Houston In The 1960s

[SchwinnChopper68]

Montgomery Wards 1967 - New Store - Pasadena - S. Shaver at Spencer Hwy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0gsIPW5pzA

[SchwinnChopper68]

Shrine Circus 1967

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THYoGUx8zv4

[Fringe]

Who was the enthusiastic car salesman in the 60's that would jump around on the cars on Saturday morning? 

[readam]

Had to be Art Grindle " I want to sell you a car !!!!" corner of chimney rock and westheimer near present day James Coney Island

[SchwinnChopper68]

From: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=306623&page=2

Art Grindle, had a Dodge dealership at the corner of Westheimer and Chimney Rock. His commercials (I WANT TO SELL YOU A CAR), were very similar to Cal Worthington. He would be on early Saturday morning during Jungle Theater on TV and have a long line of cars drive thru during the commercials all Saturday morning long. Some would be smoking or towed across. Sometimes when he would beat his fist on the hood "I WANT TO SELL YOU A CAR" he would put a dent in it and the cardboard sign on the windshield for $99 he'd rip one of the 9's off and say "come and get it out of here!!!!!"

He was a real kook on the air, but was a very nice mild mannered guy alone.

============

This is not quite Art Grindle (nothing shows for him on youtube) but he's getting there fast. What happened to the good ol days of truth in advertising? PC people need not watch. Love the part "Don't worry about the equipment, imagine all the fun you can have in the back".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOpnOclSWNg

Edited August 2, 2009 by SchwinnChopper68

[rreini]

Southwest Dodge 60s Channel 39

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQaQ5_yJqJs

That dealership must have turned into Southwest Lincoln-Mercury, for that's what I remember at that location with the longhorn logo. Nice find there!

[mkultra25]

That dealership must have turned into Southwest Lincoln-Mercury, for that's what I remember at that location with the longhorn logo.

That's what I was wondering, too.

The huge Southwest Lincoln-Mercury neon longhorn sign was definitely a landmark in that part of town. Sadly, it was damaged by Ike, and the majority of it was recently removed, probably due to safety issues. I wish I'd managed to get a picture of it while it was still (mostly) intact.

[Fringe]

Had to be Art Grindle " I want to sell you a car !!!!"  corner of chimney rock and westheimer near present day James Coney Island

That was it. Seeing him was the best part of Saturday morning TV. He was a mad man. 

[SchwinnChopper68]

If you are interested in old Houston radio commercials from the 60s and 70s check this link out. This link is to KILT and KNUZ airchecks. Playing the airchecks will get you many local commercials for Houston area businesses from the 60s and 70s. Step back in time when you could actually listen to quality radio stations playing great music with little advertising.

For other Houston airchecks see the links in the top left corner. Some date as far back as the early 60s.

http://vasthead.com/Radio/KILT_KNUZ.html

[SchwinnChopper68]

This post was composed under the magical qualities of Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell.

As I was reading the post about new toy stores in downtown Houston I was struck in particular by one line.

"the time I grew up in where there was an actual culture"

The talk continued on about all the meaningless electronic doodads for kids taking the place of their childhood.

With that in mind let me share with you how I grew up in Houston. Does any of it ring a bell?

DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN...?

All the girls had ugly gym uniforms?

Coaches could say bend over and grab your ankles then you and your buddies

knew what was heading your way?

Your elementary school principal would grab the standup mike while sitting

at the end of teacher's lunch table and scream into it that the entire

lunchroom is now on 10 minutes of silence or else?

A gang shooting was something that happened a long time ago in 1920s Chicago?

It took five minutes for the TV warm up?

Nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got home from school?

Nobody owned a purebred dog?

When a quarter was a decent allowance?

You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?

Your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces?

All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had

their hair done every day and wore high heels?

You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped,

without asking, all for free, every time?

And you didn't pay for air? And, you got trading stamps to boot?

And they had clean bathrooms? And they asked about your family?

And you got a free case of 10oz cokes in bottles with a fill-up?

Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box?

It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner

at a real restaurant with your parents?

They threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed. . and they did?

When a 57 Chevy was everyone's dream car...to cruise,

peel out, lay rubber or watch submarine races, and people went steady?

No one ever asked where the car keys were

because they were always in the car,

in the ignition, and the doors were never locked?

Lying on your back in the grass with your friends

and saying things like, "That cloud looks like a .."

