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Our house, was at Utopia Rd. and Pecan Valley Rd. perhaps two miles away from Brooks A.F.B.
and a couple of miles from yours. I went to Forbes Elementary on Avondale. How old are you?
We lived at the triangle of Avondale, Clark, and then Goliad. We were there before Goliad, Highland Hills, and all of that where you lived. It was out in the country and you accessed SA via Clark. Forbes is not on Avondale although I wouldn't doubt that you went to school by getting off on Avondale. Most kids walking used a vacant lot owned by the Villareal family to access the school. Some parents found it a lot easier to let the kids off on Avondale rather than Sally Gay. The school is actually on Sally Gay. I was part of the first graduating class of Forbes. As a school crossing Lieutenant, we crossed over the lot to Avondale twice a day to guard the street crossing at Hot Wells and Clark. I be 68 going on 69 this January.
Yes that is right, the backside of Forbes Elementary was toward Avondale, Trapper. There was a crushed limestone path going out to Avondale from the back of the school between two houses. If I can remember correctly about that spot from so long ago. I used to walk that limestone path alright however can't remember the Villareals but then again I was six years old. How could I?
Yes, you are older than me, Trapper, a good bit, but not a lot. Indeed you are probably correct twice because that house Dad bought out there on the southside was brand new - a Burke home, there off Pecan Valley and Utopia in 1955. You must have lived there before we did because Goliad went all the way to Military Dr. as I recall that city street from back then. There were mesquite woods all over the place , around that subdivision and so yes that was the sticks, the very edge of town. It seemed like downtown was so, far away from that neighborhood back then. Nowadays that neighborhood seems very, very near downtown from a present day City perspective. This city has very,very rapidly expanded within the span of our lifetimes. The place seems Cosmopolitan in comparison to what it was back then. The Riverwalk was a mere sidewalk with nothing down there, it looked abandoned during weekdays and downtown wasn't very attractive. It is amazing to consider the changes in the city since that time. It seems very ,very crowded in comparison.
The Hot Wells Rd. and the Clark st intersection. Looked like a rural area before the freeway went through there.
I can remember the flashing blinker light located there and a mama patrol at Hot Wells and Clark. Perhaps kids with stop signs too, I can't remember anymore. Dad had a 1952 Chevy Deluxe in those days, white on orange with an A.M. radio which had a large chrome grille built into an all steel dashboard and glove compartment cover. Little brother used to stand in the front seat of this automobile,
while Dad drove everywhere we went, in order to be able to see out the windows. That is until he pitched headlong onto the floorboards one time during a sudden stop.
Not a second thought was given to child safety and cars did not even come with seat belts anyway or even blinkers back then. I recall - Merely toss an arm out the window to indicate a turn to the drivers around you. Life passed at a far slower pace then. Instead of flashing orange lights and barricades in a road construction zone I can remember as a small child inspecting small and very smokey, globular smudgepots sitting in the roadways, lined up in rows, filled with kerosine and an open flame burning at the top by night to warn drivers of roadwork ahead.
There was a Tuberculosis Hospital there too, where people would be quarantined in little red and white cabins built on the south State Mental Hospital grounds @ Military Dr. and New Braunfels. They might be quarantined for years in there, like a medical prison sentence so the disease could be contained it was thought. Recall those little buidings ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by TrapperL
We lived at the triangle of Avondale, Clark, and then Goliad. We were there before Goliad, Highland Hills, and all of that where you lived. It was out in the country and you accessed SA via Clark. Forbes is not on Avondale although I wouldn't doubt that you went to school by getting off on Avondale. Most kids walking used a vacant lot owned by the Villareal family to access the school. Some parents found it a lot easier to let the kids off on Avondale rather than Sally Gay. The school is actually on Sally Gay. I was part of the first graduating class of Forbes. As a school crossing Lieutenant, we crossed over the lot to Avondale twice a day to guard the street crossing at Hot Wells and Clark. I be 68 going on 69 this January.
