TV2EBoogaloo

LOL, I vividly remember them narrowing Westheimer's lanes between 610 and Gessner. Great care had to be exercised in the MUCH LARGER and less easy to control cars we had then. I remember dodging the buses, and your memory is spot on about the lanes just -ending-. No warning, no help, no kidding, just suddenly you were in a lane that wasn't there any more. Then you had to get over by squeezing in.

You were talking about growing up here; I grew up in Dallas, Ft. Worth, and San Antonio, and I can assure you, none of those places were nearly as wild as Houston.

When I first got here (as a 21 year old fresh college grad) in 1979, it was like this: if it was Friday and you didn't have at least ONE party invitation for the weekend, something was desperately wrong. Usually, the difficulty was figuring out how to fit all the parties in, together with all the other activities (baseball in the Dome featuring Nolan Ryan, festivals, ALWAYS something to do.). If you were bored in Houston in the 70's, it was your own fault. Friendliest big city I've ever seen, full of fun and interesting people who knew how to work and knew how to play. Moved back to Dallas and the difference was striking---Houston was wide-open, Dallas was restrained; Houston was friendly, Dallas was reserved; Houston was full of partying singles, Dallas was full of young churchgoing married people with kids. Huge differences.

Great thread.

we had some neighbors (that still live in that house today) that moved to Dallas for a short while (about 6 months) while an oil company tried to figure out where to headquarter.....the wife/mom mentioned to my mom how the ladies in dallas would never just go shopping in their tennis cloths after playing tennis and ladies in dallas would kind of dress up to go to the grocery store

dallas...

Great post. Wasn't there also a club at Carillion at one point with some outdoor seating? I could be wrong on this.

I believe if you were facing it from Westheimer there was a club or restaurant with a big outdoor area on the southwest side of the "east side" of the shopping center

I am sure some remember this, but when it was first built it actually had two large parking areas east and west that were separated by a strip of shops that ran perpendicular to Westheimer and there was a pass through like a carriage house would have and you drove under the second level of shops from the east lot to the west lot if you were in the back of the shopping center....the B Dalton would have been just to the east of where I am thinking this club/restaurant outdoor area was....there was also the large pseudo bell tower in the far south east corner of the entire complex

I am 99% sure about the carriage house pass through, but they screwed and uglied that whole place up so bad when they redid it that it is not nearly as nice or as cool as it was then......all those ramps and levels were a blast to run around as a kid....if I am thinking right the laugh stop would have been in the part that had the pass through

please correct me if wrong

Yes Meriweather was it thanks for the name.....and I remember the playground.....sorry bout your sis those were the kinds of things kids and parents shrugged off back then

the seamstress at Sinnet was Connie Moore I think the owners lived in Lakeside or Walnut Bend as well and several of the ladies that worded there did...that name Holt sounds familiar my mom surely knows her as well

I went into Lee in 83 so you are several years younger than me....I knew a few people right on your street or a street over, but I can't remember any of their names for the life of me.....one girl for sure lived right on the street (Wickersham you would have been across the street if you backed up to Overbrook) that would have had the silver shopping center right behind her and maybe right on the corner or one house over to the west she has some younger brothers that surely grew up to be as crazy as all my friends were and they might have been your age or a grade older.....another was William Mack that was a grade older than me and actually a couple of years older....he lived on Wickersham or Overbrook, but further to the west I believe in the south side....he had a pretty cool black step side Chevy 4X4 truck with some 70s-80s style paint stripes on it he was probably living there still when you were in fact I am 99% sure he was

I think I know what you are talking about getting stuck....I think in the past they had it with just the drive "lane" and a bigger grassy area between the lane and the street....that is pretty funny

I was wrong and you are right it was a Jumbo not Rice at the front of Briargrove Park.....thanks.....and I 100% remember Kay Floy (I think it was Kay Floy not Floyd) they had the coolest toys in there and I used to love to go there with my mom and be a brat for a toy or something like that....thanks for that memory

we might have gone to that dentist as well....I know my orthodontist was a bit away from Lakeside in a multistory building over near Sharpstown, but we might have gone to that dentist there by Dr. Zinner for regular dental stuff

Rons was the chicken place.....they had really good rolls I believe and we ate there a lot too (really got it to go)

I think Frys was at Fry road, but I think that Fry road was torn up and eliminated when some of the stuff around there was developed.....looking at Google maps South Fry goes into that neighborhood and I think in the past before all that was there the plan was for it to cut through the "reservoir" and head over to where Eldridge is.....I could be wrong about that, but I am pretty sure Fry road used to have some other crazy plan than what it is now south of I-10......back in the day all that seemed kind of "way out there"

Rosewood was a really nice setting.....it was torn down right about the time "crap" took off being built in Houston

we used to eat at Houstons a lot as well when I would come back and crash on friends couches in the summer and holidays after we moved to San Antonio....the had pretty good food for the price back then, but I have not been to one in a while and I think they went a bit more "upscale" once they shrank down to fewer locations

you might be right about the Palais Royal....maybe it was The Gap that was the big store I don't remember......after I wrote that I remember the Palais Royal being where you mentioned down by Hays Rd.....I know straight inside from the entrance next to Godfathers Pizza straight to the back of the mall was the large womens store.....it must be The Gap I was not remembering that was the other larger store in there

