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Talk A Walk Down Telephone Rd.


Subdude

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Jimmie Menutis Lounge and Club

3236 Telephone at Wayside

Demolished

"Houston's newest and finest ballroom". Looks like they attracted some big names.

menutis.jpg

Turner Motel

3250 Telephone

Demolished

turners.jpg

Christensen Hotel Courts

3500 Telephone

Extant

"Free Radio in Every Unit"

christensen.jpg

Las Vegas Inn

3706 Telephone

Demolished

lasvegasinn.jpg

DuBose Tel-Wink Grill

4318 Telephone

Extant

TelWink.jpg

Old Hickory Stick

4521 Telephone

Demolished

HickoryStick.jpg

Cool cars in the lot.

"We Like It" Trailer Park

4535 Telephone

No longer there.

Notice where someone circled their trailer.

WeLikeIt.jpg

Sembera's Furniture

4661 Telephone

Extant

Semberas.jpg

Skylane Inn ("Home of the Orbit Room")

6747 Telephone

Demolished

Skylane.jpg

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In another thread Ashikaga mentioned he had a picture of the Santa Rosa.  I would like to see it.

A few months ago a person on a different forum took a picture of the Santa Rosa and posted it. I'm looking at my printout right now. This is what is at the top of it:

http://64.4.22.250/cgi-bin/getmsg/DSCN0090...rmbox=F116873...

I have the photo in the folder of my e-mail account. If you can tell me a way that I can forward it to this forum for everyone to see it, let me know.

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Lyrics to "Telephone Road" by Steve Earle.

Telephone Road

(Steve Earle)

My brother Jimmy, my other brother Jack

Went off down to Houston and they never come back

Mama wasn't gonna let her baby go yet

But there ain't nobody hirin' back in Lafeyette

I'm workin' all week for the Texaco check

Sun beatin' down on the back of my neck

Tried to save my money but Jimmy says no

Says he's got a little honey on Telephone Road

Chorus:

Come on come on come on let's go

This ain't Louisianna

Your Mama won't know

Come on come on come on let's go

Everybody's rockin' out on Telephone Road

Telephone Road is ten miles long

Fifty car lots and a hundred honky-tonks

Jukebox blastin' and the beer bottles ring

Jimmy banging on a pinball machine

Chorus

Mama never told me about nothin' like this

I guess Houston's 'bout a big as a city can get

Sometimes I get lonesome for Lafeyette

Someday I'm goin' home but I ain't ready yet

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Detach the picture from the email and save it on your hard drive.  Then if you send it to me as an attachment to a PM I can upload it.

I can't do what you say because I don't own a computer. I use the ones down at the Public Libraries, which is where I'm at now. If you can give me any e-mail address, I can forward it to that address.

The e-mail address of the person who took and posted the picture is:

"vstream02@earthlink.net." Maybe if you e-mailed him he would forward it to you.

I've reached my allotted computer time limit here at the library in Port Neches. I won't be back on until 1:00 p.m. when the library in Bridge City opens.

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Sevfiv just told me that in a PM.  :(  I think in honor of the Ranger I'll post the old motels on OST.

If you can find one of the Alamo Motel on OST at Calhoun (across from the Whataburger), that would be excellent.

The Alamo is still there today, and still looks good from the outside.

As a UH alum, I sometimes wonder if that wouldn't be a good place for UH student housing. I know there's an old motel in Alpine (also on US 90/OST, by the way, just a few hundred miles down) that a lot of Sul Ross students live in. The Bienvenido, I think it's called. I think it still has motel rooms, but a number of people just rent them by the semester.

UH did turn an old motel across the Gulf Freeway (next to Fingers?) into graduate student housing, so it can be done. The photos of the place look very nice.

