The following is a collection of stories relating to our time with roommates and friends in Houston. I thank God for taking care of us and I also thank him for all the things he has done for us all since. . We all met during summer’s end in 1962. If some of the memories are a little different than you remember them, perhaps time has altered some of these memories for you, after all it has been over 60 years ago.
ARRIVING IN HOUSTON IN 1962
I graduated from Lamar Tech In August 1962 and headed to Houston, Texas to teach physical science at Hartman Jr. High school. I was not yet 24 years old, not until September and this was August. I drove in my newly purchased, 1962 Corvair, which my stepfather had co-signed for. Knowing my penny-pinching stepfather, I remember at the time, being surprised that he would do it. Reflecting back on it, I understood why. He wanted me out of the house, and he was willing to do whatever to get me out, even if it included an “against the grain move” for him. Anyway, off I went to Houston, with my Mother, very apprehensive, my sister encouraging and my stepfather, giving me all of the encouragement of a dedicated father. My cousin, J.W. Tapley (very interesting to note, my cousin JW, I later learned, lived next door to James Snelling’s grandparents. Little did I know at the time James Snelling was destined to be a line-long friend) lived in the Alameda-Genoa area of Houston and it had been arranged that I could stay there, until I got settled. As much as I loved my cousin and his wife, Muir, it was not where I wanted to stay in Houston. I did not have a whole lot of money and, although I wanted to make it on my own, I was a little frightened, to say the least. Here I was, basically a country boy, having lived in the Golden Triangle for 4 years while attending Lamar and not much experience at driving in traffic. Here I was in the largest city in Texas and, as I drove around, I remember being up in the air and seeing where I wanted to be, but not knowing how to get there. On my very first day I had to drive to the H.I.S.D. administration building, which then was downtown Houston, off Capitol. Being my first-time in downtown Houston, I did not realize that the streets were alternating one way, being the country boy that I was I turned up a wrong way, only to be waved over by a Houston policeman directing traffic. “Where are you going, boy!! This is a one-way!!” “Sir, I’m sorry, I’m lost!” “Where are you from?”, he asked. “Somewhat sheepishly, I admitted, Malakoff, sir” The officer, started laughing, “Yea, you are lost!!” As he exclaimed, “I know you are lost!! I’m from Crossroads!! (Well, for those who do not know, Crossroads is within spitting distance of Malakoff and even smaller than Malakoff) He tore up the ticket he was writing and sent me on my way, still laughing and warning me to watch those one-way streets. I never knew his name, but I sure do fondly remember him as the Crossroads angel. After some thought, I decided that J.W., my cousin, was not a place where I wanted to stay. I saw the YMCA (the one I saw from the overpass and couldn’t figure how to get to). I had heard that the Y was good place to stay, so I checked it out and found that I could stay there for $3/day, and this included breakfast and all the facilities, including the room. Well, that was good, but $3/day was a lot of money back then. I decided to try it out and some of it was good. I was close to Hartman for one thing, and I could play basketball, swim, lift weights and other activities that I liked. The breakfast was good, and I received a wake-up call in the mornings. The public shower was not one of my favorites, but I managed. During my time there I met some guys that were in like positions. Robert Dixon had just graduated from Texas A&M and he too needed a place to stay. Along the way, I met Walter Smith, also a college graduate from the Citadel. I had an immediate bond with Walter because he was sports-minded like me and we played some 1 on 1 basketball. He and I became competitive, on the basketball court and later the tennis court and the golf course. Robert and I became friends also. He was easy to talk to and we both soon learned that ultimately, we wanted to get out of the Y. During my stay there, it became evident that many of the residents were not who I wanted to associate with. For example, next door to me, my “neighbor” had an on-going throw-up party several nights in a row. I could hear him up-chucking into the night and the next morning, vomit ran out from under the door. Yes, I wanted out of the