Materene

Thank you for sharing your memories! I love to hear what life used to be like and can't wait to see some of your photos. Life really has changed in many ways.

Glad you like the ramblings, there are a lot of photos on my blog page, also put a little music on another entry. I'll try and get around to scanning a few black and whites this coming weekend. There are several good shots from the front of 1629 Oxford, one where my Mother and Brother and two Sisters and myself are having one of those great Hempstead Watermelons on the front lawn. In the early fifties everyone drove to Hempstead to buy watermelon, no one bought them from the stores. You could just manage to get three into the trunk of a 1955 Ford, and they were 50 cents a piece Also a Christmas picture with other family members parking out front. You know if you look at the Reagan High School now and notice where the track is located, that is not where it was in the past, yes it was on 14th running parallel with the school, it was covered with that little red peat rock, very unique. I made many a round on that track with my Schwinn , this picture is exactly the same color I got in 1958, my sister got a green girls model.

Those kinds of homes are now plentiful in Galveston.

Denmark is leading the way in Turbine Powered Electricity Generation, they now have about 40 to 45 percent of their total electrical generation made from Turbines. South of El Paso about a hundred miles there are thousands of these generators erected along I10. When I drove to Nevada in 94 there were none, in 2005 I came back to Houston and was amazed when I saw these things at just early daylight in a light rain, they all had red beacons on top and the first thing that came to mind was Martians

This is Copenhagen Harbor, I animated it myself, kinda makes ya want to take a swim don't it...

Were the warranties mainly new generators? I'm curious because mine was stolen and I'm once again in the market for a new one. I certainly won't buy Briggs now.

Yes, all our work is mainly warranty from these stores located in southern Louisiana. Honda is probably the best in my opinion, cost is a little higher but then the generator itself is also better than the ones you find on a Briggs machine. Whatever you do don't buy one of those Centurions! everyone I checked had low voltage that could not be adjusted with rpm. They are brush-less and use a plastic pork chop shaped capacitor to set the frequency, that,s fine except they don't work. After seeing so many like that I came to the conclusion they were using rotors and stators you would find in a generator that was purposely made for the asian market, they use 50hz there. Very possible somebody pulled a fast one and wanted to make some fast money and dumped these things on the USA!! Normal good generators have their frequency set at around 59-63hz, these centurions showed about 90 volts at the receptacles, good generators will show 115-120volts. You load one up and everything will be lugging terribly, if you have low output.

It falls under Animal control, I'm sure there is a set limit as to how many dogs each residence are allowed. There are laws requiring each animal to be tagged and licensed even when they are leashed or compounded. I love dogs and have two but I understand the nuisance for others when the peace and quiet of the neighborhood is under siege. I live out in the country and surrounded by dogs, one front neighbor has about 8!, small dogs but nevertheless loud when they do come out for a few minutes. If I drive up and get out to go in and they are in their pen they just go crazy until I go inside. The way I look at it they were here before I moved in and my neighbors are great people so I just dig in and close it out until they are quiet again. Mine bark at cats out the back bedroom window because they are both house dogs and they really don't do that for long especially if it interferes with their nap time.

You're thinking of somebody else. Art Grindle was never "busted" for anything illegal or wrong. And his dealership was at Chimney Rock and Westheimer on the west side - many miles from Jensen Drive, on the north side.

If I'm in error then I stand corrected. Curious about this I Googled and came up with something that might clarify what I said, I did not use any source to answer the original post here, only what was going on around town in the early 50's and what as a young boy was hearing!

The link is another forum and you can judge for yourself , go down to the lower part of the page and read a few entries. Maybe he did maybe he didn't ...

http://www.symmonline.com/phorum/read.php?2,18483

We do warranty work for Lowes and Home Depot and Tractor supply, it took an entire year to catch up on all the generator work from the last hurricane. Myself I only have a small 600 watt honda, it can run a small TV and a fan and by itself the most important a small coffee maker. I live one block from a large gas station and after the storm I sit for two and one half hours to buy 5 stinking gallons of gas for this small generator. The thing can run a full 8 hours on one tank but the gas problem is too much hassle unless you were smart and bought 50 to 100 gallons before the storm, which no one is. So the next one I will buy gas a week before it gets here and maybe I can stay comfortable until they get the lines back up.