And playing baseball with no adults to help kids with the rules of the game?

Stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals

because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger?

And with all our progress, don't you just wish, just once,

you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace,

and share it with the children of today?

When being sent to the principal's office was nothing

compared to the fate that awaited the student at home?

Basically we were in fear for our lives,

but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc.

Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat!

But we survived because their love was greater than the threat.

When they had funny hidden images on the Yellow Pages cover?

Take a break... and go back... back to a time

...before the Internet or PC or the MAC

...before semiautomatics and crack

...before PlayStation, SEGA, Super Nintendo, even before Atari

...before cell phones, CD's, DVD's, voicemail and e-mail

...way back... WAY... way... way back...

I'm talkin' bout hide and seek at dusk

Red light, Green light

Red Rover...Red Rover...

Playing kickball and dodge ball until night fell

Ring around the Rosie

London Bridge

Hot potato

Hop Scotch

Jump rope

YOU'RE IT!!

Parents stood on the front porch and yelled (or whistled) for you to come home - no pagers or cell phones

Did your dad have a special whistle for just you? Score 2 points.

Mother May I?

Hula Hoops

Seeing shapes in the clouds

Endless summer days and hot summer nights (no A/C) with the windows open

The sound of crickets

The mother of all waterbugs on your bathroom floor

Running through the sprinkler

Happy meals (at home, not from McDonald's)

Cereal boxes with that GREAT prize in the bottom

Cracker jacks with the same thing

Ice pops with two sticks you could break and share with a friend

...but wait... there's more...

Catchin' lightning bugs in a jar

Catchin' ladybugs with your hand, making a wish then blowing it home

Christmas morning

Your first day of school

Metal Man From U.N.C.L.E. lunch boxes

5 cent milk, 7 cent ice cream and 37 cent complete lunches

Bedtime prayers and goodnight kisses

Climbing trees

Swinging as high as you could to try and reach the sky

Jumping off the school's monster seesaw at the bottom then letting your best

friend discover the true meaning of gravity

Getting an ice cream off the Ice Cream Truck

Leaving May Day "May baskets" on neighbor's porches, ringing the doorbell then running away

Jumpin' down the steps

Jumpin' on the bed

Pillow fights

Sleep-overs

For once hearing "It's 10PM, Do you know where your children are?"

A 13" black and white TV in your room meant you were RICH

Runnin' till you were out of breath

Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt

Being tired from PLAYING

Candy cigarettes

Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside

Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles

Coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes

Drug stores with lunch counters and booths

Black Jack, Clove, and Beemans chewing gum

Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers.

Each home had a small aluminum box on the porch to keep the milk cold.

Newsreels before the movie

P.F. Flyers

Telephone numbers with a word prefix...(Paisley 3-6209).

Party lines

Dial back codes

Peashooters

Howdy Doody

45 RPM records/78 RPM, too

Yellow plastic inserts to play your 45 on the 33 RPM

Green Stamps

Hi-Fi's

Metal ice cubes trays with levers

Freshly printed mimeograph paper

Beanie and Cecil

Roller-skate keys

Cork pop guns

Drive ins

Studebakers

Washtub wringers

The Fuller Brush Man

Reel-To-Reel tape recorders

Tinkertoys

Erector Sets

The Fort Apache Play Set

Lincoln Logs

15 cent McDonald hamburgers

5 cent packs of baseball cards - with that awful pink slab of bubble gum

Penny candy

35 cent a gallon gasoline

Jiffy Pop popcorn

Home made peach ice cream with hints of rocksalt

Hand held precision aiming of bottle rockets with a glass coke bottle

Black Cat firecrackers with fuses that burned 3 times faster than normal

Oh, I'm not finished yet...

Kool-Aid was the drink of the summer

So was a swig from the hose

Giving your friends a ride on your handlebars

Wearing your new shoes on the first day of school

When nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got there

When a quarter seemed like a fair allowance;

and another quarter a MIRACLE

When ANY parent could discipline ANY kid, or feed him, or ask him to carry groceries... and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it.

Didn't that feel good? Just to go back and say, "Yeah, I remember that!"

Well, let's keep going!!

Let's go back to the time when...

