Houston – 1963 (2)

 

Drive-in Movies, Complaints from Neighbors and the Colt 45s.

We knew that our time in Houston would be short when we went there, but we really enjoyed the Houston culture.  There was about any kind of entertainment you might want to see if you had the price of admission.  We didn’t have a lot of money, so we figured out ways to entertain ourselves.  We didn’t even own a television set at that point in time.  Elliott loved the playground equipment in the parks.  Quite often I would be tied up with visitations, meetings, and what have you until about nine o’clock.  Ann and Elliott didn’t have to get up early, so we would go visit a park.   I can’t imagine taking a child to a park in Houston at 9 o’clock in the evening in this day and time, but we didn’t think a thing about it back then. 

Once we had Truman and Evelyn and the elders and their wives over to our apartment for dinner.   The after dinner conversation involved stories about funny things that happen in church.  A lot of those stories get better with the telling, but we usually laughed ourselves silly.  On this particular night, we must have gone over the top because the neighbors knocked on the door and asked us if we could be a little quieter.  They were trying to put their children to bed.

One Friday evening we had the hankering to see a movie, but we didn’t have more than a couple of dollars.   One of the drive-in movie theaters advertised an all night Kim Novak film marathon and every car could get in for a dollar.  We literally took our last dollar and went to the movie.  Ann made the pop corn, and a big jar of Kool Aid.  Elliott went to sleep fairly early, and we gave up on it at about two or three in the morning. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds. I got paid on Sunday. 

Our other recreation was the Houston baseball team. The Houston National League Franchise had only been in existence for a year.  They were known as the Houston Colt 45’s.  They didn’t become the Astros until after the construction of the Astrodome.  You could sit in the bleachers for $1.5.  One night Ann, Elliott and I went to the Astrodome.  I think Elliott probably got in free.  As I remember we had reserve seats right behind home plate.  We probably paid about $6.00 total for these fine seats.  Again we took popcorn and Kool Aid for refreshments.  Nobody tried to prevent you from doing things like that back then.  They were playing the Dodgers, and we watched Sandy Koufax pitch a one hitter.

It was really fun when we got to go with Truman.  Truman had a voice that could be heard in the next county.  He would generally pick a player from the opposing team and yell at him unmercifully.  Once he took one of the elders to the game, and had seats behind home plate.  They were playing the Dodgers and Truman focused on John Roseboro, the Dodger catcher.  Roseboro heard and got very angry.  When Truman bragged about it to Evelyn.  She said,  “Truman, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.  You took one of the elders of the church to a baseball game and then acted like that.”   The elder told the story to people at church, and said, “I never had so much fun in my life.”

You never knew what Truman would do.  One night we went to see a game against the Giants.  We got to see the great Willie Mays.  Right in the middle of the game, Truman called the beer guy over, and told him that I wanted a beer.  Of course I stuttered and stammered and told the man he was mistaken.   When I turned around Truman was doubled up with laughter.    Truman and I were far more than co-workers.  We were good friends, and he was one of the best friends I ever had, and a mentor for a long period of time.