The propane fueled generators are simple, nothing more than a designed orifice or manifold that sucks the fuel into the manifold once it is started. Probably the most important thing to know about these new generators is the fact that all the engines are CRAP!.. Briggs especially, and Briggs did not warranty one single engine out of 100 we diagnosed, all had been ran low of oil and the connecting rods will break, every time! Check the oil every time you fuel and change it every other fueling, they scarcely hold a half a quart of oil in the crank case and you cannot over fill them or they will suck the oil into the carb. Thanks to our government who mandated crankcase vents routed back to the engine, they think they're cars ya know.. I'm staying with my 600 watt Honda and can manage with coffee, TV and a fan. I actually lucked out, my hot water heater is well insulated and I was able to bathe with reasonable warm water for 7 days before it ran out, then like pennies from heaven the 7th day the power came back on@

In the future someone, not us!, will see a lot of buildings with Fan generated electricity. Things just may be so bad in available energy there won't be any choice but to use what you brought, and who knows in the future people may have to drastically cut back their use of electricity and the entire face of every city will not be lit as we now see it. Candle making may make a big come back, unless someone invents electricity.

In 82 I was driving from Conroe to River Oaks Chrysler Plymouth daily, the back highway into Porter I would get on 59 and the drive was great. Only slow downs was coming out of Houston on Friday evenings especially if there was a slight rain. The fog was a killer coming from Conroe to Porter no pun intened I passed one head on there in Porter caused by some A hole that passed me earlier driving like an idiot in fog so thick you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. He was in a pickup truck and hit a poor man driving a Pinto! it was still so bad when I came thru the police were trying to direct cars to the shoulder without getting killed themselves, the A hole that did the killing wasn't injured, I remember driving very slowly past the Pinto on my side and could see very clearly the poor guy still sitting in the Pinto face down on the steering wheel. I wanted to stop and tell the policeman about the idiot that killed him but it was so unsafe if anyone tried stopping they would be the next unfortunate one. Traffic is so bad now I couldn't imagine driving that distance again every day.

Anybody remember the guy who made this line famous? If so, do you ever wonder what happened to him?

Check it out!

Bump: I remember Art Grindle, he was better known as Art "Swindle", he was busted for making customers buy the heaters that was already covered in the cost of a new Chrysler or Dodge. If I remember his dealership was on Jensen Drive ? I won't put my life on the line for this info correct me if I'm wrong, I was very young at the time but news traveled fast in those days.

That Dealership was the number one local parts hub for all the rest in town, if they didn't have it no one had it! I find it understandable that younger generations make mockery of a local icon of a business, the true story in this post was over everyone's head. It just goes with the mindset of our country as it now is... enough said.

I also spent a lot of time at Meyers Speedway, Freddy Friar, Ronnie Chumley, Joe Plowman, Bobby LaBonte, more than I can remember. Vita Fresh Orange Juice located on Heights Blvd and owned by Gordon Van Lieu sponsored 3 cars, the Clothes Shop also had one or two cars. AJ Foyt always sponsored a winning car there as well. My days go all the way back to Playland Park and even the North Houston Dirt Track way out there on Air Port Authority property now. The subdivisions that built around Meyers were their demise, too many complainers, just like in every aspect of our life, they knew when the bought homes there it was noisy on Saturdays. Some call it progress but if you knew what moved into the neighborhood back then your view would be different. The last time I was even near Meyers was on a Trail Ride coming back towards Town, the opposite street corner to Meyers had a large shopping center there. I remember the heated battles of Richard Petty and Bobby Allison who always would be there on the 4th of July special race.

