Summer of 1988

There's an old Seinfeld episode where Kramer is getting after George for doing nothing with his life:

"You got a job?"  No
"You got any money"  No
"You got a woman"  No
"Do you have any prospects?" No
"Do you have any conceivable reason to get out of bed in the morning"

"I like to read the Daily News"


Thinking of the Summer of 1988, I didn't have that much going on either.  I had graduated from college in June 1987, but a year later, was back living with my parents, didn't have a job, but I was studying from the LSAT which I took (and aced) in early summer. 

I then signed up for 2 classes at the University of Houston.  That was in hindsight kind of a waste of time since I was really not that interested in making any career out of 1 accounting class and 1 computer science class.  As a commuter, I didn't really meet anyone that month.  The best I could do was to find out that this one girl worked at a club.  I went there one time looking for her, but of course she wasn't there.

So I had no job, no money and no woman.  One thing I remember is going to this local sports bar in the evenings after dinner, when I would have a beer or 2 and watch the Astros on cable TV, which we didn't have at home.  There was a rookie catcher breaking in that summer named Craig Biggio, who would go on to a Hall of Fame career. 

After that class ended I started looking for a job and did find one after about a month and started around August 15, working downtown for Texas Eastern Corporation.  That turned out to be a decent job and then I got into law school and started moving forward.

But the summer was not all bad.  I do recall that I had a date with a lovely lady.  We went to see the movie Bull Durham.  I also got invited to a couple of parties and met some recent UT grads and other people from Houston.  I was able to use the Houston Country Club on a reasonable basis.  That summer the course was closed due to a renovation, so my dad and I went to the local driving range a lot and he arranged us many golf games at local courses:  Brae Burn, Westwood, Weston Lakes, Lakeside, River Oaks, Lochinvar.  I've probably not played any of those courses since. 

We also played in a partnership tournament in Austin at the Hills of Lakeway and Barton Creek and had a record day, coming in second place which was exciting.  I even got set up on a date, which was fun and ended up at the Deep Eddy Cabaret, which ironically is still the same all these years later.

All in all, it was not a bad summer.  I had just moved to Houston and still getting my feet wet.  After August of  1988, I knew things would be OK there.