Breakfast With Eva

Eva was still working at Gulf Oil in June 1966 when I left NASA and went to work at Texaco. Gulf Oil’s Houston headquarters was located in the Gulf Building on Main Street. Texaco’s headquarters was situated on Rusk Street, between Fannin and San Jacinto Streets. Those buildings were only one city block apart. My job with Texaco was as a computer operator working with several large (mainframe) computers. The computer systems ran continuously, operating around the clock every day of the week.

Eva worked in the Accounting Department and worked normal hours, while I worked on rotating shifts. Normally, I worked 2 weeks days, 2 weeks second shift, and then 2 weeks third shift. Weekend shifts depended on end-of-month processing and general backlogs.

During the weeks when I worked the day shift, Eva and I would ride to work together, but in the other weeks Eva would ride a bus to work. In 1966, downtown Houston was different back then. The Astros’ ballpark, the Toyota Center, and the George R Brown Convention Center were not there. Many city blocks were parking lots, with rates varying by distance from the main offices. If you were willing to walk further, you could park for $.50 per day, or if you were lucky and willing to walk further, you might be able to park for free on the street.

There was a small café around the corner from Texaco on Fannin where Eva and I would go to eat breakfast together. It was like Luby’s, where you went through a line to get your food and pay. They had great biscuits that Eva got me hooked on. Every morning, we’d begin our day by sharing biscuits and jelly and enjoying some time together.

Eva had to quit working at Gulf Oil in January 1967 because she was due to have our first child in late April. During that period, most employers required women to stop working once they were six months pregnant, and childbirth was not viewed as a medical issue. Maternity leave was not provided, and hospitalization insurance either did not include childbirth coverage or only offered a fixed benefit amount—in our case, $175.

It was during our first vacation after our daughters were married that the subject of where we were working before we had children came up. Eva then mentioned our breakfasts together back then. We probably talked about those breakfasts for thirty minutes. I am not sure the biscuits were as good as we remembered, but our memories surely were. Small moments in daily life often become the most cherished memories. These brief moments spent together at the start of our day during the early months of her pregnancy allowed me to see the glow grow on Eva’s face.

George Strait – I Look At You