# Memories of Kemah



## great white fisherman

Some 40 years ago I always looked forward to driving down to Kemah to fish on the party boats. Does anyone remember the Kemah Clipper tjat used to be stationed right there where the amusement park is. On the other side of the channel was the Texas Queen. If you where white you went out on the Kemah Clipper and if you where black you went out on the Texas Queen. 

We had so much fun catching big crockers, sand trout and red fish and every now and then a speckled trout. If I remember right it was $6.00.

Man I miss those times.


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## Spirit

The segregation or the cheap fishing?

Sorry, I couldn't resist. 

I moved down here in '81, but I miss the draw bridge. I know it was a pain, but it gave Kemah character (and made you hate tall masted sailboats). Hubby always hated crossing it on the bike. I got rearended at the signal light they had installed at the base of the bridge (on the Seabrook side) when they were building the new bridge. I was so mad! I slowed down on yellow and stopped before it turned red, the guy behind me saw yellow and gunned it to get through before it changed and didn't bother to notice the car in front of him obeyed the law. I went through that light whether I wanted to or not.


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## bubbas kenner

Yes i do remember those boats they would fish in the bayport channel while i would be fishing from the bank now they will through you in jail for trespassing.How about the Jean Laffete and the Jolly Roger in Galveston.They were also bay boats i always thoght they would be a waste of time.


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## nightgigger

You may be thinking about the Joe Lee. I went out and fished on it one time in 1987.


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## roundman

fished there in the 60's a friend of my mom use to go


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## bill

Remember them well. Many times when a few friends were just hanging out, one would say lets hit the party boats....and off we would go. Never any planning involved, just having fun. I would see many "regulars" out there every time. Looking back now, it must have been 25 or 30 years. One trip I remember is when the boat got into some big drum. That was a blast and everyone was keeping at least one to hang up. We gave ours away once we docked and I thought there might be a riot for them LOL


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## Trout-deluxe

Just before the Waterfront was put in there was a party boat named the Judy Beth...

Seemed like it was $7 for half day fishing, held maybe 50 people. Caught lots of sand trout and drum, which we would store in a bucket full of hot saltwater(YUCK). 

Funny note : the guy that owned the boat served beer but hated to because most of the fishing drunks would turn irrate because they were often cut off way before boat was docked. Go figure...


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## catndahats

There used to be actual working boats up and down both sides of the channel. back in '74 or '75 got an Irish Setter pup down there off a shrimp boat. She was named "Kemah Clipper" and all the pups were named after fishing boats. That was a different time (and better in many ways). Can't say I miss the drawbridge that much.

Remember Curley's Corner? Could run from the car to there and get a cold one while waiting on the drawbridge to open. Went in there one time for "dead bait" and was told they had none, but the two shrimper guys out back smoking piped up and said "we got live shrimp, but we'll kill 'em for ya"...they'd been smoking some funny stuff.

Pier 7 "where the elite eat in their barefeet"....fresh oysters unloaded right there on the dock, shucked in front of you, and a cold drink...$1/doz.


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## Hooked Up

sad2sm


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## Pasadena1944

great white fisherman said:


> Some 40 years ago I always looked forward to driving down to Kemah to fish on the party boats. Does anyone remember the Kemah Clipper tjat used to be stationed right there where the amusement park is. On the other side of the channel was the Texas Queen. If you where white you went out on the Kemah Clipper and if you where black you went out on the Texas Queen.
> 
> We had so much fun catching big crockers, sand trout and red fish and every now and then a speckled trout. If I remember right it was $6.00.
> 
> Man I miss those times.


Yeah......I remember those days......

I guess that I'm the only person that doesn't like the new Kemah......


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## Bowzer

I lived down on Kipp Ave for a few years...back half of a house rental deal...back in the late 90's when the waterfront was getting on its new high dollar feet. I missed all the simpler times shown in the pics. I can say I enjoyed the first couple of jazz fests in the build up as there were just a few folks and you got to just sit and talk with the musicians that came in.
Other than that, it was always just lots of Holiday traffic to deal with. If you weren't making money off of the new, like most were down on Kipp, it wasn't worth the hassle.
Still amazed a few "key" folks haven't managed to push dockside gambling through. Tax deficits keep going the way they are and it shouldn't be much longer I'm afraid. Hate that as I watched what it did to Biloxi and Gulfport.


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## spike404

I have Kemah memories dating back to the late 40's. My grandmother was a bingo addict and she would play at a large, and very illegal bingo hall, called The Chili Bowl (I also recall the bingo hall on Murdocks). My brother and I would catch loads of crabs right off the channel bulkheads.

In the late 60's there was a beer joint on the Seabrook side called The North Point (?). The ground had subsided so much that at high tide the concrete floor was ankle deep in water. The jukebox was raised on concrete blocks to keep it dry. Folks would dance, and the water would fly!

The draw bridge was really dicey to ride across on a motorcycle. The metal grid tended to grip the tires and make the bike squiggle. Really scary the first time.

When the Flying Dutchman first opened the ground floor was completely open, and very popular on week-end afternoons. One day a well known woman TV reporter was there with her whole crew. She got roaring drunk and made a fool of herself. Her crew were just shaking their heads and laughing. She is still on the air, and I often think that if I ever met her I would love say, "You may not remember me, but we had a hell of a time at the Dutchman one afternoon back in the 70's".


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## 100 FATHOMS

Had many a good time in the 70's. Jimmy Walkers, Joe Lees, and the Flying Dutchman were some good food places. Then there was Maribells. I forgot alot of what happened there.


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## Poon Chaser

*for the old timers*

cool pic


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## Bozo

spike404 said:


> I have Kemah memories dating back to the late 40's. My grandmother was a bingo addict and she would play at a large, and very illegal bingo hall, called The Chili Bowl (I also recall the bingo hall on Murdocks). My brother and I would catch loads of crabs right off the channel bulkheads.
> 
> In the late 60's there was a beer joint on the Seabrook side called The North Point (?). The ground had subsided so much that at high tide the concrete floor was ankle deep in water. The jukebox was raised on concrete blocks to keep it dry. Folks would dance, and the water would fly!
> 
> The draw bridge was really dicey to ride across on a motorcycle. The metal grid tended to grip the tires and make the bike squiggle. Really scary the first time.
> 
> When the Flying Dutchman first opened the ground floor was completely open, and very popular on week-end afternoons. One day a well known woman TV reporter was there with her whole crew. She got roaring drunk and made a fool of herself. Her crew were just shaking their heads and laughing. She is still on the air, and I often think that if I ever met her I would love say, "You may not remember me, but we had a hell of a time at the Dutchman one afternoon back in the 70's".


Well it has to be a Channel 13 reporter. That's the only station with people still around from that long ago.


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## spike404

Bozo said:


> Well it has to be a Channel 13 reporter. That's the only station with people still around from that long ago.


I would never say, or even hint, who it was. We have all done foolish things in our lives. I know that I have!


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## Privateer

the headboat "Judy Beth" and all them friggin pot holes in the road to Joe Lees and the Flying Dutchman...


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## tboltmike

It was a Friday treat to go with my grandparents to the Clear Creek Inn. That was in the early '60's. Still remember the not so fresh smell of oyster shells tossed in the driveways


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## reel thing

yea i use to eat at joe lees in the 80s and they had the best oysters on the half shell and very good fried oysters. they tore it down to build the new stuff and the board walk.


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## great white fisherman

Great memories and thanks for the pictures.


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## CHARLIE

Well I got yall all beat I think it was about 55 or 60 years ago when I played down there. Friends had a place on Toddville road. I would make rafts and pole out in the bay (not too far) and shoot crabs and mullet with a bow and arrow. We never caught too many fish in those days. Did catch many big shrimp with a small net we would pull behind the boat. Homeowner did have a boat with a 5.5 HP evinrude that you would put on the back. Everyone did that in those days. Dropped it in the water a few times but you would just find it, wash it out and crank a few hours till it would run again. Always tied motors to the back of boats because they would jump off some times. There were no giant motors then. The grown folks would go to Murdocks and drink beer and what have yu. Seems there was an island just off the channel and Murdocks was on the channel that went around the island. Folks would swim in the channel by Murdocks. Island has been gone for a while now. I still remember the shock when a swimmer got ran over by a boat in the channel. Didnt Murdocks have a bunch of deer antlers hanging in the place ??Dont remember any party boats in the Seabrook Kema area but there probably was we just couldnt think about affording anything like that.


