Firebird65

I'd already posted that earlier- on Aug. 31. And I complimented you on your memory. You didn't see that?

It's 1976 or later. First, Bob Allen became KTRK's lead sportscaster in 1975 (in deference to Ross above, he joined the station in 1974 as a reporter). Second, the Pennzoil Towers are in the background and they were built in 1975. But finally, Jan Carson is in the picture and her LinkedIn page says she became a KTRK anchor in 1976 and held the job until 1979. So the pic was taken between 1976 and 1979.

Good point.

I remember my dad telling me that after I was born he got a night part time job at Globe on N Shepherd for some extra money. One evening, either a customer or a supervisor (I forget which) said something to him he didn't like and he walked off the job. Since it wasn't his main job, just extra money, he said it was a wonderful feeling to just walk away. Years later, I had the same situation and as I walked away leaving my supervisor speechless, I remembered my dad's story and yeah, it did feel pretty darn good. I could almost hear Johnny Paycheck singing in the distance...

Since I replied to you, I did myself respond to a 3-year-old post. However, I did on purpose knowing it was an old post and that the person I responded to might not ever see it. Normally I wouldn't do that, but he had asked an important question I had the answer to, so I made an exception, just in case he came back or anyone else was interested. Also, by sheer coincidence, I came across another post of mine yesterday in a thread similar to this one, where someone had replied earlier this year to a very old post. In this case, it was a 10-year-old post - in fact, 521 weeks (10 years and 1 week) had passed since the previous post in early 2007. So I replied to the 2017 person and asked if that was some kind of record for longest time for a reply. If it was, it's not anymore. You beat it! I will be on the lookout for your pix.

Could well be. That's one reason I don't use the mousepad on the computer, but a separate, wireless mouse. Plus those laptop mousepads give me symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome (my fingers and wrist hurt after using it). As I said, last night I was having problems with this page in that every letter I typed took a long time to show up on the screen and when I went to delete or correct something, likewise the interface was very slow and unwieldy. I'm surprised I didn't have any letters transposed or left out in my post. That could have happened to him as well. Seems to be working fine now, however.

Perhaps they expanded and/or remodeled the store and that's what the 1999 flyer was about? A "reopening" or "grand reopening"? That's certainly possible, even likely. I cannot find any mention of it in the 1999 Houston Chronicle, but that doesn't mean much. The Chronicle doesn't report on everything. If Fiesta didn't put out a press release, then the Chronicle probably didn't even know of it. Using the Internet Archive, I went to Fiesta Mart's website as it appeared on April 27, 1999. As with the current website, the 1999 site does not have any press releases. So there's nothing there about any expansion or reopening. Again, that doesn't mean it didn't happen, only that the company didn't say anything about it. The 1999 site does say store 20 is there, that the manager is Don Dalrymple and the beverage mart manager is Humberto. No last name is given, so he must be one of those singular-name stars, like Madonna, Pele or Ronaldo. According to the Harris County Appraisal District, Fiesta Mart does not own that site, so they must therefore rent it. Meaning there's no information on the property page about any remodeling as it's simply one part of a larger shopping center. Fiesta Mart does outright own a handful of their locations - such as the original store on Fulton. But not the one at the Willowchase Center. It is possible to see if in the 1999 newspaper microfilms of the Chronicle and Post if they ran an ad about the store. I do occasionally go to the University of Houston and use their microfilms and will be going again in a few weeks. I used the microfilms to determine exactly when the Kroger I used to work at in high school during the mid-1980s opened (October 1966) and when a nearby theater I used to go to opened (July 1975). If you could give me some kind of range (spring, summer, etc.) of when you think you might have seen this flyer, that would help. Usually it only takes a few minutes to find this stuff if you have some kind of date range to start with. The newspapers always ran grocery store ads on Wednesdays. And grocery store chains normally run company-wide specials whenever a new store opens or is remodeled/expanded.

Give yourself a kewpie doll, Iron Tiger! Very good. According to the Business Briefs article in the Oct. 8, 1989 Houston Chronicle: "Fiesta is constructing a 92,000-square-foot store at the Willowchase Shopping Center at FM 1960 and FM 249." So it likely opened in either very late 1989 or early 1990. Take a bow, sir. It is possible the original poster meant 1989 and not 1999. Do note the misspelled title of the thread: Fieopened asta on 1960. Hey, blue92, I'm not criticizing you because I also seem to be having problems with the HAIF interface typing very slowly and skipping some letters and words too. So he/she could have meant 1989.

