I witnessed a wonderous spectacle of nature yesterday morning as I awoke in Bastrop yesterday. The temperature was right at 30 degrees, and upon walking outside to greet the day, I watched pecan tree leaves falling literally like rain from mine and my neighbors pecan trees.
Indeed, I went in and got the family to see this, as I have never seen pecan tree leaves fall like snow or rain from pecan trees before. Indeed, I've never seen any tree do this. For about two hours, all up and down my street and the surrounding streets, I saw leaves falling rapidly from pecan trees. There was little or no wind, so it was literally like it was raining leaves, but only from pecan trees.
I didn't major in science in college, but I surmise that our spring and summer droughts had something do to with it. This fall, we began seeing some of the rain we had been praying for all summer long, and with that rain came the delayed greening of the trees. I'm guessing that with the temperatures dipped to the low thirties, it sent some sort of nature signal to the pecan trees that it was time to shed your leaves.
It was just another miracle from our Lord and from Mother Nature, teaching us again that you can't fool Mother Nature. I've noticed few pecans this year, at least on the trees around us, so maybe that is why the leaves were falling, that the growing season was over.
Maybe one of my genius readers knows the answer to this question.
I hope your pre-holiday season festivities are going well. Ours are, and we are thankful for the bountiful Thanksgiving that we shared with our family and friends.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Pancake Benefit for Terri Knop's brother
This coming Sunday November 1st there will be a benefit for Terri's brother Scott Hogle, beginning at 4 p.m. when the bar opens for football, then from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. for a pancake supper. It'll be at Maxine's, and the generous folks there are spending their time and money, along with the other usual suspects in this town who always seem to be the ones pitching in during times of need. It's a benefit for medical expenses in this gentleman's brain cancer battle. It's five bucks for the meal, but be sure to bring folding money for the raffles and the like that will be going on.
Despite the seriousness of the reason of the benefit, they'll be good vibes a plenty there and I'm sure lots of prayers for Scott and Terri and their families. I promise this is an event that cannot be missed.
I know everyone who reads this site and knows Terri Knop (of Baxter's) KNOWS she is one of the usual suspects too who is always pitching in for various benefits and social causes to better our community. She sits on the board of the Children's Advocacy Center and is quite generous with her time and donations. She and her husband, who I don't know very well except I do know enough about him to know they are both just great folks.
It's time to show the community support for her, folks. She has a great restaurant, she's nice to all she meets, she lives here in our community and she does a lot of good volunteer work in all kinds of endeavors. And she's a mighty nice lady.
I'll see you there!
Despite the seriousness of the reason of the benefit, they'll be good vibes a plenty there and I'm sure lots of prayers for Scott and Terri and their families. I promise this is an event that cannot be missed.
I know everyone who reads this site and knows Terri Knop (of Baxter's) KNOWS she is one of the usual suspects too who is always pitching in for various benefits and social causes to better our community. She sits on the board of the Children's Advocacy Center and is quite generous with her time and donations. She and her husband, who I don't know very well except I do know enough about him to know they are both just great folks.
It's time to show the community support for her, folks. She has a great restaurant, she's nice to all she meets, she lives here in our community and she does a lot of good volunteer work in all kinds of endeavors. And she's a mighty nice lady.
I'll see you there!
Bastrop DBA makes the national news with Halloween Celebration
Go to this link http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2137621/top_5_scary_halloween_festivals_in.html?cat=16 and read about how this site mentioned Bastrop's 4th annual celebration as being very cool!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
The Reign of the Rain
It's been quite nice the past few weeks to be getting some regular rain. It's been nice to hear the rain, and to be able to nap in the afternoon to the sound of the falling rain. I don't profess to understant meteorology, but I watched with amazement time and time again this past summer as big storms headed our way and then parted like the Red Sea and went right around Bastrop proper, and in many cases, the county.
Old timers say it's always been that way, and many attribute it to the fact that Bastrop proper is in a river valley. I've been in other parts of the county where it was just raining like all get out a few times last summer as big storms rolled in, but nary a drop hit Bastrop. I think last spring and summer might hold the record for having had days that looked like rain but that never did the rain fall.
In any event, I hope the aquifers are being charged and that lakes, ponds, tanks, creeks and rivers are starting to be full again.
Have you been enjoying the rain? How is your yard doing?
Old timers say it's always been that way, and many attribute it to the fact that Bastrop proper is in a river valley. I've been in other parts of the county where it was just raining like all get out a few times last summer as big storms rolled in, but nary a drop hit Bastrop. I think last spring and summer might hold the record for having had days that looked like rain but that never did the rain fall.
In any event, I hope the aquifers are being charged and that lakes, ponds, tanks, creeks and rivers are starting to be full again.
Have you been enjoying the rain? How is your yard doing?
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Bastrop's 2009 Halloween Fest Extravaganza Celebration
Next to Christmas, I think Halloween is the holiday event that most kids love. I know I did. When I was a child, I remember that the huge celebration our elementary school had was the event to end all events. Those of you who live in Bastrop know how much community spirit gets involved in Halloween each year, and what an excellent example it is of just how great small town living can be. Each year, the wife and I thank our lucky stars that we have such a great old-timey event in the town where we live.
This year, it's sure to be a Halloween extraordinaire, as Halloween Fest will happen on Saturday night from 5 p.m to 9 p.m. You can go here to the DBA website and see some of the fun that has been planned. http://www.bastropdba.com/halloween.html
Of course, there's the Haunted House set up at the Need For Speed car repair shop on Chestnut. And right across the street is the Hayrides at the Fire Station. But literally, the entire town turns out for the Main Street festivities that delight Bastropians young and old. Of course, there will be the Costume Contest and the Pumpkin Decorating Contest. And it costs nothing. That's right. It's Free!
This year, I'd like to salute the Downtown Business Alliance for all that they do to make Halloween such a wonderful occasion. Main Street is shut down to traffic, and turns into a parade of costumed children and their parents enjoying a wide variety of games and fun.
One event that I'm TOTALLY excited about will be the 1st Annual Lip Sync Contest which will be held from 7 p.m to 9 p.m. There will also be another new event, a LIVE WAX MUSEUM. You can get further information about this most excellent addition to our town's Halloween festivities if you contact Martha at mjgranger@austin.rr.com or (512) 944-2112. There will be some significant cash prizes for the best Lip Syncer's and it is sure to become an annual event that is beloved at our annual Halloween Fest.
Martha is one of the regular readers here at Bastrop Bad Hair, and invited yours truly to act as a judge. I'm flattered, and I do certainly plan to attend that particular event, but I have to opt out this year because my kids deserve 100% of my attention. Like every year, we spend a lot of time downtown, and then head off through the neighborhoods of the Historic District for trick or treating. After dark has set in, we often go to the numerous yard parties that our freinds and neighbors here in Bastrop hold for the kids. I've never been asked to judge anything, but I have to say that watching my kids smile and laugh and run and play like we did in the days of old takes precedence over anything else.
While you're out and about at Halloween Fest, be sure to take a moment and thank the volunteers like Martha who take their time and energy and put it to use so that our kids can enjoy this great event. Likewise, be sure to thank our excellent firefighters and police officers who keep us safe every day. David Board and the men and women of the Bastrop Police Department, as well as the other law enforcement officers of our community, face death every day keeping us and our families safe, and they don't get thanked enough. Same for the firefighters, who are mostly volunteers. Take a moment and thank them for keeping us safe.
