The Leader takes a historical look back at the people, places and memories that made this community what it is today. Saturday, July 30, 2016 • Page 1B
Generational Pride
LOOK INSIDE • Think Facebook and Twitter were the first social media? Guess again. People used to send all their personal news to the local paper – Page 5B • Who knew Bonnie & Clyde used a bungalow in the Heights to hide from the police – Page 3B • Read a complete history of our neighborhoods – Page 5-6B • Before mega-chain grocery stores, there were local supermarkets owned by people like the Cohens – Page 3B
Connections to schools hard to break By Betsy Denson betsy@theleadernews.com Family traditions can take many forms. For Leader residents, one of these traditions is an educational one, with multiple generations of the same family attending the same high school. The quote may be “the more things change, the more they stay the same,” but graduates of both St. Pius X High School and Waltrip High share the differences of their experiences as well as the common bond they share. When Linda Kappe, now Linda Kappe Hughes, went to St. Pius X High School, the Dominican Sisters used to live on campus in the convent and the electives included mimeographing. “It wasn’t like copiers now,” said Hughes. “You had to pour ink into a tray.” Hughes, who graduated in 1968, explained that educational offerings were on a dual track, for both college prep and trade school, which offered classes like business and accounting. The St. Pius facilities were a lot smaller then and nuns taught most of Hughes’ classes. Hughes played basketball one year, was on the Student Council and was a member of Future Nurses of America. “I didn’t become a nurse,” she said. “Although I do take care of older people now.” She remembers sock hops after the football games, where you actually turned in your shoes before entering the gym, as well as the Silver Bell Ball and the Sadie Hawkins
dance, where girls got to ask their dates. After the football games, students met at DePaul’s Italian Restaurant on Shepherd to dig into pepperoni pizzas, and during Lent, cheese ones. “We’d wait until after midnight to eat the pepperoni,” laughs Hughes. Hughes and her husband, also a graduate, operated Hump’s Hamburgers near Waltrip for five years and then Hump’s Catering from the 1980s to 2001 where at one time they did the school lunches for eight different
schools, including St. Pius X. Now, she and her husband get together with the ten or so other St. Pius X couples they knew from school. A group of them go to the St. Pius X gala every year. Hughes still sees Sister Carol Mays, now a Prioress, who used to teach at the school. “We have very fond memories,” said Hughes. “It was a good life education.” Daughter Amy Hughes Thompson, a 1991 graduate, said that she had grown up around St. Pius X and always wanted to attend school there. “The school looks incredibly different,” she said. “There’s a new gym now, which is both air conditioned and heated, and renovations to the classrooms.” Thompson said that when she was there the students packed themselves into The Pitt, a small corner of the gym, and cheered loudly for their basketball team. “It was intimidating because we were so loud, and so close to the court,” she said. Athletic herself, Thompson was on the volleyball, basketball and softball teams and also served as the president of the the National Honor Society. She was also Miss Panther 1991, an honor voted on by faculty. Thompson remembers math being her favorite class which explains why at one time she was a math teacher. Mr. West who taught government and economics while Thompson was in school is still there, and his wife Mrs. West who taught algebra and calculus recently left. Sister Donna M. Pollard, who recently retired as the head of school, was Thompson’s basketball coach. Mimeographing was no longer an elective – See Memories P. 2B
When The Heights became ‘Dry’ By Betsy Denson betsy@theleadernews.com With all the interest in the Houston Heights Beverage Coalition Political Action Committee effort to legalize the off-premise consumption of beer and wine in the dry part of the Heights, and thus lure an H-E-B, among other aims, The Leader is reprinting a 2013 piece on why the Heights got dry in the first place. It is easy for Kroger Manager Gary Piet to spot someone on a beer run in his 20th Street store. “Two guys will come in and one takes the right side and the other the left,” he said. “I
usually catch up with one of them to say we don’t sell wine or beer. A lot of people assume it’s because of the church by us.” If his customers had the time, Piet could tell them the whole story of why portions of The Heights are dry, meaning a business cannot obtain a standard permit to sell alcohol. According to Sister M. Agatha’s book The History of the Houston Heights, the roots of the law go back to September of 1912 when area residents voted to make it so. Religion may indeed have played a role but in Agatha’s retelling the business-minded Heights residents didn’t appreciate the frivolity of saloon-life. The vote was apparently dispatched with little ceremony: “The electioneer-
ing…was all carried on at night, because that was the only time that anybody could spare for the business.” Former Heights Chamber of Commerce President Terry Burge says that when the area was wooed by the city of Houston in 1918 and subsequently chose annexation, the Heights City Attorney James G. Donovan made sure to include in the annexation papers the following statement: “Liquor shall not be sold in these premises until time runneth not.” This proclamation effectively ensured that the Heights would stay dry until Doomsday.
OPERATION BACKPACK A YMCA Initiative
HELP KIDS MAKE THE GRADE Help 100,000 children in our community start school with the tools to be successful. Donate now through August 12 at your local Y, H-E-B or other community partners. Learn more at ymcaoperationbackpack.org YMCA Mission: To put Judeo-Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all. Everyone is welcome.
See Dry P. 3B
Not so much was different exactly 40 years ago, where the 1976 Leader had stories of convention delegates and (below) a 1986 front page featuring a story on road construction.
First edition of Leader had dresses for $1.49 On Nov. 19, 1954, The Leader published its first edition. As far as we can tell, there are no remaining copies of that paper – just a description left by previous owners. So what was in that paper, nearly 62 years ago? The lead story on Page 1 announced the approval of funding to build the next stage of the “North Loop Highways,” between Jensen and North Shepherd, with construction to begin within a year. The Heights Lions Club was staging “The Shooting of Dangerous Dan McGrew” at its annual Lions Follies. Meanwhile, merchants association president Charlie Florian announced that the Oak Forest Shopping Center would be “decorating for Christmas with outstanding scenes, Christmas trees and various lighting effects.” Perhaps the most intriguing glimpses of everyday life are found in the issue’s varied advertisements. Kaplan’s Department Store featured a fabric sale on “cottons, rayons and acetates” for 59 cents a yard and girls’ dresses from $1.48. Down the street at Butler-Grimes variety store, a boy’s bike could be had for $12.95. Up North Shepherd, Hines Home Supply had sofa beds for $39.95. Harold’s Men’s and Boy’s Wear advertised premium Alligator-brand men’s top coats for $15.75, while Leeds had men’s suits for $39.50 and Florsheim shoes for $11.90 a pair. Over at Parsley’s “completely air-conditioned” photo studio, Howard Parsley (who also wrote an outdoor sports column for The Leader) would shoot three 8x10 portraits for $6.95 and let you pay it out at a dollar a week. At the Heights Theatre, you could take in “Betrayed,” starring Clark Gable and Lana Turner, for 50 cents. If you were hungry afterward, how about a jumbo hamburger with fries for a quarter at Plantation Oaks Restaurant on Shepherd? You could even order it to go by calling ME 0227. Prefer to dine at home? Rayner Packing had T-bone steak for 47 cents a pound and you could pick up a 6-pack of beer at Florian’s Minimax for 69 cents. And if you didn’t have a home of your own yet, Paul Pirkle Realty had a large, 6-room house on Arlington Street for the stately sum of $4,000. Today, there’s a home at the intersection of Arlington and 11th listed for $1.2 million.