Joe Plowman was in his mid 50's in 1970 and he was living in Galveston, his car was a 71 Ford Mach 1, Holman and Moody colors of Red and White, strange I can't remember the number, I'm thinking 21, but then I'm old. Do you remember H.B Baily, he was well known local who always ran Daytona with a non sponsored Firebird, he owned a salvage yard next door to Davidson Electrical contractor, and he was a Pontiac fanatic. I did a lot of drag racing with Gregg Davidson who became a Pontiac fan because of being a neighbor to H.B.

Thanks for the info I work at a dealership myself.

Is that old cast iron foundry still out there in Richmond?

Man, I sure worked at a bunch of dealerships in the over 40 years, too old now but I don't care for it any more anyway. Started out in Aug 1970 3 days after I left the Army I was downtown trying to purchase a new Buick 455 Gran Sport, the Yellow and Blue Striped one!. well even after placing 2000 down I still couldn't get it financed? in those days you actually had to have a credit history and an extra hand or arm or even a leg to get financing. Well I was talking with my salesman and he knew I wasn't even working yet so he asked it I wanted to work there. I met the then service manager Florian Meleski and he hired me on the spot, they told me to go down to the Sears Store a few blocks down the street and pick out what tools I needed and charge it to Al Parker. I don't have to tell you there aren't any places like that now and this was probably one of the finest close knit family dealerships in Houston. Every mechanic employed there had been there over 30 years, a few much longer. All of them would be retiring soon and they wanted to bring in some new younger people. The shop foreman was named Frank Bitski, yep they were all Polocks and a grand bunch they were. There was Smitty who was 65 years old and working like he was 24!, saw him some years later in a parts store and he was still doing well. Another was Johnny, a completely deaf man, he would have someone else listen to any noises in a complaint but other than that he worked by himself and was a good mechanic. I remember one time he came whipping around the corner and drove a car upon his 4 post lift, the engine mount was broken and the throttle hung as he topped the lift!, he drove thru the wall and landed out in the service drive which ran the entire length of the building, the only separation from the service bays were plywood panels, so when he took out the wall the 1 inch air line in the ceiling was ripped out and the god awful noise of high pressure air and the horn of that car he was driving made everyone drop to the floor. Old Johnny was sitting there in the car with all that noise around him and people running everywhere and he just looked surprised and stunned. No one injured and everything went back to normal.

So here is a photo of what the property looks like now, in 1970 and beyond the property actually had a second lot across the street with a thru street to the other side, they have filled in that street and made that property much larger than it was at one time. Also on the left side of the photo on that corner the old body shop was sitting there, and while I was there they moved the body shop down Milam a few blocks close to the sears store, then used the original body shop for the New Opels which Buick was now selling. That large building across the front of the property is a Bank Building as it was then, there was a coffee shop inside where we would all go and have our coffee several times a day.

My next photo and comments will be on Mike Persia where I worked and that's if I can even find any old photos, they're very scare. Mike Persia also owned a dealership in San Antonio.

It may have been a truck loading dock, where the truck would drive down an elevation for loading and unloading. That area looks like a mess now, I think all those long industrial buildings haven't been around there more than 25 years. I lived but a block or two away in 71 and believe me that area looked anything but like it looks now.

This Google Earth photo is at least two years old and at street level you can't really tell much and can't go behind at street level cause there ain't no street, I assume this is the one regarding this post.

I attended Cooley for a while in the 50's, it was semi unique in that there was a basement in the front of the corner. That section was demolished a long time ago, I can tell you that back then there were mulberry trees all along the front of the property and in season the hallways and ceilings were dripping from all the fights we had. That basement was used for ugh! dance classes.. my life started off with a bad note and will probably end on one, my dance partner had wet clammy hands, I'll never forget it, her hands smelled sweaty and I couldn't stand it, until I got older. Yeah we had those Safety Patrols where you got to wear a white helmet and a white cross over belt with a big shiny badge!, you were assigned a street corner where you be would allowed to leave the class 15 minutes before the bell rang so you could get your long cane pole that had a little red flag that said stop, and you stopped any cars to allow the kids to cross the street. Quite a big deal when your just a kid and to be unsupervised was even better. heh