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## CHARLIE

Another note

There was no monofiliament line or any reels with any type of drag (star drag) in those days. All line was braided mostly black and the fisherman would remove the line after a few days fishing and hang it in the back yard and dry it to keep it from rotting. If you got lucky and got a big fish you had to "thumb it" Oh those were the days
About that time the Shakespere "new service" reel came out with a drag. If you could get one of those you were "big"


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## Shallow_Minded

I remember fishing off the pier in Kemah before it was blown away and Jimmy Walkers was built. Grew up in Seabrook and loved it.


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## Monarchy

That little blue place on the Seabrook side of the channel (in the old pic) was Foreman's. If you bought shrimp or fish there in the summer of '83, it might have been me.

I learned a solid days work there. Clean/sell fish all day, crush ice in the afternoon then unload, clean and box shrimp 'til 9ish. On our lucky days, the wholesalers would show up late and we'd throw 100 pound boxes into reefers...tough work for a scrawny kid working next to the football players.

Geez, I sound like I'm 70. Dangit. I mean....dang-nabit.

I remember many days on the head boats down there with my folks. We went down two weeks ago and ate at T-Bone Toms after the South Shore boat show. I remember when Jimmie Walkers was such a schmaltzy addition, lol.


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## GSMAN

I thought it was a pretty neat place back in the 70s. I got my first "professional paying" gig there at Maribelles. I asked the band leader what my pay was going to be and he said "kid, you can drink all you want tonight, its free!". I was 17 at the time. We used to eat at Joe Lee's when it was one of the few restaurants on the "boardwalk". I was a sophomore in highschool when I worked at the "fancy" Jimmy Walker restaurant. I was a dish washer!! Tough gig!


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## railman

I remember Mueckes in Seabrook that had deer heads and a big bear game that you shot at with a rifle that had some kind of light on it and the live alligators. I used to go to Robinsons and Clear Creek Inn in Kemah. We also fished and crabbed off the pier close to Jimmy Walkers. Also took the fishing boat to Bayport Channel.


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## OldGuy43

*Remembering Kemah that was...*



Pasadena1944 said:


> Yeah......I remember those days......
> 
> I guess that I'm the only person that doesn't like the new Kemah......


No, you are not alone. I too miss those days when Kemah was a working shrimp/oyster port and only a sometimes tourist destination. It was a great place to live. sad2sm

Remember the Kemah Clipper, heck, I was the deckhand on her for awhile. Good days. The wife and I rode out Hurricane Alicia on board her along with the Captain, our pet cat Target and Ham the one eyed hamster.

I case you didn't know the Clipper started out life as a Houston fire boat. She was a sturdy old girl, hence the reason that I agreed to ride out a hurricane on her. I figured that she had survived so many before she was a good bet. As it turns out I was right.

*Sidebar:* I was just down there a couple of days ago and was told that the shrimp they sell in the restaurants is now brought in frozen from Chinese shrimp farms.

I have lots more tales of Kemah that was if anyone is interested.


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## mastercylinder60

there used to be a place up the road on 146 called the red barn. when i was in about 9th grade, somebody told us it was a whorehouse. we were just fascinated. turns out it was just a country & western dance hall. what a bunch of dopes we were.

the red barn is no longer there. texas first bank sits on the property now.


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## catndahats

link with some good old photos of the waterfront
http://ruthburke.photoshelter.com/g...Images-of-Seabrook-Texas-USA/G0000GJdUwmICO9g


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## Jamie

Ah....the memories, From the 70's

Drinking beer when I was 17 at some hole-n-the-wall bar on the Kemah side.

Eating there when Jimmy Walker's and the Clear Creek Inn were the only places to eat.

My best friend's Dad bought the Clear Creek Inn around the late 70's or early 80's

Use to go down there with my parents and buy fresh seafood. We'd go place to place to see who gave the best deal. Back then you could buy speckled trout and redfish.


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## ralph7

i remember about 20 years ago going down under the bridge and was w/a friend when we saw some middle east looking guy buying an octopus at one of the fish places. think it was rose's,
i asked him how he prepared it and in a thick accent he said "well first, you take it to the sink and you beat it."
don't remember what else he said, because we were laughing too hard.


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## Pasadena1944

OldGuy43 said:


> No, you are not alone. I too miss those days when Kemah was a working shrimp/oyster port and only a sometimes tourist destination. It was a great place to live. sad2sm
> 
> Remember the Kemah Clipper, heck, I was the deckhand on her for awhile. Good days. The wife and I rode out Hurricane Alicia on board her along with the Captain, our pet cat Target and Ham the one eyed hamster.
> 
> I case you didn't know the Clipper started out life as a Houston fire boat. She was a sturdy old girl, hence the reason that I agreed to ride out a hurricane on her. I figured that she had survived so many before she was a good bet. As it turns out I was right.
> 
> *Sidebar:* I was just down there a couple of days ago and was told that the shrimp they sell in the restaurants is now brought in frozen from Chinese shrimp farms.
> 
> *I have lots more tales of Kemah that was if anyone is interested.*


I'd be glad to hear your tales and I'm sure others would too.....


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## mos65

I remember going down there as a kid with my folks fishing off the docks while my folks drank beer at Joe Lee's, those were much simpler times I miss them a lot. I cant imagine a thread like this one without someone mentioning Rachel (seabrook side) the women was a legend, I remember eating at her cafe, liquor store, motel(hohouse) when I was a kid, best stuffed crabs I ever ate, she also had a card game at her place ever so often, so the rumors said. People like Rachel and Marribelle is what made the place so cool, I miss the way it was. I wonder how many people met there spouses in line for that drawbridge? That could be another thread?


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## podnuh

I remember that the Kemah side of the channel was a great place to crab.
Once, my brother fell in the water...before he came up, my father jumped in...while my father was under water, by brother came up...
It's funny now...
Come to think of it, I thought it was funny then, too!


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## great white fisherman

Do you guys remember Hillmans cafe and grandma Hillman walking around and talking with everyone. The little boat on top of the cafe was grandpa Hillman first boat. Would have scared me to death it was so small back in those days. I remember one time fishing in the Kimah clipper and we where out near a small sand island. Big storm came up, downpour so everyone was inside. Water Spout came so close to the boat that the anchor pulled loose and the boat went side ways. The boat turned completly on its side and I heard the suction break loose from the hull. Everyone on one side of the boat was thrown to the otherside of the boat. I grabbed a life jacket as the captian came running threw and he grabbed it away from me. Scared the sheet out of everyone as we almost turned over and with everyone inside it would have been bad.


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## Fuelin

I love these stories. We will not even go eat that circus now days.


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## k-dog

marybells!!!!!


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## CHARLIE

My mistake I called the beer joint there Murdocks guess I had a brain [email protected]#t it was Mueckes and not sure of the spelling..And when I was down there there was no Marybells or any of the now famous joints.


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## fwoodwader

IIRC we were eating at the old Joe Lee's down on the water sitting up stairs. And it was a Saturday afternoon so all the boats that had been out in the bad were coming back into dock and this very good looking lady had been sun bathing on the deck of the boat face down. I think was 7-8 at the time Well when the boat came through she popped up to wave at everyone but her top didn't and gave everyone within eye shot a nice show before she could cover up.

I remember when it used to be seafood restaurants and the boats still came in there and docked, what was the name of the place that randomly burned down there? It was alot cooler place back in the late 80's early 90's before he who will remain nameless started snatching up everything.


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## OldGuy43

*Kemah-That-Was*



fwoodwader said:


> IIRC we were eating at the old Joe Lee's down on the water sitting up stairs. And it was a Saturday afternoon so all the boats that had been out in the bad were coming back into dock and this very good looking lady had been sun bathing on the deck of the boat face down. I think was 7-8 at the time Well when the boat came through she popped up to wave at everyone but her top didn't and gave everyone within eye shot a nice show before she could cover up.
> 
> I remember when it used to be seafood restaurants and the boats still came in there and docked, what was the name of the place that randomly burned down there? It was alot cooler place back in the late 80's early 90's before he who will remain nameless started snatching up everything.


