A beautiful Saturday once the storms blew away. Decided to visit Discovery Green to see what Yuri Day was all about. It's great that such a dynamic capitalist city like Houston can pay tribute to the first communist in space, Yuri Gagarin. My bus ride was swell. Marvin the Bus Driver even pulled over to let one of my bus buddies lean out the bus door to hand one of his street buddies a cigarette. I bet the Phillip Morris company loves METRO. Downtown Marvin told me to have a fun, safe day, and I told him I would pray for him once the sun went down.
At the Yuri booth, our own NASA gave me tons of material about space flight. I hope our liberal congress will keep funding NASA because they certainly support our schools. Yuri Gagarin was the first human to go into space on April 12, 1961. Thanks to him the USA decided we'd better beat those russians to the moon, so, in short, that gave birth to our glorious NASA. Thanks Yuri!
The Astros were at home, so Minute Maid Park had the roof open on this sunny spring day. Nice and breezy on my walk through downtown. The corner of Main and Walker is like the epicenter of weekend action. As I was watching a few downtowners get tossed out of the convenience store, I was intrigued by one gentleman who seemed to know everyone and tried to keep the peace. His name is Isaac, and I do believe he is the most interesting downtowner I've interviewed to date. Isaac is 48 and has lived in various locations around the downtown area for 20-plus years. He is a native Houstonian, and he loves his city. Isaac told me he can find up to $200 a weekend along Main St. since all the drunken bar patrons drop money as they are stumbling from bar to bar. Isaac told me that he considered downtown Houston to be the Promised Land. He told me this several times in our conversation so I know this revelation was close to his heart. Isaac pointed out several buildings and told me what was there now and what was there 20 years ago. He showed me the place where his parents bought him his first bicycle when he turned 5 years old. Everyone knows him downtown. Even after his three stints in prison, he would come back home to downtown and his clothes would be waiting for him. Isaac told me that the downtowners take care of each other. He also said that when the bars all close down at night and it's quiet, downtown gives him peace of mind. Isaac is a prodigious reader siting Kellerman, Patterson, Grisham and Cook as some of his favorites. He was a wonderful tour guide. Isaac asked if he could buy me a beer, but I wanted to check out Flying Saucer, which ended up being a little too fake for me. Next time I'll toss one back outside with the prophet of the Promised Land, Isaac!
No comments:
Post a Comment