brerrabbit

I want to say the principals name when I was there was Marion Skaines. Mr. Morgan was never an assistant Principal till after I left. He went on to be the Principal at a Jr. High in Southwest Houston and took a lot of the teachers from Jackson with him. After that he moved into administration with HISD and at some point I remember seeing his name on the news as having been involved with some wrongdoings associated with the school district. He eventually lost his job over it and I think faced criminal charges. My drama teacher was Ms. Hargis who I also had for RWS in the 7th grade. I wasn't till I was a junior in high school that a girl who was a year ahead of me from the drama program at Jackson who was also at Milby explained to me that Ms. Hargis was gay. Wow what a shock that was to me way back then. Ms. Hargis followed Mr Morgan to the new Jr. High and was the librarian there for many years. I saw her and several of the other teachers from Jackson when I tought a Project Business class at the school in the early 80's.

Actually now that I think about it I think it took like three days to show it because classes were only an hour long and the movie pushed three hours. Mentioning Mrs. Fortenberry reminds me that I was in class at Jackson with her daughter Tracy. I had classes with her all three years at Jackson and she was in Speech and Drama with me as well. Also we had Coach Herman who I actually knew before I got to Jackson because I played Little League baseball with his son Craig.

I went to Jackson from 1971 to 1974. I remember watching the movie "The Battle of the Bulge" in that auditorium with several history classes. (And no it wasn't about loosing weight) I really enjoyed my three years there and was going to go to Austin HS but changed at the last minute and wound up going to Milby instead. I had Ms. Hargis for RWS in the 7th grade and wound up taking Speech from her in the 8th and 9th grade and went to numerous tournaments. Those were some very good times growing up.

Their really dead. The producers have said on weekly podcasts that dead is dead on the island. They also said that Niki and Palo would not be showing up again as they were dead. Mikail showing back up is the result of him not really having been dead after being shoved through the fence by Locke. The other interesting fact from last nights show was that the translation of what the parachutist said to Mikail was really "I am not alone" instead of thanks for saving my life as he told the guys.

Mandola's has only been at its current location since the early eighties I think. They actually moved from farther out to the location they are at now. Prior to that they were located at the corner of Belfort and Broadway in a shopping center there. They were in between a Walgreens and the old Eagle Market food store. Joe Mandola who owns the place actually lives in Pearland. He made the decision to move to the current location because his business was more suited to the lunch crowd and his business improved when he moved because it was a much better area for lunch business. I used to eat there all the time when it was on Broadway an I was in college because my girlfriend, now wife lived near there. Then when they moved and I started working downtown I would go to the current location for lunch all the time.

I'd be happy to sign your petition but just for referances sake, the City of Pearland passed this a couple of years ago. Liquor by the drink is available with no membership at any food service place in Pearland that wants to get the liscense and sell it. Additionally, beer and wine is available at Wal Mart, Krogers, and any service station within Pearland City limits. The only thing we lack are liquor stores, but for me thats not a problem because I live on the east side of Pearland and have access to the liquor store on 518 in Friendswood just across the Galveston county line. You must live in Silverlake or SCR and go to the resturants not in the city limits of Pearland.

There's a ton of reasons that we don't drill more in Texas. First a large portion of the major oil companies left Texas in the 90's. When I say they left I mean that if they did not have controlling interest in a well they sold their interest and got out of it. They kept the wells they controlled and put them on basically a operate till uneconomicly feasable status. They are all off elephant hunting around the world these days. For a major oil company to make a significant impact on their balance sheet they have to find big reserves and like it or not the only ones of those left in the US are in deep offshore waters and the ANWR. Most of the infield and small exploritory stuff still happening in the US is being done by small to medium companies without the deep pockets to do it big. Second as others have noted US regulations have become so difficult that to abide by them is either to expensive or just plain prohibitive in nature for them to want to mess with. It's true that we haven't built a new refinery in the US in over 40 years. Thats because its to hard to get the permits, and costs to much money to do it. We have become very environmentally consious in the US and as a result we have driven a lot of industry out of the country including the oil producers. Since they have to protect shareholder value they are going to go where they can get the most bang for their buck and that aint here.