54 I believe...

He would have been a youngster in 1970, however it is very possible we crossed paths or he may have known others I know or possibly been kin. In 1970 I got out of the Army and returned to the Heights after being gone for many years, all my school mates and good friends there in the Heights all got out of the Army around 2 or 3 months apart, we all picked up where we left off years before, that is until all of us got married lol

Hi all,

As some of you may have noticed a (long) while back, nmainguy (one of our top posters) disappeared. After a little digging I was able to confidently identify that he did indeed pass away.

I know we didn't know him in person, and I honestly have never encountered this kind of situation, but I thought it would be fitting to at least make a post in memory of him especially since today is the three (!) year anniversary of his death. I was hoping this, and from his obituary it stated that he passed away peacefully and surrounded by his family and friends October 5, 2007..

I'm new but curious since he was from my old area, do you know how old he was? If he was as old as myself then it is quite possible I may have known him years ago.

I lived on Gears Rd and Airline in 1972, worked on I45 at McMahon Chevrolet. Later around 77 I was working with a friend who was a framing contractor and we actually built this house which is one of the oldest in that subdivision, there were not many finished if any! in 77 and the entire landscape was denuded with no foliage or trees of any kind. When I drop down at street view and see all the now old trees it reminds me just how old I really am. I was actually wearing cowboy boots walking across those rafters and doing the roofs, I can just manage to stand up from my bed now. It was hard to pin point this house and I had to look at roofs and fire places because the house next door had been finished before we were finished with ours and the contractor that had framed it did not build the fireplace box out, the subdivision job manager asked if we would build it for him and we did. If you look at the photo of Gears and Airline, that was the name of Airline then! I lived in a small trailer park and had moved our new trailer from the 1960 area to where it was then. The roads were just normal two lane country roads and there was no buildings or houses but maybe every 1/4 mile, it was still fenced cattle grazing country in 1972. What a nasty mess it turned out to be. Whut Greenspoint?

I worked at Al Parker Buick downtown just after I left the Army and I specifically remember that corner at 45 and the Airport freeway, there was one Shell service station on that corner, not even a cat or dog moving around out there in 1970. One of my fellow workers from Al Parker worked part time there at that service station and another worker that lived on the south side of Houston asked me to trailer his 68 road runner to that shell station so he could do some engine work. So I did haul the car out there and this is why I so vividly remember the corner. Not to mention the fact that the guy working there at the station accidentally set the service bay wall on fire when he tried pouring gas down the carb of the road runner, it backfired and he jerked his hand back holding a coke bottle full of gasoline and throwing it all over the wall. Managed to put the fire out with no damage and the Road Runner carried the other friend to work the next morning. The friend at the shell station was named Chuck and the other with the Road Runner was Richard. Don't know where they're at now or if they're even alive.

Why were there so many people walking around? Did the tunnels exist then? I'm sure there are many more people officing AND living downtown now than there were then. I'm also guessing a big difrerence is that there was more retail back then?

Bump: There were so many people around because this is where the largest retailers were located. Those buses and cars bring back a lot of memories, I rode those buses often at 5 and 6 years old with my Grandmother. She was a movie fanatic and liked to go to the Majestic or Metropolitan for the afternoon opening shows. I saw many first run movies in those houses, also there was a restaurant much like FIRs that was very near the Movie strip, we would always go into it and have a late lunch before catching the bus. No air conditioners on those buses and the Black folks sat in the rear, that was how 1955 was! It was much later that major retailers moved to the outskirts of downtown and just never stopped moving farther and farther from Down Town. Houston was a wonderful City then but I find it hard to adjust to the new look, don't think that's surprising but in 1970 when I got out of the Army you could drive down Main Street and never pass another car. There were often only 8 police cars on traffic patrol! I was involved in a wreck at the Warwick Circle fountain, a guy ran the yield sign crossing main and onto Montrose. We sat there for over an hour waiting for the accident investigators to arrive. A very popular place was Bill Williams drive in and diner located where the MD Anderson center is sitting, there was actually a side street that connected main and the opposite side of the center. Major changes have gone on in Houston in 40 years, so many land marks have been bull dozed in the name of progress. The old VA hospital was a wooden framed building, very large and very old before it was dozed. It was a Navy Hospital in it's beginnings. My Grandmother worked at the Hilton and also at the Rice Hotel for a time.

