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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNorthgate: Birthplace of a town called College Station, The Eagle, 1995 . t' t . . - . . . Ann Landers 102 . Youth lines 105 . School menus 106 . Times to remember 107-9 Dave Barry Exhume Perry Mason .... TRANSCRIPT, TRIAL OF THE CENTURY, DAY 257 BAILIFF: Hear ye, hear ye, the court is now in sess ... DEFENSE: Objection, your honor. JUDGE: To what? DEFENSE: Nothing, your honor. We're just warming up. PROSECUTION: Your honor, the peo- ple would like to state that we also have no objections at this time. DEFENSE: Objection, your honor. Every time the defense says some- thing, the prosecution always feels it has to say something. PROSECUTION: The people do not. DEFENSE: Do too. PROSECUnON: Do not. DEFENSE: Do too. DEFENDANT: OK, stop, I confess! I'm guilty! JUDGE (sternly): Order in the court! (To prosecution): Proceed. PROSECUTION: Where were we? JUDGE (checking his notes): You were on "Do not." PROSECUTION: Oh, right, thanks. Do not. DEFENSE: Your honor, the prosecu- tion is clearly jealous of the ~fense ~~r~ \Ile have a lQt.piJ;t).~qlJ.ee '''!egaJ taled stlCn. ?SJ.';-.C~t:: l?a!ley ap~l. . the late Rl'l.-ymonc! Burr.- . ,iROSECUTION: Objectioq, your honor. The people have reason to believe that that is not really F. Lee Bailey. (A murmur runs through the court- room.) JUDGE: Dammit, bailiff! I ordered the murmurs removed from this courtroom! BAILIFF (drawing his gun): We'll take care of it, sir. PROSECUTION: Your honor, if that IS F. Lee Bailey, how come he hardly ever SA YS anything? He just sits there, day after day, not moving. The people request permission to stick him with a pin. JUDGE: I'll allow it. F. LEE BAILEY: sssssssssssss JUDGE: Let the record show that "F. Lee Bailey" is actually an inflatable doll wearing a $1,000 suit. DEFENSE: Objection, your honor. That suit cost $1,500. , JUDGE WAPNER: Do you have a receipt? DEFENSE: Objection! This judge is from a completely different TV show! JUDGE: I'll sustain the objection. DEFENSE: Which one? JU'DGE: I have no idea. Let's proceed with the expert .witness. PROSECUTION (to witness): Please state your name and the size of your b06k advance. ~PERT WITNESS: My name is Dr. Pembrick A. Femur, and my advance is $350,000. PROSECUTION: And who will be play-' ing you in the movie version? EXPERT WITNESS: We are thinking Brad Pitt. DEFENSE: Objection, your honor. We were thinking of Brad Pitt to play us. PROSECUTION: Brad Pitt? YOU? Your honor, the people request permission to laugh until little snot bubbles form in the people's nostrils. DEFENDANT: I'll sign a full confes- sion, OK? DEFENSE (sarcastically): And we suppose the prosecution wishes to be played by Demi Moore? PROSECUTION: Sharon Stone. JUDGE: I'll allow it. Proceed. PROSECUTION: Dr. Femur, you are an expert, are you not? EXPERT WITNESS: I am. PROSECUTION: And do you think the people's hairstyle looks better this way, or the way the people wore it before? EXPERT WITNESS: This way. JUDGE: What about my beard? EXPERT WITNESS: With all due respect, your honor, I have seen more impressive facial hair on a coconut. (.Laughter.) JUDGE (angrJy): Bailiffi Where is that laughter coming from? Please see BARRY, page 02 .Dave Barry is a humor columnist for the Miami Herald. Write to him c/o Tropic Magazine, The Miami Herald, One Herald Plaza, Miami FL 33132, j KEGS shuns drive time popul~rjlY . . if' -'{j'.-~ By SHELLEY SMITHSON "Community radio dictates its own format Eagle staff writer because volunteers bring their own music," Halstead says. "What you get is a real diversity Community radio" is more than a"slogan for of music that isn't played on tpe radio nmy." Bryan-College Station's newest radio sta- Some of the volunteer music show.$.1@lready : tion, KEOS, 89.1 FM. It's the non-profit sta- planned will feature jazz, blUl~ gi~ss;1fOlk and . tion's reason for being. alternative rock. ~ , ?~'.., : KEOS signs on the airways Saturday. "We have a Bryan mom whb will be ~oing ~ . "We want to bring the community closer by Celtic music show and one ~aduate student who allowing people from different parts of the com- will be doing an Igaeli-Jewis,n musi~~p~o~ari1." munity;t6 ~xpress,their ml:lsic, views -and cul- Halstead says. "We're hopingHo play'Reggae, ture," says KEOS General Manage!: Eric Truax. world cultural music and Texas 'and-tero.