THAT STILL ONLY COUNTS AS ONE!
Feb. 22nd, 2005 06:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolariAn early day today. I'd really like to do this weekend over with more sleep. At least a vacation is definitely coming up, I can sleep in all I like. :)
I had a 1PM appointment for a hormone shot. and Dean decided he's like to spend the day with me in SA. So I decided to use the doctor's appointment as an excuse to show Dean the old Stomping Grounds.
We got into town at 1PM, I was out of the office by 1:30, properly reestrogenated. From there, we hit my favorite Chinese buffet, the Buffet Palace. While this isn't the best Chinese food in San Antonio, it's the most variety. I've never seen another buffet that serves un-deep fried squid or sweet bean rolls or all manner of plates they do.
From there, we hit the Diversions Game Room arcade on Culebra. While it wasn't the specific arcade I always went to (it's now an Insurance place), it was still a lot of fun. Dean played a few games of Ms. Pac Man, I FINALLY saw my first SVC arcade game. Dean pointed me to a Multi Arcade Machine, which had Street Fighter I and II. SF1 was a lot of fun, but it was surreal playing SF2 at the same arcade that I introduced me to SF2, 13 years later. We got pics. :)
From there and a quick run to the dollar store later, I decided to run off to Crossroads mall, which was a pretty big mall in my heyday, but to do it via some old haunts.
The first stop was my old High School then the old Huebner Creek wilderness area. What I saw there made my day.
The house we lived in from 1984-1990 was in a subdivision backed by a creek that flooded very deeply.The creek was sandwiched between two subdivisions and was heavily heavily wooded. I used to go back there and walk the trails, sit and think, study in the leaves. The whole area in this floodplain was about two miles long. I walked it every day to and from school, and deep deep down I was so afraid that like most flood areas in San Antonio, it would be cemented over and channeled and all the trees would be torn up.
A lot of this wilderness is in AWFW and CS, as background plates. The area directly behind the main storm drain that led back into the creek was cleared out not by bulldozers or anything, but by ATVs that would tear up the ground and kill the grass there. So you had a wide open clearing, leading off into trails upon trails through this place. It was very very very peaceful back there (well, when the weekend ATVs weren't out).
The grotto just a few miles south was regularly cleaned out by floods so nothing but already rooted trees lived there. Once the ground dried out from a recent flood, you had a hard packed dirt floor, hundreds of trees with no leaves until about 15 feet up, where the trees blossomed into a full grown canopy. I used to draw here, and even have small picnics here.
So I was very worried that once I left it would all go away. Today, as I drove by the grotto to show dean I saw something WONDERFUL. "Huebner Creek Park." The city bought the area, left it as wilderness, and turned it into a park. I don't know the "boundaries" of the park, But I sure hope it's all two miles of the forest. :)
From there we saw our old house, saw some old neighbors, and their kids who grew up pretty, and continued our way to Crossroads Mall.
Wow, some things change for the better, and others for the worst. Crossroads Mall was once The Mall to go to. It had the art house movie theater, two levels of specialty stores you couldn't find at other malls, top notch food court, big arcade. It's just a shell now. Most of the stores are gone an empty, what IS there aren't so much stores, as they're schools (A store a friend worked at is now a ballet studio, another store that sold electronics is a martial arts gym). And the place is empty and sad. If you live in Austin, it's become Northcross Mall.
One small little encounter. On the way out of the bathroom at, I was stopped by someone who asked me if I was on hormones. Defenses WWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY up, I said "Yes." Turns out it was another transsexual looking for hormones. Dr. Chase, you got another client coming. :)
Seeing how dead Crossroads had become, we decided to leave, and ran off to Ingram Mall. Much closer to my house, definitely much more alive...but also all the same chains, and all the stores as you can find at AnyMall, North America.
We finished up the programming day there, and from there decided to pick up some groceries at the HEB Marketplace. HEB Marketplace, when it opened, was a MASSIVE grocery store that sold groceries and imported goods. You could get newspapers from around the globe, exotic fresh foods, and even toys and imported candies. It even had restaurants inside you could eat at while shopping. Now it's just a REALLY BIG regular old fashioned HEB. One of the restaurants is still there, serving the terrible Chinese food they always served, but the a lot of the other restaurants have been converted to regular Grocery Store Fare. The old Delicatessen is now a Deli Store, the old Seafood restaurant is now the seafood section and so on and so forth. We were seriously disappointed...and just bought a few snacks and left.
In all, it's nice to see the hometown, and to relive some of your childhood, but you really can't go home again. Although the fact that that forest/creek bed is a park now really makes up for all the things that changed for the worst.
Do you remember that first shot of Frodo from the Fellowship of the Rings? Where he's' sitting against the tree in grassy forested area? That's not gonna be paved over ever. :)
I had a 1PM appointment for a hormone shot. and Dean decided he's like to spend the day with me in SA. So I decided to use the doctor's appointment as an excuse to show Dean the old Stomping Grounds.
We got into town at 1PM, I was out of the office by 1:30, properly reestrogenated. From there, we hit my favorite Chinese buffet, the Buffet Palace. While this isn't the best Chinese food in San Antonio, it's the most variety. I've never seen another buffet that serves un-deep fried squid or sweet bean rolls or all manner of plates they do.
From there, we hit the Diversions Game Room arcade on Culebra. While it wasn't the specific arcade I always went to (it's now an Insurance place), it was still a lot of fun. Dean played a few games of Ms. Pac Man, I FINALLY saw my first SVC arcade game. Dean pointed me to a Multi Arcade Machine, which had Street Fighter I and II. SF1 was a lot of fun, but it was surreal playing SF2 at the same arcade that I introduced me to SF2, 13 years later. We got pics. :)
From there and a quick run to the dollar store later, I decided to run off to Crossroads mall, which was a pretty big mall in my heyday, but to do it via some old haunts.
