We can reminisce all day about what it was like to shop at Northline Mall, sit in the pavilion section of the Astrodome or ride the Texas Cyclone. These are experiences shared across decades by many Houstonians.

But there are also fuzzy, more obscure memories, usually linked to our youth. It’s the kind of mental shard that no one else seems to remember and might even prompt you to wonder, "Was I dreaming that?"

My family has three such memories.

1. Someone apparently lived in one of the buildings on Main Street, near Preston, with a dog. So if you happened to be waiting for a bus or walking by, there was always a dog there yapping at the passers-by below. This would have been in the 1960s, before 1968.

2. Did you live at San Felipe Courts in the 1960s? If so, do you remember getting free tickets to concerts at the coliseum? These would have been offered at the rec center on a first-come, first-served basis.

3. Outside a grocery store in Pasadena, a guy used to have a pet monkey that would dance for change. This was in the 1950s.

I asked readers on the Bayou City History Facebook page for their dim Houston memories in the hopes that readers might be able to shed some light on these fragments. Some remembered long-gone places like Busch Gardens, Cargo Houston at Westbury Square, Hanna-Barbera Land, Glenn Slade's gun store, Linder Lake and Galli Spaghetti House off Telephone. Here are some more recollections from readers:

From Robert S. Liner: Late 1970s early 1980s there was an elderly gentleman who rode a three wheel bicycle. He wore a very wide brim hat. Over a period of years I saw him downtown, and also in Montrose and in the Heights. I also saw him in neighborhoods when I wondered how he got there. I never saw him travel at more than 3 mph.

Craig Cearnal writes: I remember seeing the monkey at the Pasadena grocery stores, but there was a guy known as “Railroad” that cleaned parking lots at all the shopping centers. He had eyes that went in two directions so you couldn’t tell what he was looking at. He drove a three-wheeled Cushman Truckster with all his equipment hanging off it. 1960s.

From Vicki Nichols: I was born in Houston, 1959. As a little kid, there was some house, I think it was close to Hermann Park area, every year a guy would deck out his front yard into a "Santa Land", music, lights, everything. Then he dressed up as Santa and handed out candy canes that tasted the best! They were sweeter, more than peppermint flavor. I always wondered if anyone else remembered him. People came from all over the city with kids. It was not a regular occurrence back then to have these elaborately decorated yards, so his place was always the one to go see! We went for several years in a row to see him. Anyone else remember?

From Wayne Tullos: When I was a young kid in the early ‘70s, my parents took the family downtown to some kind of underground flea market. They think I’m making it up, but I distinctly remember being downtown and going underground, possibly into the tunnels. It could have been a special event, but I remember music and lights in the tunnels.

(Some suspect this was the Catacombs.)

Says Debra Elliott: How bout the horn that blew at noon from the cotton factory on Fulton?

Kathi Kraftyzales writes: I have asked before but does anyone remember the building in the Houston Zoo that had cement statues at the entrance (maybe lions) and inside were all the stuffed animals? Taxidermy at its finest. Animals behind glass and they looked real. As you exited the door you could see a gigantic snake around the door.

What about you? Do you have any fading memories of our city that need fleshing out or remembering? If so, let us know in the comments.

J.R. Gonzales, a third-generation Houstonian, covers local history with an eye toward the people and events that have mostly been forgotten to time. Follow him through Bayou City History on Facebook and Twitter. He can be reached at 713-362-6163 or john.gonzales@chron.com.