With hours left to spare in the month, here's a look back at Houston in June 1986. Let me tell you, it was a busy month.

-- The Rockets' season came to an end with a Game 6 loss to the Boston Celtics, 114-97. Yeah, so the team fell short in the NBA Finals. At least they beat the defending champion Lakers in the Western Conference Finals, so we'll always have that.

-- Out in the East End, things were looking pretty grim over at Evergreen Cemetery, 500 Altic. The 14-acre site that dates to 1894 had fallen victim to vandalism and neglect over the years.

In her June 8, 1986, article, reporter Bonnie Britt called it "one of about a dozen small burial grounds Houston has forgotten."

Veterans of World War I and World War II are buried there too beneath giant oaks, cedars and hickory trees. Others at Evergreen who brushed with history include Maude Griffin, the first licensed woman tug boat pilot in Texas, a Houston police officer killed in 1917 when black Union soldiers rebelled at Camp Logan in what is now Memorial Park and John Kane, who was killed by scabs in 1936 during the effort to unionize Port of Houston workers.

Toward the rear of the cemetery that is two blocks south of Harrisburg, an area that was briefly the capital of Texas, and hidden in amid thick brush is a 20-foot tall bronze monument erected by the City Employees Sick and Death Benefit Association of Houston.

Fifty plots were purchased in 1927 by City Employees Union 16578 for the burial of city workers, but records show that only two and maybe three of those sites are occupied. The monument was dedicated in 1929 on Memorial Day by former Mayor Oscar Holcombe in memory of "Faithful City Employees who have been called by the Master."

These days, the cemetery, which is home to some of my ancestors, is in better shape.

-- Who remembers Fame City off Beechnut?

Bowling, miniature golf, roller-skating all under one air-conditioned roof could be found in Alief. Though it may have lacked the stomach-churning rides of its crosstown rival AstroWorld, Fame City at least had a three-screen movie theater ("Out of Africa" played there when it opened in June). That's got to count for something, right?

From reporter Michael Spies article on June 12, 1986:

Tantalizing as the name of Fame City is, it is derived rather unromantically from the initial letters of First Amusement Mall Enterprises, the parent company that owns the building. The obvious association to make is with a theme park, such as AstroWorld or Six Flags Over Texas, both of which came under the supervision of Lamar Parker, Fame City's assistant general manager. But that's not an accurate comparison, said marketing director Alicia Smith. Nor is Fame City just a mall.

"We wanted a place where mom and dad could come for a couple of hours with a few bucks in their pockets and enjoy themselves, but with the Houston climate the way it is, we put everything under one roof.

"You can play miniature golf outside, but it's not that enjoyable here in Houston. You can go down the street, and our roller rink would be competitive with any other, and with the food the quality we think it will be, we'll be able to satisfy kids " said Smith.

[...]

Two of the more unusual attractions are the space-age rides SR-2 and Flash Flight. The SR-2 is the mysterious name for a vehicle that seats 12 and simulates a variety of sensations, including motocross and skiing.

Flash Flight is probably the only ride that might also be found in a theme park like AstroWorld. It's built on the Tilt-a-Whirl principle, except that riders also get a chance to shoot at bad space invaders (in red) and score points, which are taken away if the good guys (in green) are hit. Scores are stored, for those who want to fight again another day.

A bit more aggressive is the portmanteau game combining jai alai and basketball in a bumper car, a game known as Whirlyball. A Fame City umpire explains the rules and acts as referee for the 15-minute game played between the yellow and the red teams.

After some recent management and ownership changes, the site is now Fun Plex Amusement Park. The water park is gone though.

-- June marked the closure of the Shamrock Hilton hotel. Reporter Alan Bernstein was there to cover the last shindig at the Shamrock.

From the June 10, 1986, editions:

IT WAS THE LAST party on the last night of business for the Shamrock Hilton Hotel, and Lane Conway had to compete with the droning of the John Jameson Irish Whiskey Bagpipe Band for her reminiscing to be heard.

"We used to come to the Shamrock for dancing once or twice a month," she shouted. "You could have a good dinner and dance all night.

"When you said Houston, Texas, people said, 'Oh, the Shamrock!' "

As Conway wandered back in her mind to the hotel's 1950s' heyday, hundreds of others wandered around the Grand Ballroom on Monday night in what was called "An Irish Wake for the Shamrock Hilton."

They danced, sipped and sang in memory of the landmark at 6900 South Main in a room decorated with almost as much Irish Green as the Boston Garden during a Celtics game. The bagpipers provided another evocation of the Irish spirit that oilman Glenn McCarthy used as a theme when he opened the hotel in 1949.

Long past its prime as a social hub for Houston, the 1,100-room hotel has been purchased by the Texas Medical Center and shut down as a hotel. Plans for the building have not been announced. It may be demolished.

-- A human circle formed around Loop 610 one rainy Sunday to help feed Houston's hungry.

It was called Hands Around Houston. Sort of like Hands Across America a month earlier but on a much, much smaller and non-linear scale.

During the event, the crowd joined hands and sang "We Are Houston: The City's Heart and Soul," written by Danny Ward and Nancy Ames.

From reporter Rad Sallee's June 23, 1986, article:

Everybody was having a good time, and the money they were raising was earmarked for a good cause.

But as anyone who has lived here of late might have predicted, something ominous was rumbling on the horizon.

Alice Shepherd bravely unrolled a square of carpet and set up folding chairs for herself, daughter Barbara Carroll and grandchildren Brandy, 5, and Steven, 1. The Transco lobby was less than 200 feet away, she noted, so why worry?

Why had she come?

"Because it's Hands Around Houston. It's awareness. It's Houston getting behind some very good causes.

"I think we're going to have more of these functions. We have to, because there are more causes now."

And more unemployed people who soon may need to be fed by the rest of us, observed Phyllis Bunday.

"With all the people out here, it's a good indication of how people feel - especially on a day like today, when you don't know if it's going to rain or not," she said.

In all, Hands Across Houston raised more than $210,000 to fight hunger.