NASA-area amusement park celebrates memories on 40th anniversary
Forty years ago, the Bay Area Putt-Putt FunHouse in on what was NASA Road 1 Webster began as a 54-hole miniature golf course with snow cone and popcorn machines.
As hundreds of former employees return for its anniversary celebration Saturday, June 15, they’ll find entertainment center that has evolved into a modern amusement park with indoor bumper cars, laser tag, a rock wall, bumper boats on the water outside and, of course miniature golf.
“I never would have imagined this,” said Carol Saxe, a 1968 graduate of Clear Creek High School, who owns the FunHouse at 806 E. NASA Parkway with her husband, Jim.
“With 11 attractions, it requires a lot more maintenance now,” said Jim, who was the head basketball and football coach at Clear Lake Intermediate School when, with summers off, he had the idea of opening a putt-putt golf course in 1979.
Jim was a Marine stationed in North Carolina when he visited his aunt in Indiana and enjoyed his first game of miniature golf.