Robert Hagen

I've not heard much about good ole "Uncle Bert" Lynn.  My sisters and I watched Uncle Bert many afternoons on KPRC.  I think he was the first mayor of Looney Town and yes, our milk was delivered in a truck just like that sans Uncle Bert.

Jan Barnes (Nimtz)

On a much more important note... Thanks be to God for watching over our classmate Linda Webster and giving her a positive report on her recent tests. She has been through so many health issues and God has blessed her to start out her New Year healthy! Congratulations, Linda! We continue to stand behind you and pray for you.
 

Roger Felton

Thanks Jan and prayers do work.  My wife's cousin Diane Talley had a tumor in her uterus the size of a softball.  It was the most agressive type of cancer there is.  Family and friends met at our house for support, encouragement and, most of all, prayers. 

MD Anderson in Houston took good care of her and she's been totally cancer free for years.  Her story is on the MD Anderson website.  It would seem a miracle to those who don't know the power of prayer.  So, Linda, you go girl.  Our prayers are with you all the way.

Kenneth Armbrister

Bernard Ash bought a Go Cart with Looney Bucks.  Uncle Burt was the host/Mayor of Looney town.  The Go Cart had no motor so we had to push it around until we aquired a motor off an old lawn edger(pre Weed Eater) and afixed it to the Cart. Another reason why we are lucky to be alive.

Steve Krone's dad was the plant manager at Carnation Milk company and hired Johnny Lievsay and Myself during a few summers to drive "vacation routes" for regular Milkmen taking their vacations.  We wore the White Uniforms and delivered milk and other products.  Yes there are stories i can't repeat, leave it to say some customers loved a young man in uniform.

Roger Felton

Yeah, Kenneth, you ain't woofing.  It's amazing what some people did to get out of paying their milk bill.  You should jot down some notes.  Bev and I produced a movie that was filmed in the Austin/Fredericksburg area some years ago and I think a flick about the tough life of a 1960's milkman would be a hoot.  

What say we get together and outline a storyboard at the Round Rock Hooters.

Stephen Ray Puckett

Congratulations, Linda!

Linda Webster

Robert (Ben) Carbo

Susan Carle (Crowley-Wasson)

Betty and I grew up together. We lived just two houses apart. She is still my oldest and dearest friend. Alan Geiser stole her heart in high school and still has it!

Elizabeth (Betty) McKirahan (Geiser)

Hi Benny.  Thanks for the birthday wishes.

I did not remember what "Man Tan" was???????????????????????????????

So, I asked my better half and he said some of us girls used the tanning produst back in the day.

What a memory you have!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please tell Kay I said hi.

Love to you both,

Betty

Stephen Ray Puckett

Rodeo stuff at Sears

2 l'il Oak Forest buckaroo brothers at the Houston Rodeo. 

Roger Felton

Anybody remember going to the rodeo when it was held at the Sam Houston Coliseum?  I remember seeing Annie Oakley shoot out a lit candle at 50 yards and the bullet didn't hit anyone in the audience on the other side.  She did it backwards holding the rifle over her shoulder using a mirror.  She did it 4 times in a row and nobody got killed. 

I saw Gene Autry, too, but he didn't shoot up the joint.  He just sang some songs and rode Champion around.

Then there was Eddie Arnold.  I think I was only about 6 years old but I remember the crowd went wild when he rode out at full gallop.  But then he fell off his horse and staggered around and couldn't find his hat.  Everybody figured a little Wild Turkey musta had him feeling pretty mellow but I was too young to know the feeling.  I asked grandma why Mr. Arnold was acting so funny.  She said something about "being thankful he wasn't riding a bull". 

He did manage to sing "Cattle Call".  I've always loved that song and nobody sang it like Eddie.  But that day at the Houston rodeo was the only time I ever heard someone slur a yodel.

Hilda Carol Smith (Godell)

Jacquie Campbell (Biggs)

As a child I also went to see Roy and Dale, and when they began their ride around the perimeter of the ring, I bolted away from my parents so I could stick my hand through the bars and touch one of the horses.When I turned around to go back to my parents, all I could see was vast numbers of seats and people.  A girl from the Red Coats who was ushering, picked me up and set me on her shoulders until we spotted my parents.  My mom was frantic but my dad was not worried.  

We did get out of school for the Rodeo/parade.  My dad worked downtown in a building that faced Main, and the windows to the building actually opened.  Some of us would ride to work with him on parade day and roam around downtown where the floats and riders were assembling.  Once we even conned some group to let us ride on the back of their float.  Our goal was to get to ride double with one of the cowboys, but I do not think we were ever successful at that. Once the parade began, we took the elevator up to my dad's floor and he opened the windows and we watched the parade from about the third floor -- maybe the Esperson Building.  Not sure. 

In Guard, we ushered for the Rodeo both at SHC and when it moved to Astrodome. We thought that was fun -- except when we had to wear the helments.  Then it was the Fat Stock Show -- renamed Livestock Show.  

As a teacher for 30 years, I observed the HLSR assist many students with scholarship money for showing animals, art projects, academic/community service, Tejano scholarships, etc.  It is truly a local organization that has given back to Houston and surrounding communities.   

Robert (Ben) Carbo

Robert (Ben) Carbo

Hilda Carol Smith (Godell)

Lindy Clarke (Hall)

Stephen... That photo of Kitirik with the Bosco is hilarious...
like, did no-one have an iron? I'm not Suzy Homemaker, by
any stretch of imagination, but damn, that looks pitiful.

