Gone But Not Forgotten in San Antonio! - Part II (Mission: cemetery, culture)

[SATX56]

Originally Posted by Boss Rider

That one was the second Flame. The original was near Military and Goliad (actually Lasses and Goliad) until '58 when Jim's bought him out and changed it to Jim's Frontier. The original owner opened the Old CC Highway location a while later, but most of us old Flame guys decided we liked the Frontier better and stayed there. Last time I was in SA (2010) it was a Chinese takeout place. The other big hangout was Running Bear, a several miles further east on Military, but it's gone too.

I remember you posting that. You're the only one I've ever heard that knows of a previous location of the "Flame". I'm not doubting you, mind you, but I was wondering if you could have been mistaken. So, I'm glad you brought it up again. It recent years... it's occurred to me that the Flame name could have come from the (burn off) flame at the old Howell Refinery. Which can be easily seen from the Flame's CC Hwy/ S.E.Military location. Since it was likely 61'-62' when I first became aware of the Flame. You were in the know earlier than I. It sounds as though you're sure so there's no need to add more I'm sure your memory predates mine and likely you're a few years older. Anyhow, my Flame name theory goes out the window with your info. Yep, Running Bear was actually still going not too many years ago. Just a little strip center now ....flowers , headstones... Thanks again for the reminder Boss Rider!

[SATX56]

Originally Posted by Retiree2003

I lived in Dellview, graduated from Robert E. Lee in 1961, attended St. Gregory's Catholic Church 1958 - 1961.

Remember Playland Park? Earl Abel's, which I think is still open? Christie's on Broadway? Walking along the river in the daytime before Hemisfair? The Happy Jazz Band in the basement of the Nix Building on the river? It's now in another location on the river - commercialized, moneyized, etc. We went there when there were a few tables, a long bar, plenty of popcorn and song sheets. You sang along with the band, drank and got smashed. That's all you could do there. Lots of folks fell into the shallow river right outside of the place while trying to negotiate the stairwell to the street.

You didn't walk along the river at night then. You visited Happy Jazz Band or the restaurant on the river and quickly went back up to the street to your parked car. Hemisfair changed all that, obliterated Victoria Courts. I know it was for the good of San Antonio but how I miss the old.

Is Eastwood Country Club still in existence? Fabulous music, good, good times for the young San Antonioan.

I remember the streets of downtown San Antonio late at night after a rain, the reflections of the lights on the streets, the shine on the hard asphalt, the quietness at 3:00 a.m., the street cleaner on the streets in residential neighborhoods around North St. Mary's in the middle of the night - its orange light along the curbs. I had an apartment there on the second floor of an old house and watched the street cleaner out of the window from my bed late at night.

That house no longer exists.

The Landing? Basement of the Nix....once saw the likes of O'Neil Ford & Clint Eastwood. Now moved along the Riverwalk.

Hemisfair didn't rid the city of Victoria Courts. Some quirky deal where the newly remodeled Courts were leveled in some deal to clean house around Hemisfair Park in recent years. Even with the new apartments and such on and south of Durango Blvd it still seems like the old Courts neighborhood has changed little. Much more is needed to revitalize that area.

[rctsat]

I grew up just a couple of blocks from Victoria Courts, on Canal St. We used to have our St. Michael's CYO baseball practices there in the playground on Labor St. Across the street was the Hi Ho ice house and two short blocks South was an IGA store and a barber shop. We called the Grocery store the Chinaman's store. I remember buying lots of nickle balsa wood gliders there, I loved those little planes. At the Hi Ho we would buy a Nehi soda for eights cents and of course two cents for deposit on the bottle. Did anybody out there ever scrounge the neighborhood for beer and soda bottles so you could get some money to put gas in your car. A dozen bottles would get you more than a gallon of gas.

[rctsat]

The St Marys skating rink was North of downtown, just a few blocks North of IH 35. It was Tune Wholesale Florist for years after it closed, don't know what it is now.

[huckster]