Y. Robert and Walter did too. In the meantime, we met. John C. O’Donnell, from New York an older fellow. He must have been at least 35!! and another older fellow, Les Owen, from Memphis, Tennessee. John was married and was hanging out at the Y until he could bring his family down. I think he had something to do with the food business, but I’m not sure. I’d need to ask Robert, he would know. Les sold Gestetner duplicators, and he also was married and the Y was temporary place for him as well. We all wanted out but were stuck for a while. I even tried a cheap apartment, which I lived in for a while. Cannot remember the cost, but I only stayed there a short while and moved back to the Y. In a united effort, Robert, Les, John and I decided to move into an apartment called the Villa Paree on Park place Blvd. With four of us) sharing a 2 bedroom, it wasn’t too bad. John and Les only stayed with us a short while and sometime later Walter Smith moved in with us until he brought his bride to live in Houston. I was wondering if I met Walter at the Y or was it through Evelyn Lopez who worked for NASA. Walter was an engineer for NASA and he lived with Robert and I for a very short while, then moved with his wife into some apartments close by. Walter and I became fast friends and I spent time with he and his wife on several occasions. One day Evelyn called me at school to tell me the tragic news that Walter (only about 24 or 25) had died of a cerebral hemorrhage while showering. Thus, ended a great friendship and a very talented competitor on the sport field. Shortly after Walter left, Robert and I were again by ourselves. My old frat buddy, Ardis Havard, came to live with us. He stayed with us approximately 2 weeks, until he and his lovely bride, Kay, moved into their own place somewhere off the Gulf freeway. Robert and I again were without a roommate, we could not afford to stay there with just the 2 of us, so we ran an ad for a roommate in the classified. One night there was a knock on our door and when we opened the door, little did we know that it would be our future roommate and life-long friend, Glenn Buckley. Standing in the doorway was our future roommate, Glenn, red hair, neatly cut and combed, with a kind of “model” type physique. This was the one and the only answer to our ad. None before or after. Providence? The first thing I remember about Glenn, he told us he had pot and pans, and so he was in!! No other answered the ad and so Glenn became our roommate. Also at the Villa Paree were roommates, Eleanor McCain, Evelyn Lopez, and Claire Rose. The three of us, Robert, Glenn, and I became interested once we met them and we began to hang out together. Once we were having a sort of party at our place which consisted of some drinking and the boys acting as horses as the girls road on our backs. I am sure we were having rider/horsy fights. I am also sure we were making a lot of noise. Then we received word (do not know how) that the landlords, the Charles, were on their way to our place. When they arrived, we were all sitting around, drinking……..MILK. So, the Charles, looked kind of dumb-founded and departed quickly. In the spring of 1963, the girls decided to move to a new project on the Gulf Freeway, called the St. Patrick apartments. In the meantime, we became friends with another Villa Paree occupant, James Snelling. I cannot remember when James moved in with us, but I know he was with us when we decided to move to the St. Patrick’s. Yes, we followed the girls over there. One of the outstanding features of our St. Pat’s apartment was our “red” carpet and we farther enhanced the red carpet by placing red lights in all our lamp fixtures and eventually we would play our “Red-Ass” music sung by Della Reese. In the intoxicating red lights and with our favorite singer, we would chill, listening to Della. It has always been our contention that Buckley, fell in love with Claire almost immediately. Sometime later, Glenn, finally asked her out on a real date. Prior to this it was when we all visited and was never really a date. The night before Glenn’s date he drove his Phoebe (this was his name for his ’62 Chevy Impala) to downtown Houston, just driving to be driving. Somewhere near downtown, while he drove with his window down, someone reached in a grabbed his keys and threw them away, then 3 guys pulled him out of the car and beat him up. Long story short, Glenn wore makeup to cover his black eyes on his first date with Claire. Apparently, Claire also was attracted to Glenn because destiny had called and later, they would be married.
