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I remember the Kelly Drive In Movies as a kid off of Frio City Rd, and then the Trail Drive In...before it became XXX Rated. I remember being a kid, and the swing set area we would all go and play at. Our folks would back in all the station wagons with blankets and pillows, we would play until we almost dropped and then go back to the car and fall asleep in the back while the "adults" visited and watched the movie in their lawn chairs. I VIVIDELY remember those aluminum neon colored glasses with Ice Tea and the Tupperware "popcycles" homemade from Koolaid!!! GREAT memories for sure!!!
Ahhhhh, yes, the tupperware plastic home made popsicles, pour full of kool-aid , put cap and handle on and insert in the freezer until done. I thought they were a real treat too, paka.
Looking back they were not. But in those pre-airconditioning days of the fifties and early sixties they were greatly appreciated by the kids, weren't they, in the south Texas heat ?
I had forgotten about the Rigsby Drive Inn until Focus entered the name. I thought I could recall them all, but no. I remember the Kelly and Circle-81 drive inns too. $1.50 per carload was all they charged for admission at the Circle-81. It was on Nogalitos.
Nowadays, Everytime I watch an old Twilight Zone rerun from that same period, the old black and white ones on television, it reminds me of the way things were back then. The furniture, clothing styles, glasses, bicycles, everything. The bicycles were huge , like an antique Harley Davidson frame without the motor. Even with small streamlined fake gasoline tanks. Brother had one with two battery operated small headlamps.
The old man would let me sleep on the rear dashboard, underneath the rear window on his 1960 Ford Galaxy 500 coming home from the drive-in. He wouldn't say a word if quietly I crawled up there and slept...
It was a large area, the rear dashboard I was ten or twelve and I would sleep all of the way home up there, returning from the drive-in- completely stretched out. it was comfortable.
Not a very safe area to be in in case of an accident. I suppose I would have flown straight forward and out the front glass in a bad head on collision. That was the first car we had with blinkers, er, turn indicators
I remember.
No seat belts came with the old Ford and a solid steel dashboard- good for the high speed quick- stop of humans.
Collision airbags were not standard equipment back then. Even when brand new the whole car would begin to vibrate at high speed. Car Dealership -Jordan Ford never could figure out why it was doing that vibration thing
at high speeds.
The Ford came with a three speed standard shift on the column and tail fins out the the back. It did have a\c though, our first. I felt privileged.
The 1966 Pontiac Catalina next bought was a huge improvement over the old Ford.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paka
I remember the Kelly Drive In Movies as a kid off of Frio City Rd, and then the Trail Drive In...before it became XXX Rated. I remember being a kid, and the swing set area we would all go and play at. Our folks would back in all the station wagons with blankets and pillows, we would play until we almost dropped and then go back to the car and fall asleep in the back while the "adults" visited and watched the movie in their lawn chairs. I VIVIDELY remember those aluminum neon colored glasses with Ice Tea and the Tupperware "popcycles" homemade from Koolaid!!! GREAT memories for sure!!!
I remember the Rigsby too and am sure we went there. I've been to most of SA's Drive-in's and many neighborhood indoors. I think the Rigsby was located where the housing was that attracted lots of attention years back. High crime and such. May have been here..
But, I truly have no memory of where precisely it was (at least not now). Strangely I had a dream about it sometime ago. I recall how it was laid out in the dream. If I could just dream reality.
The Rigsby Drive In was where the infamous Rigsby Apartments are now. The Rigsby was one of three drive ins that were built in 1950. The South Loop 13, and Kelly were also built that year. The Rigsby and Loop 13 were built by Landsman Theatres, who also owned and operated the Alamo, and Mission. The Kelly was built, owned and operated by a bigshot from Barrett Concrete. Barrett built one more, the Lackland Drive In in 1953. Most of the drive ins changed hands over the years and were operated by different companies at one time or another, including Gulf States Theatres, Stanley Warner Theatres, Texas Southwest Theatres, but most ended up in the Santikos Circuit, where each finally faded away. Daylight savings time, high land prices, and lack of business at some of them led to their demise. Many, like the San Pedro were enjoying their best year ever when they closed. That 48 acres the San Pedro sat on now has some of the best retail space that brings in A LOT more revenue than a single business that can only operate at night, and only does extremely well in good weather.