Ah yes, Joe Lee's Down on the Creek (His personal boat was named the D.O.C.). Joe actually owned two restaurants, D.O.C. and Joe Lee's Seafood Kitchen on the highway in Clear Lake Shores. The one in the Shores is still there in the same spot (albeit much larger and more touristy now) and is still owned by the Lee family. Still great food. I was there just last Wednesday.

I worked for Joe as dock hand, fuel pier hand, beer tender, oyster shucker (I developed a great Cajun accent for that one.), fuel truck driver and deck hand on his tug, the Jason Lee.

The place that seemed to be most fire prone was Pier 6, a commercial shrimp pier and beer joint. That's probably the place that your talking about. Worked for them as a dock hand for awhile.

Did you know that there was a lovely ballad written about Joe Lee's Down on the Creek? You can hear it here:

http://joelees.com/history.php

Just click the 45 rpm record on the upper right corner of the page.


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## Sidecutter

*Pier 7*

I remember going there to eat in the late 60s and we would stand in line outside because they could only seat about 25 or so customers. Man they had good seafood and the Lady who owned the place was always making sure everthing was OK.We stood outside with our beer or drink until we were seated. Ah the good ole days
James


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## Harbormaster

OldGuy43 said:


> No, you are not alone. I too miss those days when Kemah was a working shrimp/oyster port and only a sometimes tourist destination. It was a great place to live. sad2sm
> 
> Remember the Kemah Clipper, heck, I was the deckhand on her for awhile. Good days. The wife and I rode out Hurricane Alicia on board her along with the Captain, our pet cat Target and Ham the one eyed hamster.


I remember all the violence after Viet Nam cause our government subsidized Viet shrimpers with botes and they didn't have to adhere to our laws...they would shrimp all night and day...anyway...

I rode out Alecia on my parents Catalina moored in Odo's Marina! Walked the spring/dock lines up the pilings as the surge rose and pushed other botes off...then walked them down the next 2 days as the water went down!


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## OldGuy43

*Kemah-That-Was*

Strange that I remember the Vietnamese shrimpers a bit differently, but I will not get into that argument with you.

The motto for Joe Lee's on the creek was, "Where everyday is a boat show."

Now a question. There was once a sign reading "Key Largo" on the point where Jimmy Walkers used to stand. Anyone remember what that was about?


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## fwoodwader

I just remember that place being a place to get really good legit seafood that came right off the boats now who knows what you are eating from Tillman and the gang, I can't tell you the last time I ate at a place on the board walk.

I drank alot of Crown at Buddy Ruff's(no longer there, thanks Ike) a dive bar in this day and age.


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## OldGuy43

*Life in Kemah-That-Was*

Just a few thoughts on what life was like "down on the creek" back in the day:

After you had been there for a couple of months you were accepted as a member of the community instead of someone just passing through. The true sign that you had been accepted was when Tommy spoke to you. (Tommy being one of the many community characters, but that's a subject for a later post.) Being accepted was a good thing. It meant that you couldn't be hungry or homeless. Someone would find some kind of job for you whether the job needed doing or not. You didn't have to beg, people there understood the need for dignity and self esteem. I remember Joe Lee paying me $75 to mow the grass on a tiny piece of property that he owned on the SW corner of 3rd & Kipp. Nobody worried about keeping grass mowed back than, but...

One of the things I remember most about living in Kemah D.O.C. is the nights, particularly on weekdays. Laying in bed listening to the lap of the bay, the clang of rigging on the moored shrimp boats and the occasional muted roar of the huge engines on the crew boats in/outbound for the oil rigs. You got to the point that you could identify which boat from that sound. Calming and restful!

The weekends were another story as Jimmy Walker's attracted the yuppie crowd from Houston and surrounding communities and they got kinda loud, but it was all part of the charm of living D.O.C.

Well, that's enough for now. Hope ya'll are enjoying an old man's reminiscences.


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## mike1970lee

The Blessing of the Fleet in the 70s and 80s used to be a big deal the street dance rocked( remember those cowboy hats with big feather hat bands). I grew up down there and used to walk around the parking lots early in the morning on weekends and find money people would drop.


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## Whoopin It Up!

*Kemah (and a little bit of Seabrook, too)*

I remember eating baked flounder (stuffed) at "Robinsons Seafood Restaurant" in Kemah. I remember the building being made of wood (no bricks or steel) and it was painted white. The parking lot was composed of "oyster shale." The seafood was great.

Over the north side to Seabrook I remember "The One Stop" - - - a small beer joint located along the railroad tracks. It was owned by a bald man - - - I think his name was JW. The building burned down. I do remember long neck specials when the train came by... speaking of the train... the tracks are now gone, but the railroad still owns the property rights.

If I give this more thought, I can come up with more businesses that I either visited or bought from in the area.

As a teen ager, I worked at a boat shop called Competition Marine which was located on Nasa 1 (along the waterfront). I worked in the upholstry shop. But I did meet a few astronauts who had their speed boats worked on at that shop. Met Gus Grissom way back then. And a firefighter, Red Adair ... both had speed boat work at that shop. Adair was a real Hoot!


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## V-Bottom

The original Pier 8 that was on the waters edge, almost under the bridge then,, the old big tin bldg that was closer to the bridge...oyster boats backed up to the dock and blew the oysters off the boat w/ a big high pressure water hose. $4 per sack..then puttem' on the grill in the shell...good eatin there. Still like'm fried the best tho. good old biggins'...50 yrs ago I guess it was now...me and my cousin raced Scott Carpenter . he had a 348 cu.in. inboard then, blew it up and caught a fire..we had fire extinguishers, cousin had a 14ft. triton by lone star then w/ a blown merc. 1000 short shaft..what a bumpy ride that was...wow


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## catndahats

another old Kemah story:
Mom and Dad used to talk about the area in the '50s when they would drive down from Houston after WWII to dance, drink, and gamble. The Wheel of Fortune was a gambling hall of sorts, and the top floor of Jimmy Walkers was reported to be the same. Mrs. Walker would take me to her office and let me sleep on the sofa while mom and dad danced the night away....


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## OldGuy43

Several places to drink in Kemah that haven't been mentioned:


*The Barbary Coast*. Somewhere near the corner of 3rd and Kipp I think. Kind of a South Sea Islands motif. One of the only two places that you could get mixed drinks in Kemah (Jimmy Walker's/Captain Up's being the other). Dancing to a disk jockey, a pool table and tricycle races. Completely wiped out by the tidal surge of Alicia. Nothing remained but a few of the tiles on the concrete slab that had been the dance floor and one of the palm trees.
*Doris's Beer and Setups*. On Bradford Avenue between 2nd and 3rd. Mostly locals. Had a pool table, too. It wasn't a place to "hang out" because Doris only opened when she felt like it, usually between 3-4 in the afternoon and was usually closed by 10. Ah, laid back Kemah living. Doris lived above the joint and would sit out on here porch in the afternoons. Nice lady.
*The Sail Inn.* Don't remember a lot about it since it burned down shortly after I arrived in Kemah. It was on the mudflats near where the Texas First Bank is now.
*Pier 5* right next to Joe Lee's. I liked it better as a real shrimp pier before it became a chrome and glass monstrosity even thought I did work/live there as port captain for awhile. Home of the Kemah Clipper.
*Pier 6.* Another working shrimp pier that had a beer joint. They also had a small retail shrimp/fish market and added a second story restaurant later on.
There was one more beer joint that, for the life of us the wife and I cannot remember it's name. It was on or near the highway and had one claim to fame. It was the favored hang-out of Red Adair, oil well blowout and fire control specialist. It was said that when Red was in residence you couldn't buy a drink. Red bought for the house.
I know that seems like a lot of beer joints/bars for a town of about 1400, but than it was a commercial fishing town and I'm sure you know fisherman. :cheers:


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## Capt. Hooky

Anyone remember the name of the fishing head boat that used to run out of the boardwalk?

