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#61128 Millar Drug Store in GP

Posted by Funkdoobiest on 11 June 2010 - 06:22 PM in Local History

Some interesting info I came across last night that reminded me of other topics here. Love this kind of stuff. Although in Grand Prairie, I thought I'd share.

A few weeks ago I had dinner with my dad who works nights at Vought Aircraft on Jefferson. He recommended this Italian joint on Main St called New York Joe's or something. I was looking around inside and there were some old exposed bricks with some plaster and I said to my dad, I wonder how old this place is and what it used to be. Well while searching around for White Water pics(for my other thread) I ran across some historical pics from Grand Prairie's website and I was trying to match old buildings up with current pics from Google Earth street view as I always like to do. And there was this drug store in a few of them, and there was JFK standing on a hood of a car holding a mic giving some kind of speech in the street in front of this drug store, Millar Drugs. So I then searched up the story of that store and it turned up to be that Italian restaurant. According to this document, Bottle Rocket filmed some scenes there which starred both Luke and Owen Wilson back in 1996. I only saw the last half of that movie which was filmed in and around Dallas and mostly at a motel in Hillsboro off I35. The 2nd link also shows Douglas MacArthur in that area by the Uptown Theater. Anyway, just some cool historical info I thought.

http://www.gptx.org/...documentid=1965

http://s189.photobuc...mview=slideshow



#61118 Anybody have pics of White Water in Grand Prairie?

Posted by Funkdoobiest on 10 June 2010 - 08:33 PM in Local History

Weird how info about this water park seems to be non-existent. I remember as a kid going there with private parties from my dad's job(LTV-now Vought) back in the early 80s. After Wet N Wild opened down the road we started having our annual private parties there. I know the story about the roller coaster accident after the water park closed and all, but I cannot find pics or and history on the park.

SO does anybody have pics and some history on it? I've always heard about Wet N Wild buying it and filling the pipes with cement blah blah, but I've always wondered how much of it is true or just rumors. Help anyone?



#60563 JFK In River Oaks

Posted by Funkdoobiest on 17 April 2010 - 11:38 PM in Local History

And all this time I thought JFK flew out of Meacham to Love Field. I work in River Oaks and cross that intersection everyday.



#60162 Famous Fort Worthians

Posted by Funkdoobiest on 23 March 2010 - 08:57 PM in Local History

I got my tongue pierced at Psycho Clown back in '98. Took a couple GFs there too to get theirs.



#60122 Famous Fort Worthians

Posted by Funkdoobiest on 18 March 2010 - 02:16 AM in Local History

Did anybody mention Roy Orbison living here as a kid?



#60031 Which bridge was hit and collapsed in the 80s?

Posted by Funkdoobiest on 08 March 2010 - 10:14 PM in Local History

QUOTE (817.TX. @ Mar 8 2010, 02:04 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
My wifes best friends dad! Conrad Herrera! Real sad story!! They still own the house on Riveroaks Blvd!


That's right! I work right down the road from their house. Right after the accident I was at my uncle's and somebody related to them came by and showed us something he recovered from the accident site. It was a black aluminum Corvette flashlight and it was all scratched up. Also, back in the early 90s when I was in a band(Suave Band) our bass player's wife was related to them, either their cousin or sister, Patsy or Patty.

Back then(early 90s) my dad was having an affair with this woman and while I was at my friend's house who lives on the edge of Stockyards the brothers showed up there with that woman. It was at this time I found out who she was cause she knew everything about me and my family. They had been partying and dancing out in Stockyards that night. And let's just say we partied till the sun came up. I was a teenager at the time so when Conrad actually spent the time to converse with me I thought it was pretty cool since most older people ignore teens.



#59793 Famous Fort Worthians

Posted by Funkdoobiest on 20 February 2010 - 02:42 PM in Local History

I recall Martina Navratilova living here at one time, I don't know if she still does. They had an autographed picture up many years ago at the River Oaks Steakhouse too.



#59035 Famous Fort Worthians

Posted by Funkdoobiest on 04 January 2010 - 02:22 AM in Local History

Don't forget actress and wife of Steven Spielberg, Kate Capshaw. Her parents still live in town.

Also Bob Schieffer from CBS News who went to North Side High School. http://en.wikipedia....i/Bob_Schieffer

And don't forget BJ Thomas.

I was in the elevator with Johnny Rutherford at Harris Hospital back in Sept '99 when my daughter was born. He was across the hall from us, I guess he just had a grandchild. I immediately recognized him, although I thought he was a car dealer cause he used to come out in some car dealer commercials years back. It wasn't until later I remembered his name and who he was!!! I believe he lives in River Oaks now.

