Growing up near Houston’s bayous came with a warning: Stay away.
That was the refrain of many parents back then. They didn’t need to explain why. The bayous weren’t just unguarded bodies of water; they were the city’s shadow, a murky undercurrent threading through the urban underbelly. They carried snakes, stray dogs, debris and weeds, and the constant threat of danger — real or imagined — waswoven into its current.
As kids, we concocted tales about the boogeyman rising from the dark waters. The older women in the neighborhood who walked along the bayou every morning clutched long, heavy sticks not just to ward off stray dogs, but to guard against dangers of the man-made kind…