Joezera

Here is more on the Hull, TX Humble Camp. The houses were in a row from north to south. The fronts of the houses faced to the west, so the back of the house faced east. The Big Thicket trees were so tall and thick that morning sun did not reach the houses until mid morning. The bathroom was between the two bedrooms and there was an attic fan in the ceiling of the hallway for cooling at night.

As a follow-up, I also lived for a short time in a Humble Campground just NE of Luling, TX in Caldwell Co. of Hwy 86. I was only a baby at the time so I have no memories of the campground. My sister does and we have a few pictures of life there. I do not know how many homes were part of that campground. The Luling area and Darst Field in Guadalupe, Gonzales and Wilson Counties were served by Humble, Sun-Oil, Mobil and Sinclair employees.

I know this is an old topic, but I just discovered it today after doing some research and remembering living in a Humble Oil & Refining Camp just east of Hull, Liberty Co., TX. This particular camp had a tank-farm with very large storage tanks. There was a large building with diesel pumps in it that had pistons as big as 2-gallon water buckets! The whole ground shook for quite a distance from the building. There was a good sized pond that served as a cooling reservoir for the diesel engines. The location was along the southern border of the Missouri-Pacific RR going to Beaumont, TX. The campground was south of the pump building and pond and consisted of seven houses. Humble had a water well, water filtration system and septic system for the homes. Just across the east border barbed wire fence was the Big Thicket forest. There were pines, hardwoods, palmetto palms, lots of spanish moss and plenty of wild animals. The area between the campground and the water well and pond also had a nice set of swings and see-saw for the children to play on. There was a nice row of sycamore trees along the western border of the campground and the entrance road was parallel to that row of trees. Each home had its own single car garage which had a spot in the back to store overflow possessions and a washer and dryer. The houses probably were not any larger than 1000 sq. ft. There were two bedrooms each with a closet, one bath, a kitchen and dining area, living room, screened in front porch and enclosed back porch. For cooling we used an attic fan at night located above the hallway at the bathroom. High humidity was a constant battle for the ladies. Anything left undisturbed in a closet for very long would mildew. Salt shakers had to have rice grains added to keep the salt grains from sticking together. Hair permanents were a frequent necessity for the ladies. We children played a lot and built tree-houses using scrap wood and made walls and mats from woven palmetto palm leaf strands, with the large fan-shaped leaves as roof items. We were able to ride our bikes with no fear of high speed traffic as there was no such thing as through-traffic in the camp. We had frequent community barbeques in the summer time. Life was good! Joe