devonhart

The postcard is what postcard collectors call a "linen" which started changing to "Chromes" (slick, glossy paper) in the mid 50s and had taken over by the early 60s. I went to the gateway in the summer of 65, and one thing I learned about the "bubble" was if you had tooth decay, the water pressure down below would sure let you know.

I was cub scout 64-65, and the one cool thing we did was march across the astrodome field in robot costumes. Mine was a cardboard box painted silver, with no holes for my arms. Thank God I didn't trip, I wouldn't have been able to get up.

I was born and raised in Houston (1954-1993) and moved up to the NYC area 14 years ago. Strangely they have 7-11 and Gulf Gasoline up here. Gulf was the station I used for my little Honda 90 motorcycle and later Gulf was the first credit card I ever got. Seems weird to have Houston memories in the tri-state area.

He was a TV radio personality who also served on the city council.

It was real far away, somebody built a motel in anticipation of the completion of the airport, but apparently the airport's completion date was severly delayed, the dude went bankrupt before it opened. At least that's what my fuzzy memory recalls.

It must have 1966, I lived just across the bayou (Sims?) from Madison (4114 Knotty Oaks Trail), a couple kids and me walked through the site while it was still under construction. In the summer of 1966, we moved over near Meyerland, I have a faint recollection of my mother telling me about a tornado hitting South Main. I think if we had still lived by Madison, I'd have stronger memory. In the late 70s early 80s, a tornado roared by the house I was living in then, when I say roar, I mean like trains and jets roaring, something I'll never forget.

Hmmm, I loved it myself, but could see how others wouldn't. Like convience store nachos, I know its crap, but I sure did wolf it down.

I remember my friend and me on our banana seat, bikes, and him asking me if I wanted to try the new drink down at the 7/11. I got the coke slurpee and remember the taste like it was yesterday, I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday, but the taste of that 40 year old slurpee, I recall quite clearly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slurpee

Gooney Golf

I too went there from 1st to 4th grade (1961-1965), then to Hobby when it was completed in 1965. We were very aware that the school was named for a "janitor" who died in a school explosion, but never got the exact details.

Ah, that's why it was so popular with "English as a second language" students. I remember a discussion in class with Middle Eastern students that all the unmarried women in their various countries were virgins, but all of the male students claimed not to be virgins. Obvious question I didn't ask, who'd you have sex with? Married women? Each other? Animals?

I was there 73-75 during the change to U of H downtown. Actually, liked it there. Also liked being downtown.

Can't remember where it was, my dad took me a few times before I was drinking age, had soda, played this game where you slide a metal puck thingie into what looked like bowling pins, instead falling down, they'd raise up when you struck below them. I came across it once on a motorcycle ride and went in for grins, even saw one of my dad's friends, but they didn't recognize me.

"Then Jim Love moved in. [Jim Love is a Houston sculptor who had hair down over his shoulders back when long hair was the exclusive property of women " In the late 50's, we lived in Montrose on Vermont, my Dad became a regular at a bar called "The Little Hut" or "The Hut." I remember he had a friend named Jim Love and he showed us a metal sculpture. Anyway, we moved to the burbs in '61, but my white collar, Dad continued to go to "The Hut," while it gradually became a Hippie Bar during the 60s. My Dad would invite these long-haired dudes and dudettes for New Years to our suburban home. A lot of them were hardcore drinkers, pot smokers and Lord knows what else. I guess because my mom met these folks individually over the years, she had no problem with these long-haired, bearded folks. I was probably the only teenager in the neighborhood, whose Dad had friends no other parent would approve of.

Houston held the first vice presidential debate at the Alley Theatre. Mondale and Dole 1976. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...,918442,00.html I was working at the Alley at the time. Saw Dole once.

A. Money - few bucks for the movie, 20 something for a room. And what would the motel clerk think? B. Alibi - Mom, Becky and I are going to see Blazing Saddles at the McLendon C. Forbidden Fruit - what if someone sees us? What if we get caught? Kind of adds to the excitement for some folks. Plus, there was a time making out and "petting" was as far as you went.

Ah, the age before widespread Beta and VHS, when a dying theatre turned to porn as a last resort. I'm assuming it was a short term solution to a chronic problem, the old theatres eventually had to compete with newer, little mini porn theatres and eventually adult videos that folks could watch at home. I don't recall the Village or Metropolitan turning to porn, having attended main stream films there in the early 70s. Houston had a law about sexually oriented business being so many feet from a church, school, etc. so some of these theatres may not been allowed to convert to porn even if they wanted.

One of my meories of a U-tote-um is one Sunday I broke a shoe lace on my Sunday go-to-church shoes, mom drops me off at the U-tote-um to pick up a pair of laces, clerk couldn't sell them to me, it violated the Sunday blue law. Couldn't buy shoe laces for my church shoes, cause it was Sunday--your state government at work.

I'm a netflix guy, but I still go a few times a year, Casino Royale for example or 300 at IMAX. Is it the expense or the experience (rude patrons etc.) that turns you off. I get to go during the weekday afternoons, a couple bucks cheaper, rarely crowded.

I think it had to do more with profits, with the same staff it takes to run one screen, a movie operator could run two or more screens. More screens usually means more concession sales, which is where the real profits for the operator is.

The chair Lincoln was shot in is also there.

If you don't buy conspiracy theories, the first shot missed, probably deflected by a tree branch, and possibly striking a curb some ways down. The second bullet passed through the President, and the Governor resting in the Governor's thigh, later to dislodge and to be discovered on a stretcher. The third shot struck the President in the head, fragmenting, and damaging the windshield. In this scenario there are no bullet holes, except for the windshield damage. If you believe there was a conspiracy, and bunch all the theories together, LBJ took a shot from behind while JFK's limo driver shot from the front, just as the umbrella man fired, while the guy on the grassy knoll fired from behind the wooden fence, just as the guy hidden in the sewer fired from his position, while numerous cubans and mafia scattered around the plaza were all taking their shots. Oh yeah, and the three tramps were CIA and they took their shots from the overhead train tracks. The 58 bullet holes in the car were patched, and the 87 bystanders wounded by stray bullets were whisked away by the goverment in their great cover up.

I was underage when the South Main Drive in showed what would be soft porn today, but was very forbidden fruit to a bicycle riding, 13 year old. I would ride up to the back gate, squeeze through the gate locked with a chain and lock. And walk up to the benches at the front. Still makes me nervous thinking about it. Later on, when I was a motorcycle riding 17 year old, my buddy and I rode our motorcycles into one of the McLendon Triple exits, our tires slipped between the tire spikes that prevented cars from entering the exit. We watched "Dirty Harry" at no charge. My Buddy's a retired FBI Agent now.

Drove by it all the time, but never went.

We used to jokingly say, "want go for a Furr burger."