Likewise, be sure to thank our elected and appointed City of Bastrop representatives who also make this excellent celebration, and so many others, possible.
Lastly, remember that our Downtown Business Alliance and other townfolk spend their time and money to make this town great on Halloween and on other occasions. How do we repay them? By shopping at their stores and by using their professional services, that's how. Buy local, whenever possible. I don't have a financial interest in any business or store in Bastrop County, but I do try to shop and buy local whenever possibly.
Pay special attention, folks, to those businesses who sponsor this and other events in our community, as they are truly giving back to our community what we spend in their businesses. I'll have to say, I also note who is not supporting our community, and I often encourage them to do so in future activities.
I'll see you on Halloween. I'm still mulling my costume for this year. I've seen a lot of good Octo-Mom costumes appearing on the web, as well as some Jon and Kate plus 8. I'm loath to buy an Ed Hardy T-Shirt to portray Jon, but it might happen. If anyone else has a costume idea for me, be sure to let me know. I may dress up as a person of Wal-Mart.
A special tip o' the hat to Martha for giving me the heads up about the Lip Sync and Live Wax Museum additions to Halloween Fest.
This event gets attended by folks from far and wide. Folks from Austin and San Marcos often bring their kids to this event because there is nothing like it in their towns.
And remember, keep a good eye out for kiddos when you are driving around on Saturday. Let the Haunting begin!
This year, it's sure to be a Halloween extraordinaire, as Halloween Fest will happen on Saturday night from 5 p.m to 9 p.m. You can go here to the DBA website and see some of the fun that has been planned. http://www.bastropdba.com/halloween.html
Of course, there's the Haunted House set up at the Need For Speed car repair shop on Chestnut. And right across the street is the Hayrides at the Fire Station. But literally, the entire town turns out for the Main Street festivities that delight Bastropians young and old. Of course, there will be the Costume Contest and the Pumpkin Decorating Contest. And it costs nothing. That's right. It's Free!
This year, I'd like to salute the Downtown Business Alliance for all that they do to make Halloween such a wonderful occasion. Main Street is shut down to traffic, and turns into a parade of costumed children and their parents enjoying a wide variety of games and fun.
One event that I'm TOTALLY excited about will be the 1st Annual Lip Sync Contest which will be held from 7 p.m to 9 p.m. There will also be another new event, a LIVE WAX MUSEUM. You can get further information about this most excellent addition to our town's Halloween festivities if you contact Martha at mjgranger@austin.rr.com or (512) 944-2112. There will be some significant cash prizes for the best Lip Syncer's and it is sure to become an annual event that is beloved at our annual Halloween Fest.
Martha is one of the regular readers here at Bastrop Bad Hair, and invited yours truly to act as a judge. I'm flattered, and I do certainly plan to attend that particular event, but I have to opt out this year because my kids deserve 100% of my attention. Like every year, we spend a lot of time downtown, and then head off through the neighborhoods of the Historic District for trick or treating. After dark has set in, we often go to the numerous yard parties that our freinds and neighbors here in Bastrop hold for the kids. I've never been asked to judge anything, but I have to say that watching my kids smile and laugh and run and play like we did in the days of old takes precedence over anything else.
While you're out and about at Halloween Fest, be sure to take a moment and thank the volunteers like Martha who take their time and energy and put it to use so that our kids can enjoy this great event. Likewise, be sure to thank our excellent firefighters and police officers who keep us safe every day. David Board and the men and women of the Bastrop Police Department, as well as the other law enforcement officers of our community, face death every day keeping us and our families safe, and they don't get thanked enough. Same for the firefighters, who are mostly volunteers. Take a moment and thank them for keeping us safe.
Likewise, be sure to thank our elected and appointed City of Bastrop representatives who also make this excellent celebration, and so many others, possible.
Lastly, remember that our Downtown Business Alliance and other townfolk spend their time and money to make this town great on Halloween and on other occasions. How do we repay them? By shopping at their stores and by using their professional services, that's how. Buy local, whenever possible. I don't have a financial interest in any business or store in Bastrop County, but I do try to shop and buy local whenever possibly.
Pay special attention, folks, to those businesses who sponsor this and other events in our community, as they are truly giving back to our community what we spend in their businesses. I'll have to say, I also note who is not supporting our community, and I often encourage them to do so in future activities.
I'll see you on Halloween. I'm still mulling my costume for this year. I've seen a lot of good Octo-Mom costumes appearing on the web, as well as some Jon and Kate plus 8. I'm loath to buy an Ed Hardy T-Shirt to portray Jon, but it might happen. If anyone else has a costume idea for me, be sure to let me know. I may dress up as a person of Wal-Mart.
A special tip o' the hat to Martha for giving me the heads up about the Lip Sync and Live Wax Museum additions to Halloween Fest.
This event gets attended by folks from far and wide. Folks from Austin and San Marcos often bring their kids to this event because there is nothing like it in their towns.
And remember, keep a good eye out for kiddos when you are driving around on Saturday. Let the Haunting begin!
Charity begins at home
It's been a month, more or less, since my last post, and I've been busy. I've gotten some email from readers that I'll talk about in this post and the next few, but the focus of this post is what's been going on in Bastrop. Kids are back in school and the flu and other viruses have been raging through town. Almost everyone I know has at least had one family member get hit with some form of virus over the past month, and you know if one person at the home or workplace gets it, it often spreads to others, no matter how much handwashing and other precautions are taken.
I want to encourage readers and Bastropians to support some of our local charities that benefit the kids. Our family likes to buy local to support local businesses, and I'll argue that the same thing applies to charity: Charity begins at home. By that, I mean we should support our local charities that provide services right here in our community.
There are several charity or non-profit organizations that my family tries to support on a regular basis. We don't make a ton of money, but when we have a few extra dollars we do try to donate it on a local basis.
I was very lucky as a child to be born to and raised by parents who cherished our existence. We were disciplined, for sure, but we were also loved. My sibling and I grew up in such a sheltered and wonderful environment that when we did discover that there were parents who physically and sexually abused their children, we were shocked. The world was not the perfect place we thought it was.
I remember a girl I went to school with briefly. Her parents, who were of substantial financial means, moved here when the girl, who I'll call Jane, was in 6th grade. Went to school with her until her parents moved. The parents moved because of CPS investigations. I remember the day Jane showed up at school with a broken arm in a cast. She fell in the backyard while jumping on the trampoline, she said. It later turned out her father had picked Jane up over his head and thrown her to the ground, in a drunken rage because she had not cleaned her room. They moved shortly after CPS and other agencies started investigating this injury, and I often wonder what became of Jane. I hope things got better.
One of our favorite non-profits is the Children's Advocacy Center, which provides not only counseling services for abused children but also forensic services for law enforcement to effectively investigate those who would abuse the children. It's shocking how much child abuse goes on in this county, state and nation. The CAC exists based on grants and donations and from the funds they raise through fundraising.
Unless you live like a hermit with no internet or newspaper, then you know that the CAC holds Cowboys and Caviar every spring to raise money. Likewise, this November 7th, a Saturday, will be the Annual BBQ Cookoff on the Colorado, which also raises money for the CAC. It's held at Mayfair Park across from the Farmer's Markets and more details can be found here http://www.childrensadvocacycenter.org/events.cfm?. Note that volunteers are needed for this and all other events that the CAC puts on, and the money goes to save the children.
