airmech1112

Welcome Normone, always good to hear personal stories...where exactly was that drug store? I remember the hamburger stand, last I saw, it was a taco place. We've talked about that theater in other posts, check 'em out. Capri was one theater name, early on.

link: http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/haif/i...showtopic=10341

The name of the hamburger stand wasn't the Chuck Wagon but the Chuck Shack. My brother worked there for a while in the 70s. I remember one time he came home from work and told us this story, he went to get a customer's order and it turned out being Elvin Hayes. Mr Hayes ordered a grilled ham and cheese sandwich but my brother got so nervous that he forgot the cheese. He made him another sandwich and brought it out and started talking to him, it seems that Mr Hayes had been doing some kind of basketball youth camp at the Mason Park Gym and the Chuck Shack was the closest place to get some lunch. I don't remember the store across the street being anything but Weingartens even before it burned down in the mid to late 60s. When they rebuilt is when Ekerd's, Payless Shoes and TG&Y were put in on either side, with Ekerd's on the side closest to 75th st.

Are you talking about DiLorio's? If so, I went there last year and they had a watermelon the size of a 4-year old kid for 7 dollars!

I remember the watermelon stand, when I played baseball at dixie little league on Lawndale if we won a game our manager would take the entire team there to celebrate.

Is this house and the other colonial mansion still around?

I grew up 3 doors down from this house on the corner of Pasadena and Satsuma. For most of my life it was a room and board house but I believe in the late 80s or early 90s it was purchased by a frat. My mom told me that she talked with someone with the frat and they were planning on restoring the house to original condition. He also told her that they had found a set of original blueprints when they cleaned out the cellar. I guess they didn't get around to fixing the place up. I think it was built around 1902. There are a few old mansions in this neighborhood on Alta Vista and Forest Hill but none are Colonials. This area was supposed to have been like another River Oaks but instead ended up a middle class neighborhood.