Be it ever so �umble. (original) (raw)

�umble we are, �umble we have been, �umble we shall ever be.Charles Dickens� penned those words in �David Copperfield� but they well express the philosophy of many of us who lived and worked in Baytownduring the era of Humble Oil & Refining Co.

Life goes on, times and names change, but there are those who stubbornly cling to the original name of Baytown�s industrial giant.

And drop the sound of H in Humble, please.

Whenever someone in Baytown mouths the sound of that first letter in Humble, they are likely to be asked: �You�re not from around here, are you.�

Maybe that�s how we�re supposed to say it, with the H, just as we�ve been told we should accent the second syllable in Burnet, and San Jacinto is San Hacinto.

Maybe so, but that�s not the way we talk.

The ban on the H sound also is evident in the town from whence the name came. That whiz in the oil biz --Ross S. Sterling -- got his big start in Humbleand attached the name to the company he helped to establish.

In Texas, in the old days, everyone knew that the initials HORC stood for Humble Oil & Refining Co. It wasn�t the custom, however, to go around mouthing initials when all we had to say was �Umble Comp�ny.

To simplify even further, we would refer to The Plant.

When I was growing up in Baytown, most of the dads of my classmates and friends worked at The Plant. If their dads didn�t work there, other close kin did.

Shorthand used to be the most popular course for a high school girl to take in Baytown, because it opened doors for future employment at �umble as a secretary.

During the Fifties, industries boomed along the Houston Ship Channel and Baytownattracted a large number of newcomers who worked at those plants. Lakewood subdivision, in particular, became home to many families associated with Shell, Diamond Shamrock, Ethyl and other companies along the ship channel.

Once, when I was attending a coffee hosted by the Chemical Engineers Wives Auxiliary, I overheard a member ask a guest: �Does you husband work at the plant?�

Guest: �He works at the plant but it may not be the plant you�re talking about. There are other plants besides Humble Oil & Refining Company.�

I don�t remember how she pronounced Humble but, having recently migrated to Texas from up north, she most likely gave full credit to the H.

After Humble and before Exxon, there was Enco. It stood for Energy Company.

I read somewhere that Enco in Japanese meant �stalled car� and that�s why the name didn�t last.

Whatever it meant, it didn�t matter to the oldtimers in Baytown.

Enco could have meant �glorious chariot� in Egyptian, for all we cared. We were still using the name that Ross S. Sterling gave it.

Enter Exxon, the official company name approved in the Seventies.

Sounded good. It caused no glitches in translation, and apparently didn�t ruffle any feathers among subsidiaries or competing oil companies.

A merger in the Nineties added two more syllables, bringing us to the present-day ExxonMobil.

Again, we oldtimers -- especially the BIBs (Born in Baytown) � tend to revert.

You see, it�s not just a name. Humble Oil & Refining Co. is our link to the past, a reminder not only of a refinery but of its community house, tennis courts, golf course, dorm, commissary, hospital, health clinic, credit union, semi-pro baseball park and an entire neighborhood called the Company Addition.

It was �umble that built Baytown, that got people through the Depression, that helped win WWII, that helped pay for schools and medical facilities and gave land for parks and charities and boosted the economy in countless, significant ways.

It�s a grand old name.

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Wanda Orton Baytown Sun Columnist
"Wandering" August 17, 2013 columns

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