Return to The Heights

Once upon a time, a newlywed couple rented a garage apartment in the historic neighborhood northwest of downtown Houston called "The Heights". The year was 1954 and the couple was my parents.

Fast forward sixty years later, when Chris and I, a newly-Empty Nester couple, bought a house in the same historic Heights neighborhood. 

Dan and Edith Bus have both passed on but their spirit is alive and well, in my heart and in The Heights.

Living in this early suburb of Houston, first developed in 1891, is convenient for Chris's job downtown, as I'm sure it was for my parents, working at The Houston Chronicle and Tennessee Gas Company at the time.

I remember my dad talking about living in a garage apartment in The Heights, but I had little interest in the details, being immersed in my own teen-aged life, growing up in Del Rio, Texas. I certainly had no idea I would one day live a mile and a half-century from their place.

I was so happy to discover this photo from their slide collection:

A little detective work on my part revealed that the address above the door matches the address listed in their Wedding album: 718 1/2 Heights Blvd. I went on a quest to find their old place but I wasn't overly optimistic about it still standing after sixty years. 

Would you believe I found it?? I'm guessing that the house on the property was moved there, evidenced by the side door with no steps. But the garage apartment in the rear looks to be the same as the one in the photo, just a more weathered version.

What is even more exciting is the train-themed playground right next door:

Daddy loved trains!!

Now when I walk down Heights Boulevard, I always give a nod to the spirit of my parents "all aboard" the past that has become my present.