You might also want to note on your Calenders that the 2010 Cowboys and Caviar event will occur on March 13th, 2010 at the Riverbend Park in Smithville, and it will feature entertainment by Bastrop's own STILL ROCKING, featuring Dr. Rob Dougherty on lead guitar. I added that last part, and Rob would probably not be happy that I omitted the names of the other excellent band members. But if you've never seen this band, well, you'll be amazed at the extreme talent that Rob has on guitar. I'll do a post on this great band at a future date.
The Boys and Girls Club of Bastrop is another fine non-profit that needs support to help our kids. Gary Schiff and his wife throw their yearly "Jazz Jam" to raise money for this fine organization. THE RESCHEDULED JAZZ JAM FEATURING ERIC JOHNSON AND HANNIBAL LOKUMBE IS RESCHEDULED TO SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17TH, 2009 AT THE LAKESIDE HOSPITAL PROFESSIONAL BUILDING. You can go to this link for more information. https://secureonlinegiving.com/events/site/index.asp?eventID=120. This year, they'll be auctioning a signed guitar by Eric Johnson, and that will surely raise some big bucks for the organization. Along with Cowboys and Caviar, this is the social event of the season of Bastrop County. Normally held in May of each year, it was rescheduled to October due to swine flu concerns.
The Family Crisis Center helps families where domestic violence has reared it's ugly head. Often, the CAC and the FCC have clients in common, because when spousal violence exists, often too child abuse occurs. Lately, there's been a lot of news coverage nationwide about the links between domestic and child abuse and animal abuse. It seems an abuser is often an abuser of everyone in the home, including pets and animals. The FCC operates the Bits and Pieces Thrift Shop on 71, and I urge you to consider making your clothing and household goods donations to them.
I want to encourage readers and Bastropians to support some of our local charities that benefit the kids. Our family likes to buy local to support local businesses, and I'll argue that the same thing applies to charity: Charity begins at home. By that, I mean we should support our local charities that provide services right here in our community.
There are several charity or non-profit organizations that my family tries to support on a regular basis. We don't make a ton of money, but when we have a few extra dollars we do try to donate it on a local basis.
I was very lucky as a child to be born to and raised by parents who cherished our existence. We were disciplined, for sure, but we were also loved. My sibling and I grew up in such a sheltered and wonderful environment that when we did discover that there were parents who physically and sexually abused their children, we were shocked. The world was not the perfect place we thought it was.
I remember a girl I went to school with briefly. Her parents, who were of substantial financial means, moved here when the girl, who I'll call Jane, was in 6th grade. Went to school with her until her parents moved. The parents moved because of CPS investigations. I remember the day Jane showed up at school with a broken arm in a cast. She fell in the backyard while jumping on the trampoline, she said. It later turned out her father had picked Jane up over his head and thrown her to the ground, in a drunken rage because she had not cleaned her room. They moved shortly after CPS and other agencies started investigating this injury, and I often wonder what became of Jane. I hope things got better.
One of our favorite non-profits is the Children's Advocacy Center, which provides not only counseling services for abused children but also forensic services for law enforcement to effectively investigate those who would abuse the children. It's shocking how much child abuse goes on in this county, state and nation. The CAC exists based on grants and donations and from the funds they raise through fundraising.
Unless you live like a hermit with no internet or newspaper, then you know that the CAC holds Cowboys and Caviar every spring to raise money. Likewise, this November 7th, a Saturday, will be the Annual BBQ Cookoff on the Colorado, which also raises money for the CAC. It's held at Mayfair Park across from the Farmer's Markets and more details can be found here http://www.childrensadvocacycenter.org/events.cfm?. Note that volunteers are needed for this and all other events that the CAC puts on, and the money goes to save the children.
You might also want to note on your Calenders that the 2010 Cowboys and Caviar event will occur on March 13th, 2010 at the Riverbend Park in Smithville, and it will feature entertainment by Bastrop's own STILL ROCKING, featuring Dr. Rob Dougherty on lead guitar. I added that last part, and Rob would probably not be happy that I omitted the names of the other excellent band members. But if you've never seen this band, well, you'll be amazed at the extreme talent that Rob has on guitar. I'll do a post on this great band at a future date.
The Boys and Girls Club of Bastrop is another fine non-profit that needs support to help our kids. Gary Schiff and his wife throw their yearly "Jazz Jam" to raise money for this fine organization. THE RESCHEDULED JAZZ JAM FEATURING ERIC JOHNSON AND HANNIBAL LOKUMBE IS RESCHEDULED TO SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17TH, 2009 AT THE LAKESIDE HOSPITAL PROFESSIONAL BUILDING. You can go to this link for more information. https://secureonlinegiving.com/events/site/index.asp?eventID=120. This year, they'll be auctioning a signed guitar by Eric Johnson, and that will surely raise some big bucks for the organization. Along with Cowboys and Caviar, this is the social event of the season of Bastrop County. Normally held in May of each year, it was rescheduled to October due to swine flu concerns.
The Family Crisis Center helps families where domestic violence has reared it's ugly head. Often, the CAC and the FCC have clients in common, because when spousal violence exists, often too child abuse occurs. Lately, there's been a lot of news coverage nationwide about the links between domestic and child abuse and animal abuse. It seems an abuser is often an abuser of everyone in the home, including pets and animals. The FCC operates the Bits and Pieces Thrift Shop on 71, and I urge you to consider making your clothing and household goods donations to them.
Another great non-profit is the BEF, the Bastrop Education Foundation. They raise money make our Bastrop schools much much better. Their website is located at www.bastropeducationfoundation.org. They do lots of other great stuff too, like campaign to get bond issues passed.
I know I've forgotten a few charities and some other events. Be sure to comment and tell me about your favorite Bastrop charity organizations and how we can help support them and their fundraisers.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Bastrop Beer and Gun Club Notice of Meeting
Since no one, and I mean no one has replied to my post regarding the suggestion of forming the Bastrop Beer and Gun Club, I have taken it upon myself this evening to go downtown to a drinking establishment and hold the organizational meeting. By myself.
After I introduce myself to myself, I'll pay my voluntary non-mandatory dues of $20 and then elect myself as interim President of the Bastrop Beer and Gun Club. My first official act will be to buy myself a celebratory cocktail, and I'll agree as president to handle the duties of treasurer until one can be elected or appointed. I'll leave the offices of vice president, sergeant-at-arms and social director vacant until I can dupe, er I mean, convince some other kindred souls into forming this loose social organization.
There may be recruiting going on this evening, depending upon who has it in them to be out on a worknight after an extended holiday weekend. But I'll be ever vigilant, rest assured, in my efforts to find the finest and the funniest Bastropians to join this august fraternity.
After I introduce myself to myself, I'll pay my voluntary non-mandatory dues of $20 and then elect myself as interim President of the Bastrop Beer and Gun Club. My first official act will be to buy myself a celebratory cocktail, and I'll agree as president to handle the duties of treasurer until one can be elected or appointed. I'll leave the offices of vice president, sergeant-at-arms and social director vacant until I can dupe, er I mean, convince some other kindred souls into forming this loose social organization.