Proably the last time I went to a drive in Movie was to see a double feature of Slap Shot and Young Frakenstien at the Gulfway Drive in off Shaver and the Gulf Freeway. About thirty minutes into the first movie fog so dense rolled in that you could not see the screen. We waited about thirty minutes and it never let up so we left and they refunded our money. One of the many disadvantages of the old drive ins. As a kid my parents used to put me in my pj's in the back seat of the family car and take me to the old drive in on Winkler by Gulfgate. I remember it had a huge clown on the back of the screen and my parents would watch the movie while I fell asleep in the backseat.

My understanding is that the city is going to close one block of a street over there and the garden will take up two city blocks and the rightof way for that one block of street. I don't think its the area you are talking about as it will be farther west on the south side of 59 closer to the China Town area.

My source has sat in on meetings with the City and Dynamo representatives and while the city is willing to talk putting the land into the mix the team is expected to contribute most if not all of the building costs. Given that the warehouse district is out because much of that area over there is considered to be worth as much as $50 a square foot. That would put the price at $2.2 million an acre. No way the city is going to step up to that. Also in the same area a little farther west in the China Town area the city is in the process of closing an entire block to create a garden in honor of our sister city in China. I never knew Houston had a Chinese sister city but apparently they do. They have already built a Houston garden over there and we are now reciprocating. Might be why the International Festival is doing China this year. Anyway the garden will be on a street in the area. The construction of the garden is why my source was looking into land costs in the area. He has also been looking at alternatives for the property at BW 8 and US 59 for a while when the Dynamo Stadium issue came up and it seemed a natural fit. Lets face it people here are dancing around the issue of who will go to the games and based on what I have seen from the games they have played at Reliant Park between international teams and the feedback I have got from the Dynamo games its apparent that the continuing fan base is and will be Hispanic. Sure the suburban soccer families will attend some games but the diehards will be Hispanic. As a result the discussion on where to put the stadium is wide open since there are Hispanics all over Houston and the surrounding areas while some of the other minority groups tend to be in specific areas. (I'm not saying this is good or bad or forming any opinion just saying it is what it is and the group making the decisions believe this to be true) If you accept this then the location of the stadium is wide open because the expected fan base is all over the place and will come to the games. Given that and a $2 million an acre price for the area near MMP I can guareentee it will not be built there. He works acquiring and building parks for the City of Houston and is a very good friend of mine.

Looking to try some cost-cutting measures this year. I need to live near the Galleria, so I started to look at multifamily complexes on Chimney Rock road. I was browsing on Google and noticed an apartment complex called Colony Oaks located at 6666 Chimney Rock Rd. It appears the developer of this apartment complex is Houston-based The Finger Companies. That's a good sign that a local company built this place. What's the story here? Any feedback? Thanks!

Markel Steel has been gone for a while. Along that stretch of the Gulf Freeway as it enters downtown was the original Fingers Furniture store that became Star Furniture and Markel. They were leveled and they built homes on part of the site. Does anyone remember when Fingers was at that location prior to moving down to Cullen and 45? The old Colt 45 stadium was at the current Fingers location and when they moved out to the site of the Astrodome the old stadium was demolished and Fingers built there current store on the old site. The Colt 45's played in a stadium on the north side of the Astrodome parking lot until they completed the Astrodome and then moved indoors and became the Astros. In the basement of the Fingers store in their snack bar area is a Houston Sports Museum and the location of the old home plate from the Colt 45 stadium. The mark it on the floor with terazo tile laid in the shape of a home plate.

Actually the way Sage got around the Blue Laws was to rope the areas off on Saturday and then open them back up on Sunday, thus being the only store selling that stuff on Sunday. The Blue Laws merely said you could not sell the stuff for seven days in a row and everyone interpreted that to mean that you closed on Sunday. Sage just exploited the loophold and made a pretty nice profit for a while till everyone else caught up to the idea. On that same note who remembers the Deauville Shopping Malls. These were short lived ideas that were originally meant to challenge the Blue Laws and be open seven days a week. The buildings still exsist such as the one on the Gulf Freeway at Bay area Blvd, on the east side of the freeway. The malls had off name stores and did 90% of their sales on Sundays when everyone else was closed. I think they did okay for about six months until the regular malls saw they were not getting in trouble and decided to open up on Sundays as well. That did in the Deauville bunch and they closed and eventually were turned into A couple of Garden Ridges and at the one at Baybrook became the home of several Big Box tretailers like Best Buy, Oshmans, and Bed Bath and Beyond.