Catching fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening

It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends

Scrapes and bruises were kissed by Mom and made better

It was a big deal to finally be tall enough to ride the "big people" rides at the amusement park

Abilities were discovered because of a "double-dog-dare"

Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles

The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team

No one worried about "getting hurt" when you played Red Rover. Getting hurt was normal for a kid

Water balloons were the ultimate, ultimate weapon

Older siblings were your worst tormentors, but also your fiercest protector

Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-moe"?

Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "Do Over!"?

"Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest?

The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was "cooties"?

Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot?

A foot of snow was a dream come true?

Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute commercials for action figures?

"Oly-oly-oxen-free" made perfect sense?

If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED!!!

War was a card game?

Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle?

Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin?

AHHH...the good old days

Edited August 8, 2009 by SchwinnChopper68

[august948]

How about when coffee was something you made at home or got for 25 cents at the local diner and nobody knew what a triple caramel mocha latte was and at any rate wouldn't pay $4 for one.

[crunchtastic]

Your post is wonderfully written, Schwinn. But I have to tell you, I am disturbed by the girl in the immediate left foreground of your school picture. She is channeling some serious bad vibe.

[marmer]

Lake Jackson here. Born 1961. Yes to all of the above with a lot of fishing and motorcycle trail riding thrown in!

This isn't maybe so much of a good thing, but many if not most adults smoked. The only real no smoking areas were gas stations and chemical plants. Little kids learned to watch out for cigarettes held down low.

Edited August 8, 2009 by marmer

[Fringe]

I remember riding my bike behind the mesquito sprayer trucks in the late 50's and 60's. I wonder what was in that spray back then?  Maybe that's why my hair started falling out at such a young age. 

[SchwinnChopper68]

Yah, I think the mosquito sprayer trucks were a pied piper magnet for every kid in the city and his dog. I remember one time a kid on my block was going full out gonzo in the cloud and crashed at top speed into the back of a parked car. Thought he was dead. He jumped up and said "I'm OK!"

DDT, Malathion, who knows what was in that white cloud.

When we used to go to the drive-in they sold a mosquito coil you would light on one end and put it on your dashboard. I think it was called PIC. They had commercials for it on the screen before the movie started.

Where I grew up they had some minibike/motorcycle trails on the north side of Braes Bayou around Chimney Rock heading west for 3 or 4 so miles. Most of the time we would just ride in bottom of the concrete bayou trying to avoid the slime in the center that would cause us to wipeout and go down for an always thrilling 50 foot long gooey sideways slide. I remember riding about 2 or 3 miles west and on the north side there was a huge open field with a GIGANTIC long hill covered with bushes and trees that had a trail starting at one side ending at the other side with a pretty scary (for me at least) 60+ degree rutty, bumpy hill. That place was always packed on the weekends with the older kids on their Maicos, trials, DT 250s and SL 175s.

[TheNiche]

This post was composed under the magical qualities of Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell.

As I was reading the post about new toy stores in downtown Houston I was struck in particular by one line.

"the time I grew up in where there was an actual culture"

The talk continued on about all the meaningless electronic doodads for kids taking the place of their childhood.

With that in mind let me share with you how I grew up in Houston. Does any of it ring a bell?

I went to elementary school in the hill country before my family moved to a part of McAllen near its old downtown. This was before McAllen's spate of more recent prosperity (and it's still the poorest metro area in the country). A lot of what you describe was replicated in my childhood by way of unfettered exposure to the wonderment of the rugged outdoors and later to a vast and overwhelming majority of poor kids whose families could not afford video games or computers.

However, I don't idealize it and never will. Country living meant spending nearly two and a half hours on a K-12 school bus every day, and the cedar trees yielded childhood asthma that was so bad that if I'd grown up in that location in the 60's, I'd probably have died. Public schools in McAllen were nearly two years behind schools in the hill country, and while racism was a non-issue (until later), I spent my formative years without one peer of my own ethnicity; opportunities for acculturation were limited to influences from my parents and their baby boomer friends. I think that it has yielded some identity issues that will always cause me to think of myself as an outsider in any crowd...and obviously I'm not going to be ethnically Mexican. As for the Mexicans (and perhaps the white folks of your situation), the culture was so insular and reinforced as to yield people who would later become slaves to their internalized perception of their racial/ethnic background...the equivalent of fuddy-duddy old white people who never question the assumptions or circumstances under which they were raised.

In hindsight, it is abundantly clear that "actual culture" still exists and is an important facet of childhood development. I'm not sure how it could ever cease to exist, except perhaps in uncommon individual cases like my own.

