Gone But Not Forgotten in San Antonio! - Part II (Houston: venues, softball)

[Phil Branch]

Originally Posted by Boss Rider

Oh, yea, I remember. ....Mike's Hamburgers, Cheesesteak sandwiches, Toddle House diners, Tai-Chan chinese food, Christies Seafood, The Chicken Shack, Walgreens soda fountains, Bugs Bunny's watermelon places (tubs of ice and whole watermelons, long wooden picnic tables), The Flame, Running Bears ice station., Woodlawn Lake Lighthouse, Peacock Academy parades every Sunday, The old wooden stadium for the Missions and watching their pitcher Procopio Hurrera throw a perfect game), the huge outdoor swimming pool at Roosevelt Park by the Lone Star brewery. Spent a lot of time at Playland. The old Rocket from Playland is now back up and running at a park in Maryland.

Was back two years ago for my Mom's 90th birthday and spent an entire day driving around looking for places I remembered, but most of them are just strip malls with the same stores over and over. Sad.

Yes, I remember many of those you listed. Had lots of fun at Eastwood. Curly Mays became a night club friend. One night he taught my then wife to do the "funkie chicken". I tried my best to throw my hip out of joint with his "date?". Another time he introduced me to none other than BB King in his dressing room. It was awesome. I understand Curly is still alive and kickin'..

[darrylpearson]

Originally Posted by Dwangle

Ok I gotta tell you this one even though it is way before my time and it was told to me by my dad. My dad used to gig frogs in Olmos park when he was a kid. It was way out in the sticks back then. He would also go hunt out near New Braunfels. He was out there with a friend when when the train came by. There was a guy on the train shooting at stuff with his rifle while the train went by. My dad watched while the rifle fell out the window and landed in the river. As the train went by they ran to the spot and --sure enough--there was a rifle stuck in the mud in the river. They took it home and cleaned it up and -I swear - he tells me he gave it to me. I still have it. It is an old Remington Targetmaster 22. Weird huh?

i grew up in san antonio. lived here all my life. as a young kid in the late 50's and early 60's, i would go with a friend of mine from the neighborhood, to a place on west avenue and jackson-keller road, which is currently the H.E.B. Food Store. but back then, this place was country. loop 410 was FLAT, and you had a stop sign at all the intersections of the loop that you had to stop at, before crossing over the loop(going north). i can't remember the family who owned this property. i have vague memories of a sign on the fence saying "finch" or "finkel" or something to that fact. anyway, my friend and i would hunt frogs and turtles on this property. it had a very big house on the hill. and was still there for quite some time. the house had been sold. no one lived there. we finally got the courage to go into the house. it was scary and spooky. i found a samurai sword in the closet, in a bamboo sheath, which was wrapped in some kind of fine cloth. i took it to a shop at wonderland mall, where a man who owned the shop(swords and knives), gave me $50 for it. hell, back then, i thought i hit the lottery. my mom still lives in the house that my dad and her purchased back in 1953, when i was 4 years old. i have a lot of memories of the northside of san antonio where i frequently roamed on my bike. in fact, i would ride my bicycle from near loop 410 on vance jackson, all the way to fredericksburg road, to the donut shot there at babcock rd. i believe it is still there. wonderful times and memories.

[*mud*]

Originally Posted by darrylpearson

.

******

i can't remember the family who owned this property. i have vague memories of a sign on the fence saying "finch" or "finkel" or something to that fact.


******

.
.
.
"finch" or "finkel". close, butt, no cigar.

that area was definitely in my neck of the woods in the 50s 60s.

that property belonged to the Finck Cigar family.

Finck is the oldest continuously running cigar maker in the United States - 120 years.

they now have a cigar store on that property.
.
.
.

[SATX56]

Originally Posted by *mud*

.
.
.
"finch" or "finkel". close, butt, no cigar.

that area was definitely in my neck of the woods in the 50s 60s.

that property belonged to the Finck Cigar family.

Finck is the oldest continuously running cigar maker in the United States - 120 years.

they now have a cigar store on that property.
.
.
.

Happy to say I got a look at the inside operation many years ago before they closed up. It was a huge hangar sized building next to I-35 just north of Alamo. Inside with all the doors open it looked like a sweat shop with lines of sewing machines. But, of course there were no sewing machines. It was rows of tables and apparatus for rolling and making the cigars. Quite an operation.

I remember my home before reaching 10 years of age. I found a stash of cigar boxes in the space above a garage apartment. My dad had bought the property with our house and a garage with sheds and chicken coops out back. He also owned a side lot with a little apartment and attached garage. Inside the garage and above where it met the apartment was a space. I found many Finck Cigar boxes and maybe others. They were filled with little hardware items or just empty. Wish I'd saved them.

[darrylpearson]

Originally Posted by Honeydew333

I lived in south east SA off Goliad Road, in Highland Hills, from about '57 through '92 and have many memories of what used to be. Off Goliad Road on the left, just before you got to the SouthCross/Clark intersection was an outdoor theatre called the Goliad Theatre. I don't remember how many screens were there, but we saw many good shows there. That was way back in the '50's/'60's timeframe. Then off Goliad near Military Drive was Spartans Dept. Store. Piggly Wiggly grocery store was on Goliad and Pecan Valley, and across from them on the other side of Pecan Valley Drive was Model Market (another grocery store). Then there was Winn's off Goliad, across from where the Goliad Bolling Alley and Dairy Queen were. I remember it all, but most if not all those places are gone now. I understand Floyd's Dairy Bar is still there, and perhaps El Tipico Mexican Restaraunt. I read where McCreless Mall is gone. What a shame!!

