I remember when...

S

ScoPro

1,000+ Posts
....when the Treehouse restaurant was the Pig Stand.

....when some streets near the Capitol were gravel.

....when Anderson Lane to 183 area was a ranch.

....when a homebuilder thought the pasture land at Parker Lane & Riverside Drive was over priced @ $200/acre.

....When Miss Hattie's M&M Court on S. Congress was out in the country.

....When there were separate facilities for "whites and colored" all over town.
 
...when we stopped saying the Lords Prayer in school
...watching the Apollo missions return to earth on TV at school
...seeing Elvis at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
...going to Astroworld the first summer it was open
...when Houston had a Busch Gardens Park
...my dad coming home with a brand new AMC Gremlin
...my dad coming home with a brand new VW Thing
...wearing cut off jeans and LONG tube socks that came up to just under your knees, with three color stripes on top
...puka shell necklaces and Hang Ten shirts
...leisure suits
...PF Flyers
...watching Reggie Jackson hit 4 home runs on 4 pitches in the World Series
 
I was a little kid, but I remember:

-The Stallion - great burgers

-Far West Boulevard, and Parmer Lane were gravel roads

-Burnet Road when it was 1325, and where it intersected with 183 (which had no upper deck and was two lanes in either direction) was the edge of town.

-When a great weekend consisted of my Dad taking me and my brother to Memorial Stadium, where it would be full of people, and you could actually go out and play on the field.

-Night Hawk Restaurant

-When Texans still revelled in their reputation for being fast drivers, and wanting to actually get where they were going

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When I was born, my house was way the hell out in Anderson Mill and the intersection of 183 and 620 was a four-way stop sign. I'm not very old, but that probably just underscores how fast that area of town has developed.
 
I'm 32 and grew up in Travis Heights, I remember...

going to a skate party on 183 and mopac and it being in the middle of no where.

Getting my aquafest pins at McDonalds and not worrying about going with an adult.

Jorges on Pleasent Valley was the family's favorite mexican food.

The sports park on Pleasant Valley was my favorite place to go.

Twin oaks shopping center was the ****. I would buy everything at Winn's.

On E. riverside, my mom would go to Minimax, then Safeway, and I would go to the comic store, and Half price books.

My dad taking me to The Armadillo.

Seeing the Beach Boys on Auditorium shors.

Trying to sell our house in the real estate crash for 2 years. After selling our house for around eighty thousand in travis heights, being one of the only houses in Circle C ranch. (The house in travis heights is now 700+)
 
.....when Holiday House had the most hamburger locations

.....when The Nighthawk had the most steakhouses

.....when Harolds on Mopac was The Barn on Balcones

.....when the Hyatt on Town Lake was Christie's Seafood

.....when Barton Springs did not have a fence

.....when Chuys was Shady Grove Washateria

.....when the State and Paramount were movie theatres

.....when the warehouse district had trains and tracks

.....when Sunken Gardens was open

.....when the Chicken Ranch was open

.....when the Short Horn was open

.....when the Wendys on S Lamar was the Split Rail

.....when Taco Cabana on S Lamar was a bait shop

.....when Serranos at Symphony Sq was New Orleans Club
 
I remember when there was GM Steak House on the Drag, and Mad Dog and Beans was across from the Castillian. There was a Fresh Plus food market where there is not a bike shop across from UNiversity Towers.
 
-going to eat at Convict Hill was going on a drive out of town for dinner
-that car dealership on Koenig was Taco Fiesta and you could get 44 oz. margaritas at the drive thru.
-MoPac opened
-the "big" HEB on Burnet and Koenig opened. It was the flagship (now it seems small).
-you had to actually drive across Mansfield Dam. My driver's ed teacher loved to scare us and take us across that because it had some thing that jetted out, makingthe lane about 3 feet narrower.
-Suzi's was CoCo's.
-CoCo's was JoJo's
-Wally's was Dairy Queen
-Randall's was Apple Tree
-Apple Tree was Safeway
-Lakeview Cafe was Lakeview Cafe
-Maggie Mae's was Maggie Mae's
-Hard Rock Cafe was Mirage

Good call on the Magic Time Machine.