I remember the Container Store as well I think it replaced Sports Stop

wow I remember that tunnel and stairs......that was under Memorial to get to the neighborhood pool that was at the corner of Wilcrest and Memorial

where I am talking about is the bridge for Wilcrest that goes over the Bayou right by Lakeside Country Club......when I was younger that bridge was just two lanes and as you drove south on Wilcrest the two lanes narrowed to one lane and cut across what is now a median and all the traffic north and south bound crossed over the east bridge.....the north bound lanes narrowed to one lane the same without the cut across the median and then you cut back over south of the Bayou and Wilcrest went back to 4 lanes with a median

when they came in and made Wilcrest 4 lanes there they built a separate 2 lane bridge to align with the south bound lanes and put the medians in on the north and south of the bayou......if you look at google there is a wide gap about the size of a median between each of the two lane bridges.....it now shows a water pipeline there now, but in the past that pipe was not there and that is how that car was able to fit through without anyone seeing anything damaged......the guy was apparently FLYING heading south, clipped the curb, and managed to shoot right between those two bridges with no or very minimal damage so no one even knew he was down there until my friends saw the car stuck rear end into the south bank facing north and went to look and realized the driver was still in it....of course back then no cell phones and it was CLEAR he was VERY dead and they had to run to the apartments near there to get someone to call (what would have been before) 911

yea I remember the fireworks some.....Lakeside Country Club used to have fireworks on the 4th as well when I was younger we would go over to the Sharpstown fireworks

when I was older we used to put on our own "fireworks show" in the Walnut Bend Gym parking lot and after it was built in the Lockwood Andrews and Newman building parking garage (right across the ditch from Walnut Bend pool)

one time some of my crazier friends were shooting them off out over Briar Forest and someone either called the cops or the cops happened to be driving by and saw the "action" and whipped into the parking garage and a friend had seen them coming and timed it just right to drop a 250 count of blackcats on top of their car as they drove into the garage......the whole way up the garage you could hear them going off as the car went from level to level

of course there were stairs and all the kids were hauling down the stairs as fast as the cop was driving up and then they were all off down the ditch to scatter back into the neighborhood...we stayed in the Walnut Bend pool parking lot and watched and kept shooting ours

HPD being HPD back then and not sweating the "small stuff" they got to the top......turned around.....went back down the garage.....and drove off down Briar Forest like nothing had happened

I think those Farb signs are gone now.....I remember the complex you are talking about it was on the south side of Westheimer not to far east of Gessner and I believe not much further down on the north side of Westheimer was another complex that was also a Farb complex and looked very similar

the skating rink was pretty new when we were going and the owners ran it and their daughter was there a lot as well and about my age and of course she was an amazing skater she could get flying when they would clear it off and have the races and also a race where one squatted down on one skate and the other pushed them from behind (they had a name for it) she would usually win that as well for her age group and of course she had a click of great skating friends....I think she lived in the Spring Branch district though she did not go to Revere or Lee and yea it was a lot of fun......they used to do the hookie pookie in the big area they had painted in the center to skate and race around and the DJ was where you could skate up to them and make request......couples only this song!

glad others remember those lanes on Westheimer.....they were insane, but somehow Houston drivers mostly made it work

thanks for some of the corrections and additional memories

thanks to all that liked the info...I wondered if I was not boring with too much info, but it seemed to all piece together

Chimney Rock was not cut through until into the 90s probably like 95 (I was not back in Houston as much by then)

I dated a girl for about 9 months that lived in the third house on the right on the east side of Indian Circle from Chimney Rock and I know it was not cut through in 1987 and for several years after I believe....the guys in the house next to her had been in my scout troop and she never liked them because one of them blew up her dads 450SL tire with an M80......use to be a full time armed security guard that would sit pretty much all night right along there on Chimney Rock on a part of the street that was paved, but where you did not drive just before Indian Circle

There was some controversy, but by then Houston was starting to get the council members that wondered why "the rich" could keep streets from going through their area so the bridge was finally built and that was that

when we first moved into Lakeside the edge of the city limits was the western edge of Walnut Bend, but it was moved rapidly out to Dairy Ashford within a couple of years and stayed out there for at least 3-4 fireworks seasons because that is where all the fireworks stands would be

back then in Lakeside for sure and I believe Walnut Bend you HAD TO HAVE WOODEN SHINGLES by deed restriction......our family did an addition to our house and a fireman was the contractor and right at that time he knew 100% for sure that Houston was going to outlaw wooden shingles for any new roofs so our new addition, 3/4 of our garage roof and the back side of our existing house roof were done in composition and then a few months later when the law passed we had the front of the garage and the front of the house done as well......some may remember many of the crappier apartment complexes around Houston would have decorative siding as shingles too and when they would catch fire the place was about impossible to put out

I remember the Harold Farb apartments all over west Houston and the sign that went with them.....I don't believe I ever met him, but several of my friends would party some with Harold Farbs son (I believe his name was Kenyon) and he was a pretty cool and down to earth guy from what they all said...I was probably at several of the same parties, but just never met him

