Gone But Not Forgotten in San Antonio! - Part II (Alamo: sales tax, spider)

[johnts71]

Got a question. Was the Austin Hwy Flea Market where Walmart is now? and was there a Shakeys Pizza across from it? I faintly remember this cause my parents use to drag me to the flea market. thanks

[Willsatx]

Originally Posted by Macgrad89

During a phone conversation with Mum last night I was told the vast majority of the Northern Hills Shopping Center at Thousand Oaks and Nacogdoches has been demolished. The only portion being saved is that with Gold's Gym. Also being torn down is half of another strip center fronting Nacogdoches. What's going in there? Yet another Wal-Mart...

I've spent lots of time at Northern Hills thru the years. Original tenants included Food City, a chain drug store (Sommers, later Revco), TG&Y, and Western Auto. Food City later became Warehouse Grocery, TG&Y became Thrift Town years later, Revco went out of business, etc.

Info on the new development can be found at the following link:

Northern Hills Wal-Mart

Macgrad89

Yeah Walmart taking up residence there, I wanted to ask you do you know what year TG&Y and Revco closed?

[smuboy86]

Originally Posted by johnts71

Got a question. Was the Austin Hwy Flea Market where Walmart is now? and was there a Shakeys Pizza across from it? I faintly remember this cause my parents use to drag me to the flea market. thanks

Yes, on both

[Willsatx]

Originally Posted by johnts71

Got a question. Was the Austin Hwy Flea Market where Walmart is now? and was there a Shakeys Pizza across from it? I faintly remember this cause my parents use to drag me to the flea market. thanks

I remember the Shakey's and the flea market, oh the good old days.

[*mud*]

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pizza joints??

WalMart??

*flea* markets

gimme a break....

as a teenager in the 1960s I worked at the San Antonio Zoo.

I had the Gorillas - Chimpanzees - Orangutans - Grizzly Bears -
Himalayan Sun Bears - Polar Bears - Giraffes and the Racoons.

lotsa stories -

ever see anteaters procreating?? hole nother story right and I do mean right there

ever see a giraffe born?? If I remember correctly, the baby dropped out at 7 foot tall.

ever seen a Polar Bear catch and eat a rat??

how bout a Himalayan Sun Bear suckin pot smoke in through two big old wet nostrils??
.............yeah I already said I was a teenager.

dingo dogs fighting to the death??

ever seen one of your friends impaled thorugh his thigh on the spiral horn of a 500 lb Greater Kudu dancing around?

3 Chimps near killed me one winter day.

Butt, here are the pertinent questions -

anyone remember Juba and Mimo??

or Monkey Island??

Monkey Island was really outtasite

goats and monkeys

the monkeys rode around on the goats backs
(what else ya gonna do when you're a monkey in a zoo??)
(actually I have a lotta more monkey stories)

13th Floor Elevators wrote a song about the island (and yes it was right in the middle of the zoo).

this song came about around this same time period
and, I assume, acid *dabbling*.

no, actually Powell St John wrote it the Elevators took it far far away. into the realm of psychedelia...
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13th Floor Elevators - Monkey Island - YouTube
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[SATX56]

That there's some funny stuff Mud! Well, except for the injuries and such it was hilarious picturing some of it. That anteater procreating has me thinking. I've been involved raising and caring for Eland, Gemsbok, Kudu and Cape buffalo. They're all pretty dangerous. I remember Monkey Island well.

[ranchodrive]

Originally Posted by *mud*

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pizza joints??

WalMart??

*flea* markets

gimme a break....

as a teenager in the 1960s I worked at the San Antonio Zoo.

I had the Gorillas - Chimpanzees - Orangutans - Grizzly Bears -
Himalayan Sun Bears - Polar Bears - Giraffes and the Racoons.

lotsa stories -

ever see anteaters procreating?? hole nother story right and I do mean right there

ever see a giraffe born?? If I remember correctly, the baby dropped out at 7 foot tall.

ever seen a Polar Bear catch and eat a rat??

how bout a Himalayan Sun Bear suckin pot smoke in through two big old wet nostrils??
.............yeah I already said I was a teenager.

dingo dogs fighting to the death??

ever seen one of your friends impaled thorugh his thigh on the spiral horn of a 500 lb Greater Kudu dancing around?

3 Chimps near killed me one winter day.

Butt, here are the pertinent questions -

anyone remember Juba and Mimo??

or Monkey Island??
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....


Gone But Not Quite Forgotten

[Macgrad89]

TG&Y (a.k.a. Turtles, Girdles, and Yo-yos) started to falter around the late 70s and early 80s and was then sold to McCrory Stores in 1986. McCrory closed 200 of the 700+ TG&Y stores around 1987 but I just don't remember when the Northern Hills store shut down. The last TG&Y I remember seeing in SA was at South Park Mall in the early-to-mid 90s. McCrory went bankrupt in 2001-2002 and is now out of business, taking TG&Y with it.

