Petroleum Club celebrates the good times — again

If the Petroleum Club is any indication, things in the oil business aren't so bad: This weekend, several hundred people helped celebrate the club's 60th birthday at a lavish $100,000 party. But below the surface is evidence of how far the august club — and Houston's economy — have come since the heady days of the oil boom.

The club was founded in 1946 in part to give its members a place to go for a mixed drink in the days when private clubs were the only places in Texas where you could get a cocktail. Over the years, the club became a sort of barometer of the oil business — when times were good in oil, times were good at the Petroleum Club. But in the last 20 years, the city has had to diversify, and now the club is finding it has to do the same thing. There's a new group for young professionals, which allows them to pay the $3,500 membership fee out over a few years. There are events like cigar parties and wine tastings. There are new members who aren't in the oil business. And there's even a billiard table!

Things did seem good Saturday, though, we hear: There was music, dancing and costumed actors who portrayed characters from the good ol' days ("Hey, let's go watch fake Glenn McCarthy get in a fistfight!"). Will it last? As Fed economist Robert Gilmer said, "Maybe the question is whether the commodity boom lasts long enough to silence folks who still remember 1986, so the party can really get going."