<wal Using volunteers from throughout the Bryan music as well." . '. \, \ ,;;~~;'. Aj\~~;~ and College Station area, station organizers hope Local bands are also invited to'>,play"luw'e'at the to provide local music and public-affairs pro- KEOS studios, says Cyd Cassone, stahOli under- gramming 85 percent of the time. writing coordinator. . J. f~ "The rest of the time we'll play syndicated "There are many bands in. the 10<;a1 circuits. : shows that give a national and international per- and this will provide them Cll,1 ou~~t~ for gett~g spective,', says Program Director Heidi Halstead. their music on the air," she says:' ~l - News programs from the British Broadcasting KEOS organizers also hope to .fu~us communi- Company, the Pac'ifica Radio Network, National ty attention on issues affecting IQcc!1 goveI11ll!ent Public Radio and Public Radio International will and schools. .. . supplement local public affairs programming. "We want to broadcast city cot'.llcil and school The station will also give its disc jockeys the board meetings live so that peopie 'can know: ' : chance to program their own shows rather than . '.', " adhere to a strict format. Please see' KEOS, paQll ~8 e Above, Northgate'as'it appeared in 1948 compared to today. At right, bootmaker Johnnie Holick, 87, shows off the style that is the pride of the A&M Corps of Cadets. His Northgate shOp has turned out thousands of boots since the 1930s. By Shelley Smithson Eagle photo/Peter Rocha Eagle photo/Dave McDermand Cyd Cassone takes the micrcphone as KEGS gears up for its Saturday premiere. '. r .. Section .~ -0 Northga~~ EDITOR'S NOTE: The Northgate area adjacent to Texas A&M - . University is the hub from which the community of College _ Station sprang forth, The following article is the first of a.,three :. part series. 4 w. .. en Jo,hnnie H. OliCk. 's father opened " ".h'i~ bQQ.f ~stbte near:t\1e~l'l'@rth : gate of thr~$' A&M campus in , 1931, lonely Aggies looking for love roamed the . narrow streets of the-;fledgling commercial dis- trict. While that has not changed, Holick has watched the area known as Northgate grow to a social mecca for Texas A&M students and a business dream come true for many area mer- chants. .. Northgate began in the early 1920s with lit- : . tie more than a post office and a general store.' . Young cadets attending the all-male school ventured beyond the college's north gate to .!I mail letters to hometown sweethearts and sample candy bars at Boyett's Store. Barely a teen-ager at the time, Holick remembers the iron fence that surrounded the campus of what was still the Agriculture and Mechanical College of Texas. "There was a 10-foot gate at the entrance - that's why they call it Northgate," says the 87- : . year-old Holick. "The Aggies had a curfew - I -' think it was 10 o'clock - but they didn't always keep it and sometimes they climbed the gate or dug under the fence." "Town," as Bryan was called, was only four miles from the campus. But the commute aboard the "Toonerville Trolley" - an electric. street car - took nearly 30 minutes. That is, . when the car did not jump the track or sputter' to a halt half way up a hill. While Aggies did travel to Bryan to visit girls and to go to honky tonks, the growing student and faculty population was evolving into a community of its own. What passed for the entertainment scene was a silent-movie theater at the A&M chapel and a nearby spring-fed swimming hole. "They had posters stacked on tel~phone . , ," . '.. . '... ~ ' " Please see NORTH GATE, page O~ . , ., t Bryan-College Station Eagle Sunday, March 19, 1995 Page 03 Lifestyle ""- .. Ebony Fashion fair visits Wednesday Paris. Milan. London. Bryan. Bryan? Haute couture and pret-a-porter comes to the Brazos Valley Wednesday, when the 37th Annual Ebony Fashion Fair is staged at the Bryan Civjc Audito- rium. The event is sponsored by the Bethune Women's Club for the benefit of the North Bryan Community Center. The fair starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $18. Twelve male and female models will wear about 200 garments from the collection of famed designers such as Yves Saint Lau- rent and Oscar de la Renta during the fair. It will mark the third time the traveling roadshow - the players ride in a chartered Greyhound bus and hold 190 shows a year - has made a stop in Bryan. The fair Salons, Nails & More, Tip Top.: Music, Hall's Mini Mart, Ken'~:: We Praise Thee Beauty Salon ana~. the North Bryan Communit9'. Center. . For more information, call Mildred:' Thomas at 822-1932. 