The Stallion ruled.
 
whew let me see....
...Hancock Center was the place to go shopping and Sears was the largest store there.
....The railroad tracks crossed IH35 and traffic would have to stop.
...The Americana Theatre was the largest theatre in Austin
...The Texas bonfire/pep rally was held at Riverside and Pleasant Valley.
....You could walk down E. Riverside Dr. safely
...There were no upper decks on IH 35
....there were Drag Boat Races on Town Lake
....Aqua Fest was held at Fiesta Gardens and had "theme" nights.
...Austin Country Club was on E. Riverside
...The Legends of Golf was played at Onion Creek CC and an excuse to skip school.
...Disch Falk Opened
...Several members of the wild bunch had more hair.
...Superior Dairy was next to Palm School
...The was a poultry company at 8th and 35 across from the police station
...You could drive through the bank at 7th and Colorado
...Davis Hardware was at 5th and Congress
...F.W. Woolworths was on Congress
...Dan of Dans was the manager of King Burger on S. Congress.
...Bergstrom was an Air Force Base
...There was only one funeral home in South Austin
...Highland Mall before the addition of the Foleys wing.
...The Austin American Statesman was located at 4th and Guadalupe
...The Gold Bank ( last I remeber was MBank) tower at 6th and Lavaca downtown
....The main post office was across from First Baptist Church downtown.
...The Police motorcycles had three wheels.
...Fire call boxes were on Utility poles around town.
 
My memories of Austin go back to about 1950.

I've never lived in Austin, but I was there fairly often.

I remember when the Capitol was still the tallest building in town and South Congress Avenue was the highway between Austin and San Antonio, while North Lamar was the highway going North to Dallas.

And Threadgill's on North Lamar Blvd. sold gas.

Congress Avenue downtown had brick paving.

I remember going to track meets and football games at Memorial Stadium before DKR was the coach.

I remember the baseball park with Billy Goat Hill at the wall in centerfield.

I believe I remember going to Barton Springs Pool before there was any fence around it, but maybe I was just to young to remember seeing it.

I do remember how cold the water was.

I remember when El Matt's was on East 1st Street.

I remember dirt too, dirt was here before me.

So I’m NOT older than dirt.

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I remember segregated rest rooms, movies, restaurants, lunch counters and schools.

The first black man I ever shook hands with was Freddie King when I got to play one gig backing him on bass in the sixties.

I got to play one show with Chuck Berry too, but we never shook hands or spoke.

I remember gasoline price wars that had prices down as low as 15 cents a gallon.

And manual gasoline pumps at some stations and long after that how the attendant was anxious to clean all your windows and check the oil and air with no tip expected.

I remember when electric guitars first appeared in music stores.

I bought 78 RPM records by Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and later early Elvis Presley.

My friend's parents had a reel to reel recorder that used wire instead of tape.

I remember when Fritos and Dr. Pepper were unknown outside of Texas.

I remember listening to black radio stations, because they had the best music until the early ‘60s.

I remember assuming that Buddy Holly was black, since he sounded so cool.

I remember electric streetcars in Dallas, where I grew up, and steam locomotives pulling some passenger trains.

In 1949 I rode a steam passenger train from Dallas to Houston and back to see Dallas Sunset HS play Houston Reagan HS for the State Big City Football Championship.

I remember when all automobiles had a divided front windshield not a wrap-around.

And when no cars had turn indicators and some had no brake or back up lights.

I remember double features at movies and news reels, cartoons at every showing and cliff-hanging serials.

And yo-yo contests on Saturday mornings at the Kiddie Show.

Saw the original "King Kong" as a re-release in a movie theater and saw the original "War Of The Worlds" on a big screen too, before Speilberg redid it.

I remember meeting the Lone Ranger and Tonto when their movie came out.

I shook hands with Lassie too; my mother's cousin was Jack Wrather who owned the Lone Ranger and Lassie.

I remember when home air-conditioning was a window-mounted, water flow, evaporative cooler that you could put a big block of ice in for a special occasion.

I remember ice wagons pulled by horses and ice boxes instead of refrigerators.

I remember milkmen.

And walking postmen, 3 cent stamps and penny postcards.

There were no ZIP codes.

My home phone number was FE-4289, then FE-1-4289; there were no area codes and all long distance was through operators.

The FE stood for FEderal.

I remember when there were no interstate highways and to go across the country you drove down the main street of every hamlet, town, small city and big city (hitting all their stop lights and even stop signs) on your route.

I remember when there were some traffic circles (instead of intersections) in Dallas and Waco.

I remember back when you drove from Dallas to Fort Worth, you went through the separate towns of Irving, Grand Prairie and Arlington and there were bunches of farmhouses with windmills, barns, fields and cows in between.

I remember Hula Hoops, paper dolls, Bonnie Braids, Tiny Tears, Betsy Wetsy and the introduction of Barbie, because I have a little sister.

I remember when Lincoln Logs, Erector Sets, Tinker Toys and Lionel Trains were high on my Christmas list.

I had a Davy Crockett coonskin cap and cap pistols.

Besides fire drills in elementary school, we also did atomic bomb drills.

You would all go into an interior hallway, away from the windows, get right against the wall and curl up on your knees and elbows on the floor with your hands over your head and your eyes closed.

From this position, we joked, you could also more easily kiss your *** goodbye.

We listened to "Gunsmoke," "Dragnet," "Fibber McGee and Molly," "The Green Lantern," "The Shadow" and "The Hit Parade" on radio until we got a black and white TV in 1953.

