Ptarmigan

Whipped out a little video, stealin' internet photos, a little video from youtube.

http://www.youtube.c...u/0/jF0InneA08k

Wish local TV could be like this again. I wonder what happened to that.

historicaerials.com goes back to the 1960s...there was a subdivision where Greenway Plaza is now.

Cool stuff! You can see how much Houston has changed.

I have seen the old KTRK logo and had the black cat because 13 and black cat is considered unlucky. This was before the circle 13 that looks like cattle branding, which I remember the most. It is a pity that television stations do not produce their own children's show like they did back than.

Same thing happened with Halloween - trick-or-treating used to be a big deal in practically every neighborhood, but participation withered away to almost nothing after a different "Man with the Candy" than Dean Corll killed his son with poisoned Pixy Stix in the early 70s:

Ronald Clark O'Bryan

He really changed Halloween as we know it today. Dean Corll is the personification of evil right there!

I have heard of Dean Corll. He is one sick person. He has to be the worst serial killers besides Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and Jeffrey Dahmer. He is a genuine psychopath and pervert of the lowest denomination. I have read that more people could of been killed by Corll.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_...ll/index_1.html

Also, there is the "I-45 Killer", who killed many women. He has yet to be caught. I have lived in Houston all my life and I have not heard much of Dean Corll. I noticed people in Houston talk about hurricanes more often and are often more memorable.

Here is a link where you can see the Fort Bend Parkway. The Missouri City Antennae Farm is visible.

http://www.aaroads.com/texas/ftbendpkwy.html

The 59 and Gessner location is now the site of a 99 cent store. Further west on Gessner it is just a total disaster with the cluster and clusters of low rent and high crime apartments. It is hard to think that such a novelty store was once in that location.

Prior to that they had a store on Bissonett just west of the Boone road intersection. The structure is still there but it has been chopped up internally and divided into a mini-mall of sorts that is indoors. It's mostly small office space. That is also a pretty rough part of town these days.

I went as a kid to both of them in the 80s....great stuff.

Southwest Houston changes a lot.

I don't remember Zappo's.

I remember as a child in the 1980s, there was a large Christmas store, which had no windows. It had a lot of Christmas items sold there. It was near 59 and S. Gessner. I wonder what is the name of that store?

Fandango's-Had the best fajitas at a cheap price. When they remodeled the restaurant, it went downhill.

The Great Greek

Mall

Town and Country Mall

Stores

Auchan Hypermarket

BEST

Mervyn's

Service Merchandise

I believe you mean "Peppermint Park".

There's the little devil, thanks, EastEndSusan. Why a devil? Maybe the Julius name as something to do with it.

PS I loved Peppermint Park, when it was around Gulfgate. Such a simple place.

Yeah, I meant to say Peppermint Park.

Ryan's Grill, Buffet and Bakery

Showbiz Pizza

Little Caesar's Pizza

Champ's Buffet

Ruby Tuesday

Del Taco is long gone from Texas, but alive and well in California. I saw several in San Diego last weekend.

Weren't Showbiz and Chuck E. Cheese two different companies that merged at some point? Neither was very good; the only real attraction there was the games.

Chuck E. Cheese sued Showbiz and they merged as a result. I remember Showbiz as a kid.

I remember Pepppermint Palace. I went there a lot as a kid. It was a cool place to be. Now, it is part of a car dealership. I believe it closed in the late 1980s.

I don't remember this one. I have read that 1983 it rained a lot. Also, Hurricane Alicia came crashing into Houston. I do remember many other weather events in Houston.

I first read about this after the Columbine massacre. It is one of Houston's deadliest mass killings.

Ah, Fandango's, home of the perpetual half-off-fajitas-for-two coupon every week in the newspaper (or maybe it was buy one dinner, get one free - effectively the same thing). I was a poor college student when Fandango's opened, and my girlfriend and I ate quite a few meals there on the strength of that coupon. I've had better fajitas, but you sure couldn't argue with the price.

I liked the food and the price was good too.

There used to be Fandango's. It had really great fajitas and tortillas. Too bad its gone now.