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Houston Nostalgia Picture Thread

MaybeACoordinator

By MaybeACoordinator
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Mez2

Mez2 4022

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they're bringing back Magic Island:

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Magic-Island-one-of-Houston-s-most-peculiar-12885584.php?ipid=hpctp#photo-15498182

I went once, when i was like 11 or 12 years old with a family friend - i remember the magic show and eating fettucine alfredo with shrimp for the first time there. we (minors) had to be out by a certain time as it turned into an adult venue but thought it was pretty cool to see. wonder how this will turn out once it's all done

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Texas_Rocks

Texas_Rocks 346

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I had a buddy who knew a manager at Magic Island.   Used to go all the time to watch the close-up, sleight-of-hand stuff.  Some of the best illusions I ever saw. 
And lots of women in those stretch tube dresses. And coke. Had a real vibe to it. 


Old coke was the best.
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Johnny Sack

Johnny Sack 8397

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21 hours ago, David Dennison said:

In the 80s, they were typical luxury boxes for the time. Nothing crazy. I don't remember them being much different than the boxes at the Summit.

You talking about the ones at the very top or the Star-Columbia Suites that were right below the Loge

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  • 3 years later...
MaybeACoordinator

MaybeACoordinator 8349

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One of the "Celestial Suites" in what used to be Roy Hofheinz's Astrodome Hotel, across from both the Dome and Astroworld. There was a whole floor of themed suites and one of them for a time was the world's most expensive hotel room. I guess this is the circus one, but they also ancient Rome, Wild West, London Palace, etc. The hotel is now a boring Crowne Plaza; these suites are all locked up with most of those furnishings still inside. It's been like that for a while -- some reporter got to see them a couple of years ago and there are still phone books and matchbooks and ashtrays in all the rooms.

image.thumb.png.0f4e28f5b1b0ec7b89d28067239b61f5.png 

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billfromlaketravis

billfromlaketravis 11367

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On 5/1/2018 at 2:04 PM, huge said:

how were the SkyBoxes?

 

I never went up there

I remember wolfing down giant bags of popcorn in the SkyBoxes with my little league team. I thought Bagwell was going to hit a homer every time he came up to bat. 

They were extremely affordable towards the end. Group party at Chuckie Cheese cheap. You couldn't see shit, but it was fun being in a "luxury box". 

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Player

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One of the "Celestial Suites" in what used to be Roy Hofheinz's Astrodome Hotel, across from both the Dome and Astroworld. There was a whole floor of themed suites and one of them for a time was the world's most expensive hotel room. I guess this is the circus one, but they also ancient Rome, Wild West, London Palace, etc. The hotel is now a boring Crowne Plaza; these suites are all locked up with most of those furnishings still inside. It's been like that for a while -- some reporter got to see them a couple of years ago and there are still phone books and matchbooks and ashtrays in all the rooms.
image.thumb.png.0f4e28f5b1b0ec7b89d28067239b61f5.png 

Hofheinz was big on themed stuff. The dome had a bunch of themed skyboxes as well. Must’ve been some top notch debauchery going on up there back in the day.

423915b41093a4e01a8a3cdc03551b59.jpg
9b03a35e4396db85eac001ef8d7234fa.jpg
3d49106c71274f7fd8ebe2d0ad746d2e.jpg
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83Horn

83Horn 1638

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On 4/4/2018 at 5:44 PM, Wally Fairway said:

Holy shit, this thread is a trip down memory lane.

I'll never forget the day I looked out my Greenway Plaza office and saw this beauty fly by (well not that shuttle)

8027115003_d9e45b60f5_k.jpg

and downtown kinda looked like this when I moved there

 

[IMG]

My family moved to Houston in 1970, and my dad worked in the then brand-new One Shell.  We were all very proud of the fact that dad worked in "the tallest building west of the Mississippi".

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MaybeACoordinator

MaybeACoordinator 8349

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37 minutes ago, Player said:


Hofheinz was big on themed stuff. The dome had a bunch of themed skyboxes as well. Must’ve been some top notch debauchery going on up there back in the day.

423915b41093a4e01a8a3cdc03551b59.jpg
9b03a35e4396db85eac001ef8d7234fa.jpg
3d49106c71274f7fd8ebe2d0ad746d2e.jpg

Those things -- the suites and the sky boxes -- were like Willy Wonka Land to me. I could sort of see them but never could go in w/o that dang ol' golden ticket.

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Gourmand

Gourmand 7774

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Great thread that hits me hard right now thinking about my childhood inside the loop (79-yr-old mom fighting lung cancer), it's a bummer that so many of the pics from the first two pages aren't showing up for me.

