Decker Drive by: Sean Dow

            Decker Dr. has been a significant part of Baytown ever since its humble beginning. It is one of the main arteries of Baytown's road system. The road begins coming right off of Interstate- 10 running adjacent to Spur-330. If you take the highway to Lee College, you most likely exit on to Decker Dr. The first thing you will probably notice is that there is a vast majority of fast food restaurants all along Decker Dr. Many people think this is because of the working force that resides in Baytown, the restaurants make it a quick and easy pit stop for the working blue collar people in the area to stop and grub. Although there was not always the fast food restaurants, grocery stores, and booming businesses around the area that there are now.

             It all started when the demand for oil and rubber boomed during the beginning of world war two. Before that point it was just a little small town with mom and pa stores here and there. It was probably what most towns looked like in Texas pre-world war two. One of the largest oil refineries in the nation was built in Baytown at the time. Following the completion of the refinery, Decker Dr. saw a mass influx of population and business start flowing in to Baytown. Over the next 50 years after World War Two, the population of Baytown boomed from 20,000 to 70,000. That is an amazing 1,000 people moving to Baytown  every year.

            I am not exactly sure of the exact age of Decker Dr. It seems that not many people in the area or online care all too much about the road. But considering its location I think it is one of the most important roads in Baytown. Also, considering its location, I assume it has been there for quite some time. It has to have been for the mass amount of construction, populating, and growing the area has gone through in the past 50 to 60 years.  
If you drive to Lee College from the Highlands, Crosby, Huffman, or any other town in that direction you most likely take the highway and exit on to Decker Dr. Though it is not just any exit, it is a doorway that leads to higher education, job opportunities, and an ever expanding town that is always inviting new visitors.  At first when I would drive to school I did not really think much of Decker Dr., but now I think of it more than just an exit I get off of to go to school. I think of it as a road that people take advantage of to commute to work, expand their education at Lee College, or just so happen travel to get somewhere out of Baytown or the Lee College area.

            Before you exit on to Decker Dr. you will notice one of the biggest Exxon Mobil plants in the world on your right. This plant has so many employees that when the majority of them are getting off, there has to be a traffic guard to direct the mass of traffic all trying to leave at the same time. I always day dream about my career I will most likely have in about two years or so  at a plant just like the one I pass before exiting on to Decker Dr. There are numerous other large manufacturing plants and buildings in the area that make Decker Dr. a main artery in the cardiovascular system of Baytown.

            Once entering Baytown or the Lee College area off of Decker Dr there is an almost uncountable number of fast food restaurants. From speaking to a few fellow Baytown citizens, I learned that some people like to call it the fresh fried freeway. Although the area is not too nice and fast food is not all too good for you, I still think it is a good representation of the fast pace working class that dwells in this manufacturing valley. I will forever remember exiting on Decker Dr on my way to Lee College.

The Bays of Baytown

The Bays of Baytown are the most symbolic thing in baytown, in my opinion. When you cross the Fred Hartmann bridge to Pasadena or Interstate 10 to Houston, you subconsciously cross over the bays. There are two main bays that are near Baytown. The first is Black Duck Bay and Tabbs Bay. Both are on either side of the Fred Hartmann Bridge. 

The bay's water is not as clear as most other water sources throughout the state. The bays are so dark due to the mix of water from the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. This water shown in this bottle is taken only a mile from Lee College and is from Tabbs Bay. 

This water is so unhealthy for the people here in Baytown. The residence here sometimes do. It understand that eating wildlife out of these waters is a health hazard for them as well as many children and the elderly. In Black Duck Bay, it is so close to the Exxon Mobil chemical refinery that how do the residence of Baytown, that fish there and allow their children to jump off of their dock into the bay for some water fun know that there is anything in the water that could hurt them? We never know if there was or is anything in the water that has leaked out and into the waters. In Tabbs Bay, you see many fisherman on the fishing dock near the Fred Hartmann bridge or even men fishing from the Perry Simons Bridge at all hours of the night. I interviewed a woman of twenty years of age who as a teen would jump off the railroad tracks by Lee High School into the bay during the summers with her friends. One time that she did jump off of the railroad track into the water she had contacts in her eyes, that same night she fell asleep with her contacts in and now, around two to three years later, she has scars on her eyes. These bays are yes part of our culture living in a town off of the Texas coast but just because the bays do have fish doesn't mean they are safe to eat. 