Edit: Nevermind, it was the Judy Beth. I had to read through the whole thread.


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## OldGuy43

*Yet Another Beer Joint*

I do vaguely remember a yet another watering hole in Kemah. It was on the highway between 8th and 10th streets. Kind of a C&W disco. Great big building. The Red Barn maybe? Seemed to do a good business. Don't know what happened to it. 

I remember Joe Lee once observing that if you lived in Kemah all directions to anywhere were based on the location of the nearest beer joint. :cheers:


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## baytownboy

I have a lot of good memories of there from the 60's and the 70's, some great seafood places. There were some car boat shows there also.
The worst memory was my first wife and I and another couple from Baytown had been to Galveston to eat. On the way back, just South of Kemah, maybe a 1/4 of a mile, we saw some red lights ahead. The traffic was moving real slow because there was a car upside down real close to the road on the right side. The officer waved us by real slow and just as we were going by the car, I looked out the window at the ground and saw a human head on the ground and his body laying a few feet from his head, man you talk about almost loosing it, I did. 
As yall can see, I have never forgot this accident.


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## frank n texas

My memories of Kemah go back to the late 1940's...lol

Aunt & Uncle lived on the water right in the middle of Kemah...Street ran parallel to hy146 as I recall...

Robinsons was the place to eat seafood for sure....

Aunt ran the US Post office..

Uncle was capt of port or Seabrook shipyard and also was Capt on the yacht 'Miss Falstaff" and another yacht owned by Mc Avoy Valve Company...

Remember Aunt & Uncle finding a dead bull in their yard after that hurricane that hit...Forget the name of that one..

Remember all the windows being blown out of their home as result of Texas City Explosion...

Remember the drive time on old hy 90 being close to 11 hours between New Orleans and Kemah...With no AC in vehicle Long & hot

Kemah was our family destination ever summer..

Yes...I am old....lol


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## baytownboy

Quote from above:
Remember the drive time on old hy 90 being close to 11 hours between New Orleans and Kemah...With no AC in vehicle Long & hot

Man was that before Hiway73 became I-10 East!!


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## fish1kemah

OldGuy43 said:


> I do vaguely remember a yet another watering hole in Kemah. It was on the highway between 8th and 10th streets. Kind of a C&W disco. Great big building. The Red Barn maybe? Seemed to do a good business. Don't know what happened to it.
> 
> I remember Joe Lee once observing that if you lived in Kemah all directions to anywhere were based on the location of the nearest beer joint. :cheers:


The Red Barn it was , for those that can remember Rotten Red he could really play a piano. Use to be one really good restraunt that want away after Alicia, Burches 2 E's , great place to eat , but most of the time it was a drive to Hillmans. 
Clear Creek In was another one. My wifes uncle use to own a bait camp on the Seabrook side of the channell, he had the first boat lift on the creek , used a Model T rearend as the swing on the lift.
Sometimes we call our quiet little town Fertittaville , not muck of old Kemah left like it use to be.

F1K


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## glennkoks

My father ran Pier 6 for years in the 70's. It was a wholesale and retail seafood market with a small bar attached. I probably unloaded and iced millions of pounds of shrimp, fish crabs and oysters on his dock. 

Definitely a different era and a wilder town. I remember him dragging me to "The Sail Inn", "The Rocket" which I think later became the "Barbary Coast", "Robinsons", "The Red Barn" and about a dozen other hole in the wall type places.

During the 60's and 70's Kemah never shut down. There was something going on 24/7. It kind of reminded me of the space port Mose Eisley in the film Star Wars.

My father actually helped build "The Flying Dutchman" which at the time was named "The Wheel of Fortune".


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## jewfish

Also about where the Coastal Gas Station is now ws a 24 hour diner. Anyone remember the name of this place? 
One more was on the Seabrook side , The Crabhouse. The owner used to get drunk while serving there and would walk around with a crawfish hat on. They served the food on the table covered with newspaper! When you were done eating they would just roll it up and start over.


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## porkchoplc

Does anyone recall the name of a restaurant in Kemah that was right on the channel? It was on the canal and down below it had nothing but old oyster shells. I think it was yellow maybe? This was back in the late 80s-early-mid 90s. My mom used to take me there and I would try and see how many skips I could get across the water with an oyster shell.


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## mike1970lee

jewfish said:


> Also about where the Coastal Gas Station is now ws a 24 hour diner. Anyone remember the name of this place?
> One more was on the Seabrook side , The Crabhouse. The owner used to get drunk while serving there and would walk around with a crawfish hat on. They served the food on the table covered with newspaper! When you were done eating they would just roll it up and start over.


That was the Dutch Kettle I remember going there with my dad and getting chili and eggs and man it was smokey.


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## mike1970lee

porkchoplc said:


> Does anyone recall the name of a restaurant in Kemah that was right on the channel? It was on the canal and down below it had nothing but old oyster shells. I think it was yellow maybe? This was back in the late 80s-early-mid 90s. My mom used to take me there and I would try and see how many skips I could get across the water with an oyster shell.


 That might of been our place next to Joe Lee's called Dexters Waterfront. We almost filled that boat slip in with oyster shells from $1.00 a dozen oysters.


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## Walkin' Jack

I fished the Judy Beth many times. Most of the trips we all caught lots of fish. I don't remember about the beer though.


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## bwguardian

jewfish said:


> One more was on the Seabrook side , The Crabhouse. The owner used to get drunk while serving there and would walk around with a crawfish hat on. They served the food on the table covered with newspaper! When you were done eating they would just roll it up and start over.


That crazy old coot was one of my long time friends of over 30 years uncle. I cannot remember his name but he did pass several years back. He did buy that place right and then sold it to one of the larger waterfront owners in the end.


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## glennkoks

His name was Bob Decker and he purchased the Crab House from the Sammon's who built it back in the early 70's out of an old house. I actually worked there for both the Sammon's and Mr. Decker. Joe Sammon the original owner and his wife are still around but I have not seen Bob in years. Bob was known to sneak off next door to Marabelle's and tip a few back and come back and put the crab hat on and make table visits.


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## glennkoks

Here is a picture of pier 6. Im guessing late 60's or more likely early 70's.


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## lori77563

Ahhh the old Kemah Restaurant for good seafood. Now all you get there is over priced sub par Landry fare.


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## bwguardian

lori77563 said:


> Ahhh the old Kemah Restaurant for good seafood. Now all you get there is over priced sub par Landry fare.


Yeah, now you also get charged to park outside and inside the waiters try and sell you a package deal on dining there later for a better bargain.sad3sm


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## Walkin' Jack

I remember the old Jimmy Walker's. I never saw my old man cry but when Hurricane Carla destroyed it I do believe I did see a tear tryin' to form in his eye. Now it has been rebuilt and is in the Landry's chain. They claim they have kept the old Jimmy Walker's menu but I've been there a few times (Couldn't give up on it without givin' it a good chance) and found that to be a load of bull. Won't be goin' back.........


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## scwine

interesting read...
http://www.kemahhistoricalsociety.net/legend2.html

pics... http://www.kemahhistoricalsociety.net/kemahpix.html


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## troutomatic1488

I remember some wild nights at Cecils Red Lantern in Seabrook.


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## tbendbound

The Brass Parrot.....I think it burned down!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD


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## stargazer

A buddy and myself worked the Shamrock gas station at the corner of 146 and the Kemah cutoff (2094) after high school (late 60s and early 70s). It was right next to the train tracks. When the train would come by you would think the building would fall apart from the shaking. I bet there wasnt 6 or 8 feet between the train and the back of the building. We had to mow the strip of grass back there. Had to watch the tressel. When the lights would blink I would to stop mowing as there wasnt enought room for me from the back of the building and the passing train. 
Weekdays were slow but the weekends the place was packed when the bridge was up. folks would come in and buy drinks and gas while waiting, and restrooms were a popular place also.
Clear Creek Inn was one of my favorite places to eat. Then there was the Castaways bar on the Seabrook side. the pilings would wobble from the waves. Had 2 pool tables and you couldnt play pool when the surf was high, LOL.
Some interesting folks would come in there.