I love OST. In fact, I usually take OST to get to Gulfgate, rather than the South Loop. It's a much more interesting drive, and only takes a few minutes longer.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Jimmie Menutis Lounge and Club

3236 Telephone at Wayside

Demolished

"Houston's newest and finest ballroom".  Looks like they attracted some big names.

menutis.jpg

Turner Motel

3250 Telephone

Demolished

turners.jpg

Christensen Hotel Courts

3500 Telephone

Extant

"Free Radio in Every Unit"

christensen.jpg

Las Vegas Inn

3706 Telephone

Demolished

lasvegasinn.jpg

DuBose Tel-Wink Grill

4318 Telephone

Extant

TelWink.jpg

Old Hickory Stick

4521 Telephone

Demolished

HickoryStick.jpg

Cool cars in the lot. 

"We Like It" Trailer Park

4535 Telephone

No longer there.

Notice where someone circled their trailer.

WeLikeIt.jpg

Sembera's Furniture

4661 Telephone

Extant

Semberas.jpg

Skylane Inn ("Home of the Orbit Room")

6747 Telephone

Demolished

Skylane.jpg

I just looked at a street map of Houston. Telephone Road is indeed a major thoroughfare. It traverses and bisects almost all of the city north/south.

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Subdude, here's another one for ya:

Telephone Road

Rodney Crowell

Rain came down in sheets of thunder

Lightning bolts split pine trees down to the roots

In the shadow of the Astrodome

With a hurricane coming on strong

We used to hit the streets and go swimming in our birthday suits

Skiing in a bar ditch behind a Moped

Thirteen stitches on the corner of a sardine can

We were dirt poor Houston kids

Our whole family living on the skids

But we always had a nickel for the coming of the ice cream man

Mosquito truck blowing up DDT

Barefoot heathens running wild and free

Air raid buzzer at a noon day scream

Living in a dream on Telephone Road

I used to love them cherry cokes

down at the Prince's Drive-In

The cheeseburgers taste so good I about come untied

There's a China Tree I remember

I used to climb in and out of my window

The night I left was on the day before my grandma died

Sawdust spread out on a dance hall floor

jukebox ripping at an all out roar

Barmaid smiling at a 10-cent tip

living is a trip on Telephone Road

Magnolia garden bandstand on the very front row

Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and The Killer putting on a show

Six years old and just barely off my daddy's knee

when those rockabilly rebels sent the devil running through me

Drive-in movie in the trunk of my car

One-eyed sailor in an icehouse bar

Spit Shine Charlie and ol' Peg Leg Bill

dressed up fit to kill on Telephone Road

Barbecue and beer on ice

A salty watermelon slice

at the Little Taste of Paradise on Telephone Road

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Wow. Those songs are classic and hilarious. I am going to have to dig the real tunes up now. Now I know part of the reason we have our current reputation and it sure shows how much we've changed.

I was just talking today to a 47 year old woman who grew up on Maxie St. over near Wash. & Durham. Old Texas rednecks were still everywhere. Northside too. Houston's gone "big city" in the past 40 years.

Those times and people are largely gone. Those songs need to be radically updated;

Steve Earle's song, updated

We all came to Houston, the family Salazar.

Straight from the river to the trunk of a car

Abuelita stayed home but the rest of us are gone,

Cause we can't make money back in Michoacan

We all found work building Perry Homes

Digging ditches in the sun puts an ache in my bones

I saved and bought some tools so I could help with the roof

but when the Migra came I left them cause I have no proof

.................

Just having some fun, no bad feelings intended and I hope I haven't offended anyone. :) There could be a humorous song made about any group of people.

These photos and songs really give us perspective on how radically things can change in 40 years. The area's changing again and the song is going to need updating soon.

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Wow. Those songs are classic and hilarious. I am going to have to dig the real tunes up now. Now I know part of the reason we have our current reputation and it sure shows how much we've changed.

I was just talking today to a 47 year old woman who grew up on Maxie St. over near Wash. & Durham. Old Texas rednecks were still everywhere. Northside too. Houston's gone "big city" in the past 40 years.

