WillowBend56

Found my copy of he official souvenir guidebook. Exhibitors were: Bell System Coca Cola Kodak Falstaff Brewing Ford Frito Lay/ Pepsi Cola GE GM Gulf Interstate Insurance Gulf Oil Humble Oil IBM Lone Star Brewing LDS Church Pearl Brewing RCA Sermons from Science (Alive Inc.) Southern Baptist Woman's Pavilion States & Nations: Arkansas, Belgium, Bolivia, Canada, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, France, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Venezuela, and the OAS. Advertisers included: Continental Airlines, Braniff, Frost Bros., Continental Trailways, Gibson's Discount Stores, Joske's, King Ranch, and others.

What a fabulous getaway place! My wife (NJ born) never suspected West Texas held anything of beauty or interest until she spent a few nights here: http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/state-parks/indian-lodge It's a great base from which to explore. Note the nearby attractions mentioned in the web page.

My family also went to Hemisfair in 1968. I was 15. I best recall the interactive movie theater and the Mexican pole dancers (no, not that kind!). I have the guide book too. Interesting to see which companies advertised in it.

The train ride and weather were great! Lots of folks turned out at the depot in Houston to see it leave. The train itself was almost full. It had to wend its way around the east side of Houston until we got to Mykawa and then we started cruising. Part of the reason for the trip was the transportation of two restored passenger diesel locomotives to the Galveston Railroad Museum and of course it's official reopening since recovering from Hurricane Ike. The museum had to scrap or sell a fair amount of its exhibit equipment. They were just too far gone from the ravages of salt water. Here's what the train was about: http://www.railpictures.net/album/419/ Lunch at Gaido's was a nice interlude until we left back to Houston around 3:30 PM, returning at a faster clip.

This is the title of an upcoming book on the Houston Police Department. http://www.amazon.co...002122&sr=1-218 "Houston Blue offers the first comprehensive history of one of the nation’s largest police forces, the Houston Police Department. Through extensive archival research and more than one hundred interviews with prominent Houston police figures, politicians, news reporters, attorneys, and others, authors Mitchel P. Roth and Tom Kennedy chronicle the development of policing in the Bayou City from its days as a grimy trading post in the 1830s to its current status as the nation’s fourth largest city. Combining the skills of historian, criminologist, and journalist, Roth and Kennedy reconstruct the history of a police force that has been both innovative and controversial. Readers will be introduced to a colorful and unforgettable cast of police chiefs and officers who have made their mark on the department. Prominent historical figures who have brushed shoulders with Houston’s Finest over the past 175 years are also featured, including Houdini, Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders, O. Henry, former Texas Ranger Frank Hamer, hatchet wielding temperance leader Carrie Nation, the Hilton Siamese Twins, blues musician Leadbelly, oilman Silver Dollar Jim West, and many others. The Houston Police Department has been at the cutting edge of police innovation. It was one of the first departments in the South to adopt fingerprinting as an identification system and use the polygraph test, and under the leadership of its first African American police chief, Lee Brown, put the theory of neighborhood oriented policing into practice in the 1980s. The force has been embroiled in controversy and high profile criminal cases as well. Among the cases chronicled in the book are the Dean Corll and Dr. John Hill murders; controversial cases involving the department’s crime lab; the killings of Randy Webster and Joe Campos Torres; and the Camp Logan, Texas Southern University, and Moody Park Riots. Roth and Kennedy reveal that most of modern Houston’s issues and problems are rooted in many of the challenges that faced police officers in the nineteenth century. Anyone who drives in Houston will not be surprised that the city’s reputation for poor drivers was already cemented in the 1860s, when ordinances were passed to protect pedestrians from horse-drawn carriages. Likewise, the department’s efforts to overcome funding and manpower shortages, and political patronage, are a continuing battle that began a century ago. In the end it is a story about the men and women in blue and the role played by the Houston Police Officers Union in creating a modern 21st-century police force from its frontier roots."

Union Pacific Railroad is celebrating 150 years of existence by parading one its big operating steam locomotives through Texas---definitely a part of the UP system now, but not more than 30 years ago. It arrived in Houston from Shreveport and Lufkin a few days ago. It's laying over at the Amtrak station at 902 Washington Ave. today and leaves tomorrow at 8 AM toward College Station and Hearne. Union Pacific Railroad UP 844 http://www.up.com/aboutup/special_trains/steam/details.shtml It's living history!

Too bad Houston did not save this 1944 World War 2 relic from the Brown Shipyard Company: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_LSM-45 and... http://www.enctoday.com/news/museum-4182-ship-miller.html

Watch out, Austin! Better sacrifice a few hippies or state bureaucrats to the gods lest their wrath come in the form of this revived ancient volcano: http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM63VP

Open house for area science teachers is on November 10, 2012.

