Lunch With Friends

When we learned that long time full-timing friends John and Anita Laffey were on the other side of Houston, we made arrangements to meet them for lunch halfway between us.  This happened to be the town of Humble.  The town was named for its first resident, Pleasant Humble who settled his family along the banks of the San Jacinto River and operated a ferry for a time near the present crossing of Highway 59.  Since his family was from Britain, he pronounced his name as Umble, and it remains so to this day.  It is so close to Houston that the city threatens to gobble it up, but since Humble was incorporated first, they remain autonomous. When we arrived around noon, the downtown area was pretty quiet.  There are still quite a few small businesses here but a lot of them were closed for the day.

We met John and Anita at the local restaurant called the (H)umble Cafe.  We enjoyed a couple hours of visiting and catching up while we ate a pretty good lunch.  A couple of times we heard the owner/manager break into song.  He greeted us personally and told us that he is so grateful to have a singing voice that he feels compelled to use it!

One of the things Anita has been doing is experimenting with bead jewelry designs.  She is wearing one of her bracelet designs and made me a present of another.  I think that she is pretty creative.

 After our lunch we took a walking tour of the downtown.  Across the street from the cafe is the Humble Museum.

Inside we were greeted by Bertie Hammonds and Jerri Christian, two congenial and informative ladies who were proud to show us their town' museum.

The following are some of my favorite exhibits.

Permanent wave machine using electric heat instead of chemicals to set the curls.  Bertie says it was harmless and points to her headfull of hair as proof!

Curling irons  

Wood carving representing the building of the town.

The local Boy Scouts made this extensively detailed diorama of the battle of the Alamo.  This is just a small part of the exhibit.  The cotton swatches represent smoke.

Finely detailed wood carvings showing the industries that built the town.  Lumbering, cattle ranching, 

the arrival of law and order, education.  Some of the details include bullets in the sheriff's cartridge belt and a slingshot in the boy's back pocket.  The relief carving in the background shows the arrival of the oil industry. 

Women have always loved their high-heeled boots.

I liked this camera.  After you took the picture you used the stylus to write in the open slot.  You could write anything you wanted and it showed up on the picture in white.  Cool! 

This innovative bottle was designed to keep the fizz in soda.  It was unwieldy, but it worked.

This dollhouse furniture has a poinent story.  The little girls parents couldn't afford a Christmas present so dad made a dollhouse.  Then he used wire and the beads from mom's wedding dress to create the furniture.

Done with our tour be bid goodby to our hostesses and perused some of the open business.  We had a pleasant chat with the dr in this holistic medicine clinic.

We enjoyed a rest in front of this innovative green space which was originally a building.  The remaining front of the building, complete with street number, adds a unique touch.

We wandered into this antique store and met its delightful proprietors.  We had a pleasant chat about traveling in general and rving in particular.

This bike is a Harley-Davidson Heritage, like ours.  When it's turned on the head and tail lights come and the engine rumbles.

While the old downtown was quiet, there were a couple of reminders that the town was still in business.  One of the more modern sections was just a block away, and about 1/2 mile from the cafe and the museum was US 59, and

every 10 minutes or so a jet flew over the town on its way to the Houston airport.

We really enjoyed our time with Anita and John, but they had stuff to do, so we said goodby and went in opposite directions.  When we got home we goofed off, ate a light supper, and headed to the pickleball court.  We had two new players tonight--Jane, who had just arrived today, and Yvan (I think that's how he spells it but it is pronounced the French way-E-vawn.)  Jane was a pretty good player and Yvan just learned the game.  We started at 7:30 and ended up playing until 10:30!!!!

Hope you had a good time,

Louise and Duane