The sand is the color it is because of the water. Silt filled rivers like the Sabine, the San Jacinto, the Trinity, the Brazos, and the Colorado all dump heavy amounts of silt into the bays and the Gulf and it colors the sand. It merely changes the color but does not make it "dirty" just a different color. Not the white powdery stuff you find in Florida and farther south Texas.

If the club Yesterday Once More your talking about was the one on Richey right around where Winkler and Monroe merged and changed into Richey then that club was opened in the 70's. I worked at the Plank Company from 1977 till 1981 while I was attending U of H and the Plank Company was located right next to the old Sage Department store on the Gulf Freeway. While making deliveries for work and coming and going in the area I remember seeing the club from my first day of work. We had a Service Manager that hung out there all the time and after 5:00 if anyone needed to talk to him thats where he was so I was dispatched to go to the club and get him on the phone more than once back then.

Flat water on the beach front equals great surf fishing for trout. During the summer if you hear a weather report that says that a front is moving in from the north, look for flat green water to the beach in the next couple of days. I have also taken my bay boat on the surf side of the island and it really does give you a totally different perspective of the island. I'm 47 years old and grew up on the southeast side of Houston and lived there my entire life. I have spent a lot of time on the island and across the ferry at Bolivar. The water is dirty because of the lack of depth of the Gulf and the number of rivers dumping into and around Galveston. If many find it not to their taste then thats fine by me, don't go, means less crowds for me. I find myself spending a lot more time fishing farther west these days anyway because of the crowds and stupid boaters and fishermen. If its beach we usually go to Freeport these days because there is more uninhabited coast down there. It seems like a very short time ago that once you passed Jamaca beach heading west there was only one more development before there was nothing. Now there are houses all the way to San Louis pass and my Galveston of yesterday is just a memory. Oh how I long for the old days of Sea Arama, the Snake Pit, and wide open beaches you could drive on.

My Father's hang out was Sheffields on Telephone Road and its still standing although the neighborhood has change dramatically over the years. I spent a lot of time in that old building.

No, we're not broke in Pearland, and neither are the citizens. Part of what you see playing out in these kinds of issues are the new vs the old. The west end of Pearland is new, the one time power brokers of Pearland mostly live in East Pearland. They and their supporters are having a hard time facing the rapidly changing demographics of the community. Large parts of the west end of Pearland are still within MUDs and not yet annexed so they are unable to vote in city elections. Since as of the last city council race it only took I think about 2,000 votes or less to get elected the old power guys have retained their seats on council, but as a good friend of mine who lives in Silverlake likes to say, things are going to change once we get the vote. Since any transit solution on 288 will be seen as benifitting only westenders the current city government is not in a hurry to alienate their base by charging them to pay for the improvements. What this all boils down to is Pearland as a city is not very removed from its past. It was a small community with a few "rulers" and as the story goes if you wanted to be elected to city council or the school board for many years you had to seek the approval of a small group who essentially held the power. If they blessed you you usually won, if they didn't you usually lost. Until Pearland fully shakes that mentality it will be hard to get solid commitments towards some of the improvements people are seeking. Pearland has a big bond election coming for $162 million and in it they address some transportation issues like feeder roads on 288 but not a whole lot of other help for the west side. While I support the improvement of transportation options on the west end I must admit that I live on the east end closer to 45 than 288. I have lived there for 14 years and have been waiting on the widening and improvement of Dixie Farm Road from Beamer to 35 and they just started that in October of 2006. They also announced that it will only go to 518 and that the piece from 518 to 35 is part of the bond election. In otherwords its taken 14 years to do something they assured me was going to happen soon after I moved to Pearland so don't hold your breath waiting on improvements to the west side. Of course the west end does have the tax base and the shine of the newness so they may get the money, while I wait another 14 years before they break ground for Dixie Farm Road from 518 to 35 to happen.