Also probably until at least 1990 and probably several years later Kirkwood did not cross the Bayou as well....it dead ended north and south of it, but there was no bridge

by 1984 Briar Forest was 4 lanes at Dairy Ashford and on past to at least Briar Bayou Drive.....from there it was two lanes I believe for a long time hell it may have been gravel for some of that time as well....I had some friends that lived in Briar Bayou (back then Paul Revere and Lee drew from the western edge of 610 all the way to highway 6 and Rogers was some type of "special" school and was even closed part of the time......my brother went to Rogers for 6th and 7th and part of the 8th grade and then the other part of the year he had an option and chose Revere because it was so much closer and all his better friends were doing the same (and no bus ride).....they all spent a lot of time moving stuff in and getting the place set up

on the east edge of Briar Bayou drive right ad Briar Forest google earth still shows a vacant lot that where a guy named David Kay lived that was a grade younger than me and was friends with the others I knew.....their house burned in about 87 I believe and I am shocked nothing has ever been built then.....the gated community to the east of Briar Bayou (I think it is called Stonehenge I might be wrong) was all built in about 82-83 and I had a friend or two that lived in there as well

it looks like the skating rink just south of Westella on Dairy Ashford is still there and that was a big hangout in middle school back when parents could just drop kids off and then pick them back up later

I knew three others that lived on Briar Bayou one that was just down from the corner and then another guy that I can't remember his damn name for the life of me.....if you go down Briar Bayou it takes a jog and if you were to just drive straight you would crash right into their house.....it was a cool flat roof house that had been featured in Houston Homes and Gardens (or something like that that was a big time magazine), but by then some "issues" had basically made the place TRASHED.......that was another of many of the people I knew that it seemed did not have parents......some girls I knew could sneak their parents cars out a lot and we could all go over there and party like hell and not even have to clean up because you could not tell your mess from the existing mess......he had several wild blowouts there as well that got pretty crazy.......further down was a hotty I believe named Korry (a girl) that had a cool orange scout, but not everyone knew her as well because her family paid for her to go to Stratford which was common at the time Jeff Bagwells former wife Shaune did the same thing though she almost got kicked out when she posed for a magazine and guys were hanging the pages on her locker she was a really sweet girl for being such a hotty and having become a pretty big model even back then I did not know her super well, but several of my friends were really good friends with her and I would see her around parties and the beach and what not (shout out to 16 and 18 mile roads in Galveston)

that girl Korry was known because once a year her parents went somewhere and she had the house and she would have a pretty massive blowout as well, but it was kind of hush hush for such a raging party so her place did not get trashed

I am 99% sure it was Briar Forest that was dirt or gravel because where it curves near where Eldridge is now was a lot sharper curve where people were always having wrecks and one wreck there that still affects us all was when a guy that went to Lee had a dirt bike break down just to the east of that curve and he and his brother were loading it up in his brothers truck at night and a drunk guy came around the curve and hit them and he lost one of his legs......the drunk was pretty much worthless so it turned out to be the first time that anyone (I believe in the USA) and almost definitely in Texas went after the bar for serving someone more drinks when they were clearly drunk.....they ended up and won the case and like I say it was either the first time that had been tried or maybe the first win in that type of case....I am 99% sure I remember his name and his first name was Troy, but I wont say the last name on here

further down at Briar Forest and Highway 6 I knew a guy names Sterling McGuire (I believe it was) and that area right around there was like a little Rivercrest in a way (without the trees and Bayou, but it had big 10 acre or so lots and horses and other animals (similar to what Westway Ln looks like just north of there on google)

my dad and mom had worked at the downtown Foleys before I was born and a guy they had worked with was the first manager of the West Oaks Foleys...my mom had her original Foleys Charge Card well into the 90s and back then when customer service was still decent she would whip that tired looking thing out and the clerk knew they were dealing with a lifer and many would comment they had not seen one of those in years

I am sure some others will remember this, but for a while they had widened Westheimer (greatest stretch of road on earth) to 3 lanes from west 610 all the way to 6.......then when it became too crowded Houston came up with the brilliant plan to save money instead of going in and buying up right of way especially from 610 to about Gessner they went in and re-striped the roads from three 12 foot wide lanes down to 4 10 foot wide lanes and cut out chunks of the median in the middle to get the extra few feet they needed......the damn buses in Houston at that time were something like 10 feet or 10'2" wide so when you drove down the street and came up on a bus stopped or to pass everyone had to squeeze over a bit more towards the center so the person in the lane next to the bus could pass.....I think that lasted 3 or 4 years before they figured out that too many crappy drivers were not passing the buses out of fear and instead "pacing" them and then slowing down really slow to pass when the bus stopped........plus it was super crowded as hell like that and they finally went in and got the right of way and widened them back out to 4 lanes of the proper size......also just after Gessner heading west there was an area where the lanes had crazy striping and everyone would try and race to not be the car cut off in the 4th lane as they went to three and heading east everyone would race to be the one that got into the open new 4th lane......they did not even just end one lane as a right turn only or start the 4th from three after an intersection (I am 99% sure that is how it was if anyone else remembers better I would love to hear)......but that was driving in Houston back in the day......get in, start it up, get out of the way or haul ass......there was NO middle ground haha

thanks again to all that read and liked the info hope I did not bore with too many personal antic dotes, but they pseudo tie into why I remember some of that stuff and once again thank you Houston, Texas for being the greatest and funniest city to be born in, live in, and grow up in....I had friends in San Antonio that would hear me talk about some things and they would think I was BSing until several of them came with me to visit and saw some of the parties ect in action and some of the cool clubs we could just about walk right into at 16 and 17 and they were like damn this blows SA away and even into college others would think I was BSing until we would meet people from other areas of Houston and they all had similar stories as I did and then they were like damn Houston sounds crazy.....and back then it was

