Memories

A former coworker sent me an email last night with a collection of photos from Houston in the 50’s.  The one above generated a lot of fond memories.

Every Saturday we went to “Fun Club” at the Garden Oaks Theater.  Admission was 9 cents – later went up to 11 – and that got you two feature films, a couple of cliff-hanger serials and a half dozen cartoons.  There was usually some live entertainment, too, or a demo by the guy from Duncan Yo-yos.

Security was provided by “Tiny” Romans, the largest officer on the Houston police force.  He was a sweet guy who loved kids, but we were all a little afraid of him because he was huge.  Kids said he had once killed a robber by dropping on him from a store roof -  probably not true, but we all believed it.

The theater was a 15 minute bike ride from my house – half an hour if I met up with friends.  Occasionally, we could get one of our mothers to take us, or, once in a while if we thought we had enough money, we would ride the Garden Oaks shuttle bus.

We often collected bottles during the week to finance our Saturday entertainment. A quarter would get you the shows, a coke and a bag of popcorn or box of Jr. Mints.