Back in the 60's a bunch of us little kids would all be taken to the swimming pool in the summer usually out at Brooks Air Force Base, then one of the mamma's would take us to Floyd's Dairy Bar for a hamburger, fries and drink before going home to play games, etc. It was all fun, fun, fun. At night sometimes we'd go to either the Goliad Theatre, Mission Outdoor Theatre, or Trail Drive-in Theatre which was off Military Drive.

Those things are mostly all gone now but definitely not forgotten. Have they ever opened back up the Mission Drive-In? I read where they had closed it for a while due to vandalism. What a shame.

Does anyone remember Playland Park near the Mission Drive-In? We used to go there to ride the rides and I'd sometimes ride the ponies that a man would either walk around a ring or later the ponies were tethered to an automatic walker where we'd go round and round in a large circle. Much fun!.

I haven't been to SA in a few years, as I now live in Southern Oklahoma, but I'll never, never forget my early years there and all the fun.

here is a link to a video i took of playland park in march 2013


playland-park1-2013 - YouTube

[940]

There was also a wireless provider, whom on occasion I still see setups on roofs.... usually identified by a 20-40 foot guyed rooftop mast and a microwave yagi antenna. I am pretty sure they went defunct long ago, but the outdoor installations remain. I don't remember the name of this provider though.

Back in the late 70s and early 80s, my Dad put an antenna up on the roof of our house so that we could receive a TV signal (satellite?) that showed movies similar to what HBO was showing at the time. We were too far out of the San Antonio city limits at the time to receive cable so this was the next best thing. All I remember is that movies would come on around 5 or 6p each night and end about midnight...very similar to what HBO and Showtime did then. Can't remember the name of it now but it began each evening with an animated opening showing can-can girls dancing along with other scenes from older films.

A couple of years later, Dad put in one of these huge satellite dishes in the back yard and you had to manually punch in the satellite you wanted to watch and the antenna would slowly move to that position in the sky. Each satellite had about 24 channels on them and they were mostly cable channels but some of them were also the feeds for the networks so you could see movies or TV shows on there that were being beamed to the affiliates. Maybe even see Johnny Carson laughing it up with his guests and the audience while the commercials were playing on the regular channels.
It came with this huge satellite television guide called Orbit that had a complete listing of every station on every satellite. I also remember Satcom F4 had the Playboy Channel and the teenager I was back then knew the channel by heart!

[John911]

940:

T3 and F4 were the two I remember from those days. When I worked at Frisco Electronics, we sold 10ft mesh dish antennas, LNBs, feedline, electric actuator (or manual hand crank for the frugal one-bird viewer) and a downconverter/tuner in a package.

An advanced setup would have a 'videocypher' which descrabled T3 and F4 and all other premium content -like pay per view fights, once they were scrambled. American Ectasy was what I think was on T3.

[darrylpearson]

Originally Posted by ged_782

The Knave was in a small strip center at the corner of Austin Hwy and Rainbow. That club is now a bar called Rascal's. The Shakey's pizza parlor was located a few doors up the street from the Knave, and was actually still in business in the early days of the Knave. The Shakey's building is still there, but whatever it is now is not open to the general public. The property is kept maintained, and has a wrought iron fence around it.

I vaguely remember the Elbow Room. I think it was further down the road near Lanark. I'm not sure what's there now, but I don't think the Elbow Room name exists anymore.

The biker bar sounds like it would have been Lil' Sturgis. It's a tire shop now. Lil Sturgis was midway between Vandiver and Rainbow.

The pegasus was indeed restored a number of years ago after the Mobil station closed. The building was renovated and converted into retail space.

The Ramada was located just beyond Terrell Plaza, on the same side of the street. It still exists as a motel today, but it is no longer a Ramada. Sevenoaks closed around 1999 or 2000, and the former golf course, along with what was originally a drive-in movie theater, is now a Walmart store. The abandoned Sevenoaks was destroyed by something like a zillion-alarm fire around '03-'04, and a new apartment community was just completed on that property.

the elbow room is gone. used to be at the corner of austin hwy and corrine.

[darrylpearson]

seems like a lot of folks on here get some quick answers. i have something that has been buggin the fool outta me for quite some time. i used to go to a mexican BUFFET restaurant on broadway, in alamo heights. and the name of this place eludes me. it was only open on the weekends. i guess the time frame was in the mid to late 60's. if you are coming from austin highway, and turn south, and head towards town on broadway, the restaurant was on the left side, some where near the broadway theatre. there was not much room for parking. it was a cafeteria style place. kinda reminds one of the now current lubys here in town. all you could eat for about a buck to a buck fifty per person. i am sure someone on here will remember the name. my mind is not as sharp now, so i am looking for a razor strap...(smile)

[SATX56]

Mexiteria...