Imperial Sugar held a general sales meeting in January, 1967 at The Shamrock Hilton Hotel in Houston. I can't tell for sure, but it appears that Imperial invited customers and potential customers to the event. As you can see from the program they toured the refinery in Sugar Land and facilities in Galveston. I may be able to find more information in The Crown, Imperial's weekly newspaper.
This is a real treasure to me for several reasons. First, it's the earliest program we have from a Gator football game. Many, many thanks to the Krehmeier family for giving us this scan. Second, my father and several of his friends and classmates are listed in the roster. They were juniors in the '40 season. You'll see Bill Krehmeier, Wayburn Hall, and William 'Sweat Pea' Gandy.
These photos come from a defunct newspaper called The Fort Bend Reporter. It devoted its inaugural edition to the opening of the Sugar Land Shopping Center in January, 1952. The first photo shows the drug store in its original configuration. (It was remodeled several times over the years.) The soda fountain is in the back and to the right. The camera is angled toward the east wall where the prescription drug counter was. Off to the right (out of view) were the cosmetics counter, office supplies, magazines and comic books!
This second photo shows the front wall of the dry goods store. The entrance to the super market was just outside the front door on the left. I think there was a second front door into the dry goods store on the right - just outside the camera's view.
The first picture shows the SLHS Marching band in late 1946. (My mother is the twirler on the left.) The photo was taken at what became Kempner Field facing the east stands. Notice how small they are. I think the larger wooden stands were built for the 1947 football season. The second photo shows Jean McCord Babineaux and Jean Watson (both Class of '48) posing in front of the band bus in their uniforms.
(Update) I received a note from Marjorie Hauerland Polasek ('49) who said if you look real hard you'll see her holding the Texas flag in the picture!
I'm sure many people had a Foley's charge card, especially after Sharpstown Center opened in 1962. I found my grandfather's card in a box of family artifacts.
I hope other people remember Golden Age drinks. I think they must have made almost a dozen flavors, each in a different colored can. (Root beer was brown.)
You may recall Sugar Land's 7/11 was well stocked. They were in the refrigerated cabinet behind Preston's checkout island. (The photo of Sid Lasher in the 7/11 may show some cans of Golden Age drink if I could enlarge it with any clarity.)
The first picture shows Mr. Abercrombie leading a PTA meeting. They appear to be in the old Missouri City Gym. The second picture shows a 'duck & cover' drill in the hallway at old Missouri City Elementary. I don't have an exact date, but it must be from the early '60s.
I don't have an exact date on this picture, but I think it must date from right after WWII. I can identify Albert Grohman, Don Williams, and the Borowski brothers, but no one else.
White socks were obviously the 'in-thing' that year.
I wish this scan were better, but if you look closely at the magnified images, you can read them. One flute! Cornet trio! Notre Dame March! Sugarland Overture by Olivadoti!
I've spent a lot of time recently collecting info on Gator football. B. I. Webb has sent me several good pictures of a practice session held in November, 1950 on the Sugar Land HS football field (later Kempner Stadium). The pictures are fascinating for several reasons - not the least because they show the football field in a configuration I'd never seen before. There's no track, and a wooden fence surrounds the field.
I've chosen a picture that shows Paul Martin, a tackle on the '50 team, with the east-side stands in the background. I remember those stands very well because they remained in place into the late '50s.
My brother reminded me of an incident that happened when we were little. We went to a game with my father in either the '56 or '57 season, I can't remember which. Bruce was 4 or 5, and I was 6 or 7. At some point during the game we told him we had to go to the toilet. Some of you may remember that the whizzers were on the north side of the stands - off to the left of this picture. My dad didn't want to take us all the way to the toilet - either because it was too much trouble or he didn't want to miss a lot of the game - so, he took us under the stands where the green 'X' appears over Paul's right shoulder.
It was cold that night so we were wearing jackets, caps and gloves. We crept into the dark under the stands while our dad watched - one eye on us and the other on what he could see of the game through the stands. It seems like there were dewberry vines under there because it was a struggle to take care of our business.
When we finished, we walked back out of the dark toward our dad. He started helping Bruce put on his gloves and said, "Where's your other glove?" Well, he lost it in the vines under the stands. My dad saw right away he couldn't find that glove - too dark, too many vines, too much effort. He said something like, "Oh, forget it. Let's go watch the game."
I didn't care for his casual approach to personal possessions. Many 5-year-old children have a strong sense of integrity about things, and I was one of them. I told my father that we needed to look for that missing glove. He said no, and I could tell he meant it, so the best I could do was make him give me a solemn promise to look for the glove the next morning when it was daylight. I don't think anybody knew about this little drama - nobody sitting in the stands above us or walking behind the stands paid us any attention.
The next day we drove up to the stadium, walked right to the spot and found the glove. I felt vindicated. That's probably why I remember the incident.
I found this program in J. B. Kachinski's scrapbook, which he lent me so I could scan it. I took a quick glance at this program and was overjoyed because it came from the '49 football season. It's the earliest example of a Gator program that I've come across. I did notice that W. H. Bailey was listed as the coach, but I thought it must be a mistake. I had lots of other things to scan, so I moved on.
A little later I looked at it more closely. I noticed some of the boys on the Sugar Land roster weighed less than 100 lbs. Some didn't have numbers, and Kenneth Hall is listed as a reserve. Then I noticed the opponents were the Little Jay Birds! The home team is listed as the Little Gators! The penny finally dropped, and I realized it was a Junior Varsity/Junior High game.
Many, many thanks to J. B. for letting me scan the contents of his scrapbook. There is lots of good stuff in it.