This IS a discussion board. You asked a question... I provided an answer for you that yes, the store is still open. You asked and you received. And I discussed with you that you could have just as easily found it yourself. Very likely you could have found it in less time than it took to make your post and certainly in a LOT less time than the 5 hours and 9 minutes it took to get a reply from someone. That you took that as a slight or me complaining is on you. I bent over backwards like a limbo dancer to assure you I was not trying to be mean to you. If you still want to take it that way, so be it. If you want to have a discussion about this particular store, that's great... I'll help you out. What is so special about this Fiesta to you? Did you work there? Shop there a lot? Date a girl who who used to work there (or a boy, if you are a girl)? Have some other kind of special memory about the place?

Oh man, do I feel bad... I posted right after this and didn't notice it. So I hope Urban Commando sees my reply from today. I have done some extensive research into the history of Aldine ISD, which, of course, includes Brubaker and Higgs. I've found that neither of these places, unlike Aldine and Westfield, was ever a town or community. Higgs was simply the location of two schoolhouses for Harris County Common School District 29 - one for whites and one for blacks. The school for whites started in 1876, before the origin of District 29. They were located on Lee Road at Garners Bayou, across from what is now Bush Airport. While I can't tell you their exact spot, the Houston Airport Systems Supply Management office at 18600 Lee Road is pretty much where those schools were. According to all the maps I've seen, there was never any kind of identifiable grid of streets or any kind of development there. They were just schools in the middle of nowhere, which was not an uncommon occurrence in rural Texas of the time. Brubaker was a subdivision of land on the east side of East Montgomery Rd. (Airline Dr.) started in 1910. But it wasn't a community or even a neighborhood. Just an absentee landowner who divided his land and sold it as smaller lots. There are plenty of those types of subdivisions in the area, and a lot of them even existed in 1910 or before. None of them constituted a town either. According to an old map I found, the Brubaker school was located at East Montgomery (Airline) at Blue Bell, pretty much where the Little York Fire Department station is now. Neither Brubaker nor Higgs ever appear on any map as a town, village or hamlet. The only time they show up on any maps is when the schools are depicted. Aldine and Westfield, in contrast, are always shown as towns on every map of the era, and still do even today. In 1985, Aldine ISD celebrated its 50th anniversary. In their literature, they tended to give the impression Brubaker and Higgs were communities. As I've been commissioned to update and expand that history for Aldine ISD, I've had to correct that misimpression. I did some research into what exactly makes for a town or community, and here's what I've come up with and what I use to distinguish Aldine and Westfield from Brubaker and Higgs. Towns: · Are areas where people live close together, unlike in the rural countryside · Have a defined area · Have stores, post offices, churches and schools where people can get an education, find jobs and do business · Have and project a sense of commonality, community and identity · Are on a map (people outside the town recognize and accept this identity) In all my research, I've never come across anyone who ever said they were from Brubaker or Higgs. Neither had a defined area and none ever appeared on a map as a community. Sorry to be four years late in posting this. Now that I've typed it, I hope you're still around to read it. LOL!

Hey, uh, I'm not trying to be a downer or bust your bubble, but I have noticed you've been replying to a lot of very old posts in the past few hours. In this particular case, were you aware the post to which you are replying is to 11 years old? A kid born on the day that post was made would be in fifth, maybe sixth grade now. It's not like I haven't done it myself, so please don't think I'm trying to ridicule you. I'm not. But you have been replying to quite a few hoary posts today, so just in case you're not aware of it (and maybe you aren't), a lot of those people have moved on from this board. It's unlikely they're going to be reading it or replying. Again, not criticizing you or ridiculing you, just giving you what I hope is a helpful FYI.

Sounds like a logical assumption to me.

Never heard of that. But I do know I once took a helicopter ride offshore and I was picked up at Westpark and 610, where the Loop Central buildings are now. This was October 1989. Actually, we had to sit on the ground waiting for quite awhile before we could take off because President Bush was nearby (probably at the Pin Oak Stables, if they were still around) and we couldn't take off until he had left the area. It was a big, empty field with one of those circular concrete helipads. There are some big power lines right there too, running east/west down Westpark. I don't remember if they were there in 1989, but if they were, that area sure doesn't sound like a good place to land aircraft.

For anyone who is interested, I've come across the approximate opening dates for the Malibu Grand Prix and the Watercoaster that were located at I-45 and North Shepherd. The Malibu Grand Prix (technically at 7655 Stuebner Airline) opened in May 1978. The Watercoaster opened the week of July 9, 1978. This is from the Aug. 31, 1978 (Malibu) and the Jul. 20, 1978 (Watercoaster) North Freeway Leader.

