Gumnicks on the Move

Houston

The Gumnick family arrived in Houston on the day of The Great Flood. A couple of feet of rain had been falling all day. We were stranded on the East Loop just north of the Ship Channel Bridge for about six hours. That day was also the one and only time that a Houston Astros home game has been rained out. (Flooding was so bad in the Astrodome area that few of the players could make it to the game, much less the ticketholders.)

Arriving in Houston 1976

We saw a double rainbow on our first morning in the city, a water moccasin wrapped around some lady’s car tire when we were stuck on the overpass.... What else?  

We made the Houston paper after the Great Flood. They mentioned the familoy stuck on the 610 Loop with their camper with the boat on top. We were famous but not by name. --Mom (via Beth)

I remember how prickly the Saint Augustine grass felt on our feet when we climbed out of the car and walked on the Houston lawn for the first time. 

The messed up washing machine in the first days in Houston, and the Frisbies coming over to "help fix it" (with a bottle of wine, that is).  

While y'all were on the East Loop, I was trying to get home on the South Loop. My Dad and I were working at Oshman's over on the Gulf Freeway then. We ended up leaving his car near Scott Street and walking all the way to Westbury. Some buildings along the South Loop had water more than half way up the first floor. But we never had to wade more than waist deep. -Bob

Oak Ridge

The going away cake.

We were driving my 1976 Chevy Impala (inherited from Granddad), which only had an AM radio, and we were driving across the southern U.S., so you do the math…. 

Oh, yeah, and we’re insane.