hellbilly

" the watch hospital " on the corner of duncan road and 1960. great people, great service. i had my seiko kinetic watch repaired there and quite a few batteries changed. they used to change batteries for just tips, but it might have changed. check them out if you are in the area.

it was bulldozed alot later then 1989. maybe 1998 or later. i remember going to the hospital and walking around. the car i was driving was a 1998 model.

Hot Wells is still there. It is north of Barker Cypress on the southbound feeder road. It is now just a shooting range. It is still open to the public but there is no more swimming there. They do skeet shooting, conceled handgun classes, and just regular shooting range. My father used to tell me how they would go swimming there.

i stopped by games people play on 1960 today. i did not have my camera. the mini golf is still standing along with the fence that was around it. you can clearly see where all of the holes were. the bumper boat pool is still holding water. the steps to where the water slide stood are still there as is the pools you ended up in after the slide. the building that housed the game room is nothing but a concrete pad being used as a temporary skate park. i could make out the beginning of the go kart track but not much else. it is easy to get into. there is an animal hospital right next door you can park in and all of the fence is gone. there is not a no trespassing sign on the property. wear boots and long pants. it is real overgrown. in the back there is batting cages somewhere in the brush. you can see alot of it on google maps. it is on 1960 between walters road and kuykendial(spell). i could never spell that street. it will be on the south side of 1960 between a discount tire and an animal hospital. check it out before the property sells. it is houston history. my brother and i had quite a few birthday parties there. if i can remember next time i ride my motorcycle i will bring a camera.

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&...1&encType=1

tis will link to a birds eye view. check it out. i not very good a posting links.

Memorial City Mall also had Exilarama (spell?). It was located i think where the arcade is now. The food court was alot smaller then. It seemed like Exilarama went on forever inthe back. It had lazer tag, carnival rides, and games galore. I also remember way back by the entrence to where target is now, that there was some sort of poster store that sold all kinds of band merchendise. I remember buying some kind of black light poster and some t-shirts. This would have been around '96 or '97. I would drive to the mall when i had my own car. I also remember the wing with the Hot Topic now used to seem alot smaller and more narrow. I also remember the '80s neon that was everywhere in the mall including the designs that hung from the ceiling.

i like nothing more than coming home from anywhere and seeing a sign that reads :houston city limits". once i see that no matter how bad the drive, the trip, or whatevere im home. it is my birthplace and i will be buried here.

i am proud of houston. its big, its gawdy, its loud. hell its in texas. but thats a whole other topic.

example. i went to uti. almost 85% of the students are out of town or out of state. for 14 months all i heard was " its hot, its crowded, humidity....." blah blah blah. and every night when i went to bed i was never so glad to be home.

i worked in austin for awhile. i have freinds in san antonio. sixth street in austin is cool. even the riverwalk is nice in san antonio. but the freeways suck, bad town layouts, and just general discomfort to me. i can go anywhere in hosuton and know what to expect.

i dont know your price range but look into the grant road, 1960 jones perry road area. the schools are great, traffic is not that bad, taxes are reasonable and you are 5 minutes from eveything.

example: i have a 2003 ryland home bought brand new. 1614 square feet, 3 beds 2 baths 2 car garage. 100 dollar light bill, 30 dollar gas bill, and 1600 dollars a year for taxes. i also keep my air on 74 during the summer. i lived in tomballl. traffic is a nightmare. growth was to fast for the roads. they halted construction of the beltway so its 2 or 3 lane from spring cypress till tomball. a joke really. from grant to magnolia on an weekday evening takes me over an hour.

astroworls in itself is filthy. i have a season pass there and it makes my stomach hurt to see how people treat it. it seems that management is not interested in making it a fun place at all. here are soem of teh examples.

most rides are in disrepair. i do not mean unsafe, i mean as in need of a new paint job, better waiting areas, more care. the only ride that is nice looking is serial thriller. it has to be. it is the main attraction.

all that crap in the center of the park. the lagoon for one. when i was a kid and going there it was all stunt shows and crazy things to see. now it is vacant. when you ride the cable cars all you see is forgotten times and wasted space.

waterworld is a joke. it is small, stinks and way overcrowded. with the new park in galveston and splshtown they could level waterworld and gain at least 15 acres. astroworld is only 86 acres big. six flags over texas is 211 acres. i do not know how big fiesta texas is but its huge.

you want to make a park succesful. cheap parking. 8 dollars to park at astroworld. schlitterbahn in new braunsfels (i hope tats right) has free parking, free tram service and better help. that is one of the reasons it is the nations number one water park. fiesta texas has a season parking pass for 55 dollars all year. astroworlds is 36 or 40 dollra for 5 passes. what the hell.

i cannot remember where i found it at but there is a site that shows theme parks all ovr the country and the disrepair some of them are in. i think astroworld had the most pics.

now i do enjoy astroworld. i love the cyclone. i can never get enough of the ride. the one thing i hate about the palce now is what time it closes. 15 years ago it stayed opwn till midnight on the weekends. now its 9 or 10. what a joke. i work 8 till 6 and have to drive 45 minutes to the park. that hardly leaves anytime to have fun without crowds. there is noway i can go on sat or sun. 2 to 3 hours for a 35 to 45 second ride. no thanks.

that is just my 2 cents. i love the place. i just wish they would invest some more money in it.

I went to Kiddie Wonderland several times... I didn't really like the pony riding, though.

It's now a Kroger..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i stumbled on this forum looking for old photos of hanna barbara land. games people play was on 1960. it has been closed for about 7 to 10 years now. you can still see some off the putt putt golf, part of the go cart track, and not much else. i had birthday parties there as a kid.

somewhere in all of my pictures i have some pics of me with scooby and fred flintstone at hanna barbera land. all of the buildings at splashtown are the original buildings from hanna barbera land.

i cannot remeber the name of the indoor amusement park off of 610 near 290 but i think my wife will. i went there as a kid a few times for parties and such. my wife grew up over there so i will ask her.