Edited August 9, 2009 by TheNiche

[Heights2Bastrop]

Do you remember when . . . ?

“Air-conditioning” was open windows and an attic fan?

“Permanent Press” lasted only until as your starched and ironed shirt was put on?

Many diseases were an automatic death sentence?

Dentists didn’t use Novocain before drilling?

You could be chastised by your teacher for being non-religious?

Girls were told they could be anything they wanted to be when they grew up – as long as it was a secretary, nurse or teacher?

Girls who “got in trouble” were shipped off to Aunt Edna’s, and were considered social outcasts?

Abortions were available only in back alleys?

Kids sexually or physically abused by priests or by their parent had no outlet to protest?

Rape victims were shunned if they spoke out?

Your “group” had your own water fountains and bathrooms, and the “Coloreds” had theirs?

Everything was in Black or White, and rarely the two did mix?

You could refer to an area as “______town” and no one would bat an eye?

Not only did you not come out of the closet, you triple-locked it to make sure no one found out?

You could go to prison for standing by your Constitutional Rights? (Right, Red Scare?)

I’m just as nostalgic as anyone, and many of the above suggestions brought a smile to my face. But it’s all too easy to forget that not all things were as simple, or as pleasurable as they first seem to be.

Party lines may seem quaint, but I couldn’t get by without my cell phone.

I devoured my set of World Book Encyclopedias, but gimme a computer and the Internet any day.

Bad things do happen today, but bad things happened to people when I was a kid as well. They may be different things, but they were still bad.

All in all, I have fewer fears and worries today than I did as a kid, or even as a young adult. Maybe that has to do with the acceptance that what’s gonna happen will happen, so why worry about it?

[Fringe]

Also the air raid drills we would practice at school, especially during the Cuban missile crisis. At the sound of the bell we would all get under our desks which were obviously made of some incredibly resilient material able to deflect nuclear missiles. We would stay huddled under there for a couple of minutes trying not to giggle, not even realizing we could be seconds from a nuclear holocaust. I wonder if school desks today are that strong?

Where I grew up they had some minibike/motorcycle trails on the north side of Braes Bayou around Chimney Rock heading west for 3 or 4 so miles. Most of the time we would just ride in bottom of the concrete bayou trying to avoid the slime in the center that would cause us to wipeout and go down for an always thrilling 50 foot long gooey sideways slide.  I remember riding about 2 or 3 miles west and on the north side there was a huge open field with a GIGANTIC long hill covered with bushes and trees that had a trail starting at one side ending at the other side with a pretty scary (for me at least) 60+ degree rutty, bumpy hill. That place was always packed on the weekends with the older kids on their Maicos, trials, DT 250s and SL 175s.

I remember riding my Schwinn in the early 60’s along trails of what was to become Chimney Rock, between Braes Bayou and Beechnut. That was when Houston didn’t go past Chimney Rock. Chimney Rock was just a ditch with hills. 

[Native Son]

I recall the best of times:

• an nut job blowing himself up at Poe Elementary, and taking his son and several others with him...the namesake of your elementary school
• the police digging up the bodies of 27 boys from a boat storage shed off Hiram Clark...they were runaways back then, not missing and exploited children
• colored only waiting rooms in the Medical Towers Building
• my elementary school principal welcoming the new darkie children to our school

good times indeed,

time to take off the rose colored glassed and take a sip of your 4 dollar mocha latte....

it wasn't better, the news cycles were just slower

Edited August 9, 2009 by Native Son

[cnote]

Will all of you darned kids PLEASE get off of my interlawn!!!

Seriously though, I have a hard time getting too nostalgic about these things mainly because there are very few on that list that I would want to do with my daughter that I feel like I can't. I guess catching fireflies as I don't really see them anymore...

[editor]

It took five minutes for the TV warm up?

We're back there again with the larger flat screen TVs. For some reason my TV runs Linux and has to boot up.

Remember when TVs were TVs, and not computers? When you could make a radio out of a few spare parts?

Back in your day a store with a big "vinyl" sign meant it sold music. Now it means it sells sex toys.

[LTAWACS]

Nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got home from school?

When a quarter was a decent allowance?

You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?

You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped,

without asking, all for free, every time?

And you didn't pay for air? And, you got trading stamps to boot?

And they had clean bathrooms? And they asked about your family?

