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The town was great in the 80's. It was obviously smaller, and hadn't extended out so far in all directions. There was no Beltway 8 or Hardy Toll Road. It was less diverse, and had a much lower Hispanic population percentage. Politically, it (and the state) were not as red/Republican at that point, and more balanced. People were a bit calmer and more relaxed; less vocal and standing-on-a-soapbox. I remember driving then too, and it was not as rushed as these days.
Astroworld was still around as large, centrally-located amusement park. They had open-air concerts too with major bands, so you didn't have to drive way out to Cynthia Mitchell Woods Pavilion (which didn't exist). The Summit (now Lakewood Church), the Coliseum (since torn down), and the Music Hall all showcased major bands. A lot of up-and-coming bands also came to clubs like Cardi's, which made it easy to see groups up close and personal. Good times!
I don't recall any big problems or issues, other than Hurricane Alicia coming through in 1983, but even that was just an inconvenience for a couple of weeks.
Actually...politically, Houston these days is "bluer", based on voting records published after significant elections, like mayoral and presidential. The increasing diversity has a lot to do with that.
I like that you mentioned Astroworld. I worked there and had great fun when I was around 18 to 19. Parties every night after work. One thing that may not have been posted before is that the employee parking lot wasn't well lighted, and, well, you can imagine what all went on in cars in the parking lot after work (before security ran us out, which tended to take quite a while). We were kids...what can I say?
I hit my teenage years in 1980. Some things I remember:
Economically / demographically:
The decade can be viewed as two distinct parts, 1980-1984 and 1985-1989. The first part was a heady boom time, with crazy building going on (even after the oil economy started to go south after 1982), glitz and glamour, and poor uneducated Midwesterners streaming in because their home economies were devoid of opportunity. Hispanic immigration into the area really began to pick up. The Asian / Middle Eastern presence was there but at a much lower level than now. Traffic was unbelievably awful - as bad or worse than now, maybe even worse than what you see in Austin now.
Houston was really wild during this period. It was the murder capital of the U.S. in the early 1980s. People would just get drunk and shoot each other (often at bars and nightspots), it was pretty normal. There were also serial killers (Coral Eugene Watts - killed the daughter of one of my teachers). But the city was so drunk on success that people could overlook it.
The other big event was Hurricane Alicia in 1983. While true damage was really bad only in some areas, it was a major inconvenience for two weeks for many more people. Our home didn't have power for nearly a week, and it was 95 degrees. School started a week late. My family spent 5 days cleaning up our yard. We found a pair of newborn squirrels that we gave to Lynn Ashby's wife, who was a neighbor and worked for the zoo or something like that. Mr. Ashby then put them on his Channel 2 "Live at Five" segment a few weeks later when they had fur. They named them Alex and Alicia.
From 1985 on, gloom and doom economically. All those new office buildings and suburban homes were empty. Banks failing left and right, the entire Savings and Loan industry went away. I was lucky to find a minimum wage summer job ($3.25/hr, rose to $3.35 in 1986 I believe). Crime shifted away from general drunken mayhem and serial killers toward focusing on the crack epidemic - Houston was one of the earliest cities to experience this. White folks began to flee their previously middle class areas like Spring Branch and the Southwest side. Previously hip apartment complexes, many still new, began to slide into decay and a low-income / immigrant renter profile as all the former young professional and tradesmen renters had disappeared along with the jobs. I had gone away to college in 1986 so I missed the up-close-and-personal view of the changes.
Culturally:
1980 was "Urban Cowboy" so big C&W clubs were opening up. Wild West was at Gessner and Long Point.
Big pop / rock acts played The Summit. I went to my first concert (Van Halen) there in 1984. Prince came through that same year and sold out a whole bunch of shows in a row. Astroworld also had concerts. You had actual rock radio back then, and hard rock festivals (the "Texxas Jam").
The Astros were popular - Mike Scott, Nolan Ryan etc. The Rockets had Akeem and Sampson, both new. The Oilers tanked after the "Luv Ya Blue" era, Earl Campbell left, it was a bleak time for them.
The main entertainment area stretched from the West Loop to Hillcroft, between San Felipe and Westpark. The Richmond Strip was the beating heart of it by the late 1980s. Montrose was popular for the "alternative" crowd, teenagers would cruise Westheimer (I never did though), but otherwise was viewed as rapidly declining and very sketchy. It was during this time that AIDS was hitting the gay community very hard, which just made it worse.
The "hot" newer suburbs were Quail Valley, Clear Lake, and FM 1960 / Champions. The Woodlands and Kingwood for those who really wanted away from the City, though they were much smaller than what they are now. Alief and Mission Bend were hot for the middle class, believe it or not, through the late 1980s, though I'm sure they had their share of foreclosures. Spring Branch was still middle class until the late 1980s, then it fell fast.
There were some big churches but not "mega."