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## OldGuy43

*It Was The People*

What made Kemah-that-was so great wasn't the restaurants or the bars or the fishing boats. It was the people! If you were just a visitor and not a resident you cannot fully appreciate what was lost. It was just a great place to live.


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## fish-r-ride

I remember going to Jimmy Walkers When the building was white. If I remember right the doors were always open to maybe not. But I do remember going out back after we ate and watched boats unload fresh seafood at there docks.


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## tbone2374

The Flying Dutchman got a lot of my business... A plate of boiled shrimp, and lots of cold beer, and watch the boats come in. Usually a babe on a boat, would drop her top, or someone would moon the whole crowd, on the patio!!!


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## Tortuga

Back in the 50s we used to run down to Mueckes about once a month and get us a burlap toesack of a bushel of oysters right off the boats. Five bucks a bag, as I recall and each bag held 12 to 14 dozen oysters.... Haul them suckers home ...get one washtub full of oysters and ice...and another one full of Falstaff..and get to shucking.. Everybody involved wuz good for probably 3 dozen oysters... Good Eating !!!

Do remember one 'Good Friday' . Girl friend (wife now) and I and another couple hauled my 10 foot aluminum skiff down there for the day . Had about a 5 HP kicker as I recall. We were running out the channel in front of Jimmy Walkers at about 5MPH (max)..heard a noise and looked back.. big arse sportfisherman was overtaking us going probably 20 knots..Looked further back and saw his wake coming at me.. Musta been at least a four foot wall of water. Too late to do anything. Swamped my boat..but it was supposed to be 'unsinkable'..(some kind of flotation compartments in the seats..They LIED to me about that. We sat in the sinking boat...with me telling everyone not to worry..it would stop sinking.. Water got up to our necks so we stood up.. Water up to necks again so we bailed out.. Boat did pop up on top again..but it was upside down. ALL of my fishing tackle..iceboxes, etc. was on the bottom of the creek. Had PFDs on..thank God..Everyone was OK...and we had a great cheering section from the folks at Jimmy Walkers.. Swam over to the pilings and they helped us out of the water... Couple of more cold beers and we retrieved the boat. 

On the drive back to Houston..my buddy finished his cigarette..but was a little too drunk to put the cig in the ashtray and put it in the glove compartment instead.. Couple of miles down the road and all of a sudden the glovebox was on fire.. Doused it with beer and all was well...

Helluva Day... NEVER left town on Good Friday again...for the last 50 years...

Yeah...I REMEMBER Kemah !!!!...:rotfl:


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## Brokejeep

I love these stories, I miss Kemah and I have never been there.


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## glennkoks

I remember one Christmas in the mid 70's when my dad was running his wholesale and retail seafood business at pier 6. It was a terrible cold and nasty winter and my dad was struggling to keep the doors open. Oysters kept us alive in the winter and we had tons of rain so the health department kept the bay closed to oystering almost all winter due to runoff. 

At the time it was standard practice to buy all the shrimp boat captains that sold to you during the summer a smoked ham for Christmas. My dad spent the last of his money buying 38 smoked hams from T-Bone Toms. He stored them all in the walk in cooler and the next morning when he came to work to pass them out wharf rats had eaten a hole in the wall through the insulation and munched on all of the hams. Not one ham was spared. Well word got out and all of the Shrimp Boat captains wife's ended up having a pot luck Christmas Party instead.


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## Mr. Breeze




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## Zeitgeist

lori77563 said:


> ahhh the old kemah restaurant for good seafood. Now all you get there is over priced sub par landry fare.


x 8,034,987,098,098


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## OldGuy43

Yessir, living in Kemah back than was great! I learned what it was like shrimping under sail, and what it was like to handle the helm of a tug with a cable and wheel from some of the old timers, among other things. Shucking oysters, cleaning crab and how to build a pier (Pier 6) were other things that I added to my resume' during my stay there.


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## tiger

If I knew how to post pics I could show some of the oldest pics of Kemah...the old school house they have in Kemah is not the 1st actual school house I have a picture with the 1st families of Kemah,some of the Kipps and Gordys...I have pics of the ferry some where also... Ill look around see if I can find away to post them


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## sargentmajor

Ahhhhh Jimmy Walkers on the water , a great place to eat when your 12(1959).Oysters by the gallon schucked....$6.


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## glennkoks

*Gambling chips*

Before my time but my father always told me stories about the illegal gambling houses in Kemah from the 1920's thru the 1950's. I guess they were true because I came across some chips from legendary places like the Kemah Den, Chili Bowl, Bay Club and Edgewater which became Jimmy Walkers...


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## TMO

My dad and I would drive down to Kemah on Saturdays...to " buy shrimp" we would end up at Joe Humans which later became Joe Lee's and while my dad would drink beer, I would drink sodas, eat slim jim's , and play pool. What great times those were. By the time we got home, my dad was drunk, lots of times we would come home with no shrimp and boy he would be in trouble.


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## Zeitgeist

I recommend a book that they sell at Marburger's called, "Images of America, Seabrook!'


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## Zeitgeist

spike404 said:


> I would never say, or even hint, who it was. We have all done foolish things in our lives. I know that I have!


Has to be Deborah Wrigley


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## Roofish

Back in the early 70's, I believe the draw bridge was still there? there were always people crabbing with a string & a piece of chicken on the Seabrook side of 146. 
As you crossed over the bridge, to the Kemah side I remember my Dad would drive to the left, onto an Oyster shell road, which would be where the Boardwalk is now. 
He would drive down that road which ended right at the channel and where the Bay meet, there was a place on the left, right at the very end and I can't remember the name of that place? 

We'd eat oyster's, he'd drink beer & me soda.

Does anyone know the name of that place?


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## glennkoks

The drawbridge was there until the early 80's. There were so many places to eat oysters that fit that description. Pier 5, Joe Hueman's which became Joe Lee's sometime in the mid/late 70's, Key Largo and The Clear Creek Inn to name a few.


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## glennkoks

Did it look like this? A picture of Key Largo Restaurant circa 1962.


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## no mas feech heads

Used to have shrimp lunch at Rachel's Seabrook hotel for $3.00 on Fridays 


Sent from my mr coffee


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## Law Dog

Great memories and thanks for the pictures. Keep them coming!


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## LuckyDad

Normally, I'm a lurker, but I had to post on this one.
I grew up in Kemah. Born at the old Galveston County Hospital in Texas City and grew up on Kipp street. Back then, most of the roads were oyster shells, and none of us kids wore shoes all summer... Jeez id hate to try to walk on a shell road now. Aside from Jimmy Walkers, the biggest thing in town was the shrimp boats and Kemah Hardware. Jim Klawson (sp) owned it, and i bought many castnets and fish hooks from him. Toms meat market (now t-bone toms) was just a friendly neighborhood meat market. Seabrook was the nice side of the channel. Before Papadeauxs, (Seabrook side of the channel) there was Jerrys pier 8, owned by the Ladendorphs, and before that, they built wood hulled Gulf shrimpers right out in the open, upside down on the shell lot. My first real job was about 13,? On a bay shrimper named the "Bella Donna". We sold shrimp and fish to Emery Waite, who had a fish house and a few boats of his own. I remember the boat Capt. Getting a lot of grief over the name, (its a flower used to make some kind of drug) as there were quite a few gulf boats carrying pot in from Mexico and points south. In the 70s, There was a lot of that sort of thing going on it seemed. I came home from the Navy on leave and was sitting at a bar when a kid pulls up to the dock in a new Scarab... We start talking and he tells me he drives a wrecker in Houston for a living. Sure. 
Old Kemah was a great place to grow up. I gigged a million flounder with a coleman lantern on the flats... Caught every hardhead, trout, redfish, rockfish, eel, pompano and anything else that the bay had to offer. It was like a Steinbeck novel back then.
Im not going to slam it for what it is now. I wouldnt live there. Progress I guess, but I sure do miss it.


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## glennkoks

LuckyDad,

I know how you feel. Kemah went from a small quite fishing village loaded and dominated by small mom and pop restaurants to a tourist trap owned by one corporation over night. I grew up there as well and it sounds like I experienced the same thing you did.

