Libbie

I hope you find the picture. I would really love to see it.

For years, whenever I would turn left from Mandell onto Westheimer, I would look at the building on the north-west corner (now Hugo's Mexican Restaurant, http://kaldis.com/hugosrestaurant.html ,  before that, Imperial Plumbing Supply, before that (?), and I would have a dim toddler-memory of having eaten ice cream there, some 60 years ago. I had the notion that it had been a Rettig's Ice Cream Parlor, but I learned a few years ago on HAIF that the nearest Rettig's had been 3 or 4 blocks east, on Windsor at Westheimer.  Finally, my dim bulb lit up enough for me to do a little googling and discover that the building had been a Mading's Drugstore.  That made sense: most drugstores back then served ice cream;  as a toddler I probably thought that any place that served ice cream was called Rettig's;  there was a Rettig's down the street... .  But the memory is both indelible and dim.  Did anyone else ever patronize that business when it was a drugstore?  Just wondering.

I remember it, too.  I used to skate there some, in the early to mid 60s.  I didn't remember the address, though, just the sort-of location.  I've often thought of it, driving through the area. So, "2400 Norfolk, kind of behind Ninfa's." That's good to know. That'll help my geographic nostalgia. Now I'll know where to look when I'm driving through the area.  I'll visualize it right there, behind the former Ninfa's, right off Kirby, at Norfolk. 

I remember it well.  You mention the barbershop with Shortie and Jesse.  Jesse moved from that location in the early 60's, as I remember, to his new location farther west on Richmond near Weslayan.  Then that area started being taken over by the Greenway Plaza development in the late 60's, and I think he retired about that time. I went to Jesse for my haircuts from about 1950 to the mid-60's.  His name was J. C. Cardwell.  I guess the name, Jesse, evolved from his initials.

 

Also at that intersection, on the northeast corner, was a little diner by the name of Phil's.  I went there for lunch many times in my youth.  I have never had another chicken-fried steak as good as the ones I got there.

J.C. Cardwell = Jesse--interesting!  He was still cutting hair not too far from there as recently as 1988 (well, 26 years ago SEEMS recent).  My father, one of his customers, told him my husband was looking for a teaching job; Jesse told another customer--an H.I.S.D. assistent superintendent--about him; at my father's next hair-cutting session, Jesse gave Dad the gentleman's card to give to my husband; he went for an interview, and months upon months of runarounds were at an end:  he got the teaching job from which he just recently retired. Barber shop as employment agency.  Thank you, Jesse.

Does anyone remember what used to be behind the recently defunct (Sigh!) Lucky Burger, on Richmond at Mandell? In the fifties there was a small strip center with a drugstore whose soda fountain sold 3-scoop cones for 15 cents, a variety store, and a little restaurant, owned by an oldish immigrant couple with a name like Goldberg or Goldstein--all right next to each other. My father used to order roast beef at the restaurant.  He would also ask for Worcestershire Sauce, and Mr. Goldstein (who was owner, manager, waiter, cook, and busboy) would bring it to him but say indignantly, "Why do you cover up the flavor of my delicious roast beef with that sauce! And it's bad for you! That sauce takes all the water out of your body!" Mr. Goldstein was, in his small way, a culinary artist, and, as such, temperamental.

In an adjacent little strip of buildings that are still there, there were a barber shop (Jesse's Barber Shop, I think, and Jesse was assisted by another barber named Shortie.  In the seventies, Jesse moved a few miles west, still on Richmond).  Either in the same building or right next door was Prim's Beauty Shop.

Various places--mostly eating places--have come and gone at the location:  Lucky Burger, Munchie's, etc., etc., but whenever I pass by there, I lament the recent loss of Lucky Burger and the long-ago loss of Jesse and Shortie's, Prim's, Mr. & Mrs. Golstein's restaurant, the variety store where at age eight I paid a dollar for an imitation diamond ring ring that could have fooled Tiffany's, the drugstore with nickle (one-scoop) cones, and everything that went along with those departed places and the epoch that departed with them.  Does anyone else remember that old strip center?