"Ethnic" cuisine was limited to Tex-Mex and Chinese. Vietnamese, Indian, and Thai weren't a big deal yet, though they did exist in small numbers of establishments. Cajun food made a big splash (Achtafalaya Cafe), which makes sense given how many Cajuns already lived here by then. Chili's, Strawberry Patch, and Pappasito's were the top new restaurants for the middle class. Also Black Eyed Pea. For Italian, Pino's - that my was birthday go-to restaurant.
Big hair was a big deal nationwide, but Houston and Dallas were the big hair capitals of the U.S.!
For the white kids of the Reagan era, if you were really debauched and wealthy, you did cocaine. For most though, getting drunk was the big thing - pot and acid were for the 60s-70s hippie types. Parents were totally terrified of their kids doing drugs though ("Just Say No"). Yet they would buy the kegs for the kids! Neighborhoods would be stuffed with parked cars on weekend nights when some kid would throw a kegger. Drunk kids would pee in our yard. The drinking age went up to 21 during this period.
We moved here for work during this time with newborn.
What were your favorite places to dine? We were young and poor so we didn't dine out nearly as much as we do now...no one did. Coupons for restaurants were big back then. You could get weeknight fajitas for two for $9.99 with coupon at a lot of local Mexican restaurants. A big treat was Atchafalaya and Pappadeaux.
what did you all do for entertainment? This was a time when we learned the art of entertaining. All neighbors were young with babies. We would take turns entertaining on a weekend night. This was more fun than going out somewhere.
what were the best schools everyone wanted to attend? Suburban districts were pretty much all good back then, more schools were exemplary. Then things started changing everywhere, mostly at the high school level at first. Then it became certain high schools in an otherwise good district was not good.
what was the attitude towards communities such as Katy and The Woodlands? The Woodlands was not super well established back then and was considered way far out. I would say Kingwood was more popular at that time. To me, Katy seemed like a place people moved to who really wanted a large home but could not afford it anywhere else. Retail and restaurants were so limited at that time, that I felt bad for those who lived in Katy. Not any more. The people I thought who were real pioneers were those who moved to First Colony when it first started up. Who on earth would move there? It's funny now. You really needed to have a vision to move to these places!
What I remember when I first got here was you were allowed an open container in the car...that wasn't for long though. I remember guns on gun racks in pickup trucks. I remember pickup trucks being the polite vehicles on the road. And last but not lease...Blue laws! Those didn't last long either. If memory serves, I don't think the malls or Target were open on Sundays, and almost all stores certainly didn't have the hours they do today.
I hit my teenage years in 1980. Some things I remember:
Economically / demographically:
The decade can be viewed as two distinct parts, 1980-1984 and 1985-1989. The first part was a heady boom time, with crazy building going on (even after the oil economy started to go south after 1982), glitz and glamour, and poor uneducated Midwesterners streaming in because their home economies were devoid of opportunity. Hispanic immigration into the area really began to pick up. The Asian / Middle Eastern presence was there but at a much lower level than now. Traffic was unbelievably awful - as bad or worse than now, maybe even worse than what you see in Austin now.
Houston was really wild during this period. It was the murder capital of the U.S. in the early 1980s. People would just get drunk and shoot each other (often at bars and nightspots), it was pretty normal. There were also serial killers (Coral Eugene Watts - killed the daughter of one of my teachers). But the city was so drunk on success that people could overlook it.
The other big event was Hurricane Alicia in 1983. While true damage was really bad only in some areas, it was a major inconvenience for two weeks for many more people. Our home didn't have power for nearly a week, and it was 95 degrees. School started a week late. My family spent 5 days cleaning up our yard. We found a pair of newborn squirrels that we gave to Lynn Ashby's wife, who was a neighbor and worked for the zoo or something like that. Mr. Ashby then put them on his Channel 2 "Live at Five" segment a few weeks later when they had fur. They named them Alex and Alicia.
From 1985 on, gloom and doom economically. All those new office buildings and suburban homes were empty. Banks failing left and right, the entire Savings and Loan industry went away. I was lucky to find a minimum wage summer job ($3.25/hr, rose to $3.35 in 1986 I believe). Crime shifted away from general drunken mayhem and serial killers toward focusing on the crack epidemic - Houston was one of the earliest cities to experience this. White folks began to flee their previously middle class areas like Spring Branch and the Southwest side. Previously hip apartment complexes, many still new, began to slide into decay and a low-income / immigrant renter profile as all the former young professional and tradesmen renters had disappeared along with the jobs. I had gone away to college in 1986 so I missed the up-close-and-personal view of the changes.
Culturally:
1980 was "Urban Cowboy" so big C&W clubs were opening up. Wild West was at Gessner and Long Point.
Big pop / rock acts played The Summit. I went to my first concert (Van Halen) there in 1984. Prince came through that same year and sold out a whole bunch of shows in a row. Astroworld also had concerts. You had actual rock radio back then, and hard rock festivals (the "Texxas Jam").
