Gone But Not Forgotten in San Antonio! - Part II (Dallas: tax, clubs)

[wCat]

Originally Posted by BudB

Love those SNAP covers and no, there's no African American Museum in San Antonio. Dallas, Plano, and Denton County have one each while Houston has one dedicated to Buffalo Soldiers but nothing similar in SA. Keep in mind that SA's historic black population has always been relatively small at about 6% of the city and discrete in being mostly on the Eastside. This by the way is why both my previous publishers have backed out on my Eastside SA history book idea after both expressed early interest in it. They worry it's too narrow in scope and won't sell so it's a marketing decision not one based on the book's real merit. I got the same crud from Texas A & M Press about my "Chinese Heart of Texas" book so we self published and it paid for itself within the first year following publication. TAMU Press's ignorance was second only to their shortsightedness as a good book sells if promoted properly.

BudB..we might point him into the direction of the Carver Cultural Center. I have been there several times when art shows have been going on. They have a wonderful program for several genres of art, music, dance and theater.

Here's the link for contacts to more info:

Carver Community Cultural Center

[Nix54]

Originally Posted by wCat

BudB..we might point him into the direction of the Carver Cultural Center. I have been there several times when art shows have been going on. They have a wonderful program for several genres of art, music, dance and theater.

Here's the link for contacts to more info:

Carver Community Cultural Center

Thank you for the info.

[Nix54]

BudB, did you ask Eugene Coleman the publisher of Snap magazine why he named it Snap?

[gy2020]

Originally Posted by THOMAS655

I moved to s.a. In 1969 with my parents when my dad retired from the army (i was 7 years old). The hemisfair world's fair had just happened, and this city started to boom!! I live on the n.e. Side of san antonio (same house since 1969, my parents passed away and I am still here), and this side of town was pretty well established by then (windcrest, terrell hills, alamo heights, etc...). I remember when walzem road was nothing but a farm to market road until roosevelt high school went in around 1970 (proud graduate from there in 1980, my wife in 1985). I saw windsor park mall being built, it changed roosevelt high into a fenced-in school to keep kids from "skipping out" and going to the mall.

I was a bowler for years, astro bowl, wonder bowl in my junior bowling days. How many of you remember some of the closed bowling centers in town- all star lanes on roosevelt, southside lanes on zarzamora, san pedro lanes on rector behind northstar mall, thunder bowl at culebra & callaghan, bowlerama on blanco rd., san antonio sports palace on n.e. Loop 410, hermann & sons downtown on st. Marys (still there, but closed, this was like stepping back in history being in this old place). My first job was at wonder bowl when i was 16, then worked at sports palace until they closed it in 1982.

The sports palace was a retrofit of an old department store, bullocks, with 30 lanes on one side and 24 lanes on the other side. It was right between the century building (now time warner) and a bank building on the corner of mccullough and 410. It had a skating rink, a large sunken open gameroom right in the middle with pool tables, pinball machines, and the latest video games (pacman, space invaders, etc...), a large bar with big screen t.v. For sports broadcasts. It even had a radio station live remote booth where i think woai radio did live remotes from the bowling center!!! This place made so much money in the short 7 years that it was open, it would scare you.

I would love to hear from anyone else with old bowling stories from "back in the day".

Thomas: I remember a bowling alley between S. Presa and Roosevelt. It might be the one you mentioned above. It was just south and next door to the original Pigstand in San Antonio. Do I have a memory of that place. I was with my parents and their friends. I was about 5 or 6 (1948-1949). My dad's friend was bowling and I was sitting on the end of the u shaped benches.
The guy pulls the ball back and wack, right into my forehead. Knocked me out cold. When I awoke, about 4 or 5 hours later, I was in my grandmothers bed. I had a hugh lump you wouldn't believe.

My first bowling experience was at Jefferson Bowling Alley on Donaldson above Jefferson State Bank. I was in junior high and bowling with a neighbor. For me, not so good. But my friend went on to manage several bowling alleys and bowled a 300 several times.

I'ved bowled at the lanes on Bandera and I was in the league at the lanes next to Big John's Steak House on the Northeast side of town. This was back in 1978 and 1979.