Draw your own conclusions from this article, I only read it and no research to the validity has been done!! I wouldn't be surprised it were so.

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/crime/4922-major-vote-fraud-surfaces-in-the-houston-area

Myself and other friends all played on the Heights Little League Team, The Buffs. Most of our games was played there at the park overlooking White Oak Bayou. My Pop donated a 100 dollar bill to the league when I joined, he then purchased me one of the finest out fielder gloves you could find at a sports store. Most of the guys were still using those old fat clammy five thumb gloves, mine was a pro glove with the large long fingers, you could catch the moon with that glove if you could jump high enough. I caught my share of those game stealing right field high balls, if I missed it the ball usually could be found floating in the Bayou! Well I don't know if the Buffs are still around, probably not. How many of you readers ever attended a true Buffalo game at the old BUFF stadium ?

If you missed it I'm sorry for you, here's a few photos off the web of the stadium and a few other artifacs. Just a side note: During WWII my Grandmother worked near the spot where BUFF stadium was at the time, she was a welder building Army Tanks, later she would be welding in Galveston building Liberty Ships. Of course now the furniture store is on the old Buff property, every time over the past 40 years I have driven past that place my thoughts always go back to sitting in that stadium and also visualizing my Grandmother doing her part to win a war, quite a contrast and a very sobering moment for me.

Thanks for posting, Matarene - I enjoy these glimpses of the past, and it's a nice break from all the squabbling on here lately. Got any pics to share? You must have seen some amazing changes to the Heights and Houston as well.

I have one picture taken in the front yard at 1629 oxford, a few years ago I was visiting a late Aunt that lived two blocks down towards Reagan High and when I left I drove by the old homestead and had a short moment in time, there was a man outside doing some shovel work in the front yard so I pulled over and spoke with him for a few moments. I told him that I had lived there over 50 years ago and it surprised him a bit. He told me they added a rear upper story to the back of the house and outside of course had been painted and remodeled somewhat, very nice and it still has the same appearance as 50 years ago except for the siding. Believe it or not the siding on the house when we lived there was a roof type rolled tar simulated two tone brick!! Crazy but that's what it had on it. There was a garage apartment in the rear and the young people living there were newly weds who had a small infant daughter. Their names were Billy and Bobbie Copland, don't remember the child's name, I think it was Cindy. The opposite side of our driveway was an old man and woman, with 2o dogs in a fenced back yard. Like I told others recently, back in those days people rarely complained about what other people were doing. Minor nuisances are just what they are!.. anyway the man we always called Uncle Bob, he was German decent and his Wife was Aunt Jewel to us. He was a real card and he worked as a diesel mechanic for the city bus line. The fella always wore these old low cut shoes with the toe sides slit so his corns could breathe! and overalls. He would always bringing cakes and cookies to give to us because he passed the bakery day old store and got them for next to nothing. His wife was a devout church goer there at Baptist Temple and for a hobby she usually gave poor old Uncle Bob a good cussing everyday when he came home from work..lol There bathroom was facing our driveway and we kids would be there playing and hear her calling him every name under the sun, and in the background we could hear him singing , Sally was a good ole girl!!! It was great growing up in the fifties, I do have some black and whites I'll dig them out and scan them and post them. One was Christmas 1958 and all the close family was there, everyone lived right there in the neighborhood, it's sad now because recently all of them died and the roots there in the Heights have all gone with them. I need to reinstall Google Earth again and post a picture of what the place looks like now compared to the picture I'll post with it, not a lot of change except the outside color and appearance. One very striking thing I noticed while driving through there was that all those once plentiful vacant lots are all gone.