The Astros were popular - Mike Scott, Nolan Ryan etc. The Rockets had Akeem and Sampson, both new. The Oilers tanked after the "Luv Ya Blue" era, Earl Campbell left, it was a bleak time for them.
The main entertainment area stretched from the West Loop to Hillcroft, between San Felipe and Westpark. The Richmond Strip was the beating heart of it by the late 1980s. Montrose was popular for the "alternative" crowd, teenagers would cruise Westheimer (I never did though), but otherwise was viewed as rapidly declining and very sketchy. It was during this time that AIDS was hitting the gay community very hard, which just made it worse.
The "hot" newer suburbs were Quail Valley, Clear Lake, and FM 1960 / Champions. The Woodlands and Kingwood for those who really wanted away from the City, though they were much smaller than what they are now. Alief and Mission Bend were hot for the middle class, believe it or not, through the late 1980s, though I'm sure they had their share of foreclosures. Spring Branch was still middle class until the late 1980s, then it fell fast.
There were some big churches but not "mega."
"Ethnic" cuisine was limited to Tex-Mex and Chinese. Vietnamese, Indian, and Thai weren't a big deal yet, though they did exist in small numbers of establishments. Cajun food made a big splash (Achtafalaya Cafe), which makes sense given how many Cajuns already lived here by then. Chili's, Strawberry Patch, and Pappasito's were the top new restaurants for the middle class. Also Black Eyed Pea. For Italian, Pino's - that my was birthday go-to restaurant.
Big hair was a big deal nationwide, but Houston and Dallas were the big hair capitals of the U.S.!
For the white kids of the Reagan era, if you were really debauched and wealthy, you did cocaine. For most though, getting drunk was the big thing - pot and acid were for the 60s-70s hippie types. Parents were totally terrified of their kids doing drugs though ("Just Say No"). Yet they would buy the kegs for the kids! Neighborhoods would be stuffed with parked cars on weekend nights when some kid would throw a kegger. Drunk kids would pee in our yard. The drinking age went up to 21 during this period.
Houston was really the pits in the mid to late 80's and the 90's was a "recovery" period.
Only recently in the last boom has Houston made the strides to become "world class". It's still not there and this latest downturn in the oil patch shows that Houston hasn't made as many strides as it should have.
But the price of oil will eventually rebound and Houston will keep chugging along. It's always done this.
We moved here for work during this time with newborn.
What were your favorite places to dine? We were young and poor so we didn't dine out nearly as much as we do now...no one did. Coupons for restaurants were big back then. You could get weeknight fajitas for two for $9.99 with coupon at a lot of local Mexican restaurants. A big treat was Atchafalaya and Pappadeaux.
what did you all do for entertainment? This was a time when we learned the art of entertaining. All neighbors were young with babies. We would take turns entertaining on a weekend night. This was more fun than going out somewhere.
what were the best schools everyone wanted to attend? Suburban districts were pretty much all good back then, more schools were exemplary. Then things started changing everywhere, mostly at the high school level at first. Then it became certain high schools in an otherwise good district was not good.
what was the attitude towards communities such as Katy and The Woodlands? The Woodlands was not super well established back then and was considered way far out. I would say Kingwood was more popular at that time. To me, Katy seemed like a place people moved to who really wanted a large home but could not afford it anywhere else. Retail and restaurants were so limited at that time, that I felt bad for those who lived in Katy. Not any more. The people I thought who were real pioneers were those who moved to First Colony when it first started up. Who on earth would move there? It's funny now. You really needed to have a vision to move to these places!
What I remember when I first got here was you were allowed an open container in the car...that wasn't for long though. I remember guns on gun racks in pickup trucks. I remember pickup trucks being the polite vehicles on the road. And last but not lease...Blue laws! Those didn't last long either. If memory serves, I don't think the malls or Target were open on Sundays, and almost all stores certainly didn't have the hours they do today.
Regarding schools, many high schools considered horror shows today, like Sharpstown, Aldine, Pasadena, Westfield, even Lee, were full of middle class Anglo kids and were at least somewhat respectable. They didn't really change until at least the late 80s, more the early 1990s (the 2000s in the case of Westfield). Katy only had Katy and Taylor high schools; they were practically considered rural.
Houston was really the pits in the mid to late 80's and the 90's was a "recovery" period.
Only recently in the last boom has Houston made the strides to become "world class". It's still not there and this latest downturn in the oil patch shows that Houston hasn't made as many strides as it should have.
But the price of oil will eventually rebound and Houston will keep chugging along. It's always done this.
Technically Houston was in recovery by late 1987, but mentally folks didn't feel it until well into the 1990s.
I was a young working professional in the 80s. I loved the 80s in Houston.
As long as you didn't limit yourself to Astroworld, Houston was a whole lot of fun in the 80's.
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