I went to Las Ventanas a few years back. It had one - ONE - waiter for the entire restaurant. And you know what, that was the GREATEST waiter I'd ever seen in my life. Even with a full house in a fair sized restaurant, we never had to wait on drink refills, our food came out quickly and correctly, the waiter even chatted for a bit. I've never seen anything like it. Totally amazing. And I don't think he ever broke a sweat or appeared rushed or harried in any way. LOL! So I left a 25 percent tip (I'm sure other people here have left bigger tips, but I'm not rich, so for me, it meant something to leave a tip like that).

Christie's is still there. Not a bad place. Sort of stuck in a time warp, but I don't mind. The food was more than good enough both times I've gone. I will say that someone earlier mentioned having broiled flounder once at another Christie's location. I do not remember seeing that at the one on Westheimer. That could be simply because both times I've gone were for lunch and it just wasn't on the lunch menu. Every place under the sun has fried seafood, and if they offer alternatives, the only ones are blackened (which I like) or grilled (which I hate). So very few have broiled, (outside of shrimp scampi). I love broiled fish. The best seafood meal was the broiled seafood platter at a place called the Sea Ranch in South Padre Island. But that was 20 years ago and I don't think they have it any more.

Or "hating" them. God, I am so sick of "haters gonna hate."

Gets worse... Blue Dogs has another thread stating Channel 2 is going to start a 10 a.m. newscast. Unbelievable. I remember in about 1994, if you stayed up all day and night and planned your viewing right, you could watch a trashy Jerry Springer-type "talk" show for every hour save for one, and for that hour, you could tape an earlier one you hadn't watched on another channel and play it then, thereby giving you a full 24 hours worth of garbage. You can almost do that now with garbage, er I mean "news". Don't get me wrong... local news isn't nearly as bad as network or national cable news. Those are simply useless now. Might as well watch a commercial than them, you'd be better informed. But again, how many times a day do we need the same three car crash and fire stories over and over along with the same repetitive weather "update"? Maybe if they hired more REPORTERS instead of anchors, they'd have enough stories to actually fill ONE 15 minute newscast without rehashing it over and over... and over... and over.

Good Lord, MORE "news"?!? How many times do we need to see the same three stories and weather "updates"?

I'm really not trying to be mean. Honest. I hate it when people say "The Internet is your friend. Google it!" But in this particular case, yes, you could have simply gone to Fiesta's website and found it yourself. It took me about 8 seconds to find this for you... the store in question is #20: https://www.fiestamart.com/store-locator/ Sorry, not trying to be mean.

Beyond the Door was a poor man's Rosemary's Baby, but yes, there for a second when I saw the ad I was really wondering if Deauville hadn't gone x-rated far earlier than I had remembered. As for Greens Crossing, I hadn't forgotten it. Just haven't gotten to it... yet. The movie theatre stuff is only a by-product of other research. While I'm searching in microfilms of a particular era, I take a peek to see if I can find other things of interest, too. I've no idea when it would have opened. My guess would be between 1984 and 1986. I only went to Greens Crossing twice - both in 1987. First, to see Eddie Murphy's Raw. Then to see Crocodile Dundee. All I truly remember about the theatre was it was full of people who enjoyed talking to the movie, and to be PC, I'll leave it at that.

Yes, that's the site I was referring to. Looks like he's updated it some as far as info since the last time I went there a few years back. He does now have the actual date of the opening of the Airline Drive-In as June 10, 1950. I wasn't far off, although I did admit I stood to be corrected. There was another site, not his, that once gave the just the year. Good, now I can go get the exact first showings for Airline, no fuss, no muss. Although the Airline Drive-In was never in the Aldine ISD area, I'd like to include it in my history of the district as kids back then would have driven there and to the Shepherd, Irvington and Tidwell ones as they were the closest entertainment venues in the 1950s and early 1960s. I know I've contacted David before. Nice guy. I wanted to use that photo of the I-45 Drive-In in something and he got it for me. Might have been about 10 years ago.

