Alpha

If you wanted your groceries sent to the pick-up window, they gave you a tag with a number corresponding to the number on a plastic crate. They loaded your groceries in the crate and they traveled along the track to the place where they were stored until you drove up to the window. They would bring out the crate and load the groceries in your car. The Henke and Pillot store in Meyerland used to do this back in the late 50s and 60s. One time my mother had her groceries sent to pick-up and forgot about them. We drove home and when we got out of the car she realized that she had forgotten them. We got back in the car and went to get them. I don't think she ever used the pick-up window after that.

LOL - Panty hose weren't around until the mid 60s. People wore silk stockings. I'm not sure when nylon came out.

I remember it, especially the escalator, but I'm not sure if I ever went there. I think it was the first place where you could buy Kentucky Fried Chicken.

There was a place just like that called Brittain's Broiler Burger near Memorial City.

I think my aunt and uncle lived there in the late 50s. From looking at live.local, it looks like it's still there. Maybe I'm thinking of the wrong apartments though.

Hey Sevfiv, when were you at Horn? I was there from 1957 to 1960. We had temporary buildings toward the back of the campus - that's where grades 4 through 6 were housed. The class next door to mine painted a map of South America on the wooden floor.

My mother went to Sam Houston High School - class of 1944. I remember her telling me years ago, that because of a hurricane they missed the beginning of school. In her yearbook, it states that school started late on September 13. They had to make up the days by going back to school between Christmas and New Years. I guess there was damage to the school, although the article doesn't mention it.

I remember Winterland. Is that the one you meant? I went there in the early 60s. The ice rink where I used to take lessons (in my early 20s) was in Town & Country (Katy Freeway at West Belt.) It was part of a building called the Farmer's Market. There were a lot of little shops in one half of the building, but in the other half were two ice skating rinks. One was regulation size and the other was a smaller practice rink. The building was built around 1970. In 1974, the roof was damaged by a tornado that passed over. After it was repaired, the rink was under new management and I stopped taking lessons. Instead of having classes just for adults, they put us in a class with teenagers. The instructor kept tapping a broomstick on the ice (kind of like a loony dance master) so most of the adults quit. The building was torn down when the mall was built in the early 80s.

I have the funniest story about that store. In 1991, I was in the hospital recovering from surgery and my sister went there to buy me a Madame Alexander Doll. She was trying to decide between two of them - McGuffey Ana and Apple Pie. After she decided on Apple Pie, the little saleslady (who had been there at least 40 years) announced to the whole store, "If anyone else comes in to buy a doll for Alpha, tell them to get McGuffey Ana, because she already has Apple Pie." When my sister gave me the doll and told me this, I laughed so hard I nearly pulled out my stitches.

I know it had a drug store, because my friend and I would ride our bikes there to get sodas - that was around 1960-61. It might have been a Dugan's. Trampoline centers were really popular in the summer of 1960. There was one on Beechnut close to Post Oak - across from Meyerland. I believe that the one in Westbury might have closed by the time I moved there in the fall of 1960.

The building is still there. I saw it a couple of weeks ago. When I would spend the night with my grandparents, my grandmother would always stop there on the way home from taking my grandfather to work downtown. She always ordered a dozen glazed. I don't think any donuts today can compare with those. Shipley's comes closest.

Here's a picture of the bubble top car that my dad took in 1964. We went to see LBJ at Hobby Airport when he was campaigning in 1964. By this time the car had been bullet proofed.

Here's another interesting sidelight to that week. As you know, Kennedy was Catholic, and in those days Catholics didn't eat meat on Friday. He was supposed to go to a big barbeque at the LBJ ranch on Friday night. Newspeople were speculating on whether he would eat meat or not. I've never read anything about this and don't know if they were planning to serve something other than meat.

My dad was a professional photographer in those days and a friend had given him a press pass to get in that night. He asked me if I wanted to go (I was 15), but it was one of those rainy cold November nights and I said no, so we didn't go. I still regret that decision.

That was my cousin, Marian Barbato.

The Mini Mall that I remember was at Town & Country - right outside of Joske's (later it was Dillard's.) It had a few stores - one was The Berry Tree.

My high school (Westbury 66) had our Baccalaureate at the Music Hall and our graduation at the Coliseum. The day after we "graduated" we had two more finals, so instead of diplomas, all we got was a rolled up piece of paper with a ribbon tied around it. Our "real" graduation took place in the hallway of the school when we went back to get our diplomas.

My family shares a funny story about Gaido's. One Sunday afternoon in the late 50s, we took a drive to Galveston. Once we got there, my dad decided that it would be nice to eat at Gaido's. After we were seated, he discovered that he only had $10 in his wallet. This was before the days of the credit card, except for Diner's club, and he didn't have one. We looked at the menu and he decided that we could just make it. Children's dinners were a dollar and regular dinners were about $2.50 or $3. So the five of us were able to eat for under $10 and he could still leave a tip.

Don't forget PEnnsylvania 6-5000, which was recorded by Glenn Miller in 1940. The interesting thing is that this was the actual (7-digit) number of the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York. In Houston, during the 40s, phone numbers were only 5 digits. My grandparents' phone number was M 1165. I know this because I have my dad's U of H directory from 1945. Later on (around 1952 or so, when I was learning to dial the phone) their number was MA 1165. Shortly after I learned to dial, the extra digit was added and it became MA 3-1165.

I just found live search as well. My father was born in Denison, TX and in 1990, we traveled there to see the places where his grandparents lived and worked. The location of the house is now a parking lot, but the building that my grandfather owned from around 1900 until he died in 1936, was still there. I just looked at it on live local and found out that the house location is still a parking lot, but the business building is gone. The only thing that is left is the railroad spur that led up to the side of it. We had been thinking of going back to Denison, but now we don't have to.

Bob Bailey Here is the link: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/00451/cah-00451.html

Corny but true... Back in the late 60s when I was in college, I was driving around a group of friends from Florida. As we passed the Buffalo Speedway exit of the Southwest Freeway, one of them said, "Buffalo Speedway, what time do they race?" I just looked at her stunned and said, "What?" "The buffalo," she said. As a native Houstonian, the name of the street had never registered with me. My grandmother lived in West University, and we drove down Buffalo Speedway all the time.