Anyone remember what used to be behind the recently defunct (Sigh!) Lucky Burger, on Richmond at Mandell? In the fifties there was a small strip center with a drugstore whose soda fountain sold 3-scoop cones for 15 cents, a variety store, and a little restaurant, owned by an oldish immigrant couple with a name like Goldberg or Goldstein--all right next to each other. My father used to order roast beef at the restaurant.  He would also ask for Worcestershire Sauce, and Mr. Goldstein (who was owner, manager, waiter, cook, and busboy) would bring it to him but say indignantly, "Why do you cover up the flavor of my delicious roast beef with that sauce! And it's bad for you! That sauce takes all the water out of your body!" Mr. Goldstein was, in his small way, a culinary artist, and, as such, temperamental.

In an adjacent little strip of buildings that are still there, there were a barber shop (Jesse's Barber Shop, I think, and Jesse was assisted by another barber named Shortie.  In the seventies, Jesse moved a few miles west, still on Richmond).  Either in the same building or right next door was Prim's Beauty Shop.

Various places--mostly eating places--have come and gone at the location:  Lucky Burger, Munchie's, etc., etc., but whenever I pass by there, I lament the recent loss of Lucky Burger and the long-ago loss of Jesse and Shortie's, Prim's, Mr. & Mrs. Golstein's restaurant, the variety store where at age eight I paid a dollar for an imitation diamond ring ring that could have fooled Tiffany's, the drugstore with nickle (one-scoop) cones, and everything that went along with those departed places and the epoch that departed with them.  Does anyone else remember that old strip center?

I never heard the word superette until I saw this thread; we just called them little grocery stores. Would the old Weingarten's on Richmond at Mandell have been one? Or was it a lbit too big.  But there's a surviving old-style smallish grocery store at 7548 Canal, on the East End:  Shew's Food Market. They still sell fresh produce and have a meat counter, unlike  the used-to-be-grocery-stores-turned-convenience stores that you see around. The very pleasant proprieters appear to be a young man, his middle-aged father, and the elderly grandfather, sometimes all there at once. Once I asked one of them where the Ramen noodles were, and he said, "Take ten steps straight ahead, turn left, and then take 5 more steps. They're on the left, the third shelf from the bottom."  And so they were!  I asked him how he knew the number of steps, and he said that he had trained himself that way in order to be able to come into the store after hours when he needed to, without turning on the light. He said they'd had the store since about 1957.

Interesting about everybody's reaction to Roman Meal.  I had no idea it was so popular.  According to the website, it was originally a hot cereal and had some ingredients that are trendy today.

 

It was supposed to be good for you but wheat bread was supposed to be good for you too and Roman Meal tasted a lot better.

 

I think I'll have to pick up a loaf sometime and try it.

 

I drove over on Washington today; they sure don't brag about that place being a bakery.  It's a Sunbean outlet store and I did see a Flowers Bakery sign behind the burglar bars at what I assume was the entrance to the main building.

About 10 years ago I found some Roman Meal bagels at a Rice Epicurean across town. They were WONDERFUL!  But I've never found any more, anywhere.

I LOVED that movie! I would've been almost the age of the title-role girl (Tommy Jo).  I wanted to be her! I wanted to scramble for a calf! A few years ago I found the VHS tape of that movie on Amazon. When I watched it again, after so many decades, it was almost eerily fun, and very nostalgic. 

Wow. I love that aerial shot of the old Katy Road coming into Houston. You can see the beginnings of the westbound lanes of what became I-10. I remember that highway. There was NOTHING between Katy and the western edge of the Spring Branch area around Bunker Hill and Campbell. Wide open spaces, mostly rice fields. Today it is completely filled in with continuous suburbs.

 

A lot of Houston people got small roles and were used as extras in this flick, including a guy I went to Pasadena High School with, Dickie Ingram - Class of 1961. He played a teenage guy driving around in a hot-rod convertible. Blink and you miss him.

Can you still get to Houston that way from Katy, or has old Katy Road been completely eaten by I-10?  I'd really like to know, for some reason!

I first saw that mansion when house-hunting in the neighborhood in the mid 1980s.  Its shingle said "Boarding House," and along the sidewalk was what looked like a vegetable garden.  I was really intrigued.

