Monday – A Night In Tomball, Texas
Aug. 9th, 2010 04:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ninanevermore.
.
.
The parade on Saturday night is Tomball was a little on the lame side, but that’s okay. Since I moved to Tomball in 1997, I’ve come to expect parades that err on the side of unimpressive. Let’s face it; unlike Houston - its colossal neighbor to the southwest that takes up over 600 square miles - Tomball, Texas, is a small town. They don’t have a big city budget, but they do their best. Each year their best gets a little more impressive to my eyes (which have learned to not expect much). Most parades that I’ve seen in Tomball begin with a fire truck; this year it ended with one, too. And we had 5 Shriners chasing each other in their little Shriner cars; last year they only had one in the Tomball Night parade. It that was sad.
“One Shriner?” a man standing next to me watching the parade asked, his voice incredulous. “Where are the rest of them? Aren’t there supposed to be more?”
“We’re a small town,” I said, holding my fingers about a half-inch apart. Then I moved them closer together, to about a quarter inch. “Really small. We only get one.”
“Okay, I guess that explains it.”
I felt sorry for the lone Shriner that year. He wasn’t grinning as he drove his car around in circles and figure eights; he looked like he missed his fez-adorned buddies. This year the five Shriners were having fun chasing each other around. I’m sure more than a few men have joined the organization just for the opportunity to drive the little cars around in parades. That, and maybe because they wanted an excuse to wear a fez in public.
Last Saturday was the 16th Annual Tomball Night, a street festival of sorts where the local businesses stay open late, especially the galleries, antique stores and crafty stores on the old main street. When I moved to Tomball there were a lot more of these shops; when the economy tanked, people stopped driving so far to go antiquing and the like, so there are a lot of empty store fronts these days. I used to browse through the stores and galleries on Tomball night. Now I have a little boy in tow when I go, so I spend a lot of time standing in line for bouncy houses and kiddy attractions. We stay for the parade, as lame as it is, and watch the fireworks at the end.
Tomball was not originally called Tomball; it was called Peck. In 1907 they changed the name to honor one Mr. Thomas Ball, an area politician who pulled some strings to get the railroad to run through the town and allowed it to grow and thrive. Having the Humble Oil company find oil in Tomball didn’t hurt the town, either. Until World War II, most of the residents in this area still spoke German, not just at home but in the schools and churches and area businesses as well. A lot of the street names and place names in the town still bear the names of the German families (such as the Klein family, which still own the local funeral home) who first settled the area.
Since Tomball Night is about showcasing the town and the local businesses, that is the main focus of the parade. If you have a car with a business oriented wrap, you will probably drive it in the Tomball Night parade (if you are not boring, you’ll wrap Christmas tree lights all over the car, too, to made it look for festive). Members of the local sports car members drove their convertibles – almost all of them red – with local dignitaries: the mayor, a commissioner or two, and Miss Tomball herself resplendent in her tiara and sash. As usual, she was a teenaged blonde. Because of all the German bloodlines in town, almost all of the Miss Tomballs I have seen have had blond hair just because that’s mostly what the area gene pool has to offer. We had a brunette a few years ago, but she was the exceptional hair in a long blond braid that dominates our local beauty pageant scene.
Then came the push-me-pull-me car, which has two front ends that it’s two drivers careen all over the street. And the local no-kill animal shelter float, which did not blast Who let the dogs out? this year, though it’s a tradition for them to play it and I kind of missed it. I always remember their float, because it is one of only four or five actual floats in the parade. And it has real dogs on it, because no dog likes a car ride more than a shelter dog; they don’t get out much. The kindly volunteers at the shelter are nice enough to let them man the float, along with their human handlers. Smaller dogs sometimes get held up while a human waves a paw at the crowd. The dogs seem to like all the attention.
It’s not much of a parade, and it doesn’t last long (even when the town brings out both fire trucks). At the end, I can always see the out-of-towners looking around and asking, “Is that all?” because they came all this way (perhaps from Houston or one of the other surrounding communities) and expected to be more impressed for their troubles. The locals know to wander over toward the Southeast edge of Main Street to watch the fireworks while the street vendors take down their stands and prepare to call it a night.
That’s all there is, folks. We had two fire trucks, 5 Shriners, and a float full of homeless dogs. What more can you ask for?