Here's a new link that works: http://cavallinistudios.com/archresleaded.html

If you missed riding the TEXAS LIMITED to Galveston back in the 1990s, there's a one-time opportunity on November 10, 2012 to ride there again as part of a commemoration of the revived Galveston Railroad Museum since the devastation of Hurricane Ike. The route will be over the former Santa Fe line instead of the GH&H line that the TEXAS LIMITED traversed. Scroll down to the very bottom of this link to find the large trip icon and click on it: http://www.galvestonrrmuseum.com/ Historically there were three railroad routes to Galveston and one electric interurban route from Houston.

A fun trip to make if you're in Acadiana is a drive to Avery Island. First of all, there's a beautiful aviary maintained there that's a garden treasure as well. Secondly, it's the home of Tabasco sauce as produced in Louisiana by the McIlhenny family since 1868. Neat factory tour and gift ship make additional reasons to detour there. The site sits on a massive salt dome. Link: http://www.tabasco.com/avery-island/

I wonder why this rail segment study was released by TXDOT. It's hardly the most urgent in terms of priority or viability within the Texas Triangle. I'd put Dallas/Ft.Worth-Houston or Dallas/Ft.Worth-San Antonio ahead of it. I'll put credence in TXDOT if and when they actually complete a rail project. This seems like a bone tossed out to impress folks they are working on something other than more highways. We'll be riding in rickshaws before we have high-speed rail in Texas.

The original location was my favorite place to eat during family trips to Austin in the 1960s. When I lived in the Austin area (briefly) in the the mid-1980s, there were at least two locations.

When you've lived in Texas 50+ years and have traveled the state far and wide, you notice favorite areas blighted by development. To me the San Antonio-Austin corridor is one of the worst. It's become two long strip malls on both sides of Interstate 35. New Braunfels and San Marcos have lost a lot of their identity and charm.

Growing up in the Willow Bend area in the 1950s, we kids would expect to hear a noontime whistle from one of the industrial businesses off South Main. I never knew which business it was. I'm pretty sure it was not the Southern Pacific Railroad. Anyway, it was a signal to "warm up" our televisions for lunch-time cartoons.

We swam at the Shamrock's pool in the late 50s. I don't think my parents had any kind of special membership or pass. I think they just paid an entrance fee. Great pool! It seemed HUGE. It was HUGE. The diving boards were formidable to a kid like myself.

Here is a real jewel of a private chapel design: Rio Roca Ranch Chapel in a nice riverine setting in Palo Pinto County TX http://www.rioroca.com/rio-roca-chapel The architect is Maurice Jennings, a partner of Fay Jones. Fay Jones designed some wonderful chapels in northwest Arkansas: Thorncrown Chapel and Cooper Chapel.

Here's a great source of online map images for the area dating from the 1870s to the 1960s: http://www.hctx.net/archives/Maps.aspx My apologies if this has been mentioned before! Browse away!

Trans Texas Airlines Service 1949 Long before Continental Airlines would "move our tail for you," we had TTA providing a bit of Texas service to its flying passengers: http://www.cah.utexas.edu/db/dmr/image_lg.php?variable=e_bb_2414

Movie theaters in Houston have never had it so good before or since! http://www.cah.utexas.edu/db/dmr/image_lg.php?variable=e_bb_1659

This was not the draw for me as a kid about going to Foley's at Christmas but perhaps it was for one of you! http://www.cah.utexas.edu/db/dmr/image_lg.php?variable=e_bb_0389

How about a late Santa Claus appearance from yesteryear caught on film by Bob Bailey Studios? http://www.cah.utexa...iable=e_bb_4792 and http://www.cah.utexa...iable=e_bb_4791 and http://www.cah.utexa...iable=e_bb_4790 and finally http://www.cah.utexa...iable=e_bb_4789 Enjoy!

Here's what the Sanborn fire insurance map index for 1885 says about Houston: Six volunteer companies with about 300 members. Five paid drivers on constant duty. One 2nd-class Silsby steamer. One batton hand engine not in use. Two hook & ladder trucks and four hose carts drawn by horses. 3000 ft. of 2.5" hose.

Au contraire! The Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe did have a depot in Houston at Congress and St. Emanuel. Check out the Sanborn maps of Houston---either 1896 (sheet 13) or 1907 (sheet 11): http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/sanborn/g-i/txu-sanborn-houston-1896-13.jpg or http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/sanborn/g-i/txu-sanborn-houston-1907-vol1-011.jpg It would have been in use before Union Station was opened. The SA&AP depot seems to have been located at Lamar & Hutchins: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/sanborn/g-i/txu-sanborn-houston-1896-26.jpg