Others in our neighborhood had TVs much earlier than us and I got to watch "Flash Gordon," "Howdy Doody," "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" and "Hopalong Cassidy" at my friends' houses.

There were NO movies on TV at all (not even old ones), because Hollywood wouldn't let the competing home screens have their product.

The first movies I remember on TV were old B&W Westerns, like "The Three Mesquiteers" with a young John Wayne, on weekend afternoons.

Sports programming on TV was mostly restricted to daytime major league baseball and later a few football games started being televised.

I remember sitting in the Cotton Bowl and even in the pressbox when that stadium was a showplace.

I remember seeing Candy Barr's name on the marquee of a burlesque house in Dallas.

I remember seeing my first nudie flick, "The Immoral Mister Teas," an early porn classic directed by Russ Meyer, at the Coronet Theater in Big D.

His greatest movie was the later "Faster, Pussycat. Kill. Kill."

I remember when Bridgette Bardot starred in Roger Vadim's "And God Created Woman."

My wife grew up in Fredericksburg where ALL phone calls went through a local switchboard operator who said "Number please" when you picked up the phone (unless someone else was already on the party line).

There was never a dial tone and the local numbers were just three digits.

I remember going to Sears Roebuck and riding the newfangled escalators for amusement while my parents shopped.

And I remember when you looked at the shoes (new or otherwise) on your feet through a fluoroscope (a low power X-ray machine) in that same store to see how much future growing room there was left available for your toes.

I remember when polio crippled bunches of kids and iron lungs were needed for some of the stricken to breathe.

My wife remembers when doctors made house calls for the very sick and her brother was saved by a new experimental miracle drug called penicillin.

I remember when all soft drinks (like Coke, NEHI, Big Red, Orange and Grape CRUSH) cost a nickle and another penny for deposit, which would be refunded when/if you brought the bottle back.

Bottled soft drinks were kept at gas stations and, later, at convenience stores in big metal coolers with ice water in them.

When you stuck your hand down in that icy water to search for the specific drink you were thirsting for, it was so cold that you had to grab the first bottle you found.

And then you would keep doing that, repeatedly allowing your hand to warm up, until you fished out just the kind of drink you wanted.

I would get movie money by riding around on my bike, collecting discarded reusable bottles to turn in for instant cash.

I remember the first 7/11 convenience store ever, in Dallas on Hampton Road.

I remember dust storms that blackened the sky for a whole day.

And horny toads being almost the most common wild critter you'd see.

But, like I said, I know that dirt was here before me, so I am not older than dirt.

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..... Sneaking in the back way to Austin was coming in on Riverside
..... Going to Sears at Hancock mall and do all the family's Christmas shopping in one day
..... The circus animals being unloaded from the train in downtown
..... Conan's Pizza
..... The only McDonalds was at Capital Plaza
..... Seeing Star Wars at the Capital Plaza theater. Dad said it was "too loud"
..... IBM was built way out in the sticks
..... Round Rock was a 2A school
..... Westlake was a 3A school
..... 38th 1/2 street was north Austin, and 51st was far north
..... trains crossing I-35
..... Being sure Bergstrom was going to be one of the Russian's first targets
..... Red Lobster was one of the fanciest restaurants in Austin
..... The Spaghetti Warehouse was The Old Spaghetti Warehouse
..... Junior/Senior proms were held in the high school gym or cafeteria
..... Uncle Dolph
..... Austin Army/Navy store
..... When the "Big O" stood for Oscar Snowden's
..... Your bank statement was on a card you carried with you to the bank
..... When everything was closed on Sundays
..... When milkmen delivered
..... When you didn't buy meat, you butchered it
..... The state high school basketball tournament was in Gregory Gym
..... When Memorial stadium had General Admission seats
 
When Pflugerville had its long winning streak going as a Class B football power.

When the Dripping Springs ISD included what is now the Lake Travis ISD and all the schools were in Dripping Springs.

When old Anderson HS was open.

When old Austin HS was open.
 
This is making me homesick for all the places from my childhood - sad that many are not around anymore.

.....Youngblood's Fried Chicken on Lamar and the Kiddie Park across the street
....Slaughter's Grocery on 19th Street
....The Canary Hut - oh, that chocolate ice box pie!!
....Green Acres Miniature Golf
....the old Kappa Sig house on the hill
....Picadilly Cafeteria downtown

I know I'm forgetting some others.
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Yepper, that was it! They had pony rides AND bumper cars so it was a popular place.

Anyone remember 2-J's Hamburgers on North Lamar? A forerunner of McDonalds, I guess.
 
I remember when you could tell what part of town someone lived in by the prefix of their home phone number.

258 was north 183
345,346 was northwest hills area
477,476 et. al was Tarrytown/Pemberton
328, 327 was Westlake/Rollingwood
288 was deep southwest Austin
454, 458 was Allandale area
others?
 
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