Houston truly the greatest city on earth

someone ask also it was not until 1985 or later that Briar Forest went through Rivercrest my friend I rode to Lee with my freshman year also gave a cutie that lived right on Briar Forest in Briargrove Park a ride to school or home occasionally

not really westside stories per say, but a couple for Firebird I will keep short

the McDonalds on Wilcrest was pretty new in 1984 and there was also the older one down east of Gessner on the south side of Westheimer by Service Merchandise

when the 1984 Summer Olympics came McDonalds had a game card with a scratch off where it had an event and then you would win a small fry, small coke, or a cheeseburger for Bronze, Silver, or Gold in the event that was listed....if the USA won one, two, or three events you would get one, two, or all three prizes

well as we all might remember from that era the Soviets and their satellites boycotted those Olympics

along with this DRAMATIC change for McDonalds they also failed to put on the cards that you could only use one per visit.....combine this with the fact that the new McDonalds on Wilcrest would leave stacks of those cards (about 100 each) by all the registers where we would just help ourselves while the employee was filling the order and the one on Westheimer would give you about 10 per order and it ended up that me and my friends had about 200+ of the damn things and many were multiple winners per card......for about the next 6 weeks or so as long as they were valid me and all my friends could eat at McDonalds every day as often as we wanted to for free.....after a while at those two locations they would let us trade for a fried pie (back when they were really fried) or an ice cream come, or a Filet-O-Fish or anything that was of equal or less value to what was on the card.......we ate there 2 or three times a day sometimes

at the end we still had so many left that we stood in the parking lot and gave the last ones away to other customers as they were coming in because we could not use all we had left......McDonalds had a dramatic shift in how they handled promotions and the verbiage they put on promotions after that summer

Another time "Like Cola" (a 7-UP product) went around many of the neighborhoods on the westside and gave out 2 free 8oz bottles on every ones door......we drove around 2 or 3 neighborhoods taking them right back off ....the only bad news is that Like Cola SUCKED, but hey it was "free"

OK a few more things looking at Google earth

the auto parts store at Lakeside and Briar Forest was a Charlies Hi Low

whatever is at the southeast corner of Wilcrest and Briar Forest was not the building it is today and was a daycare I believe

the vacant lot at the corner of Inwood and Walnut Bend was my friends house and they had so much foundation trouble they finally knocked it down and they were going to build new, but google earth has shown a vacant lot forever

the car wash at the front of Walnut Bend came about the same time as Wendys and Handy Dan...it looks like the spoons building is gone and the Ninfas building remains

the building on the northwest corner of Westheimer and Lakeside was a Gibraltar Savings and Loan, a Sally Beauty and a Baskin Robbins

across Lakeside in the strip that had the Schwinn place the free standing building to the east was a chicken place that was a local chain, but I can't remember the name.....I think the building to the west was also a bank

Westchase Mall also had the Palais Royal the whole time, but it used to be in the mall I am 99% sure and the Black Eye Pea was also always there....out front on the southeast corner of Westheimer and Wilcrest in the mall parking lot was the Rusty Pelican and the Taco Cabana was a Two Pesos which was such a Taco Cabana ripoff they got sued and Taco Cabana won and took them over (I have eaten at the original Taco Cabana on San Pedro in SA it had only an inside area where you ordered and you ate on pick nick tables out front under an awning) They were owned by a college roommate of mine's uncles and for a while there was Taco Cabana and Tacocita when the split over an argument over franchising and after they got back together and went with Taco Cabana they sued Two Pesos

The Pizza Hut at the front of Lakeside was where the Walgreens is now

back down Wilcreat right near the McDonalds used to be the Rotisserie For Beef and Bird or "the beef and bird" as we called it....it was really good and pretty nice and I know in the recent past before they closed down they also started to have a nice selection of Texas wines which was another reason I was sad to read about 4 years ago to read the owners were retiring and closing it

on the southwest corner of Westheimer and Wilcrest when that strip center was new they had a Houstons for a long time

the pipeline over Buffalo Bayou at Wilcrest between the two bridges was not there and that is why the corvette with the body could fit through

where the Dominos is still listed at Briar Forest and Wilcrest what shows as "Nicks Sports Bar" was always some kind of a bar (boy I bet you could get your knifing and stabbing on there when Katrina trash moved in)

there is one house on Olympia in Walnut Bend just a few houses to the east of Walnut Bend lane that does not match the others at all in looks or age....it was a friend of mines house and it burned and his sister rebuilt it in that "style" for some reason.....my friends dad when he lived there never would pay his neighborhood pool fees so all my friends that worked at the Walnut Bend pool had to kick him (their friend also) out of the pool and tennis courts haha

when we first moved to Lakeside and for a long time after where westchase mall is was nothing more than a cattle ranch and it had several tanks dug around the property and a lot of cows out there

St Cerials (sp) was a LOT smaller and Rodgerdale was a two lane road with ditches on each side

Rosewood Hospital and a bunch of one story Dr offices use to be on the north side of Westheimer just east of Gessner

I can't believe the way so many asshats have moved into Rivercrest and knocked down the trees and built those total ghetto crap homes (especially some of you NBA stars you know who you are your houses tool like ass that a fool built nice job trashing a beautiful subdivision)

in the past Briar Forest did not go through Rivercrest it stopped before to the east and it was a single lane in Briargrove Park and dead ended at the Rivercrest lot boundary

the furthest south and west lot in Rivercrest (that google has as a vacant lot right now) was some people that had a nice home, a big red barn and some out buildings and several horses and a horse walker you could see from Westheimer...it looked like they actually trained and make money off of horses there for a long time

Vargos.....always been beautiful......food has always SUCKED!