And yes, matching western shirts were certainly a "thing",
my boyfriend, David Ringo, and I, got ours at Sears... black
with yellow roses, as in Yellow Rose of Texas... Even when
not rodeo-time, we wore them to Tradewinds Roller Rink.

I always wanted to go on one of those rodeo trail-rides...
I had a horse, but my father wouldn't let me go... too much
drinking, etc.
<sigh>

 

Stephen Ray Puckett

Summer is coming!   I have memories of hanging out at the beach.  Here's a look back:  http://www.chron.com/life/travel/article/Take-a-throwback-look-at-spring-break-in-Galveston-6853991.php

John (Fred) Williams

The lady that played Annie Oakley on TV was Gail Davis, she and my mother were good friends. She appeared to be a pretty good shot, but she really wasn't. For the shooting stuff she used very, very light loads in both her pistols and her rifle and along with the light loads she used the smallest bird shot the studio could find or that the prop dept. could make. That's why no one in the audience ever got hit. She had to be very careful where she aimed and pretty close to the target. When she shot the candle out, it was the rush of air that blew it out not the bullet hitting the flame. As far as who fell off of his horse, it was Gene Autry. Back then he had a real drinking problem.

In the fifties and early sixties the rodeo only ran for 7 or 8 days. It started on either Fri. or Sat. and ran until the following Sun. As I remember, the last performance on Sun. was always televised on KPRC. The trail ride (The Salt Grass) started on Saturday morning in Brenham and got to Memorial Park Tuesday afternoon, about 3:00 pm. Back then we moved a lot faster than they do today. The rodeo parade was on Wed. and we did get out of school that day. I rode every year back then and always missed Mon. and Tue. of that week. As one teacher referred to it, my chronic, annual illness. The rodeo only had 1 star for the entire show then, and the first star was Gene Autry, who fell off of his horse more than once. It was in the 60's, I think when the rodeo moved to the dome in '65, that they started having a different performer every night and then expanded to 2 weeks.  

Stephen Ray Puckett

Cadet Don (Al) and Kitirik (Toni) in the 1965 rodeo parade

Video of the 1965 parade

http://abc13.com/news/looking-back-at-the-rodeo-parades-early-days/1220597/1220640/

Kitirik (Bunny) in the 1960 parade

1962 rodeo parade. Lassie (the star that year) at about 0:10, Waltrip Band at about 0:30, and Kitirik at about 0:40. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgSxBPxWJCE

I remember marching in those rodeo parades, freezing and trying desparately to dodge the horse apples.

Stephen Ray Puckett

Fred, several of my friends told me that about Gene Autry. One told me that he asked his grandpa if indians had shot Gene because he saw Gene fall, then the HPD picked Gene up and put him in the back of a patrol car. Another friend saw them tie Gene onto his saddle. Years later, in 1968, a friend was chatting with Gene in California and asked him, "Some of the Old People in Houston went to their graves clucking about you being tied into your saddle during the Rodeo Parade. Was that a true fact?" "Oh, Yes." replied Gene, "We had been having fun all night, the night before, and I was not in very good shape to ride. I'm glad somebody thought to do that...It was for my own good.' Apparently Mr Autry sobered up, turned his life around, and was quite open about the situation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSqcxFGFVas

Stephen Ray Puckett

Roy and Dale deplaning in Houston for the rodeo - 1956

At the downtown parade - 1956

1952 - Downtown.  I was there.

Rodeo ads.  The Chevy Show was 1960

At the Coliseum

1957 - Roy with the winners of the Chronicle Roy Rogers coloring contest

Visits with various groups

Dale in squaw dress at a Rodeo event.  She is from Uvalde.

Roger Felton

Ah, Gene Autry it was...thanks guys.  At least he got "Back in the Saddle Again" even if it took some rope to stay there.  Eddie has been vindicated.  I always had trouble remembering who was who.  As a kid, I remember thinking Lash LaRue was actually Cat Woman and I was pretty sure Hopalong Cassidy was actually the Wizard of Oz...but I never could prove it.

Those early westerns always seemed the same to me.  I could always spot the bad guy long before the star of the show did.  And they all seemed to have some goofball in the cast that was so stupid you wondered how they managed to stay alive.  Wild Bill Hickock (Guy Madison) had "Jingles" (Andy Devine), Roy Rogers had Pat Brady, The Cisco Kid had Pancho, Pat Buttram was probably the worst and, who knows, maybe he was the one who slipped Gene the hooch at the rodeo. 

I think those "comical sidekicks" were supposed to add humor to the show but 60 years later I'm still waiting to chuckle.  Well, ok, there was one that got me tickled and that was Tonto.  I used to sit and count the number of times Tonto said "me" in a single episode.  "Me go to town"..."Me help capture outlaw"...."Me tired of acting like illiterate Indian"....the record for one show was 23, I think.  But Tonto was actually pretty cool.

Eventually they dumped the boneheaded bozos and gave us Wyatt Earp and Matt Dillon.  Neither of 'em put up with any nonsense.  When Wyatt got ticked at somebody he'd take his buntline and blow out their kneecaps.  But it would have been a hoot if Wyatt Earp wasn't shot during the gunfight at the OK Corral because he was hiding behind Nellie Bell.  Now that woulda been funny.

Stephen Ray Puckett

Speaking of Wyatt Earp...

1959 - Shamrock Hotel

You could get a variety of toy 'Wyatt Earp" guns, some much closer to a real Buntline Special than others.

Speaking of sidekicks, my favorite from those days was Yancy Derringer's cool Pawnee indian Pahoo-Ka-Ta-Wah  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC2bnk9t58A  Yancy was played by Jock Mahoney (Sally Field's dad), Pahoo was played by X Brands.