There may be recruiting going on this evening, depending upon who has it in them to be out on a worknight after an extended holiday weekend. But I'll be ever vigilant, rest assured, in my efforts to find the finest and the funniest Bastropians to join this august fraternity.
MOVIES MADE IN BASTROP COUNTY
Because of our proximity to Austin, Texas, the self-dubbed "third coast" of entertainment (or at least that's what Austin called itself back in the 80's), we get a lot of movie action out here in Bastrop County. The closeness to Austin means the equipment and infrastructure companies and personnel are there in Austin ready to work on productions. A fair amount of movies and shows get made in Texas every year, and the Governor's office has long had a film liason office to encourage and assist film makers and producers in picking our state over other locales.
Of course, you can't visit Smithville without being made aware several times that, indeed, the movie Hope Floats was filmed there. Ages ago it was filmed there. I have yet to be able to muster the interest to sit through an entire showing of this movie, but the Missus tells me it's a really good movie. So be it. I'm kinda hoping that when Tree of Life comes out, the Hope Floats billboard will get replaced. Since Tree of Life stars Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, chances are it'll be a good movie.
Of course, you can't visit Smithville without being made aware several times that, indeed, the movie Hope Floats was filmed there. Ages ago it was filmed there. I have yet to be able to muster the interest to sit through an entire showing of this movie, but the Missus tells me it's a really good movie. So be it. I'm kinda hoping that when Tree of Life comes out, the Hope Floats billboard will get replaced. Since Tree of Life stars Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, chances are it'll be a good movie.
Tree of Life was mostly filmed in Smithville. Local Bastropian Robert Leffingwell provided the ancient oak tree that was transplanted in front of the home in Smithville used for some of the filming. Robert was also in charge of taking care of that tree to make sure it not only thrived in production, but survived long afterwards.
So I'm hoping that in the near future the billboard I pass when I'm headed into Smithville on 71 from Bastrop gets replaced with a smiling picture of Brad Pitt (can't stand the politics of Mr. Penn, thank you) which says: "SMITHVILLE: HOME OF TREE OF LIFE-Such a cool place that Brad Pitt once hung out here for a few weeks."
Here's what Wiki has to report about the film industry in Bastrop County:
Several movies were at least partially filmed in Bastrop, including Lovin' Molly (1974), the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Home Fries (1998), Courage Under Fire (1996), and the 2004 remake of The Alamo. Projects not yet released include All The Boys Love Mandy Lane and Fireflies in the Garden, which was filmed in Bastrop in April 2007 starring Willem Dafoe and Julia Roberts. The as-of-yet-unreleased Brad Pitt/Sean Penn film "Tree of Life" was also filmed largely in Bastrop. Recently, the remake of Friday the 13th was also partially filmed in Bastrop.
Funny thing is, the Friday the 13th remake, which was mostly filmed in 2008 after Tree of Life and Fireflies in the Garden had already been filmed, has already been released. Months ago. Still lingering in post-production are the Fireflies in the Garden and Tree of Life movies.
I like a good drama as much as anyone else, but like most of my men friends, I like a little gunplay in my cinema. There have been good movies made in the past without gunplay, but really, before I launch into a discussion of "dude" movies and why I like them, I'm just saying. How about a Bastrop movie with a little gun play in it? Certainly, the Alamo had gunplay in it, but I'm guessing the romantic drama Fireflies in the Garden had nary an AK-47 or Walther "Bond, James Bond" PPK in it.
The movie could have been Firefights in the Garden. Wilhelm Dafoe has got gunslinging skills going back at least to To Live And Die In L.A. in the 80's. I would have done a rewrite on the cheap for these folks, but alas, always the blogger and never the bride.
All that gunplay aside, I'm pretty sure there were other movies made or partially filmed in Bastrop. If I'm not mistaken, a few episodes of Friday Night Lights might have been filmed in Bastrop.
Help me out here, fellow Bastropians. What other movies or TV shows or cable shows have been filmed in our fair county?
EDIT: One poster responded that The Great Waldo Pepper and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas were filmed here. See the comments below.
More importantly, I know we have all kinds, and I mean just all kinds, of reality tv fodder right here in river city. How come we don't have a reality tv show? I can see it now...
THE REAL BAD HAIR OF BASTROP COUNTY.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Hannibal Lokumbe part 1
One day I was riding with a friend through Bastrop. We came across the gentleman above, sans trumpet, riding his old school cruiser bicycle through town. My friend remarked that he guessed the guy on the bike was trying to be green, or energy conscious, by riding his bike.
Of course, I knew who the man above is. He's Hannibal Lokumbe, world famous jazz trumpeter, composer and arranger. I began to tell my friend what I knew of Hannibal.
Born Marvin Charles Peterson in Smithville, Texas, he went on to attend North Texas State University until going ahead and getting on with it and moving to New York to make music in 1969.
He moved back to Bastrop County in the late nineties, after a tribal healer told him to move back to his homeplace for the good of his children. Since then, he now lives in Bastrop proper, with his family.
Here's a New York Times article link about one of his famous compositions and performances back a mere 11 years ago, called "African Portraits".
Hannibal is interesting on so many levels. First, he studied trumpet with one of the most reknown SAXAPHONE players of all time, John Coltrane. Perhaps that's where he gets some of his unique phraseology on trumpet. But normally, students of an intrument study their instrument with someone who plays THE SAME instrument. Not a guy like Hannibal.
Undoubtedly, Hannibal had studied trumpet from great players in high school and college. But then there came a fork in the road, a place where he could go and be like everyone else or where he could go study trumpet under a genius sax player like Coltrane. That choice is fairly illustrious of the person I know as Hannibal.
He donates tons of time when he's home in Bastrop to civic causes. He gives free music lessons to kids, and he's got a kids' choir he's been teaching and composing and arranging for, and they just debuted at Long Center in Austin a few months ago.
I could go on and on with Hannibal stories for days. And I will, in other posts on this blog. He's one of the great things about living in Bastrop.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Random Saturday Thoughts
-I need to go to one of the musical happenings that's going on at the Lumberman's Hall or whatever it is called across the street from the Post Office.
-I really like the people that work in and run our Bastrop Post Office. Ronnie and his crew do a good job and they are really friendly. My mailman rocks!
-Bastrop has a new citizen's orchestra. I think their debut will be in December. Sure to be a treat and really, we need all the music around here we can get.
-I always enjoy seeing Hannibal Lokumbe around town. He's such a postive individual and a great talent. You may be familiar with his incredible trumpeting and composing abilities, but you haven't lived baby until you've heard him sing. Hannibal is a native Bastrop County son who went on to great fame as a jazz trumpeter and composer. He gives an awful lot back to the community, and he's living proof that you can be a music superstar sans the ego. He plays around the world nowadays, but he's often in Bastrop.
-I wish Davis McCauley had more time to write on his blog. I also wish he'd post some of his artwork on his site. He's quite the painter and he's got a small gallery downtown next to the visitors center.
-Changes have occurred at the Bastrop Advertiser and Smithville Times, as well as their parent the Austin-American Statesman. For the last year or so, all three papers were on the market, but have now been removed and the Statesman plans to carry on with all three papers.