I bowled a lot at the lanes at UT Austin in the student center.

[Willsatx]

Originally Posted by ged_782

The Time Warner building is or was called the Century Building. The Spartan-Atlantic building was just West of the Century Building, and Kiddie City was just West of Spartan-Atlantic. I'm pretty sure Spartan-Atlantic and Kiddie City were the first businesses built along that stretch. They both dated back to at least the mid-1960s.

The Kiddie City/Boston Sea Party building and the Spartan-Atlantic/Bullock's/Sports Palace building were both torn down. Papadeaux's and Renaissance Plaza now sit on what were the former's parking lot, and the hotel in the back now sits where the buildings were.

Thanks ged, it's funny how they were all towards the back. I think if I am correct (I'M probabaly wrong) that kiddie city closed around 1980???

[BudB]

Originally Posted by Nix54

BudB, did you ask Eugene Coleman the publisher of Snap magazine why he named it Snap?

Yes sir. Mr. Coleman received training at Brooks Field during WW II as a photographer. He used that training for many years as a professional shooter of portraits, weddings, and other social events, etc. in other words taking lots of Snap-shots. He began SNAP as San Antonio's version of the nationally popular black magazine titled Sepia of which he was a local distributor. It was sort of a miniature Life magazine focusing on the San Antonio black community. It also covered the relevant national stories on civil rights struggles and advances, as they played out locally.

[RGJ]

Originally Posted by BudB

Yes sir. Mr. Coleman received training at Brooks Field during WW II as a photographer. He used that training for many years as a professional shooter of portraits, weddings, and other social events, etc. in other words taking lots of Snap-shots. He began SNAP as San Antonio's version of the nationally popular black magazine titled Sepia of which he was a local distributor. It was sort of a miniature Life magazine focusing on the San Antonio black community. It also covered the relevant national stories on civil rights struggles and advances, as they played out locally.

There was (is?) another local newspaper or weekly devoted mostly to the black community, but I can't recall the name of it.

[BudB]

Originally Posted by gy2020

Thomas: I remember a bowling alley between S. Presa and Roosevelt. I bowled a lot at the lanes at UT Austin in the student center.

Since we're still talking about bowling I'll add that my first games were played at the long gone Highland Lanes on S. New Braunfels at Essex St. across from the small strip center that was home to Seibert's Pharmacy, a bakery, a Winn's, & a Piggly Wiggly market. Highland Lanes had a sign painted across the exterior wall above the sidewalk that read "Where the Elite Meet To Greet & Eat" if memory serves me correctly. You could get a hamburger, a plate enchiladas, a bowl of chili or whatever at a lunch-counter set up adjacent to the entrance and behind the seating for the lanes. My dad was an avid bowler so first took me to bowl there when I was about 12 and they still had boys doing the pin setting. That may be why they closed it just a few years later because paying for then new, automatic pin-setting machinery must have been very costly. The building later became a motorcycle shop for many years and is now empty I think. And the old strip center is now a doctor's office and dialysis clinic.
Btw, gy2020, the lanes in the Texas Union basement here are still busy and still open 24 hours. An old friend manages the "Union underground" now and it's still popular place to hang out.

[BudB]

Originally Posted by RGJ

There was (is?) another local newspaper or weekly devoted mostly to the black community, but I can't recall the name of it.

You're thinking of the historic San Antonio Register which was a weekly, black owned and operated newspaper that was started in April, 1931 by the very influential, Eastside political boss Charles Bellinger's son Valmo. The Bellinger family played a prominent role in the old black community of San Antonio but the paper changed hands in 1978 as readership slowly declined along with the changes in San Antonio politics and society. It is still published but has a far different outlook and appeal now; read about it in the Texas Handbook online at; Handbook of Texas Online - SAN ANTONIO REGISTER

[Nix54]

Originally Posted by RGJ

There was (is?) another local newspaper or weekly devoted mostly to the black community, but I can't recall the name of it.

The San Antonio Register, a newspaper format. It may still be in business and at the corner of Houston & Hackberry, next to Midway Cleaners.