It has been a standard practice for occupations to be passed down from parent to child to grandchild on the Houston Ship Channel. Businesses tend to straddle generations and specialized skills are taught by a parent or acquired by a younger relative, almost by osmosis, during part-time, summer and afterschool employment.

There was a time when open docks and ready access to the waterway allowed family members to meet up at the worksite and actually see the places where parents, usually fathers, worked. Sons frequently had unimpeded access to labor union membership or positions in companies or organizations that employed or were owned by family. Jobs on the Ship Channel have always been good jobs, comparatively speaking, so the entrée that family connection provided was prized. 

Any number of family businesses were formed and continued to thrive over generations, though this is less common now than it used to be.

Still, families take great pride in the fact that they have worked on the Ship Channel in many different kinds of jobs, over many generations.  Connections are plentiful, the terrain of the Ship Channel well known, and the opportunities abundant for those whose families open the door into the culture and character of work at the Port.