Benihana has been there FOREVER

I am pretty sure Sherlocks pub has been in Carillon and it was a place that was pretty popular for the 18-23yo crowd and was pretty good about serving minors most of the time back then

southeast corner of Westheimer and Beltway 8 was a Schlumberger, Halliburton, or Baker (one of those or similar type company) field office with the office building that is still there and there use to be long sheds with equipment (dozers engines pumps ect) and some equipment fab areas as well.....there was plans to do something with that 20 years ago

in the middle of Briargrove Park there is a wooded area across Seagler from Twin Circle Drive......it was always suppose to be a park, but it looks like Houston has still done nothing......a small airplane crashed in there one time and one or two died and we all had to go and take a look....looking back now I wonder if the pilot did not crash into there instead of all the homes and apartments around there.....have to think that is the case if so what a selfless act on his part God Bless him

use to be a post office on the east side of Rogerdale just after Richmond then westpark tollway was a railroad track

south east corner of Westheimer and Gessner was the Jack in The Box and a Shipleys Donuts looks like it has been redone

the dumpy pile of crap at the northwest corner of Jeanetta and Richmond was "the Cadillac Club"....there was nothing Cadillac about it

I would share a story about one of the few times I rode the bus home from Lee and what happened when we pulled up to that corner and all the apartment trash from the apartments at Lakeside and Briar Forest saw a little black kid looking in the bushes for something......but the words they were using back and forth can't be said on a polite forum.....but the few white kids on the bus were looking at each other and dying laughing while the apartment dwellers went CRAZY on that kid....looks like the area around there is still "keeping up the brand"

well I can share a little....they were calling him a poor penny pusher from piney point and telling him he was not going to find any pennies in those bushes (it went down hill from there) of course the funny thing is everyone saying that were themselves a bunch of broke fools from trash apartment themselves.....I realize that Piney Point is actually the city on Memorial, but that area around Jeanetta was always called Piney Point as well for some reason

there was a substitute bus driver for the back of walnut bend that used to go in that area when traffic was really moving and they were running early in the morning and get everyone into the front of the bus and back into a lawn and trench it the same driver if traffic was backed up would let everyone get out of the bus and run into the Cstore if they would get him some cigarettes

further south of there was where the little league fields were after Paul Revere was built (just down from where that crappy old Ma Bell field office is) it looks like that area is still mostly a park.....the concessions were always getting broken into

I lived in Lakeside from 1974 until 1985 and spend a good deal of time there even after that

lets see where to start

Matty1979 Carillion had a Chilis, B Dalton (I believe that was it) a western wear store right next door to Chilis, Cones and Cream that turned into the marble slab that was owned by the Hankamers that I am 99% sure have the Baylor College of Business now named for them, several restaurants that came and went, Laugh Factory and to be honest a lot of stuff I don't remember now......they sure ruined it when they redid it in the 90s and messed the parking lot all up

Reefmonkey Westchase was a mall.....coming out from Target (connected to the mall) was a Halmark card shop to the left, a KB Toys, an optical shop, further down was a womens wear store, the Funway Freeway used to be on the south side of the mall, but moved across to the north side next to the GodFathers Pizza so they could have parking lot access, but then found out cutting a door would cost 10K so they did not do it, there was a regular shoe store and a jewelry store and several others I can't recall (I believe a womens only shoe store and maybe another jewelry store) and a Weingartens where Randalls is now....later on when the mall part was closed down there was a Larry's Shoes until Larry's all went under..."Hey Larry Where Are My Shoes" they were a damn good shoe store

Matty Revere was built to be a high school eventually and it had a full wood shop and a full metal shop that were both nicer than anything RE Lee had

Mr Lewis and Mr Lyles were the shop teachers Mr Lewis was metal and Lyles was wood....I might have that backwards.....the Metal shop teacher had a cool RX-7 and the wood shop teacher had an older light blue dodge dart I believe it was.......in wood room #1 they had an eye drawn on the wall and when they would have a "pop party" as they liked to call it(give you swats) the eye would blink at you..... know a large number of people that got light up in there

I don't remember the principal but the VPs were Mrs. Reese that had a son named Bart that went to Strake Jesuit (says something about HISD) and Mr. Brailsford who had a swat zone of anywhere from your calves up to your lower back (most believed because he was drunk most of the time) but his swats were so weak it really did not matter in the 1979-1980 school year out JV team went undefeated and we were named Houston City Champs because no other team was undefeated and there were no JV playoffs.....Ron Stones son Billy was one of our starting OLineman and David Dial the son of former Rice player and NFLer was a starting cornerback...Mark Drury also played, but can't remember his position (son of the waste management CEO).....I played Starting free safety for most of the games until moved to linebacker

Coach Capers was the head coach and died about 10 years after that and for some reason right now I can't remember a bunch of the other coaches.....there was also a coach the year before that who was the back up RB for Earl Campbell at UT....they were tough as hell on us in practice and used to go over the allotted time for practices OFTEN, but none of the parents cared because parents back then especially at Revere took care of home work and grades at home......after we won out last game we mooned cars out of the back of the bus the whole way home with all the coaches and Mrs. Reese pretending they saw nothing......good times indeed!

