James King

I played slow pitch softball against Max Wilson in the early '70's.  His team was called The Coaches.  Team players were Jr. High and High School coaches.  Ronnie "oogie" Wright was quarterback for Reagan in the late '50's won a city championship and played with The Coaches.  Joe Clooney told me Max was manhandled by Mike Todd when he tried to breakup a fight between Todd and Bill Oakes.  I had not heard that story before or since.  Anyone know anything about it?

Anita Marbury (Marbury)

Did everyone hear about the need for Waltrip football uniforms?

Waltrip Alumni Association was contacted by the Head Coach.

The kids need help. The school district has no funds to help.

I put the address on my FB page. I donated and thought some of you might want to help.

Anita Marbury (Marbury)

Donations are tax deductible. to help with football uniforms. Please pass this message on to others.

Waltrip Alumni Association

Memo line football uniforms Athletic Dept.

Box 924212

Houston Texas 77292

Linda Webster

James, I don't know about Max, but Jimmy Doyle was man-handled by Mike Todd and as a result he became quadraplegic. I think my brother-in-law Ted Jordan knows the whole story. He was friends with Jimmy.

Larry MacTavish

I believe the name of the 5 and dime was Kresge's. Not for sure.

Larry Cooper

Pretty sure the five and dime store was Haley's and there was Florians Mimimax, Weiners , Oak Forest Bowling alley,  a Doctors office, and Madings Drug Store.  Probably left some out !!

Jan Barnes (Nimtz)

Larry, I believe you've got it right on with Haley's. I do remember that place but still can't recall a bowling alley. Does anyone remember what year it closed?

Ron Redding

I remember going to the bowling alley with my parents when I was around 9 or 10. The time I remember, there was an organ grinder with a monkey out in front begging for money. I'm not positive but maybe when the bowling alley closed the five and ten moved into their space.

Stephen Ray Puckett

I remember a monkey at Merchant's Park, downtown, etc.  You gave it a coin, it tipped its little hat and put the coin in its little purse.  Here it is at Foley's.

Stephen Ray Puckett

In my opinion, it is appalling that the school district wants to spend million$ changing school names but doesn't have enough money for uniforms.  Thankfully, concerned folks have sued the district to prevent spending the money for the name changes or to at least follow proper procedures.

Just my opinion.

Steve, grumpy about it.

James King

Steve, I agree with you about HISD's proposal to spend large sums to change school names and cause coaches to request funds from outside the district for uniforms.  A foolish plan.

Roger Felton

I agree wholeheartedly on the uniform vs. school name issue.  Here in Victoria, we had a similar problem.  Since the beginning of time, Victoria had two high schools....Victoria High and Stroman High.  The school board boneheads decided to tear them down and build two new ones.  But, what to name them?  Duh?  Why not stick with what you had for the last 50 years?  Nope, too simple.  And who cares about High School reunion traditions anyway. 

So, some highly creative individual from the local homeless shelter came up with the idea of calling them Victoria East and Victoria West High Schools.  What a simple concept...and a name that has real meaning... that honors the dirt on the east and the west side of town.  Now, as the city grows, we can look forward to names like Victoria South Soutwest, or Victoria North East High and maybe even Victoria Dead Center High School. 

Maybe they named them that because of the embarrassing ignorance among our youth and the school's name might help them find it.  But I gotta admit it is a hoot to see our football teams playing in T-shirts and jock straps. 

On another topic,  I saw a guy wearing blue sunglasses and thought of Marvin Zindler....Cool guy but I think he died from an overdose of slime in the ice machine, maybe?  I suffer to this day with some hearing loss from listening to him sign off on his news reports at about 190db

Robert (Ben) Carbo

Anita Marbury (Marbury)

Marvin was immortalized in the musical "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas"

I think he put Houston on the map in many ways.  He was actually a devoted family man. He cared for his wife until her death in a dedicated and loving way. I knew his granddaughter and she adored him.

Just a side note.

Sweetie

John (Fred) Williams

I knew Marvin fairly well, through some mutuial friends that owned Pino's Italian Restaurant (I really miss that place) and he was so much different off camera than when he was on. He was a really good man that did a lot for many. He loved his family and his friends and would do anything that he could to help you. His on camera image is what afforded him the opportunity to help so many. Hell, the IRS was scared to death of him. 

Robert (Ben) Carbo

William Polk (Polk)

Marvin brings back some memories for me as well. I was playing on the HPD softball team and we had a game against channel 13 to raise money for charity. We were a pretty good team back then and traveled all over the nation to play against other police department teams. We were beating them by a large margin so our team decided that we would all play positions other than what we usually played and try to make it a little more competitive. We were having a good time and there were a lot of local citizens who paid to watch the game and they were having a good time as well so we didn't take the game too seriously. Some of us even switched gloves and threw with the wrong hand just for the heck of it. But Marvin took the game very seriously (he wore all white for the game including his white shoes and his blue sunglasses) and he was mad because we were beating them so bad. When we switched positions I went from playing center field to 2nd base and somehow he ended up on that base after someone on his team got a hit. He called me over to him and said that if we didn't start playing right he was going to do a story on us because he thought we were making fun of him and his team. After the inning I told my other team members so we went  back to our regular positions and ended up beating them by about 30 runs. He wouldn't even shake our hands after the game.

