KMAN458

On 5/16/2020 at 7:00 AM, ernie5823 said:

The "original" Peppermint Park was in Pasadena. In about 1959 it moved to the large hunk of land between the Gulf Freeway & Reveille (Texas 35) with access to the parking lot from either the freeway frontage road or Reveille. Obviously that was before the I45/I610 interchange existed. I don't know when (or to where) they moved from there but they were still there in late '63 when I left Houston.

It was in the gulfgate parking lot close to where 45 and 610 meet

Would a home run still be a home run if they blast the ball out of the sky with a missile? Or would that be a drone rule double?

This is jus a FYI but the golf weekend that Obama had with Tiger Wood also included Jim Crane as part of the foursome on two rounds. Take it for what it is worth.

Don't forget this ad campaign from 1961.

"We are the Men from Texaco We wear the Texaco Star We like to think at Texaco We've got everything for your car

We've got wipers for your windshield' Plugs n' Belts n'Tires, too Lubricants and Batteries and polishes for you All the things to keep your engine up to par We've got everything for your car

That's why you can trust you car to the man who wears the Star for the kind of products that can take care of you car At every Texaco Station, clean across the Nation You can trust your car to the man who wears the Star The big bright Texaco star!"

LOL TABC rules are fun to try and figure out at times. I remember years ago that there was a building in Gruene that had 2 business in it. The one to the left as you came in the front door sold vine made by a local vineyard and the one on the right was a restaurant that was BYOB. The idea was that you could buy wine to have with your dinner but to be allowed to take the newly purchased wine into the restaurant you first had to go back out the front door and into the parking lot before returning into the building and on into the restaurant to enjoy your meal with the wine.

Yeah, Johnny Nash, the same guy that sang "Secret Agent Man".

I thought it was Johnny Rivers that did "Secret Agent Man". That was one of my favorite songs at that time.

Do you know why Astroturf was invented? The grass died!

but that was only after they painted over alot of the glass panels because players were complaining that they could not see the ball in the air.

First it was a ski-mountain...then it was a waterslide with arts and crafts rooms and a huge pirate ship to play on...then it was a nursery which looked cool during the holidays because the entire hill was nothing but lights and Christmas trees!...then it was Lone Star Amphitheatre which surprisingly hosted some big name concerts. The hill simply disappeared due to the right of way for Westpark Tollway. Since there's nothing left to do in Houston anymore, I would think it would have done well in this day and age....either some cool waterslides or...imagine it covered in a racetrack for go carts going up and down the hills and bends!! Houston's "fun" days are over! There will always be something to say and something much better about the ambience, fun and excitement of a simple arcade, putt-putt, theme park, go-kart-track, and waterslide versus sitting in a room staring at a tv screen with a 50 button video game controller in your hand! I don't knock video games, as I am an avid player and collector myself. But we have to admit....things are different!

and even farther back it was a motocross track. Seems to me that was the late 60's or early 70's when it was open.

All I could recall of the old Tommie Vaughn jingle is:

"..They got great service..they got good price, they got everything (missing words) that's nice......Tommie Vaughn...Tommie Vaughn Ford" All done in a deep baratone/"Texan sounding" voice.

Allthough no song comes to mind...I guess everyone recalls the "Rocket City" dealership on the Gulf Freeway near the Gulfgate mall. Was it Dan Boone's dealership? Lastly. was it Frizell (??) that had "A whale of a deal" with a whale cartoon as a logo?

The car dealership near gulfgate with the sign with the big rocket on it was Bill McDavid Oldsmoble. Dan Boone ran it for some years before the McDavid boys took it over.

Oh ok thanks.

The Norman Rockwell era has passed, and Garden Villas has downcycled like most other older nabes, but I think it probably hit bottom a decade or so ago. Will it be restored? My first thought is, just as it declined Houston style, it will rebound Houston style as well; a restoration here, a teardown there, a dump down the street, however those huge lots could eventually attract others who see no value in those old homes.

Sorry to bring this back but this made me very sad to see this going throght the old post. I lived with my grandmother and grew up on Ashburn in Garden Villas during the 60's and she used to do all her shopping there and I even got to take coupons in and get the cash for them so I could buy my own stuff. I took the wife through there last April and it made me want to cry. Her old house is now blue with a porch that was added across the entire front. I guess what they say is true. You can never go home again. This place is awsome even though it does make me sad to remember what it was like growing up in the area in that time. Oh and fyi my grandmother taught 3rd grade at Garden Villas Elementry school till 69 or 70 and I went there from 1st grade till 5th grade (64-69) so did anyone here go there?

I was disappointed this morning to see that the old Garden Villas Grocery Store on the corner of Telephone and Fauna had been levelled.

I was angry at myself more than anything because I somehow missed seeing the demo permit, so I didn't get pictures like I would have liked to.

It has been vacant and for sale for a long time, so i have no excuse for not taking pictures sooner.

It really wasn't anything great architecturally but it did have an interesting angled entry and the old tall brick incinerator chimney was still out back. All-in-all probably a very typical 1951 grocery store. It was also one of the last obvious clues as to the former life of Fauna Street as a main East-West artery from Telephone to Mykawa - before Airport Blvd was developed.

No signs yet as to what will replace the building.