Those times and people are largely gone. Those songs need to be radically updated;

Steve Earle's song, updated

We all came to Houston, the family Salazar.

Straight from the river to the trunk of a car

Abuelita stayed home but the rest of us are gone,

Cause we can't make money back in Michoacan

We all found work building Perry Homes

Digging ditches in the sun puts an ache in my bones

I saved and bought some tools so I could help with the roof

but when the Migra came I left them cause I have no proof

.................

Just having some fun, no bad feelings intended and I hope I haven't offended anyone.  :) There could be a humorous song made about any group of people.

These photos and songs really give us perspective on how radically things can change in 40 years. The area's changing again and the song is going to need updating soon.

Wow, you really know how to make someone feel. I'm a 47-year-old man.

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Subdude, here's another one for ya:

Telephone Road

Rodney Crowell

Rain came down in sheets of thunder

Lightning bolts split pine trees down to the roots

In the shadow of the Astrodome

With a hurricane coming on strong

We used to hit the streets and go swimming in our birthday suits

Skiing in a bar ditch behind a Moped

Thirteen stitches on the corner of a sardine can

We were dirt poor Houston kids

Our whole family living on the skids

But we always had a nickel for the coming of the ice cream man

Mosquito truck blowing up DDT

Barefoot heathens running wild and free

Air raid buzzer at a noon day scream

Living in a dream on Telephone Road

I used to love them cherry cokes

down at the Prince's Drive-In

The cheeseburgers taste so good I about come untied

There's a China Tree I remember

I used to climb in and out of my window

The night I left was on the day before my grandma died

Sawdust spread out on a dance hall floor

jukebox ripping at an all out roar

Barmaid smiling at a 10-cent tip

living is a trip on Telephone Road

Magnolia garden bandstand on the very front row

Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and The Killer putting on a show

Six years old and just barely off my daddy's knee

when those rockabilly rebels sent the devil running through me

Drive-in movie in the trunk of my car

One-eyed sailor in an icehouse bar

Spit Shine Charlie and ol' Peg Leg Bill

dressed up fit to kill on Telephone Road

Barbecue and beer on ice

A salty watermelon slice

at the Little Taste of Paradise on Telephone Road

Thanks! :D I wasn't around then, but is so cool in a way that Houston, and especially Telephone Road, used to have such a rough, funky, down-in-the-dirt image. Maybe a little bit dangerous. Maybe we come off as a little bland as compared to back in the day. Our image then seems like it was a lot more larger than life than it is now. I also get that impression from the Fuermann books.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Jimmie Menutis Lounge and Club

3236 Telephone at Wayside

Demolished

"Houston's newest and finest ballroom".  Looks like they attracted some big names.

menutis.jpg

Turner Motel

3250 Telephone

Demolished

turners.jpg

Christensen Hotel Courts

3500 Telephone

Extant

"Free Radio in Every Unit"

christensen.jpg

Las Vegas Inn

3706 Telephone

Demolished

lasvegasinn.jpg

DuBose Tel-Wink Grill

4318 Telephone

Extant

TelWink.jpg

Old Hickory Stick

4521 Telephone

Demolished

HickoryStick.jpg

Cool cars in the lot. 

"We Like It" Trailer Park

4535 Telephone

No longer there.

Notice where someone circled their trailer.

WeLikeIt.jpg

Sembera's Furniture

4661 Telephone

Extant

Semberas.jpg

Skylane Inn ("Home of the Orbit Room")

6747 Telephone

Demolished

Skylane.jpg

To me, this topic and category has been the best one. I look at those photos from a historical perspective. For example, the motels with people around the swimming pool that have been demolished. It would be interesting today to go to one of those and stand there and look. One would try to envision what once happened many years ago on that spot of ground. You would see everyone on a hot summer day cooling off in the pool, and all of the kids shouting, "Mommy, watch me!"

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  • 2 months later...

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