devonhart

Found this on Youtube.

Found this postcard of the candle shop for sale.

I took some pics here last week:

flipper

I now live in NY, but I just got back from visiting my parent's who live less than a 1/2 mile from Meyerpark I also drove by Westbury square, both look like ghosttowns.

We watched literally thousands of movies from 1958-1971 from our upstairs picture window that was in perfect alignment to the screen. It was awsome.

Fortunately, I think you just missed the soft porn days. I know they showed James Bond's "Diamonds are Forever" in late 71/early 72. Shortly after that it went downhill. I remember getting to see the Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns in a double feature there in the late 60s. I had been too young to catch when they first came out.

Back then it was 3 bits for kids and $2 for adults. I remember turning 12 and they had the cojones to ask me for $2 adult prices to see a movie! The nerve. Over 18 is an adult, not a baby face 12 year old.

They also had a bargain matinee, $1.00 before 6:00 pm I think. I remember catching shows after school, around 3:30 and being home in time for dinner.

Coach Macy the "Polish Meatball" taught me to drive and the only student to drive a '64 Corvair convertible I would park in front of metal shop.

Macy also taught me to drive at his and another coach's driving school. He made me nervous as hell, just as a coach, as a driving instructor, he terrified me.

Oh, one other thing...Mrs. Nesbitt would not allow the use of the word "janitor." We were only allowed to refer to these men as "custodians."

That's right, I had never heard the word "custodian" until Montgomery. We'd say "janitor" when it was just us kids, but "custodian" if a teacher was in earshot. I remember liking 3rd grade teacher Mrs Coleman, but hating my 4th grade teacher Mrs. Clingman, she's the only teacher I remember actively disliking during my school career.

Athens Bar & grill on Clinton by the ship channel. Took dates there to impress 'em. They were.

My pop took us the family there over 35 years ago, a young teen at the time, I remember the belly dancer more than the food. I got embarassed feeling all tingly with my mom and dad there.

...i graduated in '73

I graduated 35 years ago also, must be a lot of us, I think we had 800 graduates at Bellaire.

Foreclosure belt, thousands walked out on their mortgages. It was also a buyers market, we picked up a foreclosure at a very affordable price, 1/10th of what we paid for our house in the New York a decade later at the height of the housing market.

Devonhart, I too went to Montgomery Elementary from 65-70.

Boy, am I glad you and Mindo99 confirmed my missing finger memory. Stingray bikes, ratfink rings, superball--now that stuff I can remember.

Yes, she did. My older brother and I fixated on the missing finger when we started going there back in 64.

Do you remember the song?

Boy, my memories are pretty shakey, can't recall the song. I do remember I was in Mrs. Coleman's third grade class when the announcement of JFK getting shot came over the PA system.

what I don't understand is that since under the plastic canopy, where the air was being pumped in, there was still water also -- thus how could people breathe the air being pumped in without getting the water in their mouths ? Or did the air push out the water so that there was an air pocket ?

There was an air pocket, you'd swim to the bottom, duck under the canopy and stand up and there was the air pocket. I can't quite remember where the air hose was. I do remember, if you had tooth decay the air pressure let you know pretty quick.

Near the train tracks; anyone remember this place?

If the South Main Drive-in Theatre was just on the other side of the tracks, I remember it. Never ate there, but I would smell the smokey auroma from it when I snuck into the back gate of the South Main.

Does anyone know the exact back story on Willow Pool? It is a quite, green oaisis off Cliffwood, and my understanding is that it has been there since the fifties, however it is not visible on the large arial photo of the Westbury area identified as the early 60's.....

I lived about a mile down Cliffwood, a couple blocks past Belfort. My family joined when it opened. I remember there was some bickering about the family fee, that a family of two paid the same as a family of 8. 1966 sounds right, I clearly remember the Beatles "All You Need is Love" playing at the pool one summer, that would have been 1967. I remember a friend and I checking out the digging of the pool one Sunday, no security, no fences, just walked right up to the big hole.

Mrs. Nesbitt was the Principal at Montgomery while I was there 61 to 64, so it wouldn't be the same lady. I played Joseph in the Christmas play, and remember blanking out when she indicated that it was time for the children in the play to step off, I think I might have been focused on her missing finger and missed her cue to leave. The way my memory is though, I may have mixed memories up.

I had a Mrs. Nesbitt as my 1st grade teacher at Love Elementary. This would have been 1961 to 1962

It would be nice to have Mrs. Nesbitt's words there.

Man, I hadn't heard that name in over 40 years. Am I nuts, or did she have a missing finger? That's the image that popped into my mind when I read her name.

Wow that's the statue in my memory, just not where and when I pictured it. Maybe I'm only half senile. Thanks for the research.

As I get older (52) I get quick flashes of a memory, not sure if it really is a memory. One that keeps popping up is a statue of the Charles Dicken's character Oliver Twist holding out a bowl. I see this statue somewhere outside the Delman Theater on Main Street.

Is it possible that it was a promotional item when the film "Oliver" was playing in 1968? Anyhow, anyone remember this? And if not, can you recommend a good dementia doctor.

I remember the Golf Course across the street better than I do that

drive in for some reason. I guess McClendon triple and Southmain were open at the same

time for a short while, as I seem to remember triple opening

pretty early in the 70's.

I remember the golf course, us kids would look for stray golf balls along the perimeter.

I remember seeing "Escape from the Planet of the Apes" at McLendon in 1971.

I wonder if it spent its last years showing only X-rated movies like some many of the other closed-down and demolished theatres did?

I know by 1972, they were showing what would be soft porn today. My teenaged buddies and I once climbed on top of a railcar parked on the track next to the South Main. We could seen the movie fine, but no sound. A HPD patrol car came up next to us, and we thought for sure we were going to busted for trespassing. I'm not even sure they saw us, they watched a few minutes then left.

I found a modern view on google maps. You'll have to click full view image or "view image" feature on your browser to read the street names.

The red line is the train track that ran along side the drive-in. Willowbend was the back side of the drive-in.

I remember having to bicycle through a field to reach the back gate. The entrance would have been on the

south side of this photo, somewhere between the train tack and Stella Link, off of South Main, which was a simple,

four lane black road back then.

Ever recall any skating going on and where? Card doesn't show a rink of any sort unless its hidden like Waldo?

I don't recall any skating going on. If it was there in 65, it must have been totally separate from the pool area.

So this venue actually existed? Can anyone name year built/existed or why or what replaced it?

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.