northbeaumont

Yes, I'll be 50 next year. Like you, I have "an appreciation of the past that I didn't have when I was younger." But some modern items have been helpful. For example, I live alone. I don't have a stove or cooking utensils. Why should I cook? The microwave oven is enough for me. I have one bowl and one dish. I buy only canned and other non-perishable food. The only thing that I keep in my small, manual defrost refrigerator is bottled water. When I'm hungry, I simply open up a can of something and nuke it. I just try not to let modern items "rule" or "take over" my life. Cell phones have done just that to many people. I see them driving and shopping while yakking away on them. I have a cell phone, but it's the prepaid kind. I've used it only for emergencies. When I'm driving or anywhere out in public, it's in my briefcase turned off and locked up.

Join the crowd! Just dump it in a ditch alongside the street like everyone else does. I'm just being sarcastic. What I need to do is to call the sanitation office of the city I live in and ask them if their trucks will pickup broken down TVs & appliances. If they say "no," I don't know what I'd do. Maybe you could give your city's sanitation office a call and ask.

People on this forum taught me what an "anchor" store is. I've noticed in most malls, J.C. Penney is an anchor store. I didn't major in any field of business, but I don't see how small specialty stores in malls stay afloat. I don't see many people go into them and buy anything. Over here we have Parkdale Mall in Beaumont and Central Mall in Port Arthur. Most of the malls in Houston put them to shame. Their "anchor" stores are J.C. Penney, Sears, & Macy's. I would think that the malls in Houston would have more. Am I right or wrong?

It's his own damn fault.

I'm surprised that Walgreen's and CVS stay in business. Apparently there are enough people paying that $117 not knowing about Sam's Club and Costco to where Walgreen's and CVS can continue building all of those new stores of theirs that I see all around.

That's why the Easter Bunny hides his eggs. He doesn't want anyone to know how he got them. I wonder if he uses PAAS to color them?

I found a website called "DeadMalls.Com." It tell all about closed-down malls and retails stores that no longer exist. Either it or one of its links shows Grants. It also tells about San Jacinto Mall and the other malls in the Houston area that are either closed or are about to be.

Wow! I had completely forgotten about that Romana logo with the little girl. A lot of other businesses and items I remember had a person as part of it logo. I remember Sunshine Cookies had a robust baker (maybe it still does). I also remember Ramada Inn (now simply called Ramada) had a rotund inkeeper holding a long horn with a flag attached to the bottom with the words "RAMADA INN." One of the things that I liked about cafeterias is that most of them didn't sell beer. They had a family atmosphere.

Yes, the Felix here in Beaumont that I told you about was on Calder Avenue. It was almost directly across the street from one of the Pig Stand chain restaurants here (I think there were three). I read an article a few months ago that Pig Stand was a popular Texas chain. The article said that most of the restaurant have closed down because the chain was having financial problems. Maybe someone can start a topic/discussion on Pig Stands.

Very interesting writing. Now you've taught me that they were called "glass front bins." When we would go into Newberry's in Gulfgate, we would look into those "glass front bins" at the jelly beans, cashews, candy corn, malted milk balls, etc. The attendant used a steel scoop to get some out, pour it onto the scale, then put them into a small paper (some places used waxed) bag, and you'd snack on it while the grownups did their shopping. In grocery stores, I was sometimes given a box of animal crackers to keep me quiet while my mom shopped. I remember going to the Weingarten's store in Gulfgate.

Whether it's circuit boards or whatever, new TV prices are LOW. I live alone, and I personally am satisfied with a 13-inch. Best Buy has them for $59.95 (no built-in VCR/DVD). If I bought one of those and it broke down in a year or two, I will have gotten my money's worth. I'm pretty sure that a repair shop would charge more than that to fix it. I would simply throw it away and buy a new one. But I would try to dispose of it properly. There's one negative result I see to the lower prices of TVs, air conditioners, etc.: You see them disposed of in all of the ditches that run alongside of the streets and roads. Since a lot of city garbage trucks will not pickup those kind of things, people simply dump them wherever they can.

Was "Albert's" part of "Albertson's" like "K-Mart" was part of "Kresge" and "Woolco" was part of "Woolworth"?

Well, when one business chain folds, another replaces it. Most likely there is at least one other chain of Mexican restaurants there in Houston that many people rave about just the way people did many years ago over Felix. I've noticed that about a lot of other chains. I remember stopping at those interstate snack and gas stops called "Stuckey's." Now there's only a handful of those remaining. I think that "Cracker Barrel" has replaced them. And I also think that "Waffle House" has replaced both "Denny's" and "Sambo's."

I agree 100%. But the older I get, the less I eat out, in addition to other things. I'm now starting to see that there is no point in paying $20 for a meal in a restaurant when I can get something out of my cabinet that will do the same thing (fill up my stomach) for about 10-20% of that amount. Really, 1997 was the last time that I went to Luby's or to any other cafeteria for that matter. But I still remember the pleasant experience and the good food.