Soifan I can only think of one girl that went to Second Baptist and she is now married and lives in Walnut Bend in the VanEniman's (spelling) old house now...I lived on Olympia

when we first moved to Lakeside Westheimer was 2 lanes of asphalt with bar ditches all the way to Gessner....the shopping center to the west of Lakeside drive had not been built et and there was a large billboard there advertising Lakeside and it had a huge mound of dirt high enough you could almost touch the bottom of the billboard that all the kids would ride their bikes on

The Hilton Fire I had forgotten about, but I remember it now you could see the smoke from the Walnut Bend pool......a family named Pennyaqua (sp) lived in the back of Lakeside and they were investors in and had management in the Adams Mark that is now something else....they had a really cute daughter that was a year older than me named Claudia and she had an older bother that I can't remember his name and their house was fun to party at

Matty again the shopping center you mention was a UtoteM, I can't remember what was around from it, then a Japanese Restaurant, a Schwinn Bike store back in the corner, a TSO Optical, La Hacienda that would serve minors left and right especially if you came in as a group and all were drinking as we OFTEN DID and the food was good too, Dailey's Liguors and perhaps something else

when the shopping center on the west side of Lakeside was built it had a cleaners, a Chinese food place, Eckards (where the mom of one of the three people old enough to drive to Rever worked)(also where we got all of out playboys, penthouses, gents, and hustlers when Eckards would throw them in the dumpster on the same day of each month)(we eventually got "busted" when we got lazy and stopped stashing them well in our back yard fort and some of the pages blew into the lawn and my dad found them mowing the lawn and climbed up and found thwe whole stash which was good for him in a way because then "the talk" was much less difficult), a liquor store (not as good as Dailey's), Randalls, Sports Stop where I bought my G&S FiberFlex and my Team Mongoose that was later stolen by the quail hollow apartment trash, there was a full service Exxon on the corner, Arnolds Deli, Pizza Hut where we used to get free pizza for folding boxes and they would often serve minors as well, and Disk and Dat which was an awesome record store where the employees could name any artist and record just by saying a few words to the songs and it was also a head shop....I bought my football shaped Houston Oilers #1 record there and a fish store that was pretty great and where I got all my fish from and where everyone likes to sneak in and scoop out some gold fish and toss them to the Oscars when no one was looking....there were probably a few other stores I can't recall

the strip shop across Wilcrest had a cleaners, a full Asian Grocery, and a bunch of things I can't recall

the small strip type thing on Walnut Bend was always a day care (the day care almost looked like a house) and I think an insurance office......the small strip center on Blue Willow was Dr. Zinner the vet that had a funny nose where a dog bit him and again some insurance office or something similar

Malvie the store you mention was a Safeway....right near Gregg Binghmans #54 car wash (boy the stories from there I better not repeat)(and someone was stabbed or shot to death there recently...after Safeway left Texas it was an Appletree for a while then closed down and then went through several incarnations because the apartment dwellers would steal them blind......in that same shopping center was the world famous KGS Liquors owned by Salem Bin Sareti and he would sell to ANYONE! and I mean ANYONE especially if he had seen you before.....EXCEPT for occasionally he had some way where he knew he was being watched and you would walk in the store and he would just sternly say NO!....and you would look at him and he would say NO! and you knew that was that until about a week later you could go in and it was right back to buying all you wanted......I used to take orders at Lee and me and my brother would go there and walk out with 2 grocery bags full of liquor and I would charge a bit extra to everyone and cover mine and my brothers and then deliver it at school the next day....me and my brother bought so much booze that after we moved to San Antonio (and my brother went away to UT we went back at Christmas (6+ months later) and as we walked into the door Salem looked up at my brother and said "hey long time no see" with a big smile on his face....we still laugh about that.....a week after that I was back in Houston for New Years and walked in and got the "no" and I was like remember just a week ago me and my brother "long time no see" and he just gave me the "no"......he also said to my brother that time "you finally turned 21 huh" because that was back when the drinking age went from 18 to 19 and my brother was grandfathered in for 2 months and then when it went from 19 to 21 they did not do the grandfather thing for those that had been legal.....my brother had kicked it all off with him by giving him an ID that consisted of a paper temp license with NO PICTURE that my brother had changed the date on and then laminated it with the Walnut Bend pool membership card lamination machine ....Lee was such a blast it was the best high school on earth and the principal there was back of Walnut Bend resident Larry Burgein that had a son Mike that was a grade older than me and a wild man just like every other kid in Lakeside and Walnut Bend....mike could fix anything on his crappy 79 Chevy 4 door (what ever was one size above a Malibu) with two pairs of vice grips haha which I think were the only tools he owned

in that same strip center there was Ranger Market owned by the Melchers that lived in Briargrove park until the7 sold out and then there were 2 7-11s on that corner one on the north east corner and one on the southwest corner.....their daughter Joanne was really sweet and was my age and their son Frank was a grade older than me and I believe he died from some rare disease and they have been very charitable in his name all over Houston since then for medical causes especially

across the street on the northwest corner there was a jiffy lube place.....the first Dominos (or any delivery pizza) place in the area, I think a sports bar and some other things I can't recall

