Anyway, deals were struck with both the donut and pizza guys.
I was on hand for opening day at the Astrodome and saw Mickey Mantle hit the first homerun in the Dome. I then got a job with Harry Martin Catering selling popcorn and I kept that job all thru high school.
My younger brother also went to St. Vincent De Paul and he was a classmate of Eric Hilton, Paris's uncle. The Hiltons were living atop the Shamrock back then and my brother was invited to hang out there with Eric and friends and torment the chefs and jewelers.
It was great to grow up in Houston and I have many friends still there. I don't miss the traffic. It gets just as hot or hotter here in Tulsa than Houston and I miss the Gulf.
But, it's always a quick Southwest flight away and I'm making plans for a baseball/fishing trip for later this summer.
Let's see - the Dunkin Donuts is still there, but the Shakey's has been an Enterprise rental car place for quite a while, if it's the next building west that I'm thinking about. Right across from Holy Ghost. Yeah, that's the Triangle.
I took my first driver's test close by and my friend took me to that Baskin-Robbins afterwards, when I flunked parallel parking. I had never taken driver's ed because I was too young in OK, then moved here and was old enough to get my license. I'm a year older than Randy and a few years older than Dennis. Never knew either one.
Wasn't here for the Astrodome opening, but came down a few weeks later from OK with family. We moved here in July and I think my first game that I went to in the Dome was a Cardinals game, because I was a big fan of theirs, but I could be wrong. If Stan the Man was still playing and had been here, I'd remember it - I was a huge fan of his. How exciting for you to see MM hit *that* homer!
I remember that some of the Hiltons lived here then, but didn't know how that would be in relation to Paris, lol. How fun to hang with them! Remember the diving board at the pool there? I *never* dove from it.
We had moved here from just north of you - mom was from Tulsa. Lived up Hwy 75 twice and here in Houston twice, as far as childhood. More moves back and forth as an adult.
So, have you tried Ike's chili? It's Cincinnati-style, like you get "three-way" with spaghetti. It is *not* Texas chili. It's dark brown and has to have some vinegar put in it (IMO) to cut it a bit. Anyway, it was my first taste of chili as a kid and I still put vinegar in my chili, almost always. And I was the state champion chili cook up there at one time - but a whole different kind of chili and no vinegar. Or beans.