "It doesn't agree with what I think."

An interesting thought, especially about the Chronicle in comparison to the WSJ or NYT.

Oddly enough, Marini's has just opened a location in the Carillion Center in the back. You can't see it from Westheimer.

It's called The Original Marini's Empanada House. I walked by the yesterday and was wondering what they meant by "original" - as in, had there been another? I'd never heard of the place.

Now I know.

And if you want to go, it's at Westheimer near Beltway 8 in the Carillion Center behind the Chili's.

Local news is a very different beast than national. In most local news operations the people are just scrambling to get something on the air -- they don't have time to think about liberal vs. conservative bias. They're just trying to survive the day.

1000% correct. This is one of the more laughable threads on this website.

I believe the national news is slanted to the left. But local news? C'mon... how's a car chase or house fire or dirty restaurant or even the wacky hurricane coverage political?

Any ideas as to where the old Higgs township was located? I know where the rest are but have never heard of Higgs, Tx.

Higgs was located on Lee Road at Garners Bayou just south of FM 1960. Today it's part of Bush Intercontinental Airport.

At best, it was probably little more than a few houses. Maybe a store, although I've never heard of one.

An election was held in May 1935 to create Aldine ISD. The polling places were the Marrs School (NOT the future Aldine High, but what is now the Lane Center) in Aldine, Tautenheim's Store in Westfield and Lorino's Store in Brubaker. There was no polling place in Higgs. Not sure why, as I've seen maps from the 1910s and 1920s that show there was a school there. I know the Brubaker school was closed by 1935, so maybe the Higgs school was closed then too, and with no store, there was no place to hold the election.

VicMan is the one who first raised the question... We're trying to figure out what happened to it.

It was a black school (same as Yates, Wheatley, Carver) that I believe was converted to a junior high or some other use I believe, but stand to be corrected.

Other similar schools that are no longer around or have been converted to other uses include Williams in HISD and Elmore in North Forest.

Why do I get the feeling that quite a few of the posts written on this thead were written by Metro employees and/or their families?

You need to ask a poster who goes by the name isuredid. He knows all this stuff. He went to the library and county archive and gathered all sorts of neat information about schools.

If anyone on here can identify that school, rest assured he can.

His brain actually beleiving he is pulling off something entertaining. His comes off not so funny though, and not very believable either.

That's your opinion, and while you are most certainly welcome to hold that particular view, I'd say the ratings of the Rush Limbaugh program tell a very different story. I, and millions of other listeners across America, find his show to be quite funny and entertaining, as well as believable and credible.

I've grown to really hate all the screaming on talk shows -- and it's so common these days even on "respected" news programs. If you're screaming at me it means you're out of control and not worth my time to listen to you.

Agreed. I hate that too in talk shows. Well, unless it was Alvin Van Black. LOL!

I also remember the Alvin Van Black show. It was a hoot. My dad clued me onto it. I used to pass the time on lazy summer afternoons waiting for him to go off on some luckless soul.

And one earlier poster was right - he'd let some real nuts go on and on then go nuclear on someone who actually made sense. That made the show all the more unpredictable and fun.

But another earlier poster was totally incorrect... the one who compared Alvin's show to both Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage.

While I don't mean to hijack the thread, I can tell immediately from that comment that particular poster has probably never listened to either of those shows. While that poster probably doesn't agree with Limbaugh (and that's his or her business, I don't really care), anyone who has ever listened to the show, like it or not, knows that Limbaugh mixes equal parts satire and commentary. It's both news and entertainment. To say his bits are merely rants is (and well if I'm offensive I guess I'm offensive) stupid and shows the person is merely aping what he or she has heard elsewhere without bothering to check it out for his or herself.

As for Savage's show, it has little in common with Rush's program or Alvin's old show, other than it was on the radio. Unlike Limbaugh, Savage isn't trying to be entertaining. Being a somewhat regular listener to Savage's show, I can say with authority that alot of what Savage says can indeed be classified as a rant. And being a somewhat regular listener to Rush, there is almost nothing similar between the two, other than a lot of people love to classify them together. There is nothing remotely funny about Savage's show and there's nothing entertaining about it. It can be thought provoking at times, but that's not always meant to be a compliment.

Alvin Van Black was a curmudgeon (sp), an irritable, grouchy rascal. He knew it and that added to his appeal. That's why people listened to him.

Rush Limbaugh is exactly what he proclaims to be - a harmless, lovable fuzzball. He has a schtick and he plays it well. Too bad so many judge him based on what others say rather than judge for themselves based on what they hear.

Micheal Savage ought to probably just shut up for his own good. Whatever valid points he makes he buries under what could well be considered hateful rants.

I've listened to all three in my life, enjoyed each of their shows for entirely different reasons, and I am in a position to pass judgement based on what I've heard. The opinion I've formed based on what I've heard, not on what someone else said about them or what is popular to say about them at the moment.

But I don't have much hope for the new generation who idols are panty-less sluts and penis-less boys who wear makeup.

Not sure if your post was serious or in jest. No matter... either way you are right on, whether you meant to be or not.

Just watch in a few years (if not already) there will be gynecologists showing spread eagle pics uncensored of course.

Actually, I've already seen that. Not on a billboard, but on a web site. The billboard that advertised the site was provacative enough to get me curious to go to a gynecologist's website (not an easy thing to do, considering I'm a man). Needless to say, I wasn't quite expecting whatI got. Not that it was dirty or anything, but let's just say you got a thorough biology lesson, complete with pictures.

To be honest, there are some billboards that I don't understand. I mean, why would someone driving on an interstate be interested in getting a vasectomy reversal? Upon seeing the sign, would him make him exit to get "clipped?"

I swear I've seen that vasectomy reversal billboard all over the place. Despite it having a Houston number I've seen it in both Kentucky and Utah. LOL!

I live just down the street (not in Rivercrest). I see this all the time. Looks like he's got something going on at the back of the property too, backed up against that strip center. What is that? A guest house or some kind of super fancy garage?

if i wasn't happily married, i would be in love with Chau...

I am happily married and I still love Chau!

"I want you to see this, can we get the camera over here? Look here, it is so cold out here that there is a layer of ice forming on top of this bucket of water.... Well, actually, now there's not much ice, the water is just really cold, but that ice could easily come back if temperatures drop any further than they already have and if that happens, we all need to watch out. Back to you Lauren."

Yes, that was a classic. So too was the reporter during last year's cold weather who intrepidly went into a grocery store and did confirm for all those who doubted it was cold outside that freezing tempertures were indeed here because... there was no more tomato paste on the shelves! Presumably this was because, this daring reporter breathlessly told us, everyone was making chili to stay warm.