I was born and grew up in Spring Branch, Houston, TX. I've about decided I grown up in an ideal time.
Currently I read facebook posts from a group called "I grew up in Spring Branch," most of them are happy memories from the time period I grew up in and experienced Spring Branch. I also read from a group called "The Branch 2.0." This group is more of current life, and is very different and reflects the many changes that have taken place in the area - both good and bad.
I grew up attending First Baptist Church Spring Branch. I think my parents joined in 1957 when they moved out to the west side of Houston. (My father thought he had moved to San Antonio we were so far west.) FBCSB was an active church, and relatively large congregation. As a baby, I was on the "cradle roll" and moved through the nursery and the children's building. How could you forget the sturdy wooden chairs and tables and the short little spinet pianos. The bathrooms were just large enough to turn around in, and an old water fountain with steps to reach was out in the hallway. The lights in the classrooms were circles with lightbulbs in the center. The rooms had windows that you could wind out to get a breeze. From my early memories, I remember the cooling chamber for the air conditioning. The water would pour over the cooling chamber and you'd get a little wet. In the early 60's, after you finished 4th grade, you left the children's building and went out to the white wooden buildings in the lawn on the back side of the church. The year I was to move in to those old wooden buildings, the church completed the building program of a new educational building - In October of 1967, I went into the new shiny classrooms (with air conditioning). The old white wooden buildings were moved out to Sister Gay's Mission Yahweh out in Carverdale. The church also had a metal gym building where we held dinners, played volleyball (every Monday night!) and had a youth space (the coffee house) on the second floor. Many good memories happened in that old metal gym. Mrs. Catherine Woodruff designed and built a large commercial kitchen so that large group meals could be prepared. Wednesday night dinners were held in the gym and on Sunday afternoons, the youth had dinner snacks between choir and training union followed by Sunday evening services.
I have fond memories of activities and people attached to the church. Several people had great influence on my life. Mrs. Dickson, Mrs. House, and Mrs. Harris were all school librarians. All three of these ladies were models for my career as a school librarian. I remember Mrs. Dickson always having a children's book (or two, or three) in her purse. When we played volleyball on Monday nights, Mrs. Dickson would pick up a book and read during the "off times", when she was our transpiration - she always had a book to read. When I became a librarian - I followed her lead and tried to read most of the books in my library. I can remember talking books with Mrs. Dickson and knew that is something I wanted to do with my students. Mrs. House was the librarian who knew where or who to go to for an answer. If she didn't know it, she would get back with you sooner rather than later, I took her skills to heart as well - as I always tried to find an answer for a students, staff or community member. Mrs. Harris was a consistent constant. She was diligent in her work - again, I added her skill set to my tool box. I was so fortunate to have 3 school librarians to follow in their footsteps. (I had others - but these three I knew from my early childhood through my years in the library.)
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| Front of the Main Sanctuary |
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| Arial view of the campus. On the South side of the Sanctuary is the |
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| This building had the chapel on the first floor, and classrooms on the second floor. On Sunday mornings, students would hang out on the balcony and visit until time for Sunday School. |
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