So many places/things I miss from 70's/80's Houston. Leo's, Felix, San Jac Inn, Zorba the Greek, Cap'n Benny's, Uncle Tai's, Angelo's Fisherman's Wharf, the original Butera's grocery store in the Village, the Village Five and Dime, the early years of the Moonlight Bicycle Ramble, sneaking in to Rice Stadium and playing pickup football games on the field, roller skating Friday nights at the Bellaire skating rink in my Jr high years,  my summer bowling pass at Palace Lanes, AstroWorld, the Oilers and Stros in the Dome, working at the Summit in 1986 and seeing damn near every Rockets home game. 

 

Anyone remember this place?

 

spacer.png

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Born Burnt

Born Burnt 6170

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2 hours ago, Gourmand said:

Was that 1977? I remember it. 

1976. Here's a recent article with a video of news coverage of the event when it happened. Pretty intense coverage, not really like you see today. Lulz at the doctor holding a pipe while being interviewed at the 8:06 mark.

https://abc13.com/ammonia-truck-disaster-houston/1332062/

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Gourmand

Gourmand 7774

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26 minutes ago, Born Burnt said:

1976. Here's a recent article with a video of news coverage of the event when it happened. Pretty intense coverage, not really like you see today. Lulz at the doctor holding a pipe while being interviewed at the 8:06 mark.

https://abc13.com/ammonia-truck-disaster-houston/1332062/

For a long time I always thought about that accident and the Jeff Alm incident every time I drove past that freeway interchange. Y'all remember Jeff Alm?

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MaybeACoordinator

MaybeACoordinator 8349

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5 hours ago, Gourmand said:

Great thread that hits me hard right now thinking about my childhood inside the loop (79-yr-old mom fighting lung cancer), it's a bummer that so many of the pics from the first two pages aren't showing up for me.

So many places/things I miss from 70's/80's Houston. Leo's, Felix, San Jac Inn, Zorba the Greek, Cap'n Benny's, Uncle Tai's, Angelo's Fisherman's Wharf, the original Butera's grocery store in the Village, the Village Five and Dime, the early years of the Moonlight Bicycle Ramble, sneaking in to Rice Stadium and playing pickup football games on the field, roller skating Friday nights at the Bellaire skating rink in my Jr high years,  my summer bowling pass at Palace Lanes, AstroWorld, the Oilers and Stros in the Dome, working at the Summit in 1986 and seeing damn near every Rockets home game. 

 

Anyone remember this place?

 

spacer.png

Are you my secret brother? To your list I would add the dangerous playground equipment at Hermann, going to see kids movies like the Red Balloon at the MAFH, watching the sculpture garden go in -- they had a nude gymnast that was extremely anatomically correct, including gaping labia. Sometime in the early '80s we started eating adventurous Chinese food like wontons, hot and sour soup and mu shu pork at places like Lucky Inn in Old Chinatown. World Toy & Gift Shop was the best toy store I ever knew but my grandmother hated having to take me there because she couldn't stand the cranky old sisters who owned it....Getting sophisticated ice cream at places like Neal's and Dolce e Freddo. 

That's Westbury Square, right? Some of the ruins are still there, infested with squatters. There was a colony of hippie Jesus Freaks in there about 20 years ago...Now it's just druggies. My daughter and her mom live in the adjacent condos. 

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Gourmand

Gourmand 7774

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1 hour ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

World Toy & Gift Shop was the best toy store I ever knew but my grandmother hated having to take me there because she couldn't stand the cranky old sisters who owned it....Getting sophisticated ice cream at places like Neal's and Dolce e Freddo. 

Man I forgot about World Toy and Gift, that place was awesome. And Neal's blew my mind when they first came along and shook up the ice cream shop scene from the simplicity of Baskin-Robbins...Weren't they before Marble Slab?

 

1 hour ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

That's Westbury Square, right? Some of the ruins are still there, infested with squatters. There was a colony of hippie Jesus Freaks in there about 20 years ago...Now it's just druggies. My daughter and her mom live in the adjacent condos. 

.Yep, that pic is of Westbury Square outside of Rumpleheimer's. 

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MaybeACoordinator

MaybeACoordinator 8349

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15 minutes ago, Gourmand said:

And Neal's blew my mind when they first came along and shook up the ice cream shop scene from the simplicity of Baskin-Robbins...Weren't they before Marble Slab?

Yeah they were local and I think Dolce e Freddo was too. I had a Neal's sweatshirt I thought was so cool. 

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 104746

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Was world toy in Westbury Square? I remember that being a fancy Christmas shopping destination back in the day.

And in the 80s, we discovered several of the real-deal Chinese restaurants up and down Gessner. My parents were regulars at East Ocean till the owner, Paul, packed up and moved back to Hong Kong. They had some favorite dishes, but often just let Paul bring them food. A couple of times, they got there late and just sat at a big round table and ate dinner with the employees.

It was really cool seeing that scene explode in Houston….then I went to Austin for school, and we had a few American Chinese joints with kung pao chicken and such. Missed the Houston variety.

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