Socktickler86 started a thread in General Discussion about leaving the old home town, and it got me to thinking about when I finally made the break.
Early on Good Friday 1980 I loaded what little would fit in my Fiat X-1/9 and hit the road for Houston, where my older brother was living. I got there around 10 that night. After finding a pay phone he came and collected me and I followed him to his apartment. He was heading out for a C&W bar but I was tired and hit the sack.
Saturday morning we had breakfast at a Denny's, then he drove me around the I-610 Loop. The Oilers were my second favorite NFL team, and seeing the Astrodome in person was pretty cool. There was also the Carousel Motel, a local landmark where rooms could be rented by the hour.
Not long after that we crossed the Ship Channel bridge, another impressive site to this old Kansas boy.
In the weeks that followed I began exploring my new city while looking for a job, and quickly found one. It was impossible not to find a job then, unless you didn't want one.
A few months later I found an apartment and at 25 I was truly on my own. I had not lived with my parents in years but had always had roommates. Now, I had no one to answer to and it was a liberating feeling.
To be young and in Houston then, oh my. The city was booming, with an estimated 1,500 new people arriving every week. The energy was palpable, and everything seemed possible then. I fell in love for the first time in Houston. What had been a vacant lot or old building the week before would be the site of a new business being built the next.
I had never experienced anything like that and it is doubtful I ever will again. There were good times and bad times during my time there. But I would not trade those memories for anything.
End of ramble. But that's what blogs are for I guess. 🙂
Early on Good Friday 1980 I loaded what little would fit in my Fiat X-1/9 and hit the road for Houston, where my older brother was living. I got there around 10 that night. After finding a pay phone he came and collected me and I followed him to his apartment. He was heading out for a C&W bar but I was tired and hit the sack.
Saturday morning we had breakfast at a Denny's, then he drove me around the I-610 Loop. The Oilers were my second favorite NFL team, and seeing the Astrodome in person was pretty cool. There was also the Carousel Motel, a local landmark where rooms could be rented by the hour.
Not long after that we crossed the Ship Channel bridge, another impressive site to this old Kansas boy. In the weeks that followed I began exploring my new city while looking for a job, and quickly found one. It was impossible not to find a job then, unless you didn't want one.
A few months later I found an apartment and at 25 I was truly on my own. I had not lived with my parents in years but had always had roommates. Now, I had no one to answer to and it was a liberating feeling.
To be young and in Houston then, oh my. The city was booming, with an estimated 1,500 new people arriving every week. The energy was palpable, and everything seemed possible then. I fell in love for the first time in Houston. What had been a vacant lot or old building the week before would be the site of a new business being built the next.
I had never experienced anything like that and it is doubtful I ever will again. There were good times and bad times during my time there. But I would not trade those memories for anything.
End of ramble. But that's what blogs are for I guess. 🙂
