H's HISTORY

I want to take some blog time to start telling my husband's history. It's complicated and many parts of it read like a novel made for TV. I want to know him and his history more. I want our (very distant future) children do know where their parents came from. A tiny bit of background to get us started. H's mother lost her parents when she was a teenager, and she got pregnant with H when she was 16. She started working after H was born, and H was raised by his great-grandmother.

After playing around downtown last Saturday, he wanted to show me where he grew up- just outside of downtown. His whole family lived on a street in (what's now) Houston's 1st Ward. There was a row of houses that he would migrate between. Those houses are all now gone and replaced with Houston yuppie 3-level homes- bleh!

They eventually all moved to this block of Shearn. The top photo is the house where is great-grandma lived for a while. He has memories of family gatherings out on the porch and break-dancing in street. The now empty property next to the blue house was where the Cantina stood that his grandmother managed. He's got many very *interesting* stories about growing up in a Mexican cantina, and how his mother forbid him to go there as a child.

Above is where the bakery made fresh bread everyday when he lived there. He said his (great) grandmother also lived there for a while too. The old sign still hangs, but it's been many years since any bread baked. The great thing about this neighborhood is that it has an amazing view of downtown Houston.

This little abandoned building is where H remembers getting some of his early haircuts. Shortly to be an Italian restaurant.

Thought I'd throw in a Google Earth map. I'm not sure what date the photo was taken, but 1st street where he lives looks like the houses have been torn down already. The new construction hadn't been built when the photo was taken.

This outing really makes me want to go back and visit my childhood places- homes, school and parks where I spent my formidable years.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: My husband overcame much diversity to be an amazing man.