Goose Creek Memorial High School by Edwin Montoya

GCM, or Goose Creek Memorial High School (G.C.M.H.S.) was built in 2007 and later on established in 2008. It is located on East Wallisville Road. GCM is one of the three high schools in the Goose Creek school district. This high school was built to not only have a high school to those closer to that area, but to also accommodate the growing population of Baytown. When established it was opened to students for the ninth, tenth, and eleventh grade, then opening up for the twelfth grade the following year. The school colors are red, black, silver and white. The Patriots was the selected school mascot.
Goose Creek Memorial District has always been a two high school district since 1966. The need for a third high school was debated by both Highlands and Baytown residents. The high school was constructed on a budget of $220.5 million. When opened in 2008, it was a 4A high school, with 1200 students and 84 teachers.
I feel that this high school is a great symbol of Baytown because not only is it a great help to the community for having more room for the growing number of students to achieve their education and goals, but to also fulfill the great, unforgettable memories that one gets in those four years. It has really been able to help out this small town with educational needs. With many students coming in every year, the other high schools in the district would have been packed by now. It may has not been around for long, but it sure has been around long enough to create those moments for students attending that campus. Moments that are sure to never be forgotten.

Every time I pass by the school or come across it, I get reminded of all the great, as well as bad memories I had throughout my four years in high school. Starting from my younger days from the first day I had in high school, to the last couple of days with my friends realizing that we had made it, that we were finally going to graduate. A great celebratory feeling you get once in a lifetime, knowing that you enjoyed those four great years and you are moving on to the next phase of your life.  Even though this high school has not been around for long, it has surely been a great memory to those who have had the honor to graduate and represent that school, but also those who are still GCM's brave patriots who have been proudly representing the amazing high school since day one.
I had interview one of my teachers I had my senior year, which was by far one of the best teachers I have ever had. Besides my point of view, I asked her one of the most important question during the interview which was: What does this school mean to you? She had responded with: "The school is a really great place to me. Not only because I love my job, but every year I have amazing students I get to be with. Its just a great feeling as a teacher that not only am I helping these kids with their education and helping them go on farther in life, but also at the same time I am showing pride in what I do, for the school that I do it for. I wouldn't want to be in any other school." Hearing that for her really had showed me that besides me, this high school is very symbolic.

I can remember my first couple of days as a freshman in high school as if it was just yesterday. I remember waking up early in the mornings, not able to get up because I didn't want to go to school. The typical feeling every student feels each morning,. sleepy. Going to my classes, remembering all the friends I had made each year, how I met them. The things I had learned throughout those years and the things I had went through and change a person quickly. The good old days were the ones where it was the holidays and there wasn't much homework and certain classes would have those chill days and the class would watch movies all day. Just building all of those memories that I have with me to the point where I was at my last year in high school. From there, things went by quickly. Graduation day had came and I can remember being late in the morning to catch the bus to the University of Houston, having to drive all the way over there, to having tears of joy that I have reached and received a great milestone and goal in my life. A goal that I can hand over to my parents and make them proud with. To this day I would still love to go back to those days. It's the memories like those that not only for me, but for others that have graduated from that school throughout the years, make this high school something very symbolic for Baytown. Even though there are many things and places in this small town that have been around longer than this high school, some can't bring memories to you for four years, earn you some friends ( and foes), and present you with a diploma that not only represents this amazing high school, but the town the school is in.