Also an old-coworker of mine lived in Spanky McFarland's old house right off of Davis and North Tarrant, behind the bank that is now there. Also down the street from the famed Green Valley Raceway which is also gone. He sold it for a good sum and they bulldozed it and built some houses there. He told me that BJ Thomas used to live next door too.



#59034 The Flood of 1949

Posted by Funkdoobiest on 04 January 2010 - 01:51 AM in Local History

I remember Leta(Leta's Burgers) telling us before she died how she'd been in Stockyards for something like 50 years and her original burger joint was further east in Stockyards and got damaged in the flood of '49. She said something like it floated away. So then she set up shop there on 25th across from the Police Station. And you's better not ask her for fries!! Chips only!



#59033 Pate Museum: going, going...

Posted by Funkdoobiest on 04 January 2010 - 01:35 AM in Local History

I first went there as a kid with the YMCA summer program in like 82-83. It was a fun experience although I do not remember any classic cars. I did visit one more time in '91 and this meant the most to me. I joined a band when I was 13 and I was their sound man. I had always been interested in drums for years before I joined, this only helped me make my dream come true. I learned to play and sat in when the unreliable drummer wouldn't show up to rehearsal. So when he couldn't make a gig for a wedding I gladly filled in. It was a joyous moment for me as I was 15 by that time. And it was there at the Pate Museum Hall, my first gig. I later took his job when they fired him cause he wasn't as reliable as I was and I was almost as good as him by then (kids learn fast).

And a neat fact was that that wedding was my old hottie P.E. teacher in elementary school. Everybody had a crush on her. I really wanted to go one last time just to see and take pics of the interior of that hall. Do you think it would be impossible now to do this? I know it's closed now, but maybe, just maaaybeee.



#59032 Your first videotape rental...?

Posted by Funkdoobiest on 04 January 2010 - 01:26 AM in Local History

I was young, but I remember the first and really only video store in the North Side area was the Take It Home in River Oaks. It was in that shopping center next to White's Auto Parts Store, which was later Western Auto by Braum's. I remember we drove up and the line was out the door and down the porch/sidewalk area. So the video store we would go to was called Video Port in the Ridgmar area, by the Mervin's and Miller's Outpost at the time. My mom got to know the owner well enough that he would give us movie posters once he was done with them. So we had all the coolest 80s movie posters on our walls. Evil Dead 2, Friday the 13th part ?, Fright Night, among others.

I also recall the first kind of 24hr "Redbox"-type machine was in the mid-90s in Haltom City. It was right where the Haltom Theater is. There was the video store and the furniture store next door. Well in place of the furthermost window was the VHS vending machine. You picked your movie, put in your bills and it would drop a cassette. The choices were pretty limited as I'm sure it was because of the mass of the tape.



#59029 Which bridge was hit and collapsed in the 80s?

Posted by Funkdoobiest on 03 January 2010 - 04:04 PM in Local History

QUOTE (waywr @ Jan 3 2010, 01:39 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I didn't see the wreck, but I drove by it, probably not long after it happened. Was in the summer of 1984 I'm almost positive, though it may have been 83.
I worked at Wedgwood Theater at the time. For 10 weeks every summer, we showed kids' movies at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m.
There was a theater in Arlington owned by the same company, Plitt Theaters, that owned Wedgwood.
Anyway, the projectionist would load the film on two big reels. I'd put those, and the film cans in my car and take them to the Arlington theater, which ran the movies the next day.
So, I'm driving up 20 to Arlington, and I see a ton of police and fire vehicles by the Campus Drive bridge there by, at the time, TCJC.
I pass by and see half the bridge on the freeway, and the back end of a woman's car crushed by the bridge. The woman was still in the car at the time. I didn't see any cars on top of the bridge, later learned there weren't any, but was thinking, "Oh my God! There's probably people and cars crushed under the bridge.
This was in the days before cell phones, of course.
So I drove on to Arlington and dropped the movie off. Told the people there about it. They looked at me kind of funny like they didn't believe, or understand what I was talking about.
Drove back to Wedgwood and told everybody there. Got a bunch of "Yeah right" looks and comments.
Fortunately, we got the Star Telegram at the theater, and this was when they still had a morning and evening edition.
Half an hour or so after I got back to Wedgwood, here came the evening paper, with a huge front-page photo of the collapsed bridge.
If I remember correctly, a tractor-trailer truck - don't remember what it was hauling - clipped one of the bridge posts, which made it fall on the woman's car. Neither the truck driver or the woman were hurt so far as I remember. All the traffic behind the woman was far enough back that they were able to stop in front of the bridge and, miraculously, there were no cars crossing the bridge at the time.
I was taking a summer class at Tic Jic at the time. Had to use an alternate route to get to the school for a few months until they repaired the bridge.


Very interesting, thanks for replying. I cannot find pics anywhere or even an article on Google or in The Star Telegram archives. All that has come up in Google is this topic.