1 -- This year's Ebony Fashion Fair includes the school girl look from Christian Francis Roth. The model at left wears a short jacket with pleated collar and cuffs. The other model wears a three-piece ensemble with midriff ja:ket, white blouse, plaid skirt and socks. Northgate From 01 polls every week that there was a dance somewhere," Holick says. "There were five to seven dif- ferent bands that played mostly dance music." Before 1930, busi- nesses like Holick's shoe-repair shop and the photography studio, we on campus. Then the college decided to move an ~ryone off campus "except for the campus cll;l.aners," Holick said. "They built this building in 1931 and Dad moved his business here and we began to make boot5 for the Aggies," Holick says, "Within a few years most of the buildings within a block or two were here." From his father's boot company on College Main Street, Holick watched the college, and the Northgate commercial district, begin to bustle. "There was a photo studio and a dry cleaning establishment, some semi cafes or restaurants on a limited scale, and two barber shops," Holick says. "There were clothing stores where they sold uniforms and a general store where you could buy supplies and candy bars." By 1938, two pharmacies - Lip- scomb's and Aggieland Pharmacy _ had opened in the Northgate business district. Several grocery stores and general stores made staying in town (Northgate) a better idea than going to "town" (Bryan). After residents of the college community voted to incorporate in 1938, citizens met for council meetings in a room above North- gate's photography studio until the city purchased land for a city hall in 1940. "This was downtown College Station," Holick says. "It was a place of great importance because even then the economy was situ- ated around the college." Through the years, Texas A&M has continued to fuel economic success in the buildings which, ironically, were built during the height of the Great Depression. During World War II, the com- mercial district increasingly catered to a military, rather than student, population. "This got to be quite a military installation during the war because we had units from the Marines, the Air Force, the Navy and the Army all training here," Holick says. "The area was buzzing wit'll military activity." But the university, and the Northgate commercial district, began to see the greatest growth after Texas:A&M began admitting females in 1963, Holick says. More students were also attracted to the university after 1965, when Aggies were no longer require to participate in the ROTC program. The decision to allow alcohol sales within the city has also changed the face of Northgate. While still the daytime downtown for Texas A&M students, after 1974, the area increasingly became the scene for college night life as well. The Dixie Chicken and Dudley's Draw, the first bars to open at Northgate, packed in crowds of more than 2,000 stu- dents, sometimes blocking Unit versity Avenue in the 1970s. When the Aggies won the Southwest Conference after a 10- year-drought in 1985, the night clubs of Northgate again over. flowed onto the streets. For old timers like Holick, the "beer joints" that have come to Northgate in the last two decades have changed the scenery, but not the character of College Station's original commercial district. . "College Station really never had an official downtown," Holick says. "This is still down. town." . TOMORROW: Northgale survives hard times. I Thesday, March 21, 7:30pm · Rudder Theatre "You will not find a better Renaissance ensemble anywhere" Balti~~ort <<,....""" -.,. _.,<-,.,...,.,' # .,..,,;-. ,,/' .... 'I ~ .",,~, '"" \.f.) .-_______ '" ~. "\.. ..;: ~ " '~r'" \, TICKETS: Adults - $10.00, Students. $5.00 Senior Citizens (65+) - $7.00 Call the MSC Box OffIce today. 845-1234 Credil card orders on I,. is billed as the world's largest traveling show. Ebony Magazine's traveling fashion show has raised more than $41 million for organization such as the community center in its long history. The ticket price includes a one- year subscription to Ebony, EM or six months to Jet. Advance I tickets are available at Flexible Mirrors Salon, Lurl's Beauty , Find It In The ~ ..... " " . . .: I I .. . . . " . . . J,"'" " . '. )..... , . , , .....' '.. ".. ... . '. . . , tOO. . '. " . "