Yeah I was a regular there at Akin's Drug Store the soda fountain, all my close friends and I spent a lot of our time there before and after school. Directly across Studewood at the V there was a Retig's Ice Cream Parlor where you could get one of the best Banana Splits in Houston. A few years later we moved across the street from Akin's at the intersection where there is now a fancy Bus Park. Our House was demolished for that Bus Park, our front porch would have been exactly where the Bus Bench is now located. There was a Beer Joint or Ice House as they were called in those days directly across the street to our right. On the opposite corner was Hubards Body Shop, many years later he moved his business way out there off Hardy Road and it was spared when the Toll Road came through. A childhood friend living across the street was Jay Demaret the nephew of Jimmy Demaret the US Open Winner way back in the early 50's and also the owner of the Champions Gold Course and Developement. His Father was Malon and he ran the real estate office there at the Champions. Last time I saw Jay was in 1970 downtown at the McDonalds Drive INN, he was in the Air Force at the time and only home for the weekend. His folks had moved from that place I mentioned above out on TC Jester in a very nice posh House. I guess they are dead now that was 40 years ago and they were already getting pretty old. His Mother was a secretary that worked there in the Gulf Building Downtown Houston. Well as you know already that neighborhood has changed so much now I could just barely find landmarks. Akin's was closed years ago, the Hilsher's Home Furnishings that was built new while I was living there , it is also gone and demolished. Wish I could tell about the Fridays and Saturday Nights there at the Pok Rok, a Polish Private Club, it is now a two story refurbished Condo, there was live Polka Bands every weekend and we young guys would buy the Black Janitor his beer if he would bring ours down to us, lol.. We were just teenagers and boy did we have fun dancing with the Polish Girls. I'll PM you and let you know when I post some pictures.

The Heights of today is not the Heights of the olden days, it will never be as it was. Mom and Pop stores died over 40 years ago, a new business in a neighborhood is not a Mom and Pop store, the term has been carried over, the true Mom and Pop stores were gone before I finished Jr High. Like it or not big corporations are the ones that are paying huge taxes and have a right to buy property where it is for sale. It seems every year there is a controversy about Wal Mart opening another store, is it right to make these corporations buy property in another persons neighborhood! If people don't care to shop at Wal Mart don't shop there, obviously more do prefer it or they wouldn't be opening so many. In the Heights of the 50's people were concerned about paying their light and gas bills and having a job, not so much about what someone else might be doing. Really there isn't much property left in the Heights to place a large store, so on the curb of I10 sounds like a normal place for it to be. Personally I didn't like it when they put that useless train down Main Street, but hey that's how life is, it leaves you behind and one day you too will see changes to the Heights that have out grown your era. Crime, now there's a nice subject.. the only thing wrong in society is we continuously spend 100's of millions of dollars to keep the thieves healthy so they can resume their thieving ways after their incarceration is over. The root cause of crime is not because there is another Wal Mart in the neighborhood but because those tasked with the problems of harnessing or stopping crime won't make life hard for those doing the crimes. Contrary to what some believe all those thieves can't be re educated or molded back into society, they're lost and people need to realize that. So crime is what it is because we prefer it that way.

Topic: I would think the answer to Do you want or not want Wal Mart in the area is simple, when that dollar drops to 0 buying power you won't care, you will be very happy to pay 1 dollar for a loaf of bread rather than the 5 dollars at mom and pops. All this angst and talk about Wal Mart would be better served with an effort to get that dollar where it should be and that minimum wage high enough to make these silly topics history. Also Wal Mart has purchased many plots through out the country and never built anything, it's called investment, a win win for them, tax write offs and a plot of land that will go up in value with each passing day. Now how about that minimum wage!