-I think the number one priority of the Advertiser should be to have some kind of online presence. I understand if they don't wanna put their paper online but how about a few stories and a place to go for emergency notices and the like? You could sell ads on it, I'm sure. The Elgin Courier is mostly online.
-I love looking at the Mighty Colorado every time I drive past it. It's such a beautiful river. There's a real nice view of it going into Smithville as well, what with the rocks creating sort of a rapid-like turbulence. I read a book one time about a fellow named James Gillet who was a famous Texas Ranger and who later became a very wealthy Big Bend rancher (Gillet Creek in the Big Bend National Park is named after him).
Gillett grew up in Austin and had kinfolks in Bastrop. Gillet was born in 1856, so around 1870 or so when he was in his early teens he and his brother would get in a big wooden rowboat and float down to Bastrop, catching fish along the way. He said that they would literally fill up the rowboat with fish by the time they reached Bastrop.
I bet the Mighty Colorado was just a beautiful river then, teaming with fish and other wildlife in it's valleys.
-I really like the people that work in and run our Bastrop Post Office. Ronnie and his crew do a good job and they are really friendly. My mailman rocks!
-Bastrop has a new citizen's orchestra. I think their debut will be in December. Sure to be a treat and really, we need all the music around here we can get.
-I always enjoy seeing Hannibal Lokumbe around town. He's such a postive individual and a great talent. You may be familiar with his incredible trumpeting and composing abilities, but you haven't lived baby until you've heard him sing. Hannibal is a native Bastrop County son who went on to great fame as a jazz trumpeter and composer. He gives an awful lot back to the community, and he's living proof that you can be a music superstar sans the ego. He plays around the world nowadays, but he's often in Bastrop.
-I wish Davis McCauley had more time to write on his blog. I also wish he'd post some of his artwork on his site. He's quite the painter and he's got a small gallery downtown next to the visitors center.
-Changes have occurred at the Bastrop Advertiser and Smithville Times, as well as their parent the Austin-American Statesman. For the last year or so, all three papers were on the market, but have now been removed and the Statesman plans to carry on with all three papers.
-I think the number one priority of the Advertiser should be to have some kind of online presence. I understand if they don't wanna put their paper online but how about a few stories and a place to go for emergency notices and the like? You could sell ads on it, I'm sure. The Elgin Courier is mostly online.
-I love looking at the Mighty Colorado every time I drive past it. It's such a beautiful river. There's a real nice view of it going into Smithville as well, what with the rocks creating sort of a rapid-like turbulence. I read a book one time about a fellow named James Gillet who was a famous Texas Ranger and who later became a very wealthy Big Bend rancher (Gillet Creek in the Big Bend National Park is named after him).
Gillett grew up in Austin and had kinfolks in Bastrop. Gillet was born in 1856, so around 1870 or so when he was in his early teens he and his brother would get in a big wooden rowboat and float down to Bastrop, catching fish along the way. He said that they would literally fill up the rowboat with fish by the time they reached Bastrop.
I bet the Mighty Colorado was just a beautiful river then, teaming with fish and other wildlife in it's valleys.
Kelso was here part II
As all my sources dutifully reported and as I predicted in this post Kelso was here , Kelso did break a story about the valet issues going on downtown.
No biggie. Sounds like it might be getting resolved, one way or another. I drove by tonight and the valet was not in operation and there were no blocked spots.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/2009/09/06/0906kelso.html
No biggie. Sounds like it might be getting resolved, one way or another. I drove by tonight and the valet was not in operation and there were no blocked spots.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/2009/09/06/0906kelso.html
Friday, September 4, 2009
Bastrop Beer and Gun Club
I don't know if there is any interest out there, but I'm thinking about starting a club. I want to call it The Bastrop Beer and Gun Club. I'm going to order a few t-shirts emblazened with this name and give them out to a few friends, so be looking for them.
Perhaps some of you will comment on your interest in joining a loosely knit fraternal organization with that name. Is anyone interested in joining my club?
Friends of mine in Houston and Dallas, years ago, formed some loose knit fraternal organizations and called them alternately The Montrose Beer and Gun Club or the Deep Ellum Beer and Gun Club. It was mostly folks who lived inside the city, loved music and occasionally hitting a bar or two, and having fun.
The name, a play on an age old institution called The Rod and Gun Club, which many communities large and small have had for generations, is not totally accurate. Beer and guns don't mix, as we well know, so the club would concentrate mainly on congregating in the various Main Street bars on occasion as a fraternal organization. We would drink, and hopefully laugh ourselves silly talking about our town and our county and our people. No guns would be involved.
I'm not by nature a joiner, and usually the more rules a fraternal organization has, the less likely I am to join. Take the Masons, for instance. Rules rules rules. So for the Bastrop Beer and Gun Club, there's only two rules: #1 There are no rules except for rule #2, which is have fun.
If you are handy with graphic design and would like to design a logo, email it to me. Chances are, I'll use it. No nudity, and no mullets please.
Perhaps some of you will comment on your interest in joining a loosely knit fraternal organization with that name. Is anyone interested in joining my club?
Friends of mine in Houston and Dallas, years ago, formed some loose knit fraternal organizations and called them alternately The Montrose Beer and Gun Club or the Deep Ellum Beer and Gun Club. It was mostly folks who lived inside the city, loved music and occasionally hitting a bar or two, and having fun.
The name, a play on an age old institution called The Rod and Gun Club, which many communities large and small have had for generations, is not totally accurate. Beer and guns don't mix, as we well know, so the club would concentrate mainly on congregating in the various Main Street bars on occasion as a fraternal organization. We would drink, and hopefully laugh ourselves silly talking about our town and our county and our people. No guns would be involved.
I'm not by nature a joiner, and usually the more rules a fraternal organization has, the less likely I am to join. Take the Masons, for instance. Rules rules rules. So for the Bastrop Beer and Gun Club, there's only two rules: #1 There are no rules except for rule #2, which is have fun.
If you are handy with graphic design and would like to design a logo, email it to me. Chances are, I'll use it. No nudity, and no mullets please.
People of Walmart
The two kids that started the "People of Walmart" website are funny boys, and will likely make some advertising cash off of their website. Go to http://peopleofwalmart.com/ to see it. A lot of media attention, both good and bad, has been focused on this new website, with some who think it is hilarious and some who think it is mean spirited and even slanderous. I'm in the former group.
If you live here in Bastrop, some of the folks pictured on their site may look familiar to you, especially the mulleted photos. Surprisingly, no photos identified as being from our Bastrop Walmart have made it to the website. That's probably because the lighting at the Bastrop Walmart is so dim and poor that you can't take a picture in there.
I've been in other Walmarts recently, particularly those in Rockport and Fredericksburg, and those sparkling clean and well-lit Walmarts bear little if any resemblance to our dark, dank, gloomy and often filthy Walmart. Maybe our Bastrop store needs to bring in the cleaning and lighting crews from these other Walmarts to make our store a nicer place to shop. I'm more likely to spend money in some place that's not giving me the heebie jeebies because it's so dark and grimly lit.
You'll know it when you see a picture of a Bastropian on this new website. Likely, they'll be tattoo'd wonders replete with Bastrop Bad Hair. Not all people with tattoos have Bastrop Bad Hair, and not all Bastropian Bad Hair wearers have tattoos, but often those two worlds do collide.
I recall a story from when Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were staying in the county while filming "Tree of Life" in Smithville last year.
