Dec 2023. Blues Vol 39 No. 12

The Early Years
By Michael Barron
The idea for the County Blues
began in the winter of 1984. Nat
Gutierrez, a deputy I worked
with at the Harris County Sheriff’s
Dept., approached me one
Sunday and said the newly
formed Harris County Deputy
Sheriff’s Union need someone
to write a newsletter for their
members. And there’s money
involved and would I be interested.
Now anyone who knew me at
the time, knew I was all about
owning my own business as
opposed to working extra jobs. My best
friend John King and I had just opened
one the first video rental stores in Houston,
and I even created the first drive-up
video store in an old Fox Photo booth in
Humble. (You younger cops, ask your parents
what a Fox Photo Booth was.)
The idea of an extra job that didn’t
involve sitting in a bank on my day off
certainly intrigued me. So Nat and I met
for lunch at the Humble City Café to talk
about the details and see how this proposal
would work. Nat’s ‘plan’ was to
start a monthly newsletter for the Union,
sell ads, and we could split the revenue
82 The Blues 40th Anniversary Issue