More on hurricanes and long-gone store names
I've never been to New Orleans, so when Katrina hit I had no personal memories that I held onto even tighter. However, I *have* been to the part of Texas that has a chance of being hit by Hurricane Rita. In 1998 my college choir's tour destination was Texas; we spent five days there. One nice day was spent in Galveston, which was a lovely place. I bought my tin whistle there. We spent the night in Texas City, which is across the bay from the island. Because I can't help myself, here are some tidbits from that trip:
~We had spent three days and two nights in Sugar Land, outside Houston. Man, I thought some of the towns around here were snobby--in Sugar Land, you can't have a basketball hoop on your garage and the stores can't have colored light-up signs, so all the strip mall store name signs are white. Sugar Land is the hometown of Tara Lipinski, and we were there right after she won the Olympics. I have a picture of a billboard that says "Welcome Home, Tara" on it. We did a home-stay while we were there, and despite our bedroom's off-white coloring, I left my burgundy windbreaker hanging on the bedpost. I realized it in Texas City. Luckily for me, one of the guys left his wallet at *his* home-stay, so we had to make a detour back to the church we'd performed at.
~The crazy part of the trip became a running joke. We were driving by oil derricks (I think), and my choir director said, look, it's Four Jens Over Texas. (He actually used my last name, but I'd rather not put that here.) They were these really tall iron-looking things, and there were four of them naturally. He then started making up this fake amusement park I would run, and there'd be this "ride" where people would climb up this really tall tower (the Jen), see me there, then commit suicide. Gee, thanks. So anytime after that, whenever someone would see something similar to the derricks, they'd go, look, it's (however many) Jens over (whatever state we were in). Two years later, by which time I'd graduated and should have been gone, we went on a trip to Florida with the same bus driver. As soon as I walked on the bus the driver said, look, it's Four Jens Over Texas! Holy crap. I can't believe he remembered that. It kind of freaked me out, actually. Anyway, the original derricks were in Galveston. I never got a picture of them, but now that Galveston's in the news, every time I see a derrick I think, is that my park?
~One memorable store on the island was called Somewhere in Time. We had actually watched the movie Somewhere in Time on the way down there, so we all kind of freaked when we saw the store. The movie, by the way, is awful--Christopher Reeve goes back in time to meet Jane Seymour, then gets sucked back to his time when he finds a penny in his pocket. That was possibly the first movie we saw on the trip and caused the driver and most of the passengers to ban "chick flicks" for any other trip. What was really freaky was that the shop had a doll that looked like a little old lady version of one of the choir members. It was uncanny.
Okay, enough with the stories. I really hope that much of Galveston is spared. I know it rebuilt itself after the 1900 hurricane, but if the storm isn't that bad for them, there won't be a need to rebuild. We just have to wait and see.
My second topic comes from the Trib and columnist Eric Zorn. He talks about how Marshall Field's isn't the first store to lose its name or disappear completely, and how it won't be the last, and he goes into a list of places I remember from my childhood.
Polk Bros. (furniture)
Montgomery Ward, Goldblatt's, Wieboldt's, Madigans, Service Merchandise (department stores)
Kroch's and Brentano's (books...and NOT related to just Brentano's, which was a sister to WB)
Handy Andy (hardware)
Venture, Zayre (low-end department stores)
Eagle Foods (grocery store)
Wag's, Golden Bear (restaurants)
There were plenty more listed, some of which I recognized, but these are the stores I remember and that my parents and I went to. I loved Wag's and the Golden Bear. I even had a little Wag's raccoon at one point. I got my tennis racket at Service Merchandise. In fact, many of these stores were near the HIP (that would be the Harlem Irving Plaza for you non-Northwest Siders). Venture was our Target, and before that, Zayre. I still have something with a Zayre tag on it...somewhere...even though it's over 20 years old. I remember going to Handy Andy with my dad whenever he built something, like our garage or the downstairs bathroom in our old house. Madigans was mainly clothes, but it's where my mom took me much of the time.
I for one hate seeing things change, even though they have to. I just kind of wish it didn't have to be an icon, you know?
~We had spent three days and two nights in Sugar Land, outside Houston. Man, I thought some of the towns around here were snobby--in Sugar Land, you can't have a basketball hoop on your garage and the stores can't have colored light-up signs, so all the strip mall store name signs are white. Sugar Land is the hometown of Tara Lipinski, and we were there right after she won the Olympics. I have a picture of a billboard that says "Welcome Home, Tara" on it. We did a home-stay while we were there, and despite our bedroom's off-white coloring, I left my burgundy windbreaker hanging on the bedpost. I realized it in Texas City. Luckily for me, one of the guys left his wallet at *his* home-stay, so we had to make a detour back to the church we'd performed at.
~The crazy part of the trip became a running joke. We were driving by oil derricks (I think), and my choir director said, look, it's Four Jens Over Texas. (He actually used my last name, but I'd rather not put that here.) They were these really tall iron-looking things, and there were four of them naturally. He then started making up this fake amusement park I would run, and there'd be this "ride" where people would climb up this really tall tower (the Jen), see me there, then commit suicide. Gee, thanks. So anytime after that, whenever someone would see something similar to the derricks, they'd go, look, it's (however many) Jens over (whatever state we were in). Two years later, by which time I'd graduated and should have been gone, we went on a trip to Florida with the same bus driver. As soon as I walked on the bus the driver said, look, it's Four Jens Over Texas! Holy crap. I can't believe he remembered that. It kind of freaked me out, actually. Anyway, the original derricks were in Galveston. I never got a picture of them, but now that Galveston's in the news, every time I see a derrick I think, is that my park?
~One memorable store on the island was called Somewhere in Time. We had actually watched the movie Somewhere in Time on the way down there, so we all kind of freaked when we saw the store. The movie, by the way, is awful--Christopher Reeve goes back in time to meet Jane Seymour, then gets sucked back to his time when he finds a penny in his pocket. That was possibly the first movie we saw on the trip and caused the driver and most of the passengers to ban "chick flicks" for any other trip. What was really freaky was that the shop had a doll that looked like a little old lady version of one of the choir members. It was uncanny.
Okay, enough with the stories. I really hope that much of Galveston is spared. I know it rebuilt itself after the 1900 hurricane, but if the storm isn't that bad for them, there won't be a need to rebuild. We just have to wait and see.
My second topic comes from the Trib and columnist Eric Zorn. He talks about how Marshall Field's isn't the first store to lose its name or disappear completely, and how it won't be the last, and he goes into a list of places I remember from my childhood.
Polk Bros. (furniture)
Montgomery Ward, Goldblatt's, Wieboldt's, Madigans, Service Merchandise (department stores)
Kroch's and Brentano's (books...and NOT related to just Brentano's, which was a sister to WB)
Handy Andy (hardware)
Venture, Zayre (low-end department stores)
Eagle Foods (grocery store)
Wag's, Golden Bear (restaurants)
There were plenty more listed, some of which I recognized, but these are the stores I remember and that my parents and I went to. I loved Wag's and the Golden Bear. I even had a little Wag's raccoon at one point. I got my tennis racket at Service Merchandise. In fact, many of these stores were near the HIP (that would be the Harlem Irving Plaza for you non-Northwest Siders). Venture was our Target, and before that, Zayre. I still have something with a Zayre tag on it...somewhere...even though it's over 20 years old. I remember going to Handy Andy with my dad whenever he built something, like our garage or the downstairs bathroom in our old house. Madigans was mainly clothes, but it's where my mom took me much of the time.
I for one hate seeing things change, even though they have to. I just kind of wish it didn't have to be an icon, you know?