You may not know this, dear reader, but one evening in the 1970s a debonair patron of El Camaroncito Nite Club on Old Highway 90 in San Antonio was dancing with a parade of dazzled partners when one of them happened to notice something disconcerting: The dapper fellow inciting a Saturday-night fever had the feet of a chicken. Those clawed and scaly appendages, of course, were a mark of the devil (if not poor foot hygiene). As you can imagine, the woman’s scream sent El Diablo scurrying out the door and into the darkness.

I know the story because of a delightful book Trinity University Press published a couple of years ago called San Antonio Uncovered: Fun Facts and Hidden Histories, compiled by Mark Louis Rybczyk. Written for the native and the newcomer, it’s a book of urban lore, little-known events, quirky anecdotes and amusing trivia about a city currently celebrating its 300th anniversary.

To be sure, it’s not all chicken-footed dancer fun and foolishness. I learned, for example, that in World War I Gen. John J. “Blackjack” Pershing dismounted the horse cavalry and incorporated mechanized vehicles at San Antonio’s Fort Sam Houston. I learned that San Antonio is the birthplace of the U.S. Air Force, that the first movie to win an Oscar (“Wings”) was filmed in San Antonio and that the historic Menger Hotel, next door to the Alamo, once kept alligators on its patio. Thanks to San Antonio Uncovered, I’ll look at the Alamo City differently the next time I’m in town.

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What about Houston? If we were to “uncover” fun facts and hidden histories of the Bayou City, what would we include? I’d love to hear suggestions about the nooks, crannies and still-existing niches of Houston history, about Houstonians down through the decades who ought to be better known. I’ll report back in a few weeks.

Meanwhile, here are some stream-of-consciousness ideas:

Who are some of the famous men and women who’ve passed through Houston over the years, people who came and went or maybe stayed a while? I’ve written about John James Audubon, the famed naturalist who disembarked at Allen’s Landing in 1837, when the town was a malarial, mosquito-ridden swamp. Just last month we tore down the Montrose bungalow where the young Clark Gable lived briefly. A two-story Victorian house in Montrose, still standing, was where a young teacher named Lyndon B. Johnson boarded. Who else came and went?

Who belongs on a list of bona fide Houston characters? Although it’s hard to summon 19th-century Houstonians out of the mist of time, eccentric philanthropist George Hermann qualifies. So does that 20th-century phenomenon, Judge Roy Hofheinz. Glenn “King of the Wildcatters” McCarthy, “Silver Dollar Jim” West and Howard Hughes (Sr. and Jr.), among other oil-patch legends, have to be on the list. What about Marvin Zindler? Squatty Lyons? Sig Byrd? Bum Phillips? Percy Foreman?

Who should be better known? Charlotte Allen, influential wife of the city’s founding brothers, certainly qualifies. What other women helped to build Houston? Who among recently arrived ethnic communities need to be better known? What about musicians? Beyonce we know, but who else got their start or found their inspiration in H-Town?

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A handful of our museums are world-renowned, but what about those that appeal to a more select audience? The Art Car Museum comes to mind, of course, but what about the 1940 Air Terminal Museum, the John C. Freeman Weather Museum, the Health Museum, the National Museum of Funeral History, the Czech Center Museum? Others?

Larry McMurtry’s ruminations about “Houston’s astonishing homicide rate,” particularly in seedy bars on a Saturday night, are mercifully out of date, but we still have our landmark crimes. For example, a reading list for new Houstonians still has to include Blood and Money, the late Tommy Thompson’s riveting tale of murder in the monied elegance of River Oaks. What other crimes are quintessential Houston, whether crimes of blood and passion or those of the white-collar variety?

Houstonians consider themselves a godly people, but God’s ways remain mysterious inside most houses of worship beyond our own. I just read, for instance, that the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, the spectacular example of Hindu sacred architecture near Stafford, offers visitors a tour of the temple and an Indian meal and cup of hot tea in the temple cafeteria. From a previous column, I know that Trinity Episcopal Church downtown is home to a magnificent painting of the resurrected Jesus by Waco artist Kermit Oliver, with the artist’s son, who was executed at Huntsville, standing in as Jesus. What else should we know about this city’s religious inclinations?

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What are 10 places every Houstonian should know? On his San Antonio list Rybczyk includes the Buckhorn Saloon, La Villita and the world’s first air-conditioned building, the 21-story, still-standing Milam Building. We have the world’s first air-conditioned sports stadium. What other places stand out?

What about additional Houston firsts? We’re the first city to hear its name spoken from the lunar surface, but what else?

Rybczyk also offers up seven unique San Antonio sports stories. Houston’s sports heritage is arguably richer than the Alamo City’s, but in addition to a certain soul-stirring World Series triumph and a couple of NBA championships, what else should be on the list?

Any ghost stories or haunted habitations? A website called “Graveyard Shift” ranks the downtown Spaghetti Warehouse as “one of the most haunted places in America,” while the Old Jefferson Davis Hospital, built atop a Confederate cemetery, is known for screams, eerie howling sounds and spectral anomalies in photographs. “The Graveyard Shift” also includes the beautiful Julia Ideson Building at the downtown public library and the second floor of La Carafe, the ancient bar on Market Square. The book doesn’t mention chicken-footed dancers, but I’m guessing there are other eerie places in the Bayou City.

With its 200th anniversary approaching, this sprawling, influential, endlessly interesting city is overdue for a serious, comprehensive history. Meanwhile, why not have some fun with a slightly cockeyed one?