Malvie that area had been up and down FOREVER because of the apartments right along Lakeside and Briar Forest....they started out as Quail Hallow and two other complexes at least and then Lakeside place was built and quickly went downhill right across from the Lakeside pool.....two friends of mine accidentally set the majority of the bundles of wood shingles on fire when they were being built, but their parents really did not care because everyone in Lakeside and Walnut Bend wished all those apartment would have burned....I had a friend from Lee (who's name I can't recall I think it was Chase) that accidentally ran over and killed a little girl that was playing on Lakeside on the north side of Briar Forest and ran in between all the crappy ass junk cars that used to line Lakeside drive by those crappy apartments and darted out in front of him before he could stop...it was ruled not his fault by HPD 100% and after that the city FINALLY put up no parking signs along there and towed off a bunch of the cars and also made those complexes install fences around all of the area except the drive ways (Lakeside place was "gated" even in the driveways after that, but the riffraff still moved in......in the early 90s most if not all those complexes except for Lakeside place were abandoned because of asbestos and because you can't rehab flat roofed slap together CRAP but about 20 times before you have totally worthless slapped together crap......everyone in the neighborhoods thought they were finally going to be torn down, BUT! the investors found a way to "totally seal in the asbestos" and they started to rehab them......a friend of mine piled a ton of their new wood in one unit and poured gas all over if for about 3 days and finally one night we all watched over a friends back fence as he light them up......you could hear the "woosh" a block away and see a shadow running in front of a big mass of flames .......sadly not that well cured lumber and gas don't hold a fire very long and the brave fireman from the great Fire station #69 (right by Revere) were there to spray out the smoldering wood pile and the damn apartments remained to still trash that area today including the influx of Katrina trash that again took the area to a new low along with Walnut Bend Ele. Revere, and Westside.....although last I heard some of those piles of worthless crap had been cleared out yet again to the point that administration from Revere and Walnut Bend went and ask the management where all their welfare students were going to come from and telling them it was hurting their enrollment

a few other things.....there used to be a water tank behind where Lakeside Swim Club is now and when Houston upgraded their water system it was removed and that is where the park part is now and same with by Walnut Bend pool that is the park that BMC gave money to......one summer our friends grandma was watching me and my brother while my parents were on vacation and we knew her grandson that was a bit older than me and my brother and was also a Lakeside resident (one of a multitude of kids I knew in Lakeside that basically had a house to themselves and you thought they almost did not have parents and he had a HOT sister slightly older than me that was a waitress at Chilis).....anyway we knew from him that his grandma only had one good ear and she slept on that side so she was basically old and deaf when she was asleep......we all snuck out and got caught by the rent-a-pig that Walnut Bend hired when we were climbing over the fence to get on top of the walnut bend tank......me and her grandson got away and my brother got caught by him......we got back home and the guy brought my brother home and rang the doorbell probably 15-20 times and even went and tried to call and she never woke up so he let my brother go

there used to be baseball fields right at "the ditch" and Briar Forest where Revere is and the sports there were run by the Walnut Bend Pool Gym that is still there today.....the guy that worked there originally was one of the ones that invented T-ball back when T-ball was played with a piece pf plywood cut in the shape of home plate, a piece of pipe coming up and then a radiator hose for the top part that you had to work to slide up and down to adjust the height that held the ball......they also had "five pitch" there where your own player pitched to you and you got 5 pitches to get a hit or that was that and the other team had a guy that stood right behind him to field any hit back towards the mound and your player was to pitch and then just stand still

there used to be a UtoteM right down the street from Walnut Bend Ele. on the small stretch of Walnut Bend that went from the front to the back of the subdivision and there was also a place there called Sinnet (Tennis spelled backwards) that made high end womens tennis apparel and a frined of mine's mom worked there as a seamstress for a while

"the ditch" before CityWest was built was straight, but the bottom that always held water was much more meandering had a path along both sides in a lot of spots where you could walk or ride a bike and we would take bacon or budding lunch meat and tie it on a string and catch crawdads and then have crawdad fights or crawdads VS plastic army men wars.....you could catch box turtles, snappers, red ears, and soft shells.....when the expanded Briar Forest to be 4 lanes at the bridge (it used to only have a 2 lane bridge there) the workers were killing the water moccasins by the dozens and tossing them up on the sides......the field where Lockwood Andrews and Newman is now along with most of City West was pretty much a field except for a patch of trees just south of where the big city west office building and pond is now....eventually a big excavator came in and cleaned out the ditch to the condition it is today and took out all the areas you could walk and cross it except for a couple of bridges one in the front and one in the back of Walnut Bend right bast Revere......it "accidentally" burned when the parents in the area got tired of the apartment trash coming through the neighborhood on the way home from school and saying nasty things to little kids, bumping into and keying cars, and opening mail boxes ect.....one day the parents went down there with sticks and bats and told them all after school to find a new way home...which was down Briar Forest and a lot longer route and it was not long after that the bridge burned and the neighborhood decided to not rebuild it (still not sure who burned it, but WELL DONE!)

also right on Westheimer where the large City West building is now there was a Birdies driving range and a go cart track that used to let you get pretty crazy on the carts if the right guys were working....when City West was built Birdies actually moved east down Westheimer to a large vacant lot (right near piney point I think) and across that cross street from the office building that had Alexander Smith Academy (which I think is still around but not sure if in the same location)

the area between Blue Willow and Walnut Bend on Westheimer had a wendys (right across from the day care place mentioned above) and a handy dans which was before home depo and Lowes and builders square......closer to Blue Willow was a cheap strip center or nothing at first then it was cleared and the big 2 story strip center was built some friends not much older than my group of friends (used to be the swim team coaches for Walnut Bend Swim Team) had a pool cleaning and contracting company in there for a while, but it closed down and I can't remember most of the rest of what was in there, but there was a cheesy sorry sucky ninfas franchise, and a Chilis knockoff called Spoons where a friend of mine worked for a while and they watched a bum bath naked in the fountain of the big curved building across Westheimer by Target (further down Westheimer there was another Chilis knock off called Fry's right at Fry road)

