Posted 13 years ago
Audrey-Bar…
(1 item)
This globe came from one of two gasoline pumps that were at a "filling station" along side the previously known Aldine Grocery Store at the corner of FM 525 and West Hardy, Harris County, Texas way before 1945, the year my parents bought it and the nearby 2-story building that once was the Aldine Hotel. You can barely read what was hand printed on one side: "9(cent sign)(I think)" and for sure followed by "plus tax 4(cent sign)". It is tin or metal and was painted red originally. The glass is frosted and in perfect condition both sides and cleaned up well. I need to find out the date gasoline would be so cheap to put a date range on this keepsake!
My mother painted it green and put a strip of chicken wire across the top, then arranged artificial greenery, little rain deer, and a red bow thereon, and the words "Merry Xmas" in black paper letters glued on the globe on one side only. She then put a lamp up inside it and put it on our front porch about 35 years ago.
I want to donate it to some place in the Aldine community, but unfortunately the entire little community has been obliterated by the passage of time and the Hardy Toll Road that runs North/South along the railroad tracks. A search for an apppropriate place (perhaps the Aldine School Administration Building) is ongoing, but I need to know a range of years, based on the pricing of 9 cents (about, I think) and 4 cents tax for sure.
There is a historical marker in honor of the community, located at the Aldine Teachers Credit Union on FM 525, now known as Aldine-Bender Road, but would they be good custodians of this piece of history? On the other hand, perhaps it is not all that important to pass on. (I also have the green glass water containers for the batteries for the light system at the hotel. The hotel was built about 1904 and was "way out in the country" where there was no electricity service.)