San Jacinto Day

I found this lovely photo on the Houston Chronicle Website:

April 21, 2010, 1:00AM

Smiley N. Pool Chronicle

The San Jacinto Monument is seen through a porthole aboard the tugboat Wesley A on the Houston Ship Channel. 

Well, this is the first San Jacinto Day I have not spent in Texas in two decades. Even though I dont usually go to every reenactment day, I still have a deep affinity for one of the monuments to Texas courage and bravery. My uncle, Boyd Elmore, was a carpenter who helped to build the monument back in the 1930's. According to family history, he actually helped to work on the platform, the base for the star atop the huge obelisk, and other aspects of construction. So every time I cross the San Jacinto River Bridge on Interstate 10, I look at that monument and think about what a wonderful man he was and how he loved his wife, my Aunt Dee Dee, and my family.

Some of the carpenters who worked the massive construction project banded together to create a loose consortium of guild members from the carpenter's union and helped each other build homes on 1/2 acre lots in Cloverleaf, near the Cloverleaf Baptist Church, on the east side of Houston, and many of these well-constructed homes are still standing and in relatively good shape due to the hard-work and dedication of these men.

So now I am driving to Los Angeles today from a friend's home in Victorville, California, to pick up my friend Lynn at the airport so that we both can attend the first Turner Classic Movies Fan Convention at the Historic Hollywood Hotel. I can't wait.

I'm making my coffee, and dreaming about all the fun!