It's been a lot of years ago that I graduated from MIlby but if you look at the link below you you will see a large white building that looks like a warehouse/ manufacturing type place and the next building just north of that looks like a lower roofed one story building. Its always hard to tell but that is the location that comes up as 1702 Broadway. I am assuming thats the building your looking at. Back in the 70's when I went to Milby that place was a grocery store and I know after I left the area the store close and I thought they parceled out into several retail spaces and one of them could have become a sattelite store while part of it could have been a convience store. You never know how often HCAD updates their records. Just north of this building on the same side of Broadway looks like a new building but back in 77 there was a small ice cream/ sandwich shop in the corner there because thats where we used to go to eat after football practice most days, before we went home to eat. And I wonder why I have a weight problem today. http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&...;scene=10472248

While I am a big advocate of some form of public transportation into Houston from Pearland and would like to see Metro spend its money on medium rail from the outlying areas into Houston I have to wonder what other hurdles will have to be cleared. We folks in Brazoria county do not pay the 1 cent Metro tax that those in Harris county do. So if Metro wants to build into Brazoria County does that mean we get hit with the tax? I live on the far East side of Pearland and will not benifit from anything along the 288 corridor and while I understand that thats no reason to not support a good project I still question why I want to be subject to the tax that will benifit only a very few residents in Pearland. Those working in the Medical Center, and granted some working downtown but all of us East of 35 will still be stuck with our current options, the Fuqua Park and Ride. I have lived in Pearland for a long time and while the West side expansion is nice I get little if any benifit from it, only headaches. I will need to research the limitations of Metro via the tax because I do not relish my sales tax going to nine and a quarter percent so the other end of town gets a new way to work. We already pay some pretty hefty property taxes and those haven't gotten me much since I've lived in Pearland either.

I'm assuming you mean inside Beltway 8. Pearland City Council is fundementally opposed to to many apartments but the reality is they have a hard time stopping the construction of them. The one tool they have to at least make the complexes a little nicer are that they can limit the number of units per acre. What this effectively does if worked correctly with the Zoning and Planning folks is make the rental prices of the units more expensive. It eliminates density and means a developer has to charge more per unit to get a return on his project. The other hidden danger of apartments is the strain they put on a school district. The amount of taxes collected doesn't come close to paying for the numbers of kids a large project can put into the schools. That's one of the reasons that Pearland ISD was all for letting Alvin take Shadow Creek Ranch. From the outset of that development multi family housing has been in their plan and PISD didn't want to absorb those additional students but Alvin was more than willing to.

I posted this in another area not really thinking that it would really be appriciated here more than there. The link is to Live.map and shows a "house?" that is being built in Meadowcreek near the Glenbrook pool. My Mother in Law lives right where the road to the construction site hits Neal and Chalcos. Its a dome house built with concrete that used an inflatable shape to frame the structure while the concrete was poured. It is two stories and will have balconies on two side. The owner is a Doctor who apparently is an accomplished organist. My wife and MIL walked up the road and spoke to him one day and he showed them around. The location is elevated so flodding is not an issue. Take a look at the house on the link below. http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&...;scene=10479604

I have always felt I had a lot of Telephone Road in me. For the first 22 years of my life I never lived more than 3 blocks from it. The Las Palmas somebody mentioned earlier is on the other side of 610 from the Blue Top Motel. It used to be called the Four Palms, aka The Pressure Cooker. The story goes that frustrated housewives went there in the afternoon looking for love in all the wrong places and were then forced to use pressure cookers to get the food on the table by the time their husbands got home. Stubbs Cycles started out life on the other side of Telephone from its current location in the big orange metal building that I think is still standing there. Leons Drive In still sits at the end of the strip of clubs that operate there. Way back in the mid seventies all those clubs were there sans any Asian ownership. One was two sided and had topless on one side and totally nude on the other. You could get alcohol on the topless side and not on the nude side. They had an internal door between them and you could wander back and forth as your thirst drove you. I think it was this club that lead to a change in City ordineces that disallowed this type of activity. The Blue Top was the hang out of the local woorking girls and I still see them there occasionally when I drive by. The current Stubbs location used to be woods and where Lowes is was a trailer Park. Just past the trailer park was Old Hickory Stick Bar-b-que. The area has changed a bit but it still brings back my childhood every time I drive down Telephone.

Not necessarily the Mississippi river but certainly the Sabine, the Trinity, the San Jacinto, the Brazos, and the Colorado all add to the problem. That combined with the fact that the Gulf is very shallow comparitivly speaking to other gulfs and oceans. It takes almost ten miles off shore to get past the hundred foot depth mark. Add it all up and you get murky water that deposits darker sand onto the beaches giving it a "dirty" look.