Barbara Brault (Johnson)

Thanks for posting this sad news BJ.  I know you and Lynn were close.  It's hard to lose someone you've known most of your life.  Take care.

Michael Bell

Happy New Year to all of you out there. May we all have many more. It is difficult to realize how time is marching on. Enjoy all the blessings of life and hold our loved ones close. 50th is soon to be enjoyed.

Stephen Ray Puckett

Happy New Year to all y'all!

Hmmm.  Seems like I am dreaming of warmth and greenery.  I must be cold up here in NY!

Speaking of our 50th reunion coming up, it would be nice to compile for it a list of class accomplishments.  I remember something about us doing pretty good in UIL, etc.

Joanna Hinton (Garrett)

My husband and I moved out of Dallas because of the high taxes.  Little did we know that in moving to Como, TX and really just having Como, TX address and living out rurall.  Our water bill was cut to a 1/4, our electric cut to a 1/4, being on propaine and our taxes droping from $14K to $2224/year, My closest neighbor is a cow barn and the cows like to see us from time to time. 

Truman E ("tj") Spring

Let's all calendar Aug 28-29 for our 50th. So *hard* to believe. Fifty. Cincuenta. L.

I went to my wife Jane's (Rhoads) 50th at the Woodlands in October, and it was fantastic. I'm sure I saw several of you there that I'll see this coming August, Lord willin' and the bayou don't rise.

Joanna Hinton (Garrett)

I've got it on my calendar and mercy, I'm going to have to go to Dallas to buy a new outfit - an escape from the country to the big city excuse.

Stephen Ray Puckett

I've been thinking about eating some Mexican food this weekend.  Yes, we have a few good ones where I live here but I have fond memories of Monterey House.  We would get it 'take out' at the MH on 43rd or on Ella in Timbergrove.  Mom usually got the 'Summer Special'.  Yum!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_J4Agf1qM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4n6DdvyAF4

James King

There is a Monterey House in Beaumont, Texas.  That's the only one I know of.

Stephen Ray Puckett

The Beaumont location has been run by the LeJeune family since 1963 (website: http://montereyhousebmt.com plus they have a Facebook page). The chain was started in 1955.  In 1987, ShowBiz Pizza Time, Inc. acquired Monterey House and reorganized the chain, moving food preparation in-house to each restaurant and changed the name to Monterey's Tex-Mex Cafe. In May 1994, Monterey's Acquisition Corporation acquired Monterey's, later changing the corporate name to Mexican Restaurants, Inc. (website http://mexicanrestaurantsinc.com).  MRI today operates and franchises 57 Mexican restaurants. The current system includes 46 Company-operated restaurants, 10 franchisee operated restaurants and one licensed restaurant (the 1 in Beaumont?).  The current system includes five brands: Casa Ole, Mission Burrito (renamed Uberrito Mexican Grill), Monterey’s Little Mexico (which says it was established in 1955), Tortuga Mexican Kitchen and Crazy Jose’s.

That wonderful MH candy is being made again, again by La Colmena.  See https://www.facebook.com/pages/La-Colmena-Mexican-Candy-Jesse-Bocanegra-Tribute-Page/519958054684054 or write lacolmena.gina@gmail.com   Some folks have tried to duplicate the recipe at home.  Check around the internet for 'leche quemada' (aka burnt milk candy) or write me for one from a friend. 

Hope this helps!

Lindy Clarke (Hall)

Most of the Monterrey House restaurants became Little Mexico(s)... and no matter what the new name, you can go in and order a Monterrey dinner and it will come out EXACTLY the same as it always did. The one on 290 near Mangum may have a new name, but we still call it Monterrey House, and go there fairly often. 

Roger Felton

Thanks Lindy...We had a Monterrey House here in Victoria back when the Dead Sea still had a pulse.  Long time ago.  I think they combined the Mexican with Afro-American cuisine and they now call it the Nacho Mama.  Ok, not really, but their food sure is good.

Jacquie Campbell (Biggs)

First place I ever ate guacamole and queso.  Mother and I would drive there, place the order, and sit in one of the wooden desks/chairs around the room waiting for our order.  We would try to get the food home just about the time my dad got home from work so it was still "hot."  No microwave to rewarm anything.

Roger Felton

Wow, Jacquie, what a great memory to recall and share.  It's funny how things like that from so long ago can still pop in our mind so clearly that we can almost taste it.  Thanks!

Bernard Brady

The Mont. House was our favorite. It was located across the street from Oak Forest Elementary. We lived on Chamboard - two blocks away, and I could have it home on my bike while it was still warm.  My mother was a nurse for Dr. Spankus by Waltrip and I could usually beat her home with three meals.  My Dad was long gone by the time I was 10. I remember the dinners being .69 each in the white boxes and there was no sales tax back then. Every now and again they would put the little Mexican candy in the boxes. Wonderful.

Great memories.  We loved Felix also.

Bernard

Stephen Ray Puckett

Felix's was where we went for 'fancy' Mexican food, especially with out-of-town visitors.  I loved the queso.  The 1st restaurant, on Westheimer, opened in 1948 but closed in 2008.  Sad.

El Patio soon began carrying "Felix's" dishes and still do.

Roger Felton

Of course, when I wanted to impress a girl with a really upscale fine dining experience I'd take her to Doyle's Pizza.  Hey, what was the name of that burger joint right smack dab against the Waltrip parking lot where the black leather jacket guys used to go to smoke a cigarette?  Can't remember...

