RhinoVP

Cemeterywolf, Are you saying that The poor farm was a cemetery only, and not some type of working farm or house? Regards, Rhino

Wow! I sure remember the S&H Green stamps, and Weingarten's and Rice was where we got them from. I remember my mother and grandmother collecting these together, I going maybe once a year to the S&H redemption center. If I do recall, it was in the Bellaire area somewhere. I still have a few of the stamps, and whats left of a set of dishes from there. Rhino

Nena, your not the only one. We used to go there a couple of times a week for the gyro's. What ever happened to it? I thought this was a chain, but you don't see them anymore. Rhino

In the mid 70's there was no food court at Memorial city. The area where the food court is now, would have been York's steak house. York's was kinda like a Bonanza or Golden Coral (minus the buffet) type of place. Wish I had pictures though. Rhino

Mike, I take it that you may have been a reg there too. I was one of those that always sat in the booths back by the restroom, with all the rest of the Marlboro mob. Champs was kinda like a Stafford version of an "after hours" club for us. It seemed like we were there every night of the week! You and I probably know many of the same people, since my folks moved to the Meadows in 72'. Sugar Creek though...... that was where the party was every weekend. CHS 88'

I think the time frame would be wrong for that. The movie came out in 82, the same year these supposed hauntings took place. I personaly think that the movie had more to do with the "Black hope curse" story, than the other way around. Maybe that's just me though. Rhino

Mike, have a look here. http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/haif/i...showtopic=16171 Regards, Rhino

I didn't know there was ever a Bay store in Houston, I thought those were just in Canada! It's really a cool store, wish we did have them down here. BTW- I can't belive nobody mentions the Dream Merchant at Sharpstown!

Yes they did, as well as most of the JoJo's. There was also the Champ's at 59 & Gessner, and 59 & Murphy. I spent many a 3:00am at that Murphy location.

Yes, I remember that place very well. I think the name was actualy "Po' Folks", wasn't it? It was too bad that the place went downhill so bad, because the last year or so that it was open those chicken and dumplings turned into something more like dumplings in dish water! Does anybody remember the name of the restaurant, that was back in the corner of that same shoping center? This would have been mid 70's, and where the martial art's studio is now. We used to eat there at least once a week, and now I can't remember hardly anything about it. Regards, Rhino

After a little digging around, I found that the Taxi's were originaly called "Le Taxi". I think these went to another amusement park, possibly in Mexico along with the Astroneedle. Many of the rides were auctioned off, and some have even turned up on eBay. If your ever riding down Hwy 6 just a mile or two past Arcola, be looking to the south and you'll see some of the old car's from the Astrowheel in the front yard of a house. It's the home of a former Astroworld mechanic, who's son I used to work with years ago. Did you know that the Shooting Gallery was the first of it's kind anywhere? It was a shame when they turned it into just another dumb carnival game.

Since when did "swarthy" become a commonly used word? Gimmie a break....

I remember my grandfather always keeping a notepad on the coffee table with the count on it. Everytime the phone would ring, he would first grab the pad first, then the phone! Something I haven't seen mentioned on here was a little segment that either 26 or 39 did, that was called "TV Kid Pow!". Anyone remember that? It was at a time when even "Pong" was considered high tech, and the game was basicly a variation of Pong played on TV over the phone. Kids would call in to the station, and if they were lucky enough to get through, play the game by saying "POW!" over the phone to, eehhhh....... shoot the gun on the screen. It's not that easy to describe, now that I'm sitting here typing. Anyway, I was ten years old when I won a Huffy Thunder Trail bicycle from that show. I don't even remember now how many points I had, only that I didn't think I had made enough to get anything at all. Then being shocked that I had enough for the bike, and jumping around the living room for an hour afterwards. LOL, those were the days!

Yeah, I sure remember Bonanza! My mom hated the place and my dad loved it, so anytime mom was working late, we were in the car and off to the Bonanza. Every once in a while we would go to Danver's instead, but only if we complained loudly about going to Bonanza again.

The old cars were the Texaco Antique Taxi's, as for the smaller cars though, I can't remember a name for them. I think that Texaco sponsored those as well though. Was "Swamp Buggy" the name of that tree trunk ride? I can't for the life of me remember that ride. That looks to be about the location of the bumper boats, then later on the Gunslinger. I remember the bumper boats from about 74, so I'm guessing this ride was removed late 60's or very early 70's.

Wow! That's a great old video from Astroworld. Thanks for posting.

DUDE!!!! How did you ever find that? Thank you. That's the way I remember it too, with the flag's and rope around it. Although I seem to recall it being just in shades of blue, that would have been about five years after this photo though. That used to pass as an attraction back in those day's. People would stand around waiting for that clock to go off. We would sit in that Walgreens and pass the time with a soda and pretzel for however long it was going to be, then go finish whatever shoping we had to do. Wonderful times those were....

I don't think it's owned by the same people, but if your ever up near Saginaw, MI pay this place a visit. Bronners It's several times over the size of "The Original Christmas Store", but far more a store than an attraction.

There are dozens of circles like this and the "cross" around the area. Look at the western side of the resevior, and you'll see many. It's a naturaly occuring, geological formation. Florida has these all over the place too. I know it has something to do with the water table in the area, but thats all I know.

Hmmmnn... What was this? Was this like a "Haunted Houston" tour, or a tour of local bar's? Doing both in the same night, would make for fun evening!

I'll spare you all of the detail's of why I know this, but go inside the store. Walk straight to the back, and try to sneak a peak at the storage room. It's at least slightly intact, and looks to have been a lobby of some sort at one time. What I remember most, was the very large chandelier still being used to light the backroom. Hold your nose though!

If I could, I would. I'm lucky now if I make it home even one weekend a month. The last time I was at the park was over two years ago, and while I knew the old locomotive went away some time ago, I just couldn't remmeber the "where to" part. Thanks tmariar, for posting all that. Doesn't exactly make my day though. I don't see replacing the trains as a good thing. I would have much rather seen them lengthen the track, and keep the old one's. These little trains were somewhat of an "icon" to Houston and Hermann park. Back to my original question though.. These train's, very well could have been from Playland Park then...? .....and we replace these with the same generic type train's as those at the Boardwalk?

Does anyone by chance know where the locomotives, and cars came from? My dad and I were recently talking about this, after hearing that the train had been closed for repair/remodeling. The topic of the origin of these trains, came up when he mentioned that they were probably going to finaly replace these, since they had been around since the time of Playland park. He said that when Playland Park closed down the trains were moved here, but thought there was already a train here at the time. The Playland train's were just added to the "fleet", but as far as he knew were still in use now. Are these the same train's, and was Playland park thier original home? I know they're old as the dirt on the dirt, but I'd never heard that. The second part of this post, I'm going to be taking the kids over to the park and zoo etc. next weekend when we have them in town, and I'm seriously wondering now what they've done?!? Did they change out the old train's for new one's? I sure hope not! I do see from the Hermann Park website though, that they have changed the station from it's old home to some type of temporary structure. The website has a lot of 404's on it. What's going on? Regards, Rhino BTW - What happened to the old (Big) locomotive?

FELIX'S IS CLOSED!! Where's the joke in this? Somebody tell me. Felix's can't close down........ Man, I have so many memories from here. I damn near grew up here. This was the first, and still some of the best Mexican food I ever had. No mater what the current trend was in Mexican food, Felix's never changed in the slightest. The menu, the decor, hell even the wait staff hadn't changed since I was in diapers. Next thing somebody's going to tell me, is that they closed down Larry's!

Wasn't too bad in the mid to late 80's either!