I really miss the drive ins. The times I spent working at them, and patronizing them as a customer produce some great memories. I also miss the suburban theatres. As a kid, I saw most of my movies at the Olmos. They seemed to run Disney movies more than the others. I saw "Bambi" at the Highland Theatre. The Broadway was my favorite of the suburnban theatres. It had a nice balcony, as did the Laurel, and Woodlawn. I remeber the full houses at the Broadway, and lines around the theatre there for pictures like "Jaws", "The Exorcist", "Airport", "Bonnie And Clyde", and so many others. "Earthquake" was a stinkeroo of a movie, but the "Sensurround" effect was much better at the Broadway than Century South, because we could run it louder at the Broadway because there were no other auditoriums on either side that would be interrupted by it.
I miss the theatre business very much. Today it is not the same. Showmanship is dead. The big theatre chains that run most theatres are interested in only getting people in and out. About the only time I go to the movies today is to take my grandkids to see a Pixar film a couple of times a year. A few years ago, when I took my grandson to see a movie, I was disgusted by the dirty auditorium I had to sit in, the bad picture quality, and the $17.50 I had to pay for a large popcorn and two drinks. On a trip to Dallas, I took my grandson to the Galaxy Drive In in Ennis, TX one night a few years ago, and we watched "The A Team" under the stars with a vintage drive in speaker in the window providing the sound. The movie stunk, but he enjoyed the experience as much as I did reliving it!
Does anyone else remember the "Pepsi bottle cap" matinees at the downtown theater? I THINK it was the Aztec, but might have been the Majestic....also, paid 99 cents (YES, LESS THAN ONE DOLLAR) and road the bus downtown to see the James Brown review at the Majestic!!!! I feel GOOD! Woow!
You know, the memories that we have (those of us pushing 60 now) are SO VERY SPECIAL....sleeping out in the tent in the back yard....no A/C in your house and taking a shower and ensuring you got your hair wet before you went to bed in the summer to cool off with the breeze thru your window...S&H Green stamp and Sears "Wish Books"....Koolaid popycycles and aluminum tumblers full of ice tea...rolling in the grass until you itched so bad you were all fighting for the ONE bathroom in the house to shower off....3 cent milk money and WISHING your parents could afford for you to buy the school lunch (Wed was ALWAYS a killer because it was mexican food!!!) but because 25 cents was NOT an option it was "special" when you got to and you ALWAYS planned it for the PERFECT day (and NEVER "Fish Friday for this gal!!!), watching shooting stars, making prank phone calls (Do you have Prince Albert in a can??? Well let him OUT!) and having our version of "America's got Talent" where you stood up on the picnic table and sang "Moon River" when it was your turn....those WERE such special, special times. So sad that kids these days have NO idea how WONDERFUL it was to grow up in those days!!! On of my all time FAV shows was "The Wonder Years"....soooooooo true to what we lived, how we lived, and all we enjoyed. NO ONE ever knew we were poor...we were all happy, healthy and so very content.
You know, the memories that we have (those of us pushing 60 now) are SO VERY SPECIAL....sleeping out in the tent in the back yard....no A/C in your house and taking a shower and ensuring you got your hair wet before you went to bed in the summer to cool off with the breeze thru your window...S&H Green stamp and Sears "Wish Books"....Koolaid popycycles and aluminum tumblers full of ice tea...rolling in the grass until you itched so bad you were all fighting for the ONE bathroom in the house to shower off....3 cent milk money and WISHING your parents could afford for you to buy the school lunch (Wed was ALWAYS a killer because it was mexican food!!!) but because 25 cents was NOT an option it was "special" when you got to and you ALWAYS planned it for the PERFECT day (and NEVER "Fish Friday for this gal!!!), watching shooting stars, making prank phone calls (Do you have Prince Albert in a can??? Well let him OUT!) and having our version of "America's got Talent" where you stood up on the picnic table and sang "Moon River" when it was your turn....those WERE such special, special times. So sad that kids these days have NO idea how WONDERFUL it was to grow up in those days!!! On of my all time FAV shows was "The Wonder Years"....soooooooo true to what we lived, how we lived, and all we enjoyed. NO ONE ever knew we were poor...we were all happy, healthy and so very content.