Beltway 8 was just westbelt then and 2 lanes but they had huge mounds of dirt hilled up where the over passes would be all along the part of the road from Westheimer all the way to the back exit of Briargrove Park (the dirt piles were in between westbelt and Briargrove Park kind of shielding the subdivision from the street).....it had kick ass motorcycle trails on it and some pretty good riders would tear it up out there frequently...as a kid without a motorcycle you could climb to the top and ride down the opposite direction and still have GREAT jumps and build up a lot of speed.....it was not until right when they decided to build the freeway that HPD would attempt to run the riders off, but because of the layout it was a fruitless chase and they would usually pull up and try and get them to come over and then just watch them ride off the other way....HPD did not sweat the small stuff back then and HPD was always the coolest and greatest group of cops back then ever.....the funny thing is the part that was westbelt the street was suppose to be one of the feeder roads, but when Beltway 8 was built they did it completely different than originally thought and all that dirt was scooped up and hauled off and all of westbelt was torn up and redone with different feeder roads

once CityWest was built we used to hang out there a lot and drink accept when HPD showed up and said the owners were complaining about the trash so we would clean up and move to "10,000" (a building with a parking garage at 10,000 Richmond) or to the end of Richmond (back before Richmond went much past 10,000

the shopping center at the front of Briargrove Park has a Dairy Queen (that was actually nice and clean for an urban DQ), Rice food Store (back when it was just Rice), a Jaspers BBQ that had a kickass beer can collection, and the assorted other strip center stuff and a full service Shell Station with a garage.....the DQ went down hill when some Greeks bought it and in addition to the DQ menu they had wooden shingles on the wall with various Greek foods listed on it (about the same time all urban DQs in Texas went downhill)

in the back of Lakeside and Walnut Bend by the Bayou Dow Chemical was built and you use to be able to sneak in sometimes and fish in their pond until you got chased out by security...."the ditch" was a lot more rocks back there by the bayou and some friends used to catch coral snakes and other poisonous snakes back there and sell them to make anti-venom....La Hacienda De Los Moraloes that served "Continental" Mexican food (that everyone in Houston hated) opened back there across from Dow it had a fancy gift and jewelry shop in it as well and was "high end" and expensive and quickly folded.....we used to go around back there every so often, but stopped when some friends were chased off by guys holding uzis (not threatening, but in view)

behind Walnut Bend some friends built a half pipe with 16' square of flat in the middle and 12' high sides that transitioned on the curve over 8' of distance on each side and one side had an 8' high drop in area cut into the middle.....they stole all the lumber from the high end houses being built in the very back of Lakeside....further down towards Wilcrest was a rope swing (but no one would swim in the Bayou although some friends did fall in a few times and a couple of friends rafted from there to the back of Briargrove Park includign past what at the time was the lot less well functioning "turd factory" right at westbelt and the bayou

further down by Wilcrest and the Lakeside country club right across the street from the country club was another area where everyone would ride bikes and motorcycles.....one time several friends found a dead guy in a corvette that had been there about a week.....it was not long after they made the bridge over the bayou on Wilcrest 4 lanes and the guy was hauling, clipped the curb, spun just right that he made it between the open areas between the two sections of bridge, the car turned backwards and the rear of it stuck into the opposite bank.....you could barely see the skid marks and the area where he hit the curb and he did no damage to the guard rails on the bridge which is why it took so long to find him....I will spare all further details about his condition

right across the bayou from there used to be some stables, but Houston removed them when stables became for "rich people" and that area became a "real park" although it was never much of anything for years after than

use to you entered Lakeside Country club just bast the bayou and the fence probably still shows where, but when they expanded Wilcrest they took some country club land and the country club redid the golf course and moved the driving range to right next to Wilcrest and moved the entrance to where it is today

pretty much all I can remember or legally repeat for now any other questions I will check back from time to time

if you want to know about further down Westheimer I can remember some of that.....I know just past the funeral home (where I will be dumped into the ground one day hopefully many many years from now) right at Dairy Ashford use to be the fireworks stands and HPD would set up there from time to time to try and catch people coming back into the city, but because we were on bikes most years we would cut through the cemetery and down Dairy Ashford to Briar Forest and they would never see us.....further down was Westheimer Stables where WNB (weekley night boozers) the wanna-be high school "frat" had their famous keg parties (there were 3 wanna-be high school frats at Lee, WNB, naughty dogs and one other group + two girls groups Marsalee (sp) that my friends mom was a founding member of and one other wanna-be high school sorority)....the one year I went to the stables party they had 32+ kegs and they made the mistake of hiring HPD to be guards for the "event" instead of Harris County Sheriffs like they had for the past several years and Harris County Sheriffs got mad and busted the party up and I can still remember friends running all over the place holding large plastic pitchers of beer and being chased by the cops....the party was so big they blocked off Westheimer and lined their cars up and put flairs out and directed the traffic out like it was a major sporting event.....they also seized all 32 kegs including a ton of them that had been stashed in a horse trailer.....that was the end of the big WNB yearly fundraiser blowouts from then on but far in away not the end of WNB or naughty dogs or any of the rest

sorry to ramble any other questions just ask though you might not want to know the answers

Houston and west Houston were the absolute greatest places on earth to run wild in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s! PERIOD!

PS sorry for poor spelling and grammar and the rambling it is late and a lot of this was stream of conscientiousness if anything is not clear just ask

I grew up two stones throws to the west down Olympia from there

there are several other unique houses on that block as well