There was an Okay car dealership on the Gulf Freeway (maybe across from Gulfgate?) forever!  But no more. A boy I knew asked me out on a date in about 1967. He picked me up and drove me to Okay Cars, saying that he hadn't budgeted well enough for a movie or a burger, so he just took me to stare at the cars.  He had a great time! I didn't, much.  I married somebody else.  Twenty-five years later we went to Bonnie's Beef and Seafood on the Gulf Freeway and  I looked over and saw the little "Okay" flags flapping. It still looked the same. But it's not there any more.

And wasn't there a jack-o-lantern-like Gulf Oil sign on top of the Gulf Building (now the J.P. Morgan Chase building on Main Street, I think) long ago? Yes, there was;  it's coming back to me! My mother used to say that it messed up the beautiful sky-line of Houston.  At age six I didn't mind it.

Uh, they came IN to Houston for the rodeo parade.

 

I have memories but they really do date me.  I remember seeing the parade where Roy Rogers was featured.  I was in elementary and have not bothered to research what year that might have been so please don't 'surprise' me.

 

I also remember The Cisco Kid and Pancho. 

 

We did not have money by any means but somehow my folks managed to buy me a pair of boots when I was about 10-11 AND they let me ride the bus from N. Main to downtown (Shoppers Special for 5 cents) so I could walk to the Coliseum for the rodeo.  I was under 11 because we moved from N. Main when I was 12.

 

Can you imagine anyone letting an 11 year old walk on Main Street Houston today?

When did they (the Salt Grass Trail riders) stop coming into Houston? Not more than a decade ago -- a mere blink or the eye! -- I saw a horse-drawn wagon on the feeder of the Gulf Freeway, inbound, at about Lockwood. It couldn't have been anything else than the trail riders. Then I passed them and left them behind and drove on to work. But what a thrill to see them, just moseying down the feeder!

And we weren't so P.C. that we were able to call it the "Fat Stock Show."

 

I don't think the stock minded being called fat.

Probably not, but I (a non-Houstonian, though my work paycheck did come from Houston last summer) think that it might've been either on the row of buildings between 59 and Wheeler (razed a number of years for light rail) and not Sears.

A little Google digging does find a neon "bread slicing" sign for Fair-Maid, but it was at Buff Stadium (the big Fingers store on I-45 S that closed several years ago)

Thanks! Either that was it, visible from a distance beyond Sears, or another one was, long ago, on Sears itself or on a close-by building (I think it was actually on or near Sears, but who can perfectly reconstruct a visual memory from age five?). I didn't manage to paste it, or its link, but in the caption they called it the         "Fair-maid Moon," because at night it rose up like a bread-shaped moon behind Buff Stadium.

Is this it?

 

 

According to this page, it was on top of the Fair Maid Bakery at Leeland and Cullen. 

 

https://bill37mccurdy.wordpress.com/tag/houston-buffs/page/8/

That might have been it, if it was visible from Main at Wheeler, and if the slices moved.

Does anyone remember a big neon sign of a huge, moving loaf of bread slicing and re-slicing itself? My memory of it is from the 1950s, and it was either on top of the South Main Sears or very close to it--clearly visible from Sears, anyway; possibly it was farther away but clearly seen from Main as one faced Sears. The bread advertised was Fair-maid Bread, (which was soon after bought by Rainbo Bread). Am I the only Houstonian who remembers it?

Phil's is now known as 59 Diner.

Phil, the owner of Phil's, which did indeed relocate to Shepherd, off Richmond, and is 59 Diner, worked there as a host for a number of years after he retired. Around 1992, when my mother was 80-something, she went there to eat but had forgotten her purse. Phil (also 80-something) was there, hosting, and he lent her the price of her meal--a true gentleman!

I ate at Cardet's in the mid 70's. If my memory is correct, they were part of a Latin food market. Does anyone else remember? The food was good there.

I started eating at Cardet's in the late 1970s. The food was good, and the restaurant was attached to a little grocery store--Cuban, of course, like the restaurant--that sold normal groceries and also a few exotic vegtables, like malangas (google it), as well as Cuban records and even books.  I'm pretty sure the Cardet family originally lived above the store; in later years it appeared that the cook and her family lived there.