Now I know exactly what happened to the Felix's in Beaumont. There's a letter someone wrote in today's Beaumont Enterprise. It closed down and it became another Mexican restaurant called "Three Amigos." "Three Amigos" was recently demolished. Now I guess you can conclude that the Felix in Houston is literally the only one left standing (unless there are remnants of the other ones).

There's a difference that I just thought of between cafeterias and restaurants. In a cafeteria you see then select the food you want, then you go to a table and eat it, sometimes all of it, unless you're starving and your eyes are bigger than your stomach. In a restaurant, you're given all of those appetizers. Some people fill up their stomachs on those things and they're no longer hungry when the main dish that they ordered is brought to them. Some are too embarrassed to ask for a "doggy bag" to take home that which they don't eat, so they leave it for the garbage disposal to consume. I believe that less food is consumed by garbage disposals in cafeterias.

You just triggered my memory! Now I remember those tube testers. It makes me also remember us taking our TV to a repair shop whenever it broke and we had nothing to watch until the repair shop called and told us that our TV was ready. Things have certainly changed. We didn't get our first color TV until I was 13. Now, black and white TVs are almost obsolete. The only new ones I've seen are those 5-inch battery-operated portables. As you said about circuit boards replacing tubes, those have made it to where when your TV breaks down for even the first time, you would simply go ahead and throw it away. The price of TVs are now so low that you would simply go out and buy a new one. To me, I think that there are very few, if any, TV repair shops around anymore. The circuit board eliminated TV repair shops, and the jobs of the people who repaired them. You can buy a new TV for a lot less than it would cost to repair it (that is, if there were someone around who knew how to repair it).

I graduated from high school in Beaumont, which is 84 miles east of Houston. When I was a kid, my parents and I would take a weekend drive to Houston. I remember seeing signs of Piggly Wiggly that said "Open Sunday." You can tell that was back when the "blue laws" were in force." I remember over here in the Gateway Shopping Center many years ago was a Henke & Pillot supermarket. I also remember seeing at least one in Houston on one of those weekend trips. Its store brand name was called Kroger, and later the chain simply changed its name to that. Do any of you remember Henke & Pillot?

I don't want to sound like I'm stupid, but what's a "tube tester."?

Yes, there was also a T.G.&Y store next door to the Weingarten's that I went to as a kid in Port Arthur. Right next door to the T.G.&Y was the Big Bonus Trading Stamp Redemption Center, which were the brand of trading stamps that Weingarten's had. Next to it was a Weiner's clothing store. I don't think there's any more of those in this whole area. Only you would know if there have ever been any Weiner's in Houston.

I just looked on a website called Openlist.Com. It says that no Wyatt's are listed. It lists one Piccadilly located at 7750 West Bellfort Street. But it lists four Luby's at: 6223 Bellaire Boulevard 12121 Westheimer 1725 Post Oak Boulevard 10314 East Freeway

I just looked on a website called Openlist.Com. It lists only one Felix in Houston on 904 Westheimer Road (Montrose Boulevard).

Unlike a restaurant where you didn't know what you were getting until the waiter/waitress brought your meal to you, in those cafeterias you could look, see, and pick out exactly what you wanted. In the dessert section, I distinctly remember the fancy glass container of Jell-O and pudding with the squirt of whipped cream on top. Then you'd go to a table, unload all of your dishes while a waitress took the tray. Then you might buy a York's Peppermint Pattie Mint from the cashier, and get a toothpick. Then you'd walk out the door literally stuffed.

Now that we're on the subject of eating establishment, I've started remember cafeterias. I remember going to the Piccadilly in Parkdale Mall once back in the 1970s. The Luby's on North 11th Street in the Gaylynn Shopping Center closed down but a new one was built just up the street on the corner of North 11th Street and Interstate 10. In Port Arthur, there was a Luby's in Jefferson City Shopping Center for many years. It's now closed down but a new one was built just a few blocks from it on the corner of Twin City Highway and Texas State Highway 73. There is also a Luby's in Central Mall in Port Arthur. About 10 years ago, a Luby's opened up over in Orange on the corner of IH-10 and MLK Drive. But it closed down in less than five years. The building is still standing. I'll never understand business, to construct and open up a Luby's just to close it down in a few years. Go figure. Also over in Orange, there used to be a Wyatt's Cafeteria in Northway Shopping Center. It's now been closed down for quite awhile. There was a Wyatt's on Gulfway Drive in Port Arthur, but it also bit the dust. The only one that I remember here in Beaumont was in the Gateway Shopping Center. At different times in the past, I do rembered going to all of those Wyatt's. Those cafeterias served what I would call good, "American" dishes. I remember liver & onions, fried/baked chicken, rolls, glasses of iced tea, etc. If all three chains aren't over there in Houston, then I would think that at least two of them are. I'm pretty sure that someone will tell me if I'm right or wrong.