 Works Cited

"Goose Creek Memorial officially dedicated"  http://www.gccisd.net/default.aspx?name=GCMdedication 13 Nov. 2013 

The Wooster Schoolhouse by Kyle Graham

The Wooster Common School, or Wooster School No. 38, was built in 1894 by Quincy A. Wooster on land donated by Junius Brown in a community that used to be called Wooster.  Believed to be the oldest existing one-room frame schoolhouse in Harris County, it was built at the corner of what is now Arbor Street and Bayway Drive. It now stands, on North Main Street where it was relocated in 1986, commemorated with a plaque that surmises the building's history and the beautiful trees that encircle a statue. The school as little as it was, was a source of pride for Wooster. The School educate kids from first to seventh grade and a meetinghouse for the community. Thing like Christmas festivities, Easter egg hunts, and picnics were held on the grounds. The school has been closed, reopened, and moved many times in its long history that spans over a hundred years.

The Wooster Schoolhouse

Though I vaguely remember my first visit to the schoolhouse when I was in elementary school, it holds a very big part in my heart. Even back then I could appreciate the place that educated so many children throughout the years, with wooden desk, a huge black board, and wood furnace that would warm the building during the cold winters, it really made me feel that I was student in late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Even with that very nostalgic memory I have a fresher one in my mind of when I took my high school graduation pictures on the grounds. On that warm spring Saturday after it had rained the day before, walking round the schoolhouse and the 1910 Brown-McKay House at the Republic of Texas Plaza Park. I grew this great attachment to the building because it one of the few places that have good memories of Baytown.
Built in 1894, the Wooster Common School No. 38 is thought to be the oldest one-room schoolhouse in Harris County. The Wooster Common School was planned by Quincy A. Wooster and built on land that was donated by Junius Brown in the small community. Mr. Wooster and Mr. Brown were prominent citizens in Monona County, Iowa before they packed up and moved to Texas. Before moving to Texas both men were involved in community service and education, and as the community became larger they decided to build a school. What was meant to teach children from first to seventh grade, it became a hub for the community as various socials were held. Events like “box suppers, Christmas festivities, Easter egg hunts, and picnics on the grounds” (Wooster School No. 38). In a short time this little schoolhouse became the heart of a community where plays performed by the children were attended by all.

            The schoolhouse has been closed and reopened many times in its years. After being consolidated with Goose Creek, the schoolhouse was closed in 1922 but reopened in 1925 to teach first and second graders. It was once again closed when the David G. Burnet Elementary School opened in 1930. But once again the Wooster Common School rose from the ashes in 1937 to house the fifth grade due to overcrowding at David G. Burnet Elementary. After a short stint of holding classes, the schoolhouse was converted into a lunchroom at Burnet until 1952 when a new cafeteria was completed. Yet the Wooster Schoolhouse still lived on as a music room for Burnet until the elementary was finally closed in 1970. Though not being used for teaching the schoolhouse was still used as the Special Education Department moved in to occupy Burnet, and served as an education faculty for ten years. In 1986, the schoolhouse was moved to where it now sits at the Republic of Texas Plaza and is still used today as a living history museum.

As I sit here about to wrap up this writing process, I cannot help but think back to the beginning of this assignment. Where I was trying to think of something in Baytown that had a significant meaning to me personally. Remembering all the good and bad moments of my life that have happened to me in this city, there were only a few places that I could write meaningfully about. Of those few I choose the Wooster Schoolhouse as the one thing that represents Baytown to me. This school that was built in 1894 by two men from Iowa, who set out to better the community just because they felt it was right. The place that I visited as a nine-year-old third grader, who was taught what it was like to be a student way back in the nineteenth century. I tried to envision myself as one of those students with his pale full of food for lunch, I would sit down at the wooden desk in the one room building made out of cypress wood, as learned how to add, subtract, read, and write. Then coming back to the schoolhouse as senior in high school to take my graduation pictures on that spring day after it had recently rained. Taking pictures by the front and back of the school and by the trees of the Republic of Texas Plaza, where the schoolhouse now sits. I read the plaque that sits in front of the school that described the history of the school, in this picturesque scene of beautiful trees with a statue of some guy that I cannot name, but he must have been important to get a statue of his likeness, and walk off into the sunset thinking of all good that this building has not only done for me but others throughout it’s years.

"Wooster School No. 38." N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2013.                                                                                        <http://www.baytownhistory.org/images/Wooster_School_Brochure-NEW.pdf>.