I remember an elderly lady on Avondale (north side of the street) just west of Clark back in the 70's. Said she'd had free phone service from Ma Bell for allowing them some sort of access in her very deep backyard. Said her husband had worked on the Hot Wells grounds after it's closure I believe. Either carnies or others ran some amusement park of sorts. (maybe rides). I've forgotten now maybe back in the 30's or 40's.
I remember smudge pots. My dad had a great story about how he and some friends burnt a tent down trying to keep warm with them.
NP Dave...I was taken out there and shown the site. There was still a partial hole there (1976) about 6 ft deep but it looks like now it's completely filled in.
The best I can recall Those roadside smudegepots yielded too much sooty smoke to be of much use as an indoor tent heater SATX.
What happened ? Your Dad's tent caught fire from street work smudgepots in fifties' San Antonio?
I'd like to hear that one. No please. Do tell. They were probably trying to warm the outsides of the tent ?
I would like to read the recollection of this. While a smaller catastrophe than the Medina incident, it could still be remembered as an another unexpected catastrophe
from San Antonio's past .
Quote:
Originally Posted by SATX56
I remember an elderly lady on Avondale (north side of the street) just west of Clark back in the 70's. Said she'd had free phone service from Ma Bell for allowing them some sort of access in her very deep backyard. Said her husband had worked on the Hot Wells grounds after it's closure I believe. Either carnies or others ran some amusement park of sorts. (maybe rides). I've forgotten now maybe back in the 30's or 40's.
I remember smudge pots. My dad had a great story about how he and some friends burnt a tent down trying to keep warm with them.
The best I can recall Those roadside smudegepots yielded too much sooty smoke to be of much use as an indoor tent heater SATX.
What happened ? Your Dad's tent caught fire from street work smudgepots in fifties' San Antonio?
I'd like to hear that one. No please. Do tell. They were probably trying to warm the outsides of the tent ?
I would like to read the recollection of this. While a smaller catastrophe than the Medina incident, it could still be remembered as an another unexpected catastrophe
from San Antonio's past .
The soot had much to do with the hilarity of the story. I'm afraid you'll need to use your literary license or imagination on this one. My mention of it was all the memory i have of the story. It was not a San Antonio event. Nothing to get bunched up over. Thought you'd focus on the Avondale story. It's a biggy.
A Flash Flood misadventure in an older San Antonio,
I considered your smudgepot incident of 60 or 70 yrs. ago far the more interesting of the two stories satx. While free telephone service on Avondale St. or anywhere may be something to be envied, I simply felt it was not nearly as interesting as a tent in flames via smudgepots back in the day. Life can be remarkable I felt so sometimes this stuff, can be the most interesting.
At times the hilarity of any given moment will eclipse all else. Memory fails us. Keeping this in mind
comes a memory to recount of San Antonio floodwaters and three gutsy friends from long ago. A most memorable incident from an era before flood dontrol dams were built.
At other times the crisis of a misadventure may eclipse all else.
Before the flood retention dam pictured below was built I (we) had three local friends from that vicinity,
the old neighborhood, who took to the edge of the muddy waters of a flash flood at this very location in 1972 or 1973.
Here, very near the intersection of Loop 1604 and F.M. 1957 in a large 8 person life raft they departed. The top of the structure in the foreground of the photograph looks exactly, exactly like a two lane city street but look closely and it is located down inside of the Ravine and behind the southeast corner of that intersection- there is nothing around it, it is in the middle of nowhere. In the background one can see a second structure built to slow floodwaters.
That, far in the background and upstream in the picture is the 1604 bridge over Culebra Creek which is located near the front of the Walmart outside the Loop , north and one mile away, for a point of reference. It is hilarious now for us to recall this misadventure but at that time there was nothing humorous about their predicament. Before they knew it -they were swept away by the fast moving current and out of control.