I already knew Greenspoint - same day as the opening of the mall. As for Deauville, I took an educated guess it would be in the early summer. My dad took me there to see Rollerball - my first R-rated movie - in the summer of 1975. So I started in the June microfilms and worked my way forward. Didn't take too long to find. You pick one week, then go forward each Friday until an ad for the theatre appears. Then you work back to Thursday just to be sure it didn't open a day early. Only took a few minutes. Not as long as you might think. Obviously it helps to have a relatively narrow time frame to start with - in my case, summer 1975. If you don't know squat or at least can't even make an educated guess, then yeah, you're going to be spending a lot of time staring at microfilm. Although for movie theatres one saving grace is you're only looking at one or two pages of listings each Friday, so that's better than having to search each and every day as you would for a regular news story when you've no idea of the date. Now that's tiring and I have had to do that for other things. Next time I go back to look for the I-45 Drive-In, I'll probably start in late May/early June 1982. At one time, I did know the exact starting date for the Airline Drive-In, but I didn't save that information. Off the top of my head I think the year was 1949. Maybe October 1949, but I stand to be corrected. There's a website out there that gives the opening year for drive-ins, although having been a teenager and a customer at the time, I already knew 1982 for the I-45.

Kind of thinking this won't get many replies, but it's a neat topic, at least to me. Do you know of the opening date and first movies shown at a local movie theatre? I've found two. Name: Greenspoint 5 (actually called the Cinema Center at Greenspoint Mall in its first advertisement) Date: Thursday, Aug. 5, 1976 First Movie: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which started at 11:45 a.m. The other four features were Lifeguard, Bugs Bunny Superstar, Blazing Saddles and Ode to Billy Joe. Tickets were $1.50 until 1:30 p.m. Odd how only Lifeguard (starring Sam Elliott and the always lovely Anne Archer, BTW) was the only new movie of the bunch, and it had premiered nationwide two weeks earlier (according to IMDB). Ode to Billy Joe had been out for two months. Bugs Bunny and Cuckoo's Nest had both been in circulation for 8 months or more, and Blazing Saddles came out in early 1974. Clearly the movie business has sure changed. Name: Deauville Date: Friday, Jul. 11, 1975 First Movie: The Great Waldo Pepper, which started at 5 p.m. The other feature at this two-screen theatre was something called Beyond the Door. Tickets were $1.25 until 6 p.m. IMDB says Beyond the Door is essentially a poor man's Rosemary's Baby. It was made in 1974. I wasn't able to find the other Greenspoint area movie theatre - The I-45 Drive In. Ran out of time at the library. Might get that on another run, if anyone's interested.

Yes, the teachers would rotate around, and I seem to remember we students would occasionally move too, but it wasn't like junior high or even my fifth grade class at Hidden Valley, where we spent the morning in one room and the afternoon in another. I know for first grade (Cluster A) I had a Mrs. Baker for my main teacher, but I do remember moving around to Miss Christopher's area and Mrs. Kelly's areas, but I can't recall why. I have my final 1972-73 first grade report card in front of me now (complete with my mom's coffee stain!). It lists all three teachers, but the report card itself is filled out by one person as the handwriting is identical across every subject. I do remember Mrs. Baker did teach me reading (and I loved reading). I had Rainbows and Sign Posts as readers for the second semester. Oddly enough, my grades for writing were two C's and three B's, yet I received five A's for the year in arithmetic. So much for first grade grades determining where you end up in life (I'm a marketing communications writer and I'm certainly glad it requires no math!). Based on my memory of reading, it's likely my main teacher (Mrs. Baker) taught not only reading, but writing and spelling too, as all of those are related. One of the other teachers probably taught science and math, as they are related, while the third taught social studies, music and art. So either we moved to their areas, or they came to ours. I sure seem to remember that we moved around, however. But after 45 years, I could be mistaken. I seem to remember the cluster/group classrooms were turned into regular classes quite a number of years ago. Perhaps as far back as the 1980s. I have access to many historical documents from Aldine ISD. I know in the 1980s they added gyms to the elementary schools and it may have been at that time they changed over the clusters to regular rooms. I just haven't come across anything to confirm that. AISD was not particularly good at preserving its history, so I don't have everything. I went to Hidden Valley from 1971 to 1977. It was a nice school and I generally have pleasant memories of most years there. Funny thing, I was never supposed to go there at all. Kindergarten was not mandatory in 1971 and when my mom went to sign me up at Inez Carroll (the AISD school Northline Terrace was zoned to), she was told the Carroll program was full. But... there was room at Hidden Valley... why not enroll over there, they said. After all, as it was a voluntary and limited program at the time, AISD really didn't care where you went. So my mom signed me up at Hidden Valley. When it came time to go to first grade, I just kept going. No one ever said anything. I carpooled all six years with another boy in Northline Terrace in the same situation as me. Either no one at Hidden Valley ever checked where we lived or it just wasn't that big a deal to them. Probably a combination of both.