The Pecan Park Eagle

Drive In Horror Movies were big in Houston during the 1950s. They encouraged bench style front seat togetherness among young couples at places like the South Main, Trail, Hi Nabor, King Center, and Winkler Drive In Theaters, among others.

Thanks for the link, Bob Dorrill. That little three-minute music and picture cascade brought back a lot of memories for one of us who remains, so far, as one of the long-of-tooth members of that supposedly simpler generation:

http://safeshare.tv/w/FEDEwZHZXu

Back in the 1950s, when yours truly welcomed in quietly at age 12 on January 1, 1950  and later blew out hard with everyone else on his 22nd birthday, December 31, 1959, here are some of the memorable differences, large and small, that I recall:

1.) Large: Racial segregation of blacks from whites in Houston was still the embarrassing norm. There were very few Asians here in those days and only a small enclave of Latinos who mainly lived in the Magnolia Park and Harrisburg @ Wayside areas of the east end. Bob Boyd became the first black to break the color line in local baseball on March 28, 1954, when he started at first base for the Houston Buffs. As one of those fans who came to support Boyd that long ago night in Buff Stadium, it marked the beginning of a lifelong history of hero worship in me for the man with the powerful bat, the graceful glove, and the infectious, fan-friendly smile. R.I.P., Bob Boyd! Thanks to our recently published SABR book, “Houston Baseball: The Early Years, 1861-1961”, your contributions to local baseball and, more importantly, to a much better Houston, are now recorded for the ages on the great wall of history.

2) Not-So-Big, But-Still-Large: Up until 1958 and the famous televised championship game between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants, the NFL was little more to the national scene in the 1950’s than a “once every Sunday” grainy black and white one-camera game coverage of a game from Chicago that involved either the Bears or the Chicago Cardinals against some other ancient franchise, like the Green Bay Packers or the Detroit Lions. Red Grange, the old “Galloping Ghost” from Illinois was the somber toned solo man on the mike. The NFL spent most of its last decade in the shadows of major league baseball just trying to grab TV attention for its product. The 1958 Colts-Giants drama was the turn key that helped lead to the establishment of the AFL, the brief skirmish between the NFL and AFL in the 1960’s, the settlement of an undisputed pro football champion by the playing of a “Super Bowl” in 1967, and inevitable consolidation of all surviving teams into an NFL that would forevermore from 1969 and the birth of Monday Night Football that would usurp baseball’s undisputed control of the professional sports market for all time.

3) Huge: In the summer of 1950, 500 cases of infantile paralysis, a polio age-specific variant form of the dreaded illness were diagnosed and treated at Hedgcroft Hospital on Montrose Boulevard in Houston. Parents lived in terror of the dreaded disease and many of us were required to remain out of the sun during the so-called “heat of the day”, which was then defined as 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM. – Go figure. It makes you wonder what they thought was less harmful about the 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM daily heat of July and August? – That latter time zone was no daily “norther”, if memory serves. By 1957, the polio vaccine discovery of Dr. Jonas Salk had “won the war” against the disease for all who could win the war against their own ignorance and made sure their families had taken the medicine. Unfortunately, there is no lifetime vaccine against ignorance. Polio is making a comeback in areas where people will not take the vaccine in an early and timely way.

4) A Small Irony: During my student  days at my beloved St. Thomas High School, 1952-1956, students could be suspended or dealt with in other harsh terms for using their Physical Education class time to slip through a hole that then existed in the back gym wall for the purpose of organizing and participating in a lunch money game of Craps – you know, the game that’s played with a roll of the dice. – Tonight, however, January 15, 2015, is Casino Night at dear old STHS for all of us surviving alumni who still feel the need to help the school’s fundraiser campaign with another roll of the dice – or a game of Texas Hold ‘Em or Blackjack. I couldn’t make it due to other commitments, but I completely support the idea of Casino Night and what it is aimed to do. – That is, to help St. Thomas High School. I just can’t escape the irony of how this change of attitude toward games of chance so neatly mirrors the mentality of Las Vegas, – It’s OK to gamble in ‘Vegas too – just as long as “the house” controls the action and gets its cut. – Go Eagles! – Seven Come Eleven! – All the Way to Heaven!