Angelina and her kids went shopping at our dark and dim Walmart. One of our friends was up there shopping, and spotted Angelina and her kids shopping. A deputy sheriff employee was nearby shopping also, and our friend remarked to the deputy how exciting it was to have a little Hollywood right here in Bastrop. The deputy smirked and said something like "Is that who that is? Angelina Jolie, the movie star? I thought she was just another tattoo'd Bastrop chick with a lot of kids".
I'm guessing most of the people you'll see on the People of Walmart website won't resemble Angelina, or Brad Pitt. But many of our tattoo'd residents could give Angelina a run for her money if you're counting the number of visible tatts they sport.
And of course, as we all know, the mullet is alive and well in Bastrop. Even on women. I saw two women dining last night at the Roadhouse sporting female mullets.
Hey, 1982 is calling for you two ladies, and they left a message. 1982 wants it's hairstyles back. Stat.
Here's the 411 on the guys who started the People of Walmart website from the about us section of their website. And remember, as my friend and sage advisor R.J. MacReady would say, "SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!".
People of Walmart was founded in August of 2009 by three friends and roommates after an inspirational trip to WalMart.
Let’s face it; we all have seen the people who obviously don’t have mirrors and/or family and friends to lock them in a basement, and they all seem to congregate at Walmart. It’s not everywhere that you can shop for milk at 10 a.m. next to a 400lb mother of 6 wearing a pink tube top, leopard tights, and hooker heels. Where else can one go to pick up underwear at 3 O’clock in the afternoon and spot the greatest mullet of all time paired with a mustard stained wife beater (which only accents the extreme amount of body hair) and camo pants that were actually used in Vietnam. And if you haven’t run into the 6’2” bull-dyke with a shaved head, rockin a wonder bra, flannel cutoff shirt, and jean shorts at 2 a.m. when you’re there to pick up frozen pizza, chips, and cookies, then you can get the fuck out right now.
This is purely for entertainment purposes and strictly limited to the outrageously bad / ugly / creepy / crazy shoppers. We don’t need to see pictures of you and your dumb friends dicking around at Walmart. There is no reason to send us pictures of people that are seriously and unfortunately handicapped so don’t be an asshole. We are trying to have some fun here and there is a difference between someone who is mentally challenged and a person who has a fu Manchu and is still rocking MC Hammer pants.
We would also like to stress that we are in no way liable if you get your ass beat by Bubba when he catches you taking his picture. Have fun, and Enjoy!
- AJK, ADK, LDW
If you live here in Bastrop, some of the folks pictured on their site may look familiar to you, especially the mulleted photos. Surprisingly, no photos identified as being from our Bastrop Walmart have made it to the website. That's probably because the lighting at the Bastrop Walmart is so dim and poor that you can't take a picture in there.
I've been in other Walmarts recently, particularly those in Rockport and Fredericksburg, and those sparkling clean and well-lit Walmarts bear little if any resemblance to our dark, dank, gloomy and often filthy Walmart. Maybe our Bastrop store needs to bring in the cleaning and lighting crews from these other Walmarts to make our store a nicer place to shop. I'm more likely to spend money in some place that's not giving me the heebie jeebies because it's so dark and grimly lit.
You'll know it when you see a picture of a Bastropian on this new website. Likely, they'll be tattoo'd wonders replete with Bastrop Bad Hair. Not all people with tattoos have Bastrop Bad Hair, and not all Bastropian Bad Hair wearers have tattoos, but often those two worlds do collide.
I recall a story from when Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were staying in the county while filming "Tree of Life" in Smithville last year.
Angelina and her kids went shopping at our dark and dim Walmart. One of our friends was up there shopping, and spotted Angelina and her kids shopping. A deputy sheriff employee was nearby shopping also, and our friend remarked to the deputy how exciting it was to have a little Hollywood right here in Bastrop. The deputy smirked and said something like "Is that who that is? Angelina Jolie, the movie star? I thought she was just another tattoo'd Bastrop chick with a lot of kids".
I'm guessing most of the people you'll see on the People of Walmart website won't resemble Angelina, or Brad Pitt. But many of our tattoo'd residents could give Angelina a run for her money if you're counting the number of visible tatts they sport.
And of course, as we all know, the mullet is alive and well in Bastrop. Even on women. I saw two women dining last night at the Roadhouse sporting female mullets.
Hey, 1982 is calling for you two ladies, and they left a message. 1982 wants it's hairstyles back. Stat.
Here's the 411 on the guys who started the People of Walmart website from the about us section of their website. And remember, as my friend and sage advisor R.J. MacReady would say, "SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!".
People of Walmart was founded in August of 2009 by three friends and roommates after an inspirational trip to WalMart.
Let’s face it; we all have seen the people who obviously don’t have mirrors and/or family and friends to lock them in a basement, and they all seem to congregate at Walmart. It’s not everywhere that you can shop for milk at 10 a.m. next to a 400lb mother of 6 wearing a pink tube top, leopard tights, and hooker heels. Where else can one go to pick up underwear at 3 O’clock in the afternoon and spot the greatest mullet of all time paired with a mustard stained wife beater (which only accents the extreme amount of body hair) and camo pants that were actually used in Vietnam. And if you haven’t run into the 6’2” bull-dyke with a shaved head, rockin a wonder bra, flannel cutoff shirt, and jean shorts at 2 a.m. when you’re there to pick up frozen pizza, chips, and cookies, then you can get the fuck out right now.
This is purely for entertainment purposes and strictly limited to the outrageously bad / ugly / creepy / crazy shoppers. We don’t need to see pictures of you and your dumb friends dicking around at Walmart. There is no reason to send us pictures of people that are seriously and unfortunately handicapped so don’t be an asshole. We are trying to have some fun here and there is a difference between someone who is mentally challenged and a person who has a fu Manchu and is still rocking MC Hammer pants.
We would also like to stress that we are in no way liable if you get your ass beat by Bubba when he catches you taking his picture. Have fun, and Enjoy!
- AJK, ADK, LDW
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Kelso was here
It's my understanding that Austin American Statesman columnist John Kelso was in town today, doing some investigative reporting on Bastrop. My sources tell me he was working on a story about the valet parking controversy that has surrounded the new high end steak house in Bastrop called Hasler Brothers Steak House.
The steak house is right at the corner of Chestnut Street and Main, right behind the hallowed Bastropian bar known as Cindy's Downtown to a few, but all of my friends still call it "THE O.B." or "THE OYSTER BAR", after the legendary long term now defunct bar known as THE GENUINE OYSTER BAR: THE PEARL OF BASTROP, where Cindy's now resides.
There are several large lots within one (large lots behind Baxters and behind Lock's) and two block (Courthouse and 1st Baptist Church parking lots) walking distance or less. So it would seem there are plenty of free places to park for someone wanting to run a valet company.
As I mentioned, I saw that there was a recent article in the Bastrop Advertiser that discussed this controversy. Alas, I have not read it yet. I guess I'll have to wait to read Kelso to get the scoop. The Bastrop Advertiser writers are good, but not funny like Kelso can be when he gets on a roll. I'm at least firmly planted in middle age now and a lot of the stuff that tickles him makes me laugh too.