The first stop was my old High School then the old Huebner Creek wilderness area. What I saw there made my day.
The house we lived in from 1984-1990 was in a subdivision backed by a creek that flooded very deeply.The creek was sandwiched between two subdivisions and was heavily heavily wooded. I used to go back there and walk the trails, sit and think, study in the leaves. The whole area in this floodplain was about two miles long. I walked it every day to and from school, and deep deep down I was so afraid that like most flood areas in San Antonio, it would be cemented over and channeled and all the trees would be torn up.
A lot of this wilderness is in AWFW and CS, as background plates. The area directly behind the main storm drain that led back into the creek was cleared out not by bulldozers or anything, but by ATVs that would tear up the ground and kill the grass there. So you had a wide open clearing, leading off into trails upon trails through this place. It was very very very peaceful back there (well, when the weekend ATVs weren't out).
The grotto just a few miles south was regularly cleaned out by floods so nothing but already rooted trees lived there. Once the ground dried out from a recent flood, you had a hard packed dirt floor, hundreds of trees with no leaves until about 15 feet up, where the trees blossomed into a full grown canopy. I used to draw here, and even have small picnics here.
So I was very worried that once I left it would all go away. Today, as I drove by the grotto to show dean I saw something WONDERFUL. "Huebner Creek Park." The city bought the area, left it as wilderness, and turned it into a park. I don't know the "boundaries" of the park, But I sure hope it's all two miles of the forest. :)
From there we saw our old house, saw some old neighbors, and their kids who grew up pretty, and continued our way to Crossroads Mall.
Wow, some things change for the better, and others for the worst. Crossroads Mall was once The Mall to go to. It had the art house movie theater, two levels of specialty stores you couldn't find at other malls, top notch food court, big arcade. It's just a shell now. Most of the stores are gone an empty, what IS there aren't so much stores, as they're schools (A store a friend worked at is now a ballet studio, another store that sold electronics is a martial arts gym). And the place is empty and sad. If you live in Austin, it's become Northcross Mall.
One small little encounter. On the way out of the bathroom at, I was stopped by someone who asked me if I was on hormones. Defenses WWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY up, I said "Yes." Turns out it was another transsexual looking for hormones. Dr. Chase, you got another client coming. :)
Seeing how dead Crossroads had become, we decided to leave, and ran off to Ingram Mall. Much closer to my house, definitely much more alive...but also all the same chains, and all the stores as you can find at AnyMall, North America.
We finished up the programming day there, and from there decided to pick up some groceries at the HEB Marketplace. HEB Marketplace, when it opened, was a MASSIVE grocery store that sold groceries and imported goods. You could get newspapers from around the globe, exotic fresh foods, and even toys and imported candies. It even had restaurants inside you could eat at while shopping. Now it's just a REALLY BIG regular old fashioned HEB. One of the restaurants is still there, serving the terrible Chinese food they always served, but the a lot of the other restaurants have been converted to regular Grocery Store Fare. The old Delicatessen is now a Deli Store, the old Seafood restaurant is now the seafood section and so on and so forth. We were seriously disappointed...and just bought a few snacks and left.
In all, it's nice to see the hometown, and to relive some of your childhood, but you really can't go home again. Although the fact that that forest/creek bed is a park now really makes up for all the things that changed for the worst.
Do you remember that first shot of Frodo from the Fellowship of the Rings? Where he's' sitting against the tree in grassy forested area? That's not gonna be paved over ever. :)
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Displaced Texan
Date: 2005-02-22 04:21 pm (UTC)But what what what? HEB Marketplace is just an HEB now? That's horrible! *winces* Of all the "restaurants" that Chinese food place could have gone first, it's awful! If you want some good stuff (not buffet but was always my fav) New Asia ... if it's still there... over by Marshall was THE best. I miss the food in Texas, and the few friends I have left down there. Next time you go give Northside my love! LOL!
....homesick.
Re: Displaced Texan
Date: 2005-02-24 12:19 pm (UTC)John Marshall High, Class of '92! :)
>Crossroads was on its way out when I was around, it was always
>overshadowed by North Star Mall. That one was always my favorite.
That's a fun mall, if a little outta my price range. :) Central Park Mall across the street was finally torn down a few years ago. Ingram has REALLY cleaned itself up, and now Windsor is the gang plagued mall.
>But what what what? HEB Marketplace is just an HEB now? That's
>horrible! *winces* Of all the "restaurants" that Chinese food place
>could have gone first, it's awful!
Yeah. My friend Steph goes there all the time for the Chinese Food. It's prolly why it's still around: "It's terrible, but, damn, it's cheap!"
>If you want some good stuff (not buffet but was always my fav) New
>Asia ... if it's still there... over by Marshall was THE best.
You know, I lived in that part of town for so many years, but I never went to New Asia. And I lived just down the street from it. I always went to China Moon (now China Swan) where Tim's Oriental Meat Market was. If I wanted Cheap Chinese I hit King of Lemon Chicken (which is, alas, gone).
>I miss the food in Texas, and the few friends I have left down there.
>Next time you go give Northside my love! LOL!
If I'm ever up that way, I'll bring a plate of Bill Miller's. ;)
What about Locke Hill?
Date: 2005-02-22 05:08 pm (UTC)You didn't stop by Locke Hill Elementary to show off the side of the building that was commonly (circa 1981/82) the bridge of the starship Enterprise? Sheesh. I remember the water faucet cum bridge tricorder thingie fonly.
I still can't believe how ridiculous DeZavala ended up becoming.
Tom
(Yeah, it's me)
Re: What about Locke Hill?
Date: 2005-02-24 12:20 pm (UTC)