I too remember those days living on Alhaven off Rigsby.You could sleep with the windows open,hear the crickets,catchin firefliesand don't foreget the big ICE CREAM truck that served it up on a ice cream cone,I believed it was called The JOLLY RODGER.And yes,Wed.was Enchilada day for me,MONDAYS for us at P.F. STEWART was sour kruat and winnies,just didn't like the smell.
I too remember those days living on Alhaven off Rigsby.You could sleep with the windows open,hear the crickets,catchin firefliesand don't foreget the big ICE CREAM truck that served it up on a ice cream cone,I believed it was called The JOLLY RODGER.And yes,Wed.was Enchilada day for me,MONDAYS for us at P.F. STEWART was sour kruat and winnies,just didn't like the smell.
Remember when your school yard had the big dots painted on the asphalt for you to do your morning exercises on, and a cake walk ring for the "carnivals" and the dodgeball area and monkey bars??? Remember walking to school and SMELLING the rolls that the cafeteria ladies made from SCRATCH every morning and driving you CRAZY they smelled so darn good??? How bout FIGHTING for who was going to get to use that long stick with the "J hook" on it to "open the windows" at the top of each room...or who got to go and "beat the erassors" clean???!?!?!?!? OMG...the BEST time...the absolute BEST time of our lives!!! I got a transistor radio one Christmas and would go to sleep EVERY night during baseball season with that tucked under my pillow and drift off to sleep listening to the Houston Astro game on KTSA!!!!
Does anyone else remember the "Pepsi bottle cap" matinees at the downtown theater? I THINK it was the Aztec, but might have been the Majestic....also, paid 99 cents (YES, LESS THAN ONE DOLLAR) and road the bus downtown to see the James Brown review at the Majestic!!!! I feel GOOD! Woow!
You mentioned downtown theaters,my favorite was the TEXAS theater.I do remember it also having some specials like a full length "SNEAK"between the 1st and 2nd shows,then getting home after dark and hearing,"Where in the **** have you been?Try to explain your way out of that one.
Remember when your school yard had the big dots painted on the asphalt for you to do your morning exercises on, and a cake walk ring for the "carnivals" and the dodgeball area and monkey bars??? Remember walking to school and SMELLING the rolls that the cafeteria ladies made from SCRATCH every morning and driving you CRAZY they smelled so darn good??? How bout FIGHTING for who was going to get to use that long stick with the "J hook" on it to "open the windows" at the top of each room...or who got to go and "beat the erassors" clean???!?!?!?!? OMG...the BEST time...the absolute BEST time of our lives!!! I got a transistor radio one Christmas and would go to sleep EVERY night during baseball season with that tucked under my pillow and drift off to sleep listening to the Houston Astro game on KTSA!!!!
My dad bought one because of the CUBAN missile crises,I woud put the ear piece on and listen to KONO or KTSA,some how he could still hear it and would say,"turn that **** thing off and go to sleep,you got school tommorow.Nothing would get me out of bed faster than hearing the"LITTLE RASCALS"jingle,and couldn't get home fast enough to watch "CAPTN"GUS",then the "BEST OF HOLLYWOOD" showing monster movies,Jungle JIm,or Martian Moviessnacking on a jelly sandwich and ice cold glass of milk,KNOWLTONS.
Last edited by albert soliz; 01-26-2013 at 04:52 PM..
Remember when your school yard had the big dots painted on the asphalt for you to do your morning exercises on, and a cake walk ring for the "carnivals" and the dodgeball area and monkey bars??? Remember walking to school and SMELLING the rolls that the cafeteria ladies made from SCRATCH every morning and driving you CRAZY they smelled so darn good??? How bout FIGHTING for who was going to get to use that long stick with the "J hook" on it to "open the windows" at the top of each room...or who got to go and "beat the erassors" clean???!?!?!?!? OMG...the BEST time...the absolute BEST time of our lives!!! I got a transistor radio one Christmas and would go to sleep EVERY night during baseball season with that tucked under my pillow and drift off to sleep listening to the Houston Astro game on KTSA!!!!
The Astos baseball really brought back memories. I had a bunk bed that I taped my poster from the astrodome under the top bunk. While listening to the games, i would use pins to move the runners around the bases and kept the score on my etcho-sketch. I cant remember the radio call guys name but his signature saying after a strike out was; " And he BREEZED him, one more time."
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Nearly identical forgotten memories,
