Christopher Michael Craft

I am very saddened by the news of Christopher's passing. I first met Chris when I was six or seven years old in the spring of 1960. I had moved with my parents from Houston to League City near the house where Chris, Connie and Kenneth lived. With only two months difference in our age, Chris and I grew up together along one side of Texas Avenue separated only by a dusty oyster shell road known as Abilene Street and a vacant lot where, in our childhood, we played lot baseball, had water ballon fights and spent hours under the shade of oak and elm trees playing with tiny metal toy cars. Later in our teenage years, Chris had a red Ford Falcon while I had a white Plymouth Valiant. Our favorite pastime as kids was playing in a close by area near an old wooden bridge that stretched over a gully surrounded by thickly wooded brush and trees. It was our hunting grounds, our fishing place, our hideout, and our fortress. On a few occasions I went with Chris and his father to the family farm in Buffalo where we would sit and watch the live auctions, listen to the callers, and eat hamburgers at the Rainbow Cafe. Mr. Craft loved to hunt for racoons at night and would let us follow him on his hunts. Together, Chris and I enjoyed riding on the tractor together with Mr. Craft behind the wheel carefully watching. In the summertime, we were treated to homemade ice cream if we took turns turning the crank on the ice cream maker, adding rock salt and ice when needed. We took rotations, one would crank while the other would sit on the ice bucket to keep it still. Oftentimes, we ate our ice cream on the covered screen porch that extended from the back of the Craft home. Over the years, we played many card games on that back porch with other neighborhood kids. It was all fun! These are just a few memories of Chris that I remember. I will always miss him. ~ Billy O'Neal