Letter to Joe

 

Hey Joe,

I think I am realizing you are a busy fellow. I don’t want to be known as someone who wasted your time. So…. I’m going to give you a heads up on what I got in mind.

First we need a way of communicating with the businesses in Hitchcock. Second, we need an activity that will draw people to Hitchcock, if we can do that, other business interest will take notice. Third, we need to make Hitchcock interesting (which it is, if you look at it’s history, with a little color can be made fun and interesting.)

One way, perhaps is a character map of Hitchcock (something people will want on it’s merit alone), with all the businesses on it, (for a fee) connected with a treasure hunt. You take a modest sum of Silver (the Treasure) and offer it as a prize. But, you have to solve a riddle and retrieve an object we have hidden (public park, public spaces) to claim the Treasure.

I think we are entering a time when people are growing tried of their phones and games and gadgets. It might just draw some interest, to have to physically go and fine it. (?) To have to strain one’s brain to solve the riddle. To figure out WHAT is hidden and WHERE it’s hidden. (?) It would be a prize to the locals, because it’s their town, they would most likely fine it.

If you do it right, tie it to some event (in Galveston, so the people are all ready coming this way,) give it some character,(Maybe an open air flea & antiques market, to get them off the highway) make it an annual event, You might get a few people down here. The more people you draw the more interest you generate.

One problem Hitchcock does have, is the railroad runs right through the middle of town, and it make a racket and moves right along. A rather intimidating thing. The railroad is part of our history, and why we are even here and called Hitchcock. That why I proposed the ‘Camp Wallace Railroad’ all those years ago. It makes the railroad part of the whole, part of the experience. Running a historic train into Hitchcock, along with local traffic, you have the old and the new right there. Galveston needs parking, Hitchcock could have parking. Parking is big business. Anyway, that’s an old idea, couldn’t even stir a conversation.

Another thing, Hitchcock used (maybe still does) to have about a 54-55 Ford firetruck, with a hand cranked siren. Last time I saw it, it was out at the city barn. Fixed up, it would be a point of pride for the Fire department and the town as a whole. Texas City Fire Department has done such a thing (a much older truck). They did it themselves (the firemen,) I knew one of the firemen, Steve Rhodes. It’s a prize.

The big obstacle is Hitchcock’s mind set.

When I was growing up, we were new to Hitchcock, part of the post war expansion. My father was working for Union Carbide in Texas City. They moved to Hitchcock because they remembered the Texas City disaster (I don’t). So Dad didn’t mind working in a chemical plant, he just didn’t want to live next to it. The trouble was, it was a good job, paid well for an eight-hour shift.

Now when I was growing up (50’s-60’s,) Hitchcock was run by Hitchcock people. That is to say, the Matranga’s had a gas station, a restaurant, a farm, a grocery store, and they built houses. Latimer drove cattle and built houses, Heckle had a lumber yard, a plumbing supply and a hardware store, Shanzer had a grocery store. Nac had a drug store, Polanski had a drug store, Medicine Man had a drug store, The Freeman’s had a gas station….. and many many more.

As you can see, and as you know, these were busy people, takes a lot of work to run your own business. The kids too, saw a lot of work, and they got jobs at the chemical plants where they only wanted eight-hours a day, with vacation, or they went to college and moved away. Which is what I did. Anyway, all of Hitchcock’s old businesses died with the people. To the kids of these people, it’s not business anymore, is resident. They don’t care about business because they are a couple of generations removed. But…. They are still the old guard. They don’t want it to change, and I get that…. I do…

But what they aren’t getting, is Houston is marching this way, (it’s in Santa Fe) it’s going to march it’s way all the way to the bay. Hitchcock is in the way.

I once drove from LA to Santa Anna, down a little passed Disneyland. It was solid metropolitan the entire drive, near thirty miles (keep in mind, I’m on ground level,) the strange thing was, every now and then, I go through an obvious downtown, clearly from the forties or fifties, and clearly a downtown. Which means all these little towns grew together, and you can’t tell one from the other.

See where I’m going here. Hitchcock indeed has a colorful history, Lent Munson Hitchcock was quite the fellow in the founding and growth of Galveston. His land on the Mainland (Hitchcock) became the Gateway to Galveston. Much commerce moved through here.

You know the problem, Ole Lent Hitchcock owned a slave. And you know Hitchcock is liberal. But… Things they are a changing, time to float the ole guard out of here. I don’t know who owns the businesses anymore, seems we aren’t friendly, got some strange idea of central planning, which we know never works. The people who own these businesses (like you) by default, inherit Hitchcock’s history.

It’s a story worth cashing in on… People like history…

Well I’ve run on too long… got carried away.