I would not call it progress either. Is any of the Gumbo on the "Boardwalk" palatable? Was any of the fish or shrimp served caught the night before like it used to be?


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## glennkoks

For those who want more pictures. Here is one of the Rocket Lounge which was across the street and at an angle from what is now Landry's. The Bartender is former mayor Ben Blackledge. My father ran the place for a few years in the early 1970's. However, my memories of it were never as nice as this picture. Apparently a few storms had passed through.


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## glennkoks

Here is the same picture a little larger.


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## glennkoks

Here is a great before and after picture. The after is August 19th 1983 or the day after Hurricane Alicia wiped out The Barbary Coast formally know as The Rocket.

Hardly recognizable huh?


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## LuckyDad

Glennkoks,
You and I probably walked down the same shell roads.
I ran around with Ben Blackledges nephew and Pat Sammon from the Crab House family.
Another thing i remember is Capt. Okies Liquor, when age just didnt matter.. If you were old enough to walk in you could buy whatever you wanted. Smokes, beer, wine, booze, all the same. Another job that we kids did was crabbing (before the Vietnamese)... All day long in a dingy in the bay, running trotlines for crabs. End of the day they'd tally up and pay cash by the pound at Emerys. I never did it, but my best friends big brother did a lot, until he quit and got a job as a dishwasher at Maribells, which immediately propelled him to God like status. 
We moved around a lot back then, and I spent a lot of time in San Leon too. It was just like Kemah but a lot more rural. Fig orchards and shrimpers there. 
I tried to go back in the 90s... Bought a 40' scissor rigged shrimper and kept it at the Turtle Club. next to me was a beautiful little wooden shrimper Mr Hansen built just for shrimping in Clear Lake, back when that was allowed. Had a tiny little perkins that just sipped gas. The fellow running it would take it all the way to Brownsville, and I heard it got beat up in a storm and sank in the ICW. Shame, what a pretty little boat... Very simular to"Grandpas Pride" which is beached across from the fish house at Hillmans. The Hillman family has forgotten more about Shrimping than I ever knew. What great folks.
I could never really wrap my head around all the changes there along the waterfront, so I sold the boat and moved on. I dont think there will ever be a place like that again, and feel blessed to have experienced it as it was.


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## glennkoks

Luckydad,

The Sammon's are close family friends. I worked at the Crab House for quite a few years in high school. And my dad still goes to stay with Joe Sammon a few weekends each year. Growing up in Clear Lake Shores I remember Capt. Okies well. 

And you are quite right. There will never be a place like it again. I too feel blessed to have grown up there. The Blessing of the Fleet, Street Dance and Carnival were highlights every summer just before school started. 

An old timer told me he was drawn there in the 1960's because it never shut down. Boats would be coming in re-fueling, re-icing and heading back out 24/7 and the Bars stayed open many hours after the were supposed to close.

That whole way of life is gone now for good but I am glad I was there to see it.


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## Hookem-Guy81

I was wondering when someone would mention Capt Oakies. I worked at Watergate Yacht Center, actually at Newton's Marina and drove the Lift there and did Bottom Jobs on boats, scraping barnicles and painting the bottoms. I remember one huge shrimp boat, 42 footer I think, Green and White, owned by a Swedish guy named Sven. Nice Guy. After work, if we were not covered with paint, we would stop by Capt Oakies for a Brew and then later hit the Red Barn. Boy, some good times were had by all. By the way, before there was a Sea Tow, we had a Tow boat that we used to pull sailboat skippers out of the mud, usually at Redfish Island. It was a Donzi with two 454 mercruiser outdrives on it. When not rescuing sailboats we would take joy rides with our girlfriends all over the bay!!


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## Mont

glennkoks said:


> Here is the same picture a little larger.


When it was the Barbary Coast it had black and white one foot square tiles laid checkerboard style. I spent many a quarter in that place shooting pool. Do you remember Perk's Lounge up the street and right on 146?


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## glennkoks

I sure do. It was near what used to be Robinson's Restaurant. Everything near 146 changed when they built the new bridge which was completed in 1986.


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## Mont

glennkoks said:


> I sure do. It was near what used to be Robinson's Restaurant. Everything near 146 changed when they built the new bridge which was completed in 1986.


You would have to live here a while to remember Perk's. There was also some sort of Kettle (Dutch I think) right in the middle of the new version of 146/bridge that got torn down. The old German guy that ran that place kept a plane ticket on him back to Germany. There were some interesting folks that owned businesses around there.


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## glennkoks

I spent many a morning in the Dutch Kettle with my dad before work. I doubt anyone remembers this but on the opposite side of 146 there was a place called the Half Shell. A small oyster bar and grill that had a great reputation for local cuisine.


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## glennkoks

One more for some of the real old timers.

Does anyone remember the Sportsman Restaurant in Kemah? I vaguely remember eating there as a kid.


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## Mont

glennkoks said:


> I spent many a morning in the Dutch Kettle with my dad before work. I doubt anyone remembers this but on the opposite side of 146 there was a place called the Half Shell. A small oyster bar and grill that had a great reputation for local cuisine.


I was trying to remember what the name of that bar was. It's hard to believe we were bar hopping at 16 and no one really thought much of it back then. We got our butts handed to use at the Barbary Coast by two guys and a woman back in the day. When I got my Lousiville slugger out, it turned around pretty quick and we passed all three of the Kemah PD on the way out of there one evening. Danny's hair fell out for a week because that woman had latched onto his head with both hands. My Dad was on city council in LC at the time and wasn't impressed when the Chief called him the following Monday. Kemah on Saturday night in those days meant you could either run pretty fast or fight you way out of there. The whole tourist concept that's there now hadn't come to be back in those days.


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## LuckyDad

Your right about the roughhousing. I still have the scar below my right eye from a billiard ball fastball to the head. I never made the connection before now, but growing up there it probably taught me when to stand and when to run.
Now when I fish, i usually tend to head to Port A. its good, but not at all the same. One of the most beautiful sights i have ever seen is the luminescent jellyfish in the breaks on the bay... The whole bay seemed to glow. We had a small sailboat called a snark I think... A freebee that was from a cigarette company if you saved enough of the wrappers. It was like a sunfish, only squarer. Anyway, I remember sailing that little boat from Kemah to LaPorte (the Yacht club) and back several times, or across the bay to Bolivar, or down into the Galveston Harbor. Leaving in the morning and sometimes not making it back until way after dark. Jeez, the thought of letting my kids do that, disappear for the entire day, no cell phone, no call, just head out and be back whenever would probably get you a visit from CPS. 
We did a bunch of fishing off an old 32 Owens with twin 318 Chryslers. To this day, there is nothing that rides like an old wooden boat. When I got out of the Navy, I tried to buy an old wood Egg Harbor that was really nicely outfitted to charter and guide from. Anyway, Mr Friday at the Clear Creek Bank said he'd make the loan, but I needed to talk to Elton Porter for insurance. I did, but Elton started twitching when he found out it was wood and gas engines. I think that attitude killed a lot of the wooden boats... I just couldn't swing it, but often wonder how different life would be if I had made it work. 
Another thing that ended was the pogie plant in Galveston.. Shrimping, certain times of the year we would save them and almost all the bycatch and sell them to the plant in Galveston. I always thought they made catfood, but I think it may have been fertilizer. Ice came by the block or bar, and the chopper would blow it right into your coolers or a hold.
****, this thread is really making me miss home.


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## glennkoks

Luckydad,

I know how you feel. As a kid we would leave Kemah in a little dingy with a 5hp "Seagull" on it and explore all of the woods around Clear Lake. 

Yes there were woods around Clear Lake before all the homes and Condo's. That was when I was 9 or 10 years old. 

Now most parents don't let their kids out of their sights. You would probably get thrown in jail for turning a 10 year old loose in a dingy on Clear Lake.


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## OldGuy43

While I wasn't born in or even around Kemah living there is still one of OldGal and I's fondest memories. The thing I remember most is that Kemah D.O.C. (Down On the Creek) washed away all your past sins. Folks there didn't care what you were or had done before. If a stranger came looking for you, good luck! The usual response was, "Yeah, I seem to recall a couple like that, but I think they moved on."

