Who am I?

My name is Gary Wayne Boyd.

I am now closing in on my seventh decade on this blue marble. I am a native Texan, fourth generation.

I was born in Houston. My parents moved to Pasadena prior to me reaching the age of two. I met and married my wife of over 30 years in Pasadena. We started our family in Pasadena. Toward the end of the last century we packed our bags and moved to Alvin, Texas.

I went to Richey Elementary, Jackson Intermediate, and Pasadena High Schools. I was a member of the Boy Scouts of America, Pack & Troop 506 when I was younger. Our Scout Master, Harry Estes, had a large influence on my life and values.

I was raised in the Southern Baptist Church. When I was growing up my family were members of Richey Street Baptist Church. My father was a member until his death.

I grew up a avid sci-fi fan. My favorite author was Robert Heinlein, although, I devoured the books of any other author I could get my hands on. While I have stayed a sci-fi fan for most of my life I never was a great fan of sci-fi movies until the 80’s and 90’s when the special effects finally caught up with my imagination.

As a child I spent my summers visiting my relatives (mostly out in the country). While few of my relatives still made their living as farmers, most still lived in the small rural communities of Fort Bend and Wharton Counties. I guess my favorite place was my grandparents, Howard and Covie Sewell, in Orchard. Grandpa Sewell worked for Duval Corporation at their sulfur refinery in Orchard. In his spare time he had a tree nursery where he raised mainly Live Oaks. They had a cement tank for windmill pumped water to water the trees, and, we used the tank as a swimming pool. Grandma Sewell was artistic and whenever we were down, she would have us doing all types of handcrafts. I suppose it kept us busy and unbored, although, I can recall many an afternoon spent just sitting up in the top of a tree in the back pasture watching the world go by.

My dad in those days moonlighted (how many people remember what that means) for Lowe’s Theaters. He was an Assistant Manager at the Lowe’s State Theater on Main St. in Houston from about 1960 until they demolished the building in 1972. It was a lot of fun being able to grow up with a theater for a playground. Once I reached my teenage years I would spend my summers working as an usher at the theaters. I have many a fond memories of the people who worked there.

Once out of school, I got a job with Freeman Decorating Company sitting up conventions, tradeshows and parties. That was 1973. For 35 years my time was spent designing exhibits and directional systems for conventions. Then in November of 2008 the economy crashed… Along with my job.

In 1978 I married Sherry Bales and we set up our home in the house my parents had started out in. We had two of our children at that location before we moved across Pasadena to a home we had built in 1988/89. While in our new home we were blessed with our final two children.

We decided in 1993 it was time to find a less crowded area to live (our side of Pasadena was booming and traffic was getting worse by the day). Our search led us to Alvin and the old farmhouse we called home for 20 years. Where we raised our four kids…Watched them start families. Saw grand-kids come along.

Then, when it became clear we wouldn’t be retiring to the mountains we had both learned to love, we began to look into updating the old farmhouse. After getting some quotes on different projects, it became evident that our best bet would be to build a new house and remove the old farmhouse once and for all… So that’s what we did.

Now I live my life with a view from my office window that, while it doesn’t contain any mountains, does beat the photo’s that used to hang on that office wall in Houston…