And you got a free case of 10oz cokes in bottles with a fill-up?

Yes some of the things in the entire quite I do remember. I think a lot of the driving force behind the changes we have seen are due to economic reasons.

[marmer]

I like the Mondrian shirt on the kid in the front row, next to the kid wearing Nantucket red pants.

Another one: pretty much all the fun stuff to do was outside.

You could go "roaming" or "exploring," even if you were a girl, and no one thought anything of it if you were home in time for dinner.

Going to a ballgame or to the movies was a reasonably cheap entertainment choice.

[names]

I'm sure folks who grew up in the '30's would resent that their children from the boom years represent culture considering most of the developments listed are products of the boomer generation (crack, assault weapons, etc). As such your culture was largely formed from the value systems of the '30's generation, so to claim that the culture of that time period is yours when you were tabla rasa is disingenuous. The real culture of the '60s was and is now the counter-culture revolution, your posting on a product of it's conceptual paradigm now!

I believe we are living in the most clandestine epitome of freedom now and tomorrow is truly a brighter future considering the undercurrents of real culture today. Anything else is simply propaganda and being disconnected never felt so good.

Edited August 12, 2009 by names

[SchwinnChopper68]

When I grew up there was no air conditioning in the schools. On cold winter days there was the furnace all along the windows. That's where you would hang out for 5 or 10 minutes before class started to get warmed up. At least the ones that walked or rode a bike to school did. The ones arriving by mom's car had no need.

In the summer when things heated up, the rear closets in the class were a particular point of interest. Remember no air conditioning. All we had was one HUGE fan in the corner blowing. Well the rear classroom closets was where you would hang your jacket, hat, etc.. and place your lunch. Some in metal lunch buckets, some in paper bags with baggies or waxed paper. So imagine this. A closet tightly closed for 4+ hours, in a very warm classroom suddenly gets opened at 12:30pm to line up for lunch. I swear, on some days I thought I would pass out from some of the smells in some of the lunches. I learned to hate sardines at Kolter.

Remember when some teachers had blue hair?

Edited August 12, 2009 by SchwinnChopper68

[SchwinnChopper68]

Let's go back in time to when life in Houston was simpler. Ready?

http://cruzintheavenue.com/TakeMeBackToTheSixties.htm

Did that video bring a lump to your throat? Try this one on for size.

"When Life In Houston Was In Black and White"

http://oldfortyfives.com/WhenLifewasInBlack&White.htm

Edited August 21, 2009 by SchwinnChopper68

[Jerome Bush]

I used to live on the corner of Yellowstone (ST or Ave?) and New York Street in the early 60s. Anyone familiar with this area? Last time I visited there, it didn't look as good, or maybe it's true, that you can't go home again. Used to walk to M. E. Foster Elementary and get Cokes on the way home from R. J. Grocery.

[TheNiche]

Yep, that little nook of the City is pretty thoroughly bombed out. There are tolerable and improving neighborhoods nearby, though, within the 77021 zip code.

[JLWM8609]

One of our forum members lives in that area, his screen name is "Original Timmy Chan".

[Original Timmy Chan's]

I live about a mile west of Foster Place, in South Union. I've only lived here about 6 years, and I drive through Foster Place occasionally, but I don't have much reason to spend a lot of time there.

From what I can tell, it's not too much different from South Union. It's hit and miss. Includes some well-maintained homes and some abandoned and rotting homes. Today Foster Place is mainly black, some Hispanic...similar to South Union.

Jerome, you can probably share some good information on the area. I'm assuming that's a picture of you, and that you're white. I understand that Foster Place was initially a white neighborhood. One of my old co-workers, a white woman, about 75 now, lived in Foster Place through her high school years at San Jacinto HS (late 1940's/early 1950's?).

I also know that South Union, across Scott Street from Foster Place, was always a black neighborhood. My wife's family has owned our home since it was built in the 40's, and they've always been black.

So...I've been curious what the dividing line between the races was? Was Scott Street the divide between white and black? Or was there a Scott Street back then? When did Foster Place become a black neighborhood? And was it a rapid change, similar to other "white flight" neighborhoods? Any acrimony at the boundary between the races, was it harmonious, or just completely separate? Where did whites in Foster Place go to high school? It's now zoned to Yates.

Lots of questions...

Edited October 6, 2009 by Original Timmy Chan's