I like Kelso as a writer. I've never met him, but I bet he'd be a hoot to share a few beers with. On a personal note, he's mentioned he's undergoing treatment for cancer, and I certainly pray for him and wish him a speedy victory in his battle. War is hell, and based upon personal experience, I know cancer is just as much hell as war for the patient and family.
I generally agree with all of his non-political writings. I agree about half the time with his political views about State and National politics, but even I'll admit I laugh through some of his political commentary that I don't personally agree with.
So be looking for it. Although I didn't see any postings on telephone polls harkening back to the WWII legends that "Kilroy was here", the way my phone was ringing off the wall yesterday, you'd have thought that Kilroy himself appeared in Bastrop.
Maybe, if we're lucky, Kelso had the time and inclination to scratch a message into the valet kiosk at the Hasler Brothers Steak House. It would read "Kelso was here".
The steak house is right at the corner of Chestnut Street and Main, right behind the hallowed Bastropian bar known as Cindy's Downtown to a few, but all of my friends still call it "THE O.B." or "THE OYSTER BAR", after the legendary long term now defunct bar known as THE GENUINE OYSTER BAR: THE PEARL OF BASTROP, where Cindy's now resides.
I'll do some digging into this controversy and get back about the exact nature of the allegations. Since I don't have any reliable information about the valet parking controversy, I'll hold off stating what the controversy is until I know. Maybe Kelso will tell me.
If the Bastrop Advertiser was on line, I could just google it up and I'd be able to tell you what they report. But they are not online with any news presence, and somehow the last two papers got misplaced and now I can't find them.
As far as reserving parking spaces downtown, since they are public spaces, I'm against a business being able to commandeer spaces, even those in front of their business. Now, if they're having a parade or some kind of downtown festival with the streets closed, then that's an acceptable taking over of the parking spaces.
If you're having a large funeral at one of the churches downtown and need the spaces, by all means, block them off. If a convention of WWII vets is meeting on Memorial Day or the like for dinner downtown and are old and infirm and can barely walk then by all means block spaces off for these heroes to park for free. I won't mind walking an extra block.There are several large lots within one (large lots behind Baxters and behind Lock's) and two block (Courthouse and 1st Baptist Church parking lots) walking distance or less. So it would seem there are plenty of free places to park for someone wanting to run a valet company.
As I mentioned, I saw that there was a recent article in the Bastrop Advertiser that discussed this controversy. Alas, I have not read it yet. I guess I'll have to wait to read Kelso to get the scoop. The Bastrop Advertiser writers are good, but not funny like Kelso can be when he gets on a roll. I'm at least firmly planted in middle age now and a lot of the stuff that tickles him makes me laugh too.
I like Kelso as a writer. I've never met him, but I bet he'd be a hoot to share a few beers with. On a personal note, he's mentioned he's undergoing treatment for cancer, and I certainly pray for him and wish him a speedy victory in his battle. War is hell, and based upon personal experience, I know cancer is just as much hell as war for the patient and family.
I generally agree with all of his non-political writings. I agree about half the time with his political views about State and National politics, but even I'll admit I laugh through some of his political commentary that I don't personally agree with.
So be looking for it. Although I didn't see any postings on telephone polls harkening back to the WWII legends that "Kilroy was here", the way my phone was ringing off the wall yesterday, you'd have thought that Kilroy himself appeared in Bastrop.
Maybe, if we're lucky, Kelso had the time and inclination to scratch a message into the valet kiosk at the Hasler Brothers Steak House. It would read "Kelso was here".
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Rest in Peace, Senator
With the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy, we have officially ended the legacy of the Kennedy brothers. Although other Kennedy clan members remain in public service, it is unlikely they will have the profound effect upon America that the brothers John, Robert and Ted had during more than the last half century.
Love him or hate him, Ted Kennedy has been a Senator for most of my life, and the influence he had upon this nation could be described as nothing less than profound. Though his views were often to the left of what I believed, we have a need for differing views in American, and in the institutions that govern us all.
What a hard life he must have had after both of his beloved brothers were killed by crazies for trying to lead this country. What a huge threat to have hanging over your head and that of every child and cousin and member of your family, that if you run for president, some nut is likely to kill you, or at least try. Many of the Senator’s mistakes and missteps in his later life are undoubtedly explained, at least somewhat, by this horrific cloud of tragedy that has hung over the Kennedy family since the death of President Kennedy.
His death comes ten years after the death of the Kennedy family member that was the king of my generation’s Camelot, John Kennedy Jr. It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years since the wife and I spent the better part of a weekend watching the televised coverage of the search for his plane.
As a child, the first time death was ever really explained to me was with the assassination of President John Kennedy. I was just old enough to know what a president was, and what they do, and had already been told countless times that one day I too could be president if I worked and studied hard. My mother dressed me like John Jr., both before and after the death of his father. Pictures of me in a short sleeved dress shirt and shorts with suspenders and a “John-John” haircut still adorn my parents home.
John Jr. was the great hope for me and others in my generation. When he died, so died with it the notion that President Kennedy’s son could one day continue the great works his father had begun. I always had respect for John Jr. He became a prosecutor when many law firms in the country would have paid millions for him to join their firm, inexperience be damned.
I was reading the articles today about the Senator’s death and came across one story that quoted part of the eulogy he delivered when his brother Robert was murdered. Back in 1970 or so, my mom bought me an album of great speeches by great leaders of that time, most of whom had been killed for their beliefs. “Here, listen to this for a while instead of The Rolling Stones”, my mom said.
And listen I did. The speeches on that album still ring loud inside my head nearly 40 years later. The album had iconic speeches from the 1960’s. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. President Kennedy’s inaugural speech. Neil Armstrong’s first words on the moon. One of Robert Kennedy’s speeches.
True to my mother’s wishes, my sister and I were captivated by the speeches of the icons of our youth, most of whom had been killed for doing what they believed in. Maybe that’s why I’m always so ready to jump on a soapbox, inspired at an early age by those speeches my mother wanted us to listen to.
But the most moving speech of all on that record was by Ted Kennedy, in his eulogy of his brother Robert. As CNN reminded me today in their coverage of the Senator, he said that his brother Robert was “a good and decent man who saw wrong and tried to right it; who saw suffering and tried to heal it; who saw war and tried to stop it.”
Those words were on that record too. I remembered them instantly as I read them today on CNN, over 40 years after they were spoken. I could hear them, and the emotional delivery that spoke them, just as if I was listening to that album today.
They were perhaps the most profound words on that record, which is a heady statement considering who else made those speeches. Although I well remembered the words, until today I had forgotten who spoke them.
Those words apply to Ted Kennedy as well. Again, he made mistakes. He admitted those mistakes and lived with their burden until the day he died.
I’ll have to go find that album at my parent’s house this weekend and record it on to CD for my kids to listen to.
Rest in Peace, Senator. You and your brothers and sisters are now all together, and I pray your family has some peace in this their time of grieving for you and your sister, and the last of Joseph’s children.
Love him or hate him, Ted Kennedy has been a Senator for most of my life, and the influence he had upon this nation could be described as nothing less than profound. Though his views were often to the left of what I believed, we have a need for differing views in American, and in the institutions that govern us all.