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * # * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
.
.
The parade on Saturday night is Tomball was a little on the lame side, but that’s okay. Since I moved to Tomball in 1997, I’ve come to expect parades that err on the side of unimpressive. Let’s face it; unlike Houston - its colossal neighbor to the southwest that takes up over 600 square miles - Tomball, Texas, is a small town. They don’t have a big city budget, but they do their best. Each year their best gets a little more impressive to my eyes (which have learned to not expect much). Most parades that I’ve seen in Tomball begin with a fire truck; this year it ended with one, too. And we had 5 Shriners chasing each other in their little Shriner cars; last year they only had one in the Tomball Night parade. It that was sad.
“One Shriner?” a man standing next to me watching the parade asked, his voice incredulous. “Where are the rest of them? Aren’t there supposed to be more?”
“We’re a small town,” I said, holding my fingers about a half-inch apart. Then I moved them closer together, to about a quarter inch. “Really small. We only get one.”
“Okay, I guess that explains it.”
I felt sorry for the lone Shriner that year. He wasn’t grinning as he drove his car around in circles and figure eights; he looked like he missed his fez-adorned buddies. This year the five Shriners were having fun chasing each other around. I’m sure more than a few men have joined the organization just for the opportunity to drive the little cars around in parades. That, and maybe because they wanted an excuse to wear a fez in public.
Last Saturday was the 16th Annual Tomball Night, a street festival of sorts where the local businesses stay open late, especially the galleries, antique stores and crafty stores on the old main street. When I moved to Tomball there were a lot more of these shops; when the economy tanked, people stopped driving so far to go antiquing and the like, so there are a lot of empty store fronts these days. I used to browse through the stores and galleries on Tomball night. Now I have a little boy in tow when I go, so I spend a lot of time standing in line for bouncy houses and kiddy attractions. We stay for the parade, as lame as it is, and watch the fireworks at the end.
Tomball was not originally called Tomball; it was called Peck. In 1907 they changed the name to honor one Mr. Thomas Ball, an area politician who pulled some strings to get the railroad to run through the town and allowed it to grow and thrive. Having the Humble Oil company find oil in Tomball didn’t hurt the town, either. Until World War II, most of the residents in this area still spoke German, not just at home but in the schools and churches and area businesses as well. A lot of the street names and place names in the town still bear the names of the German families (such as the Klein family, which still own the local funeral home) who first settled the area.
Since Tomball Night is about showcasing the town and the local businesses, that is the main focus of the parade. If you have a car with a business oriented wrap, you will probably drive it in the Tomball Night parade (if you are not boring, you’ll wrap Christmas tree lights all over the car, too, to made it look for festive). Members of the local sports car members drove their convertibles – almost all of them red – with local dignitaries: the mayor, a commissioner or two, and Miss Tomball herself resplendent in her tiara and sash. As usual, she was a teenaged blonde. Because of all the German bloodlines in town, almost all of the Miss Tomballs I have seen have had blond hair just because that’s mostly what the area gene pool has to offer. We had a brunette a few years ago, but she was the exceptional hair in a long blond braid that dominates our local beauty pageant scene.
Then came the push-me-pull-me car, which has two front ends that it’s two drivers careen all over the street. And the local no-kill animal shelter float, which did not blast Who let the dogs out? this year, though it’s a tradition for them to play it and I kind of missed it. I always remember their float, because it is one of only four or five actual floats in the parade. And it has real dogs on it, because no dog likes a car ride more than a shelter dog; they don’t get out much. The kindly volunteers at the shelter are nice enough to let them man the float, along with their human handlers. Smaller dogs sometimes get held up while a human waves a paw at the crowd. The dogs seem to like all the attention.
It’s not much of a parade, and it doesn’t last long (even when the town brings out both fire trucks). At the end, I can always see the out-of-towners looking around and asking, “Is that all?” because they came all this way (perhaps from Houston or one of the other surrounding communities) and expected to be more impressed for their troubles. The locals know to wander over toward the Southeast edge of Main Street to watch the fireworks while the street vendors take down their stands and prepare to call it a night.
That’s all there is, folks. We had two fire trucks, 5 Shriners, and a float full of homeless dogs. What more can you ask for?
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Date: 2010-08-09 09:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-09 09:49 pm (UTC)