Trying to remember details from almost 60’s ago get a little foggy, but one event that Robert, James, Glenn and I shall always remember was our trip Labor Day weekend in ’63. My friend from my college days, Tommy Dawson, and I decided to take a trip to Miami in August of ’63 and we had just returned from our trip when Robert, James and Glenn, decided they wanted to go on a trip over Labor Day weekend and they asked me to go, but I declined because I had just returned from my trip, tired and flat broke. They insisted persistently that I go, and finally I reluctantly agreed, telling them I had NO money. They told me, “Don’t worry about it, you won’t need any.” So after they all got off work on Friday afternoon, we left for New Orleans and eventually, Pensacola, Florida. We arrived in New Orleans late at night, with Glenn driving and we began trying to find a motel to stay in overnight, but alas every place had NO VACANCY. We must have stopped at least 4 or 5 places and still no vacancy. One place had a vacancy, but when they saw it was 4 guys, they said, “Forget it!!”. When we had exhausted our every effort suddenly, we saw, “Vacancy!!” There was even a sign that said A.C. We were all exhausted and were beyond ready for bed and the motel asked no question about the 4 guys. First, there was only 1 bed and we had to be creative. The mattress was taken off and 2 slept on the floor on the mattress, while other 2 slept on the box springs. So, we laughed ourselves asleep. Oh, by the way the A.C. was a fan. The next morning we awoke with plenty of aches and pains from where we had to sleep and then our next encounter was the smallness of the bathroom. The only way to see in the mirror to shave was to kind of turn side-wise and again we were laughing. Whether we ate breakfast or not is lost for the ages. One thing for sure, it was NOT at this motel. As soon as we could leave, we were on our way to Pensacola and the beach. Somewhere on the beach is where we encountered a gal who said she was Leroy Jordan’s sister, and judging from her build, we decided she might have been his twin. How long we stayed on the beach, I am not sure, nor can any of us remember where we spent Saturday night. On the way home, where we all had to go to work that week, we were discussing whether we should stop and grab a cold one. (I was sick from too many hurricanes on Bourbon Street (Pat O’Brien’s) ) As Buckley sped along at probably more than the speed limit, all of a sudden with the agility of a professional race car driver and the eyes of an eagle, Glenn pulled off the road in a cloud of dust. He had spotted a sign that captured his attention, BEER. We made it back to Houston and since Monday was a holiday, we had a day to rest. Now every year when Labor Day rolls around, we all think of that special weekend of so long ago. Here is the only picture of the trip that I know of. Robert recently sent it to me and I finally figured how to include it. He used his cell phone to take a picture of the picture and then sent it to me. I had a very difficult time trying to put it in this post. James must have taken this picture because he is not pictured. Maybe it was taken by Leroy Jordan’s twin. We were all wearing sunglasses…I don’t ever remember having sunglasses, but there they are.
Sometime later in 1963 during that summer, several college guys moved into the St. Patricks. They were students from a Florida college and were on a work/study program. This is where we met Ed Walters. At the time I remember thinking he was very young. Must have been at least 3 or 4 years younger than us. A mere baby. (How the time flies and we get much closer together in age the older we get). Robert Dixon was driving his Dodge, the one with the fins, late 50’s to early 60’s (cannot remember the exact year of the Dodge). One thing I do remember about it was the slight wreck it had which had bent his bumper so the corner pointed out. Robert didn’t worry about it. One day as he was stopped waiting to go onto the main street, suddenly a car from behind rear-ended the Dodge. He jumped out and looked to see the damage. Instead he found his bumper was straightened as if a professional body works man had done it. He hopped back into his car and sped off, leaving the lady who rear-ended him wondering what happened. It was later that summer when one night I received a phone call and it was Elinor. She was crying and saying “don’t hang up”. “What’s wrong I exclaimed!!” “I’m in jail”. “What in the world for?” “Sneaking in a Drive-Inn” she said in between sobs. “I need you to pay the fine and get me out of here.” She told me how much it was and to this day do not remember how much it was or how I got enough together to bail them out. Robert’s Dodge had and extra large trunk and Elinor and I think Ed had decided to sneak into the drive inn by staying in the trunk. Well they got caught and Robert, being the driver was arrested along with the “culprits” in the trunk. Eventually we were able to have a good laugh about it, until the day Elinor was trying to obtain her law degree. When they asked the question, “Have you ever been Arrested?” She was afraid to answer and we can understand why. I probably told this story all wrong but it did happen a LONG TIME ago. I guess her answer did not keep her from getting her law degree. Way to go Elinor!!! Oh, by the way Elinor and Ed were married and that was 60 years ago.
OUR ST. PATRICK RED CARPET
USE YOUR IMAGINATION BECAUSE I CANNOT FIGURE HOW TO CHANGE IT TO RED
WHEN WE FOLLOWED ELEANOR, EVELYN AND CLAIR TO THE ST. PATRICK’S APARTMENTS WE HAD A RED CARPET. TO ENHANCE THE RED, WE PLACED RED LIGHT BULBS IN ALL OUR LIVING ROOM LIGHT FIXTURES. It became a routine to listen to Della with our red lights on. James called it our Red-Ass music. Use your imagination because at this point I have not found out how to show the post in red.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLBOtLWzt7OpQREfCu2rMzag0GJhDZfdV CLICK ON THIS LINK TO GO TO DELLA ON YouTube (SUGGEST YOU CLICK ON ONLY ONE AND NOT THE WHOLE ALBUM)
You will have to watch an Add at the beginning, but after this, all of the Classic Della’s are there.