Joanna Hinton (Garrett)

I remember Doyles quite well.  When he and his wife first opened the pizza place it was on Oak Forest just before you crossed the railroad tracks and the restaurant was only a two seater at the bar and take out only.  On Friday nights my parents and Tom and Joan Feahery would meet there after closing time.  Leo and his wife would always have a huge pizza made for all of us and my brother, Joe and I would sit in the back and fold all the boxes for the weekend takeouts.  He'd pay us with some of his Italian candy.  They also had a deli case and would make cold cut sandwiches.  Then as business made it possible, Leo opened the place on 34th across from Gary Jordan's father's business.  I always remember the big sign of "PIZZAISALWAYSEATENWITHTHEHANDS" over the order booth for take out.  The Doyles were from New York and Leo's mother and my grandmother taught school together in New Rochelle, NY.  Their business grew and finally their kids got old enough to work in the restaurant.  As for the burger shack, I spent many a date night on Fridays for just a coke (would double date with Gary and Marylin Wolfe and Marylin's brother, Roger (who was in the class of '64 and is now deceased).  It was a place for setting up drag races to see who could out race each other.  Favorite place for that was Magum Road because of a high hilly place in the road it self.  As for the guys in the black jackets smoking, I wonder how many of you knew that the convenience store next to the burger shack was selling drugs out of the meat department?  I found out about this way after we had graduated.  My family was very poor and the butcher would always save the "ends" of the cold cuts and give them to my mother each Saturday morning.  The wonders our parents pulled off for us just so we could eat.

Stephen Ray Puckett

Was the burger joint the Chuc Wagun (#9, later the Minuteman)?  Wheel Burger, Hub Burger, Spoke Dog.  Something called the Wagonmaster, Tub O'Coke, and a 'suicide' drink with different flavors & straws. Nearby was also The Gizmo.  I did not find a good photo of 'our' Chuc Wagun but found a photo of a similar one of the chain in Waco.

The first "Italian" restaurant I ever ate at was Doyle's.  They had the first pizza I ate - I loved it and wondered that my classmates had never heard of pizza.  Pizza was rare in Houston in those days, not like today.  Later I had pizza at Valian's, then DePaul's on Shepherd and Pino's near UofH.  All this was very fine pizza so, early on, I set the standards bar very high for pizza.  I think that Doyle's (1954) actually carried pizza before Valian's (1955) who is generally considered to have the first pizza in Houston. Certainly Doyle's carried it before Pino's (1960) and DePaul's (mid-1960's, I think).

Stephen Ray Puckett

Thanks, Joanna - that's a great story. I vaguely remember being little & sitting at a bar at Doyle's, presumably waiting on take-out.  Was the meat market Brannan's? We occasionally got meat there.  There was an older guy there who kept a cigar in his mouth - Mr Flowers, I think.

Joanna Hinton (Garrett)

Steve, it was Brannan's and it had a green front.  And it was the Chuck Wagon and it had places to pull in and park that was on the side next to the school parking lot.

Dorothy Fowler (Montgomery)

Roger, I guess you nhjever wanted to impress me as you never asked me out but we were friends.

Dorothy

Carol Lynn Thamer (Hanson)

I totally remember Brannan's. We would go there on the weekends when Minimax was closed on Shepherd.  I lived on Chuck Wagon burgers and Doyle's thru high school.  I sat outside one summer night at the Chuc Wagon in my dad's Thunderbird and talked to my friends--the the AC on.  Burned up his T-bird motor.  He wasn't happy but as long as I kept making good grades, he was OK. Memories.  Love--Carol Thamer Hanson   

Roger Felton

Yeah Dorothy, I was pretty much a bonehead.  Usually I only approached girls who looked like they couldn't run very fast.  The best compliment I could get in my yearbook from my girlfriends was, "He always paid up front". 

I always thought you were gorgeous and would have loved to take you to Doyle's....or anywhere else for that matter.  Only problem was you never had a boyfriend that was smaller than me, daggnabbitt. 

Roger Felton

Great story, Joanna.  So many terrific memories and I think we should all stop once in a while and, not just remember, but share those times.  Right now I'm thinking back to the summer of '63 when Dad was doing chemical research for the government in Denton, TX.  He was a chemistry teacher at Reagan and we'd travel all over the country each summer while Dad did his stuff with the bunsen burner.

In Denton, I met a really amazing guy named Gene who turned out to be Pat Boone's original manager and I got to drive Pat Boone's cool red Jag XKE down to Dallas with Gene.  He spotted one of his acquaintances and his girlfriend so we stopped to say howdy.  The guy was Jack Ruby and the girl was Candace Slusher but better known as Candy Bar (or Barr) by her stage name.  That was just a couple of months before the guy shot Lee Harvey Oswald.  Candace later moved to Edna, TX and used to call me once in a while at the radio station with song requests but I didn't learn until much later from her brother, Travis (who I met by coincidence, too), that she was the Candy Bar that I had met the summer of '63.   What are the odds?

I still remember sitting in the den back in Houston when Walter Cronkite made the announcement and Jack's photo was put up on the screen.  Before Cronkite even said his name I hollered out, "Hey, that's Jack!"  Then they said his name and you could have heard a pin drop.  You can guess what the next question Mom and Dad had for me was....

Ok, so much for reminiscing.  But I did include a couple of photos....one of Gene and Pat sitting on the Jag and one of me and Gene.  Gene always said I reminded him of a younger Pat B.

Stephen Ray Puckett

Interesting story, Roger.  I had a college roommate for a short while, an older guy, who had dated Candy a bit. As I recall, he said she was very nice and treated her family well, especially her kid brother.  My roommate's mom found out who he was dating and threw a giant fit.