Not that joining the D.O.C. community was all that easy. It took time. I remember coming home one evening and OldGal was all excited. "Tommy said, 'Good morning.' to me!" she said. Now Tommy was a kinda recluse who worked mostly at Pier 6 and was about 6 shrimp shy of a box. He didn't speak to anyone that he didn't know. I told OldGal that meant she had been accepted into the community. She was a "Creeker".

Kemah D.O.C. was full of characters like that. Just good folk trying to get by.

_Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone? They've paved paradise and put up a boardwalk._ sad_smiles


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## bwguardian

One of my all time favorite places to eat back in the day...the Clear Creek Inn. It burnt down and then Alicia took it after that.


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## taff

Recently my step dad brought over his dads tackle box that was given to him after his passing. He ask me to check it out and see if anything in there was worth keeping or using still. After opening it up I knew he didn't want to use any of this stuff....it was way to cool to use. He had lures I had never heard of still in the packages. Some spoons from TG&Y that still had the price tag on them...$.89. But in the bottom of the tackle box was the best of all. It was a laminated fishing map of Seabrook & Kemah with a copyright of 1956. It has the old draw bridge on it and all the old roads, channel markers. I will take a pic of it tonight and post it. It is surprisingly in really good shape


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## tec

I remember Sportsmans Restaurant and Clear Creek Inn. Good seafood back in the day.


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## RKJ

Clear Creek Inn - our family's favorite.


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## Trouthappy

I got introduced to Kemah in about 1973. Little Eddie McCabe was a local there, a friend of the guys at SFA I hung out with, they all went to Clear Lake High. Eddie's dad was in Kemah a long time. Not sure if he was famous, but McCabe Road is down Hwy. 146 a ways. Eddie's mom worked at the Kemah Police Station. Eddie's dad carved duck decoys, and supposedly hunted right off the side of Hwy 146, they said right there within easy sight of the bridge. Anyway years later in January 1985 Ben Kocian and I were into collecting decoys. I told him I'd seen a bunch of decoys in Eddie's (passed away) dad's dirt floor garage in old Kemah on the bay side of 146, they were covered in dust so thick, you couldn't tell what kind of duck was under there. I paid Eddie $40 for 40 decoys and he said, "I hope you're going to enjoy those decoys, like I'm going to enjoy this $40 tonight...." Sad to see his family heritage disappear in one night. Anyway, I still have the decoys, some are wooden. Eddie and the Clear Lake guys would visit me in Port Arthur in '73 to hunt ducks, and Eddie always played "_I was born a Rambling Man_" *loud *on his car stereo. Drove a GTO and had a rusty minnow bucket in the back with shotgun shells in it. I never found out what happened to Eddie, they say he wound up the wrong side of The Law.


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## Rotate

I grew up in Clear Lake Shores in the 80's, I know that is a much later decade than most of the memories on here but even I have witnessed huge changes.
I spent time in Oakies picking stuff up for Mom and Dad, took the Jon boat through the canals in Lazy Bend to get candy from the gas station on Jarboe Bayou, and loved trying to eat "The Big Mo Fo" hamburger at Two Dudes Restaurant(now the Swamp Shack).

It was a great place to grow up, even in the 80's. I don't care much for what the area has become, but I don't live there any more either. I feel out of place without a lifted golfcart, margaritaville license plate and pastel colored home every time I visit my parents.

I'd love to raise my own kids with the kind of freedom I enjoyed. Although I think someone would call CPS nowadays


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## glennkoks

Rotate,

Clear Lake Shores was an awesome place to grow up. I grew up there in the 1970's when it was still mostly wooded vacant lots and trees. Before cable tv and the cartoon network the neighborhood kids would spend most of our time fishing at the deep hole park or the green hills (sundial park). Now there are two houses on the same lots where I grew up and some of my friends yards now have 3 houses on them. Many of our neighbors raised chickens, geese and goats. The City hall would have both a halloween party every year and a Christmas party that everyone turned out to. You knew just about everyone on the "island".

I'm sure it is not that way anymore. Most of the houses were no more than 1500 sq. ft. Now there are bathrooms that big. 

Anyway it was a great place to grow up and Lavace Stewart was a great school to go to.


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## glennkoks

I'm sure there are more than a few stories about this place?


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## mike1970lee

Glen and Rotate were yall involved in any of those kids rock fight wars in the early 80s when the streets were all tore up( it seems like one of the main battle spots was on the main road right by your house Glen) CLS& Kemah were great places to grow up. Glen you might have been a little older I think you hung with my brother Joe.


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## glennkoks

mike, 

I sure did. You're brother and were buddies. Been in more rock fights with neighboring kids than I can remember. Tell you're brother and mom I said Howdy!


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## Shrimpers Kid

I grew up in Clear Lake Shores with Joe Lees kids and many others. My dad was a shrimper that fished with many of the old families that are long gone. I don't hate the new place that it has become but I miss the fresh delicious seafood that was honest and right off the boats in the back. My father died while I was still a kid(17) and I soon left the area. My aunt owned The Chatterbox Grill and Saloon. Anyone remember that? I use to go there sometimes after school at Stewart Elementary. We were always in the Blessing of the Fleet and I was in the dunking booth for several years too. Fun times.


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## Its Catchy

Shrimpers Kid said:


> I grew up in Clear Lake Shores with Joe Lees kids and many others. My dad was a shrimper that fished with many of the old families that are long gone. I don't hate the new place that it has become but I miss the fresh delicious seafood that was honest and right off the boats in the back. My father died while I was still a kid(17) and I soon left the area. My aunt owned The Chatterbox Grill and Saloon. Anyone remember that? I use to go there sometimes after school at Stewart Elementary. We were always in the Blessing of the Fleet and I was in the dunking booth for several years too. Fun times.


I grew up with Joe Lee's kids as well in Clear Lake Shores. My dad was a commercial fisherman so I'm sure you may have known him (Wayne Koks)? My mother used to work at the Chatterbox Grill so I'm sure I must know you. The Blessing of the Fleet, Street Dance and Carnival on August 15th (Opening day of the bay shrimp season) was a non stop party.


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## OldGuy43

Pasadena1944 said:


> Yeah......I remember those days......
> 
> I guess that I'm the only person that doesn't like the new Kemah......


Nope, there are at least 2 others, my wife and I. We lived D.O.C. (Down On the Creek) in the early 80's in the Clear Creek Apartments. Good livin'! We hate what Kemah has become.


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## Its Catchy

I thought I would revive an old thread with some matchbooks. How many of you are old enough to remember these fine Kemah Institutions? I remember all but the Kemah Club that was before my time.

Maybe Tortuga?


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## Blk Jck 224

Pasadena1944 said:


> I guess that I'm the only person that doesn't like the new Kemah......


 No you're not!


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## floppodog

catndahats said:


> There used to be actual working boats up and down both sides of the channel. back in '74 or '75 got an Irish Setter pup down there off a shrimp boat. She was named "Kemah Clipper" and all the pups were named after fishing boats. That was a different time (and better in many ways). Can't say I miss the drawbridge that much.
> 
> *Remember Curley's Corner? Could run from the car to there and get a cold one while waiting on the drawbridge to open*.
> 
> Went in there one time for "dead bait" and was told they had none, but the two shrimper guys out back smoking piped up and said "we got live shrimp, but we'll kill 'em for ya"...they'd been smoking some funny stuff.
> 
> Pier 7 "where the elite eat in their barefeet"....fresh oysters unloaded right there on the dock, shucked in front of you, and a cold drink...$1/doz.


 Got to admit my brother and I did this a few times.