One third of that adventurous party is now deceased, another is moved out of state and the third ( whom is now quite successful) will not admit to ever partcipating in this stunt. Right. How quickly we forget. In another 30 yrs. he will recall it probably.
To the Enco Gas station located at Callaghan and Ingram a trip was made, to patch a hole in the rubber raft and inflate it before they could implement their plan.
Down, down, downstream they were swept by the current without any knowledge of what was going to happen to them and completely at the mercy of the current.
When it was discovered that their lives were in peril -someone must have notified the authorities- They were rescued many miles away underneath Loop 410... from the bridge over Culebra Creek, located just south of the Culebra Exit by the SAFD. A ladder truck was brought out and extended across the creek where they waited for the rafters until the three could be plucked out of the water like fish. They were lucky to be alive. The rubber raft, borrowed, was never seen again.
NO literary license or imagination needed for this one. satx.
The soot had much to do with the hilarity of the story. I'm afraid you'll need to use your literary license or imagination on this one. My mention of it was all the memory i have of the story. It was not a San Antonio event. Nothing to get bunched up over. Thought you'd focus on the Avondale story. It's a biggy.
I considered your smudgepot incident of 60 or 70 yrs. ago far the more interesting of the two stories satx. While free telephone service on Avondale St. or anywhere may be something to be envied, I simply felt it was not nearly as interesting as a tent in flames via smudgepots back in the day. Life can be remarkable I felt so sometimes this stuff, can be the most interesting.
At times the hilarity of any given moment will eclipse all else. Memory fails us. Keeping this in mind
comes a memory to recount of San Antonio floodwaters and three gutsy friends from long ago. A most memorable incident from an era before flood dontrol dams were built.
At other times the crisis of a misadventure may eclipse all else.
Before the flood retention dam pictured below was built I (we) had three local friends from that vicinity,
the old neighborhood, who took to the edge of the muddy waters of a flash flood at this very location in 1972 or 1973.
Here, very near the intersection of Loop 1604 and F.M. 1957 in a large 8 person life raft they departed. The top of the structure in the foreground of the photograph looks exactly, exactly like a two lane city street but look closely and it is located down inside of the Ravine and behind the southeast corner of that intersection- there is nothing around it, it is in the middle of nowhere. In the background one can see a second structure built to slow floodwaters.
That, far in the background and upstream in the picture is the 1604 bridge over Culebra Creek which is located near the front of the Walmart outside the Loop , north and one mile away, for a point of reference. It is hilarious now for us to recall this misadventure but at that time there was nothing humorous about their predicament. Before they knew it -they were swept away by the fast moving current and out of control.
One third of that adventurous party is now deceased, another is moved out of state and the third ( whom is now quite successful) will not admit to ever partcipating in this stunt. Right. How quickly we forget. In another 30 yrs. he will recall it probably.
To the Enco Gas station located at Callaghan and Ingram a trip was made, to patch a hole in the rubber raft and inflate it before they could implement their plan.
Down, down, downstream they were swept by the current without any knowledge of what was going to happen to them and completely at the mercy of the current.
When it was discovered that their lives were in peril -someone must have notified the authorities- They were rescued many miles away underneath Loop 410... from the bridge over Culebra Creek, located just south of the Culebra Exit by the SAFD. A ladder truck was brought out and extended across the creek where they waited for the rafters until the three could be plucked out of the water like fish. They were lucky to be alive. The rubber raft, borrowed, was never seen again.
NO literary license or imagination needed for this one. satx.
I'm having to use my imagination on the picture/photo as the link is to Admin's lock box. Got another? None of our waterways are a good place to venture in times of flooding for sure. Sounds like they were very lucky though.
Don't know what happened but the second time around it has worked.
Here's the picture .
Huckster
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Avondale St in perspective,
Right. How quickly we forget. In another 30 yrs. he will recall it probably.
Got another? 
None of our waterways are a good place to venture in times of flooding for sure. Sounds like they were very lucky though.
