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  ou can tell a lot about a place by the way it celebrates its holidays. And in Houston Remember When: Holiday Memories, the second installment of its the Houston Remember When series, HoustonPBS tells a lot about Houston by looking at how Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, and New Year's Eve were observed in the Bayou City's formative years of the 1930s through the 1950s.
 It was during this time that a large Texas town was becoming a major American city, and in the stories and recollections of long-time Houston residents that make up the core of Holiday Memories, filmmakers Jim Fisher and Nancy Simonds paint an engaging picture of a community coming into its own, even as it tries to hold on to the nostalgic best of the past. Using a selection of archival footage, home movies, and personal photos to buttress the stories of a Houston that once was, Fisher and Simonds coax out tales of Halloweens where the biggest prank was greasing the streetcar tracks or hauling an outhouse to an honored space in the middle of Main Street; Thanksgivings in which the turkeys came live and ready to be slaughtered rather than frozen and wrapped in plastic; and Christmases marked by people lining up ten deep to see what wonders had appeared in the windows of the downtown Foley's department store.
 Houston Chronicle columnist Maxine Mesinger relates how the Goodfellows charity, which brings presents and seasonal cheer to the unfortunate, began December of 1911 when a reporter stumbled across a shoeshine boy working in the cold of Christmas Eve. Roy H. Cullen, the grandson of oilman Hugh Roy Cullen, remembers the World War II December when his grandfather invited every serviceman with no place to go to have Christmas dinner with his family -- and the hordes that responded. Ken Hawkins, a place-kicker on the University of Houston's very first football team, recalls the day in 1946 when he became a hometown star by helping UH to its very first victory in the second game of its inaugural season. Graduates of Yates and Wheatley High Schools tell how in the days before integration the football rivalry between the two storied African-American institutions created a Thanksgiving ritual that routinely attracted 30,000 plus fans, making it one of the biggest non-college games in America.
 As Holiday Memories makes clear, from late October through December, Houston at the half-century revolved around fun,fowls, football, and family. Though the specifics have changed, Houston at the end of the century revolves around similar things. By tapping into the past, Houston Remember When: Holiday Memories not only uncovers fascinating aspects of what was, but also gives us a different way of looking at where we are today. It's a reminder that, in the end, memories are the true stuff of which holidays are made.
Many of the photos used in this production are the work of the late Houston photographer Bob Bailey. Additional production assistance was provided by his son, Ken Bailey.
To order Houston Remember When: Holiday Memories on VHS, visit our online shop.
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