This is the LP we almost wore out because we played Della over and over. I believe the LP belonged to Evelyn.
Buckley’s work sent him to New Orleans and he wrote Robert, James and we received a letter in which he showed Buckley’s utter frustration trying to find an apartment in New Orleans after having spent time in Houston at some very nice apartments. Not sure exactly when Glenn and Claire married but our Mardi Trip was shortly after they were married. In Christmas of 2008 I received a Christmas card from them. I think they were living in North Carolina at the time. This was 44 years since our Mardi trip. How time flies. BELOW IS THE LETTER FROM BUCKLEY, JAN. 1964. Click on the envelope and Find the 1-13 and click on the (+ sign) to move to the next page. This is worth reading because parts are hilarious.
OUR MARDI GRAS TRIP
By this time Buckley’s job had sent him to New Orleans, and Robert and I were still together in St. Patrick but in a different location. (not sure when James moved to live with Randall) I think this may have been in early ’64. Not long after this, Robert’s job carried him to Austin. Later after being left again with no roommates. That is for a later story. Buckley had in time married Claire and they were living in New Orleans. Elinor, Evelyn, and Molly (do not remember last name) wanted to go to the Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Myself, Robert (don’t remember last name, NOT Dixon) and one other guy ( I do not remember) went with them. We spent the night at Buckley’s and Claire’s and all of the party but me toured Bourbon Street. I stayed at Buckley’s while the rest went to Bourbon Street. (I was probably broke again) I cannot remember whose car was used. The following is some pictures taken on that Mardi Gras trip.
ElInor, Evelyn, ?, Don, Molly, Robert at Buckley’s Watching parade go by
Old Roommates at Buckley’s ?, Elinor, Molly, Robert, Evelyn
Don, Elinor, Molly, Robert, watching parade. Evelyn must have taken the picture
Another trip to be remembered.
In 1964, Robert and I were living in a one bedroom at the St. Patrick’s apartments and his job sent him to Austin, leaving me without a roommate again. That summer I was scheduled to teach summer school at San Jacinta high school. My cousin, Sam Farrell, was living in Seymour, Texas and was a 15 year old talented athlete, but had failed English. His mother, my Aunt, was more like a sister to me, and it was agreed that Sam would spend the summer with me and go to San Jacinta and make up his English. My Aunt would help me with the rent for letting Sam stay. Though Sam struggled, he eventually passed his English and I was thankful to my Aunt for helping with the rent.
James and I moved back into another apartment at the St. Patrick’s and we gained another roommate, Larry Kuntz. Eventually our next door neighbors were Patsy and Genie and another girl that I don’t remember. James’s, Uncle Randall (about the same age as James) was a frequent visitor because he liked the other girl. James, Larry and I decided we wanted to explore the other side of town, so we went to the HIGH RENT district on Richmond Ave. Our choice was the Chateau Dijon. I was still teaching at Hartman and James was at Gulfgate Bank. Larry was working for Chicago Bridge and Iron. The old saying: “Absence makes the heart fonder” must apply here because James and Larry began a regular trip back to St. Patricks visiting Patsy and Genie. Soon Love won out and eventually James and Patsy were married and Larry and Genie also. This left me without roommates once more. These are just a few of the memories I have regarding my early stay in Houston. It was not until I found my true love in 1971 that I finally got a permanent roommate which I met when I taught at Sam Houston high school in Houston. Thank you God for sending her to me. In October of ’71 I finished my grade report and rushed into the office to turn in my grades. I literally ran into my future as she was coming out. She was working there as a computer clerk. This was October of ’71 and were married December of ’71 and we have been running into each other now for 54 years.
Precious Moments
By Don Henderson 8/13/19
Precious moments, Precious time
God has given us to share
I Pray, Oh God, we cherish those precious
Moments now, For soon they may not be there
Share love today, Set aside disputes or anger,
For today’s moments will never again come,
God only, can say.
Perhaps each time we are with a friend or loved one
We should consider it might be our last precious
moment
And that precious moment might soon pass.
Would that I could go back and share again those
precious lost moments fast passed,
The only precious moments we have are the NOW, so
let us cherish them, every one, knowing that in time, we
all to time must bow.
Elinor and Daughter
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