Revco filed for bankruptcy in 1988 and sold all their stores west of the Mississippi. This was around the time I started college and left SA for A&M. For some reason I thought that particular Revco might have become a Drug Emporium. It wasn't ever an Eckerd.

Macgrad89

[TrapperL]

Was Juba the one noted for his throwing.....stuff? And yes, monkey island was reason enough just to go to the zoo. That was a non-stop rodeo. A few of my running buds would throw the monkeys lite cigarettes. They'd start to smoke them and then the fight would start. Seems sharing gets a little too much when there are so many. I also did the elephant rides. I don't remember the elephants name but one was just a sweetheart and it was a tragedy when she died. Lots of great memories at the zoo. Does anybody remember the speedboat rides on the river at the zoo? We used to take my Chevy convertible, load it with girls and go to the park. I'd park the car on the bridge that the water goes across and have the girls with sponges in hand bail out and wash the car in less than a minute. I got a clean car, mostly, and they got the thrill of washing a car in a river. City girls!!! Played baseball there, drove off of Sunken Gardens pulling up to a danger cliff sign. Who'd a thunk it that the sign at street level was on a 15 foot pole? Took several other teens there to help pick up the front end of that convertible and put it back on asphalt. Sunken Gardens is where the teens went for a little smoochie time. Then they put in the Sky Ride. I never liked that thing but the girls loved it. There was the horse rides there too. A lot of the horses would try to clean you off by going under low branches on the trees. I learned to ride when I was old enough to walk so it didn't happen to me but a few friends got to walk back to the stables. Yep, love the zoo. But it's a far cry from what it once was. Too bad.

[*mud*]

Originally Posted by SATX56

That there's some funny stuff Mud! Well, except for the injuries and such it was hilarious picturing some of it. That anteater procreating has me thinking. I've been involved raising and caring for Eland, Gemsbok, Kudu and Cape buffalo. They're all pretty dangerous. I remember Monkey Island well.

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where were you working with the exotics??
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Originally Posted by ranchodrive

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Gone But Not Quite Forgotten

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Originally Posted by TrapperL

Was Juba the one noted for his throwing.....stuff? And yes, monkey island was reason enough just to go to the zoo. That was a non-stop rodeo. A few of my running buds would throw the monkeys lite cigarettes. They'd start to smoke them and then the fight would start. Seems sharing gets a little too much when there are so many. I also did the elephant rides. I don't remember the elephants name but one was just a sweetheart and it was a tragedy when she died. Lots of great memories at the zoo. Does anybody remember the speedboat rides on the river at the zoo? We used to take my Chevy convertible, load it with girls and go to the park. I'd park the car on the bridge that the water goes across and have the girls with sponges in hand bail out and wash the car in less than a minute. I got a clean car, mostly, and they got the thrill of washing a car in a river. City girls!!! Played baseball there, drove off of Sunken Gardens pulling up to a danger cliff sign. Who'd a thunk it that the sign at street level was on a 15 foot pole? Took several other teens there to help pick up the front end of that convertible and put it back on asphalt. Sunken Gardens is where the teens went for a little smoochie time. Then they put in the Sky Ride. I never liked that thing but the girls loved it. There was the horse rides there too. A lot of the horses would try to clean you off by going under low branches on the trees. I learned to ride when I was old enough to walk so it didn't happen to me but a few friends got to walk back to the stables. Yep, love the zoo. But it's a far cry from what it once was. Too bad.

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I remember a lot of that stuff Trap.
especially the lit cigarettes. pack of Camels was fifteen cents back then.
gas was .18. tank up the sickle with 100 octane, pay with a dollar bill, and get change back.

there was an elephant named Jenny and another named Motte.

bout a half dozen of my friends were working at the zoo.

yeah Juba an humongus beast was one of the ones that threw *stuff*.

one of my duties was the ape house (2 Lowland Gorillas. 3 Chimpanzees. 2 Orangutans)

my first day, a friend was showing me the routine in the service area.
I see a piece of plywood with a handle on one side.
penciled in on the other side, said "HI".

I asked my friend what's the deal??

he told me that you needed to hold that up when you walked past Juba's cage.
but, he said "Juba likes me", and walked in front of Juba's cage.

yep. Juba threw a wad of *stuff* right in the center of his chest.

every morning I fed Juba 5 bushel baskets of fruit and vegetables.

I always liked to throw Juba an orange first.

he would pop the orange into his mouth, roll it around a few times and spit out the peel.

plenty more stories from the zoo.

the 60s, what a trip..........
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Juba and I were born in 49, so we were teenagers at the time.
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