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## planohog

Wife and I landed in Seabrook late 2014. She grew up around tybee island Georgia, I grew up around Port-A/Corpus TX . Our visions of home look like the historic pictures
you can find in the book by Ruth Burke "Seabrook". Recently I went to a city meeting
to help chart the future of the Seabrook area and I tried to describe to them the vision
I had in my head, only to recently find out , that has already come and gone like the tide.
I want to thank you folks that grew up around here to add to the color and brink back the summers barefoot on shell roads. 
We have tons of questions of what was there. 
I will ask here . 
What was:
The property from the bypass channel to the north , toddville to the west , what was mariablles on the south. ( its across from current version of peir-8 resturant ) 
What was:
The property north/west of the bypass channel bridge. ( they are going to build something there soon , This part of toddville gets wet often. ( north of current version of peir-8 )


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## Its Catchy

planohog said:


> Wife and I landed in Seabrook late 2014. She grew up around tybee island Georgia, I grew up around Port-A/Corpus TX . Our visions of home look like the historic pictures
> you can find in the book by Ruth Burke "Seabrook". Recently I went to a city meeting
> to help chart the future of the Seabrook area and I tried to describe to them the vision
> I had in my head, only to recently find out , that has already come and gone like the tide.
> I want to thank you folks that grew up around here to add to the color and brink back the summers barefoot on shell roads.
> We have tons of questions of what was there.
> I will ask here .
> What was:
> The property from the bypass channel to the north , toddville to the west , what was mariablles on the south. ( its across from current version of peir-8 resturant )
> What was:
> The property north/west of the bypass channel bridge. ( they are going to build something there soon , This part of toddville gets wet often. ( north of current version of peir-8 )


Attached is a Historical Google Earth photo of the area. You can download it for free and it really gives you a picture of what it looked like back to 1943.

I put a few pins on what I know of the area dating to the late 1960's early 1970's


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## Tortuga

The Murdochs I remember was in Galveston..near the Galvez Hotel. Used to go down there as a kid with the family...rent a bathing suit..and spend the day in the water...and tar.... Rented suits cuz this was in the late 30s and nobody was gonna waste money buying a bathing suit when it would probably only be used a few times a year....


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## planohog

itscatchy and Tortuga thank you. I hope to live long enough to see seabrook again prosper. The insurance regulations here in seabrook are pretty extensive, most it will
scare away. We have noticed at some city meeting that the people that grew up here
stay to them selves , we do not care we are here , this is our someday retirement home.


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## Its Catchy

planohog said:


> itscatchy and Tortuga thank you. I hope to live long enough to see seabrook again prosper. The insurance regulations here in seabrook are pretty extensive, most it will
> scare away. We have noticed at some city meeting that the people that grew up here
> stay to them selves , we do not care we are here , this is our someday retirement home.


The local government in Seabrook has done everything possible to get in the way of development. The Seabrook side of the Clear Creek Channel is a chithole and look at what has happened to the Kemah side.

When I was growing up there was not much difference between the two sides. Now it is night and day.


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## Its Catchy

Tortuga said:


> The Murdochs I remember was in Galveston..near the Galvez Hotel. Used to go down there as a kid with the family...rent a bathing suit..and spend the day in the water...and tar.... Rented suits cuz this was in the late 30s and nobody was gonna waste money buying a bathing suit when it would probably only be used a few times a year....


Tortuga,

I heard there was a train from Houston that would take people down for the day where they could rent bathing suits, enjoy a day and head back that same evening.


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## Tortuga

Its Catchy said:


> Tortuga,
> 
> I heard there was a train from Houston that would take people down for the day where they could rent bathing suits, enjoy a day and head back that same evening.


Yep, Catchy...it was called The Interurban.. Ran until the late '30s as I recall. Made a lot of trips on it...25 cents as I remember...because my Grandmother and an Aunt lived at the Galvez Hotel at that time.. Great fun for us little kids...


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## Tortuga

*to completely hijack this thread...lol...*

Any of you young dudes ever seen one of these ??

Used to see them all over the tracks..two fellers on the front
pumping away and hauling the work crews on the back cart....

Called a "Hand cart"


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## cubera

Last time I saw one was in Penn. in the early 50's.
It was on the Eire Lackawanna RR on a spur line.


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## V-Bottom

That train ride did cost 25 cents...my granny rode the train now and then from Houston...It ran beside Hwy 3.


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## planohog

Seabrook TX From 1982 and 1987 Ruth Burke collection. 
This is what I see in my mind from child hood around Conbrown Harbor ( aransas pass ) and Port Aransas pre Hurricane Ceila Aug 2 1970 ( summer I stepped on a nail after the storm. ) .
If you have pictures of kemah/seabrook please share, I have grand kids that will have to hear all these stories.


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## pocjetty

Its Catchy said:


> Attached is a Historical Google Earth photo of the area. You can download it for free and it really gives you a picture of what it looked like back to 1943.
> 
> I put a few pins on what I know of the area dating to the late 1960's early 1970's


Oh, man... now Google does time travel?

Growing up farther south, I only got to fish the party boat once. My uncle always used to talk about them, and one summer he brought me up to fish with him. It was the only time, out of all the fishing I have done, that I caught an octopus. I thought those were some strange and exotic waters.


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## Its Catchy

pocjetty said:


> Oh, man... now Google does time travel?
> 
> Growing up farther south, I only got to fish the party boat once. My uncle always used to talk about them, and one summer he brought me up to fish with him. It was the only time, out of all the fishing I have done, that I caught an octopus. I thought those were some strange and exotic waters.


Google earth does do time travel (sort of). It's a great tool for older aerial photographs of the bays. I have found reefs, old channel's etc that have really paid off dividends in fish and oysters. Most of these are not on any charts.

Just go up to the top left and click on the icon that looks like a clock with a green backwards arrow on it. A timeline will appear and you can go view old aerial photos some dating back to the early 1940's.


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## CHARLIE

That was Mickeys (wasnt spelled that way) at Kemah or Seabrook. It was on the inside of the little island that is no longer there LOL. It was on the left hand side heading out little channel that went to the left and out into the bay behind the island that is now gone. Few post left where the beer joint was.


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## planohog

CHARLIE said:


> That was Mickeys (wasnt spelled that way) at Kemah or Seabrook. It was on the inside of the little island that is no longer there LOL. It was on the left hand side heading out little channel that went to the left and out into the bay behind the island that is now gone. Few post left where the beer joint was.


Charlie, Went in truck yesterday on very very low tide and looked around at the
small park behind what was meribells . There might still be some of the old ferry out there , you can see some debris straight out. Your correct There are lots of posts showing there was something there on the right going north on todville , back towards the sailboat club docks.


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## CHARLIE

planohog

For sure it was there I was there with my dad back in the dark ages.Probably in the 50's. Best I recall it mite have been full of deer antlers. You could tie a boat up to the front of the place I think. Once a swimmer got ran over by a boat going through the channel. I remember the talk about that. Island has been gone a long time but some post still out there. You could get to the place by land but it has eroded way back from where it was.


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## planohog

There are two guys that have been around there forever one I know for sure has. He runs the little yellow shop over in kemah sells nick-nacks and stuff , his wife grew up in that house before it was a store, and the guy at seabrook chamber of commerce , ill stop in and ask around about this place.


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## jewfish

*Waites Wharf*



planohog said:


> Seabrook TX From 1982 and 1987 Ruth Burke collection.
> This is what I see in my mind from child hood around Conbrown Harbor ( aransas pass ) and Port Aransas pre Hurricane Ceila Aug 2 1970 ( summer I stepped on a nail after the storm. ) .
> If you have pictures of kemah/seabrook please share, I have grand kids that will have to hear all these stories.


I recall going in Waites Wharf BEFORE they were open for business.
One of their sons had a party inside and I know we had a piano and guitars in there, passing a large time Must of been around 1979-80
If you were at this party, chime in


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## Tortuga

CHARLIE said:


> *That was Mickeys (wasnt spelled that way*) at Kemah or Seabrook. It was on the inside of the little island that is no longer there LOL. It was on the left hand side heading out little channel that went to the left and out into the bay behind the island that is now gone. Few post left where the beer joint was.


Yep, Mayor..I think it was spelled Meuckes..or something like that. Back in the 50s we used to drive down there and buy fresh oysters by the bushel sack...something like 10 to 12 dozen...for about $1.50.. It was a filthy looking place as I remember...but sure had some good oysters...


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## planohog

Searching on Google with 
Louis+John+Muecke+seabrook

Good info:


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