Different neighborhoods in s.a. as kids maybe, but nearly identical recollections to yours rtsat. The Balsa gliders and the ones powered by rubber bands also were cooler, twisted along under its' "fuselage"by winding up the propeller for a couple of minutes , holding and letting go and watching the thing fly off.. It was great ten year old fun. I recall it all very well.
Soda pop was a dime,yes, as were chocolate bars. My one dollar weekly allowance seemed like a lot of money.
Never scrounged for bottle refunds for gas money. I could always find a part-time job pumping gas at a Fina or Texaco.
Filling stations did not pay much $1.15 cents an hour, but a dollar went much farther , Ay?
Out Bandera Rd....at an okd Fina Gas station....
I remember working all week after school in the afternoons and evenings filling cars with gas and wiping windshields with a damp big chamois while it filled and checking tire pressures and oil levels. Mopping and rinsing the cement drives with a huge mop and Tide Detergent was part of the job, weekly. Seems like cars more commonly leaked engine oil back then. There were always slippery spots on the cement "drives".
Getting splattered bugs off windows could be difficult. This was all done on a cash basis, credit card transactions were rare. If so....
We would take the C.card inside the air conditioned office. A double carbon copy of each "on credit" transaction was made on a machine with a manual slider located next to the register. Then run the long card copy with a tissue carbon copy attached underneath back to the auto on a clipboard, have the customer sign for it on the clipboard and then...The signed carbon copy was detached and handed to the customer. We kept the hard copy for the register underneath the coin box..The register would actually ring too, after depressing the numbers on an old style register and pressing or pulling a lever a bell would ring with each sale made.
Then, after all that, we would hand out free glassware and trading stamps and reciepts for all purchases of gasoline over 8 gals. All for under 20 cents a gallon for regular gas.
One time the store manager absconded with all of the receipts from the filling station
where I was working, for I do not know for how long of a time period. The district manager refused to pay us one cent for our work until- a good friend-coworker's mother reported this to the labor board. He paid us immediately, then.
The convenience store clerks have it made today.
Who was it said , "Things were much simpler in the old days?"
The weekly paycheck after taxes amounted to around $25.00. Out of that vast sum had to come my car ins. payment my dad insisted.
I could not drive at all without it , it was not permitted..No liability insurance ?
Fine, then go on foot everywhere you want.

Originally Posted by rctsat

I grew up just a couple of blocks from Victoria Courts, on Canal St. We used to have our St. Michael's CYO baseball practices there in the playground on Labor St. Across the street was the Hi Ho ice house and two short blocks South was an IGA store and a barber shop. We called the Grocery store the Chinaman's store. I remember buying lots of nickle balsa wood gliders there, I loved those little planes. At the Hi Ho we would buy a Nehi soda for eights cents and of course two cents for deposit on the bottle. Did anybody out there ever scrounge the neighborhood for beer and soda bottles so you could get some money to put gas in your car. A dozen bottles would get you more than a gallon of gas.

[Boss Rider]

Originally Posted by SATX56

You're the only one I've ever heard that knows of a previous location of the "Flame". I'm not doubting you, mind you, but I was wondering if you could have been mistaken. So, I'm glad you brought it up again. It recent years... it's occurred to me that the Flame name could have come from the (burn off) flame at the old Howell Refinery.

Don't think I'm wrong about this one. Started going to the Flame when I got my drivers license in early '57. Was going to St. Gerard's at the time, and the nuns told me I shouldn't be going there because it was a "bad influence". LOL

As to the name, didn't the big "The Flame" sign have "Home of the Flame-Kissed Burger” in smaller letters under The Flame? Maybe that was on the wall inside?

[SATX56]

Originally Posted by Boss Rider

Don't think I'm wrong about this one. Started going to the Flame when I got my drivers license in early '57. Was going to St. Gerard's at the time, and the nuns told me I shouldn't be going there because it was a "bad influence". LOL

As to the name, didn't the big "The Flame" sign have "Home of the Flame-Kissed Burger” in smaller letters under The Flame? Maybe that was on the wall inside?

Yeah, I don't doubt your memory Boss. You seem pretty sharp. LOL at the nuns "Bad influence". As for the Flame name it may have been in reference to Flame - kissed or broiled burgers. Beats me. The connection of the flame at the refinery and the "Flame's" name just came to mind recently. Of course it seems the old refinery is in flames itself pretty often.

[TrapperL]

I don't remember the Frontier ever being the Flame either and I lived out there when there was no Goliad Rd. Doesn't mean it's wrong though. I did do a history search on the location and came up with nothing with the Flame name on it or the name Boss Rider had previously posted. Still doesn't mean it wasn't there as leased land was common back then as it is now. Friends of the family had The Ice Pick which would have been right at the Frontier on the same side of the street and that was 1956-1959. But I do intend to ask around. You would think though as prevalent as the car culture was that nobody from the southside remembers my 1934 Ford coupe. It was my daily driver and I was all over the Frontier, Flame, and Bun & Barrel and Highlands High school. The car was bobtailed, scavengers, flat black and loud. Punched out Corvette small block and lots of goodies. So the gist here is that memories are different as we get older. My sister and I never seem to remember the same thing the same way. She's old though.

[SATX56]

Reminds me.. where was the Ize Box? Was that the one at Palfrey and Goliad? Anyway, I know where the old sign is...

[SATX56]

Originally Posted by rctsat

The St Marys skating rink was North of downtown, just a few blocks North of IH 35. It was Tune Wholesale Florist for years after it closed, don't know what it is now.

"St. Mary's Skating Rink" was right here. The Super 8's parking area is pretty much the same as the rinks, The Motel is where the rink was.

Google Maps

Less than 1/2 a block from I-35. The northbound exit to St.Mary's street was changed up around the time Hemisfair came. Don't recall anything else in there before it was torn down. May have been a florist next door to the east.

There was an old big house with junk cars around it fenced in like a wrecker yard at Quincy and St.Mary's. Before Hemisfair that is. If you took the St.Mary's exit off I-35 heading north up Quincy it would be on your left as you approached St.Mary's street. Right here:


Google Maps