I would see Cubans and people who seemed to be from the West Indies shopping there. After the 1980 Mariel Boatlift catapulted a lot of destitute Cubans into the country, I noticed several new employees. The food, if possible, got even better. Then, in 1983, it was sold to some Koreans,who re-named it Latina Cafe (this name jarred a bit if you knew Spanish and caught the incorrect grammatical gender of Latina + Cafe). But they kept the same cook and wait staff. I remember seeing a diminutive oldish Cuban waiter upbraiding his Korean lady boss in Desi-Arnaz-rapid-fire Spanish (the time I remember it was something about that customer didn't want his milk-coffe pre-sweetened). The new Korean owners soon learned enough Spanish for self-preservation, and I remember seeing their pre-school daughter sitting at the counter, the pet of elderly Cubans doting on her. The Koreans tried a Korean dish or two but eventually reverted to all-Cuban food. I didn't go for several years. When I went back, the daughter was old enough to take my order! A few years later, I heard it had been sold to some Indonesians, who, fortunately, kept the menu and the cook. Not all that many years ago, it ceased to be Cuban/Korean/Indonesian/Cuban, and became The Roost. I ate there once. The food is quite good, but the place was too noisy for quiet conversation, at dinner time, anyway.

I know that there was an A&P and Whole Foods in that same Alabama Theater commercial center (not at the same time, obviously) but not Jamail's. Of course, I don't know if that's fully true either...

In my childhood, the Alabama center had (south to north, or left to right, as you faced it) a Walgreen's with a soda fountain, an A&P Supermarket, the Alabama Theater, Suzanne's Cafeteria, Wacker's Variety Store, and Western Auto.  In the mid 80s a high end Mexican restaurant--Fonda San Miguel--went up where the cafeteria had been, but didn't last long. Whole Foods was where Petsmart is now--where the dimestore Wacker's used to be.

3.  As I recall Jamail's was a moderately fancy grocery store by today's standards.  Their main location was on Kirby where the car wash next to Cafe Express is.  I rarely went in there compared to the Rice on Kirby at Alabama or the Kroger on Kirby at Richmond.  They went out of business in the late 1980s.  I think there was another, smaller location on Bissonnet, which may have been run by a different member of the same family.  

Once, at the smaller Jamail's, I saw an elderly lady introduce her chauffeur to the manager, or owner, and tell him that the chauffeur would often be coming in and shopping for her.  This would have been in the '80s.

Does anyone remember a neon sign that was a big loaf of bread, perpetually being sliced? It advertized Fair-made Bread (which was later re-named Rainbow Bread). The huge, moving  bread loaf was atop a building, near the South Main Sears--possibly actually on top of Sears. This memory is from the mid-1950s or even earlier. It's a crisp, clear, very early childhood memory. But when I'm near the Main Street Sears I remember it, start wondering if it was on Sears or on a nearby building, and start wondering if anybody but me remembers it. Does anybody?

It was open 24/7.....a real experience to go into at 3AM!!!!

 

My family shopped at Richwood's in the 1950s--right up until the day in 1957 when my father went there to get an orange crate (Remember those? Flimsy nailed-together wooden boxes that oranges came in).  My kindergarten teacher had told us to bring crates to set up a pretend store. My dad came home from Richwoods's fuming. "They charged me ten cents for this rickety little orange crate! TEN CENTS!! Weingarten's would have given it to me for free! We're never shopping at Richwood's again!" And we never did. At least, he never did. When I grew up I went occasionally. Before the makover that changed it into a dime-a-dozen-gas-station-convenience store, it look just like an extension of King Cole Licquor Store--same architechture, building material, etc. When it was made over I was unaccountably sorry.

Would that have been an Eclair? I think you can still buy those and in Strawberry too.

Maybe, though I don't remember what they were called; don't remember such an esoteric-sounding name, but heck, I was ten. They were a little thicker than Eskimo pies, chocolate-covered vanilla ice cream, more chocolate inside, and a stick, like a popcicle (sp?) or an Eskimo Pie. They were wonderful!.