He had his own ways of broadcasting that seemed silly at the time but he sure was affective in taking down local restaurants who had slime in the ice machines. I also think that Matress Mac may have modeled his sales technique from Marvin's style.

Jeanne Spencer (Adams)

Thanks, Benny, for your words about last night.   Our hearts go out to all the emergency responders everywhere!  I know it's especially painful for you former law guys!  I watched the events last night from 9 till about 1:30 and again this morning.  We have some very brave men and women in our police force who risked their lives last night, and 5 of them lost theirs.  I sat there crying and praying as long as I could.  Our nation needs lots of prayers and peace right now!  - Jeanne

Steven Jay Stoneburner

You are right he loved Pino's and was there a lot , I got to know Marvin thru Dave ward as we were Brothen N Laws for 26 years Dave got Marvin his job at  13 after he got fired from Sherriffs dept.and the rest is history  there will  never be another Marvin, Tom Britton is as lose as we can get lol

Nathan Wayne Hollis

Hilda Carol Smith (Godell)

Mary Holland

Thanks for saying what I was thinking. Obama isn't a Muslim, nor are the vast majority of Black people in our country, just as most Muslims aren't Black people. It's so easy to just label an entire Race or religion and say that "They" do such and such. I'm a White woman and I don't hate or fear Black people and I never did. I'm certain that many Black people would stereotype me and I wouldn't like that either.

Carolyn Johnson (Blake)

Thanks Carol and Mary. Please let's not bring the hate and fear that is tearing our nation apart onto this site. it can only serve to cause conflict, and already has. I come here to have nice connections and share memories and I hope it stays that way. As an aside, I lived in a small Turkish village on the shore of the Mediterranean for nearly two years - 2010-2012. My neighbors were all Muslim, many of them so devout they attended Mosque all 5 times per day. They were kind and gentle people who loved God, their families, their country, and worked hard to make a living. I became good friends with many of them and they and their dreams were no different than anyone elses. At no point was I treated ill because I was American...a normal bunch of folks.

Carolyn

Mary Holland

I keep wanting another horse, a crazy idea as I haven't had a horse since my last, good old mare, What A Flamer, had to be put down. I'd love to have another Appaloosa brood mare! I know it's probably not going to happen but an ol' lady can dream! I'm really good at training little foals so that they don't even know they were "trained." I just never let 'em do anything wrong, gently diverting them whenever they wanted to be pushy or mouthy or anything else that would turn into a problem. The ones I raised were halter broken by wearing a foal halter and dragging a big soft cotton lead rope in a safe environment. I kept watch from a distance to make certain they didn't tie their legs together or get into any trouble until they learned to handle themselves and the rope. That didn't take long! They and their dams would step on the rope sometimes, stopping baby from going anyplace. At first they mad to be thwarted but they soon learned to take a step so the rope wasn't tight and to stand there until they could get moving again. I'd pick up their feet when they were just a day or two old, rub my hands all over them and generally mess around with them until I could do just about anything I wanted to. They soon liked as well as respected me and they didn't get mad or try to do wrong. Oh how I'd love to be able to raise foals again!! Horses are expensive to buy an even more expensive to keep so probably all of this is just memories and dreams...unless some really special mare just happens to come along, cheap enough for me to buy her. It's just a dream, I know, but it's a very nice dream indeed!

Talley Hudson

The last time I posted something about my brother's and daughter-in-law's cancer, I was informed that no one wants to read about illnesses.  I guess the class of '64 is a kinder, gentler class as they post items about classmates, spouses, family members illnesses all the time and receive a lot of support.  At that point I decided I would refrain from posting again.  When I got back from vacation and read the most recent posts, I didn't want to get involved but I decided I shouldn't hide behind those who dared to speak out.  My husband is a police officer.  He reads and studies about all shootings in the US.  There are a few where he thinks the officers were definitely in the wrong and should be punished.  There are also others where they were justified.  He was proud to see that the Dallas officers were marching with the peaceful protesters saying that it's time for more officer screening and training to avoid the ugly incidents that have occurred.  At the same time, he shared how they trained some volunteers who had been critical of officer behavior and then put them in mock circumstances.  They all became "trigger happy" and shot the "victims."  He just returned from a trip to Tioga, ND.  They increased their police department when fracking was at its peak, and the only people they could recruit were "goobers."  A lot of departments have the same type of police officers because they can't recruit good candidates.  Meanwhile I feel like he's walking around with a big target on his back.  I'm not saying that any of you are not supportive of the police, but to take this awful situation and turn it into some sort of ugly political fight is hard to read about.  This latest incident should be a wake up call to everyone to see if we can work together to find solutions rather than continue the us vs. them arguments.  This year is exceptionally challenging, politically, and frankly I would rather read about your grandkids or what you're doing in retirement.  I am only one of a very large class, and I realize that our common denominator is Waltrip, but we all have very different experiences and opinions.  Can we just keep this site more reader friendly? Just saying.........