You know, I was born in Corpus Christi but at the age of two I came to Brownwood, so I know most of the stuff around here and have for a long, long time. I graduated in the 1960 class but 1959 was the year I started my Senior year and I went every year to school in Brownwood.
The town looked a little different – yeah, just a little – back in the 1950’s
than it does today. I’ve got so many great memories of so many great places. I remember Underwood’s in different stages. I remember back in the 50’s and maybe even in the late 40’s – I was like seven years old at the end of the 40’s – but anyway, way back when, Underwood’s was basically a tin building out on the corner where they are now. Then they built the little place where you could dine inside, and eventually the big place that it is now. I hated to see Gomez close when it did but mercy they did it for a long, long time. I remember Kenneth Wise Steak House, Golden Bull, and the drug store – whatever it was called – by old Lion Stadium. It was one of my favorite stops when I got in junior high and high school. We had great root beer places, A&W, K and N. I’ll never forget Lyon’s Drive Inn – not Lion’s – but LYON. It was a heck of a place and the end of the drag. We had a very, very active drag when I was a kid in town. The drag went from the Dairy Maid on Coggin to Lyon’s Drive In on West Commerce. I remember the places along the drag like Bill’s Drive In. You know Venables out on the traffic circle originally was Alfred’s and it’s the first pizza I had ever eaten in Brownwood. The Chicken Shack was on the other side of the highway. My folks took me once or twice to eat chicken and I’ll always remember it for the fact Elvis played in Memorial Hall back in 1955. It was a July 4th show and after the show Elvis ate at the Chicken Shack. My good friend, Jim Hampton, ran the Dairy Queen for a long time and when the Dairy Queen moved on Austin Avenue he just kept the building and changed the name to Country Corner. The Dairy Maid, Bill’s Drive In, The Mug – I could just sit here and name them. My favorite of all was a place called Schwartz Eat Shoppe. When I started in radio , I’d just run from the radio station through the underpass to Schwartz and grab something to eat. I loved the food at Schwartz Eat Shoppe. It has stayed with me a long time and leaves some good memories about that place.
I think about the car dealerships and how in the, I don’t know I guess somewhere in the 60’s, everything started moving around a little bit. Weatherby’s was downtown forever and it’s Big Country Ford out on the highway now. Holley’s was downtown next to the Bowie Theater then they went out on the highway. We had a lot of places in town that sold cars. The Dodge/Plymouth house was at one time downtown, but moved out near the foot of Bangs hill.
Everything moved and a lot of that had to do with the Mall opening and whenever it opened, Brownwood started to change. When Brownwood won their first football State Championship, I just know that the town became vibrant. Once we found out as a town we could do some stuff that people didn’t think we could, we had a state school come. We had 3M come in. We had FMC come and Kohler came. People say, “Well, that didn’t have anything to do with football”. I would disagree with you. It just hit at the right time. Brownwood’s football exploded. The town exploded, and all of a sudden it became a different town. I just have great memories of so many, many things. I’ll have to save the rest I guess for another day.
Until next time, so long everybody.
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‘Out of the Box’ with Dallas Huston is published each Monday morning at BrownwoodNews.com. Dallas was the radio voice of the Brownwood Lions and Howard Payne Yellow Jackets for more than 55 years. He currently is Pastor of Center City Baptist Church and hosts a Men’s Bible Study in Brownwood on Monday evenings. Your comments are welcome at [email protected].