What a hard life he must have had after both of his beloved brothers were killed by crazies for trying to lead this country. What a huge threat to have hanging over your head and that of every child and cousin and member of your family, that if you run for president, some nut is likely to kill you, or at least try. Many of the Senator’s mistakes and missteps in his later life are undoubtedly explained, at least somewhat, by this horrific cloud of tragedy that has hung over the Kennedy family since the death of President Kennedy.
His death comes ten years after the death of the Kennedy family member that was the king of my generation’s Camelot, John Kennedy Jr. It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years since the wife and I spent the better part of a weekend watching the televised coverage of the search for his plane.
As a child, the first time death was ever really explained to me was with the assassination of President John Kennedy. I was just old enough to know what a president was, and what they do, and had already been told countless times that one day I too could be president if I worked and studied hard. My mother dressed me like John Jr., both before and after the death of his father. Pictures of me in a short sleeved dress shirt and shorts with suspenders and a “John-John” haircut still adorn my parents home.
John Jr. was the great hope for me and others in my generation. When he died, so died with it the notion that President Kennedy’s son could one day continue the great works his father had begun. I always had respect for John Jr. He became a prosecutor when many law firms in the country would have paid millions for him to join their firm, inexperience be damned.
I was reading the articles today about the Senator’s death and came across one story that quoted part of the eulogy he delivered when his brother Robert was murdered. Back in 1970 or so, my mom bought me an album of great speeches by great leaders of that time, most of whom had been killed for their beliefs. “Here, listen to this for a while instead of The Rolling Stones”, my mom said.
And listen I did. The speeches on that album still ring loud inside my head nearly 40 years later. The album had iconic speeches from the 1960’s. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. President Kennedy’s inaugural speech. Neil Armstrong’s first words on the moon. One of Robert Kennedy’s speeches.
True to my mother’s wishes, my sister and I were captivated by the speeches of the icons of our youth, most of whom had been killed for doing what they believed in. Maybe that’s why I’m always so ready to jump on a soapbox, inspired at an early age by those speeches my mother wanted us to listen to.
But the most moving speech of all on that record was by Ted Kennedy, in his eulogy of his brother Robert. As CNN reminded me today in their coverage of the Senator, he said that his brother Robert was “a good and decent man who saw wrong and tried to right it; who saw suffering and tried to heal it; who saw war and tried to stop it.”
Those words were on that record too. I remembered them instantly as I read them today on CNN, over 40 years after they were spoken. I could hear them, and the emotional delivery that spoke them, just as if I was listening to that album today.
They were perhaps the most profound words on that record, which is a heady statement considering who else made those speeches. Although I well remembered the words, until today I had forgotten who spoke them.
Those words apply to Ted Kennedy as well. Again, he made mistakes. He admitted those mistakes and lived with their burden until the day he died.
I’ll have to go find that album at my parent’s house this weekend and record it on to CD for my kids to listen to.
Rest in Peace, Senator. You and your brothers and sisters are now all together, and I pray your family has some peace in this their time of grieving for you and your sister, and the last of Joseph’s children.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
DON'T JUMP!
Nearly every time I drive across the bridge over the Colorado River in Bastrop, I remember the stories I've heard of a woman who jumped off the bridge in a suicide attempt.
It's my understanding she did not die, although she got stuck up to her knees in the Colorado River bottom muck and it took a rescue crew to get her unstuck from her impacted position. Supposedly this happened around 15 or 20 years ago, so it was in the recent past. The water there was about a foot or so deep, so here she is in the middle of the Colorado River up to her waist in water with her lower 40 firmly planted in the mud.
You often see The Pool Shark walking across the bridge in the morning and early evenings. Sporting a pool cue in a carrying case and often times a dated if not sporty clothing ensemble, he can be seen nearly every morning walking across the old bridge into Bastrop to hang out where ever a pool shark hangs out in a town with little or no pool tables.
The old Oyster Bar used to have a table, if memory serves, and back in the day that's where The Pool Shark could be found, waiting to hustle yet another cocky and free spending young man of a few bucks off a pool game. But with the Cindy's Sports Bar revamp, the pool table is gone. I hear tell they have one at the sports bar at the movie/bowling alley called Chestnut Square, but I have not bothered to wander back to the bar while attending a movie to verify that claim.
That must be where The Pool Shark is hanging these days. Used to be, he'd occupy various benchs on Main Street near City Hall and change sides of the street as the shady areas moved from one side of the street to the other. Lately, you don't see him just hanging out on Main Street.
The Pool Shark is generally harmless and he's never messed with me or any of my friends. You don't see him visiting much with folks on the street ever, and he just pretty much keeps to himself. He doesn't appear to be a big drinker, as he never reeks of alcohol, but often he does have that Bastrop Bad Hair going when he removes his fedora or ball cap. Of course, that could just be "hat hair", and I have decided that hat hair qualifies as Bastrop Bad Hair if hat hair is displayed in public.
On occasion in the afternoons, I've seen The Pool Shark way down on Chestnut near the movies and I've surmised he's been hanging at the bar there, if indeed they have a pool table. Funny, even though the guy doesn't seem to have a job, he's like clockwork crossing that bridge every morning and afternoon, just like it's a real job with standard hours. But rain or shine, hot or cold, you can see that Rascal in town doing what appears to be his job, which seems to be hanging out.
I wonder if he ever thinks about the girl that jumped off the old bridge and got stuck in the mud instead of killed?
It's my understanding she did not die, although she got stuck up to her knees in the Colorado River bottom muck and it took a rescue crew to get her unstuck from her impacted position. Supposedly this happened around 15 or 20 years ago, so it was in the recent past. The water there was about a foot or so deep, so here she is in the middle of the Colorado River up to her waist in water with her lower 40 firmly planted in the mud.
You often see The Pool Shark walking across the bridge in the morning and early evenings. Sporting a pool cue in a carrying case and often times a dated if not sporty clothing ensemble, he can be seen nearly every morning walking across the old bridge into Bastrop to hang out where ever a pool shark hangs out in a town with little or no pool tables.
The old Oyster Bar used to have a table, if memory serves, and back in the day that's where The Pool Shark could be found, waiting to hustle yet another cocky and free spending young man of a few bucks off a pool game. But with the Cindy's Sports Bar revamp, the pool table is gone. I hear tell they have one at the sports bar at the movie/bowling alley called Chestnut Square, but I have not bothered to wander back to the bar while attending a movie to verify that claim.
That must be where The Pool Shark is hanging these days. Used to be, he'd occupy various benchs on Main Street near City Hall and change sides of the street as the shady areas moved from one side of the street to the other. Lately, you don't see him just hanging out on Main Street.
The Pool Shark is generally harmless and he's never messed with me or any of my friends. You don't see him visiting much with folks on the street ever, and he just pretty much keeps to himself. He doesn't appear to be a big drinker, as he never reeks of alcohol, but often he does have that Bastrop Bad Hair going when he removes his fedora or ball cap. Of course, that could just be "hat hair", and I have decided that hat hair qualifies as Bastrop Bad Hair if hat hair is displayed in public.
On occasion in the afternoons, I've seen The Pool Shark way down on Chestnut near the movies and I've surmised he's been hanging at the bar there, if indeed they have a pool table. Funny, even though the guy doesn't seem to have a job, he's like clockwork crossing that bridge every morning and afternoon, just like it's a real job with standard hours. But rain or shine, hot or cold, you can see that Rascal in town doing what appears to be his job, which seems to be hanging out.
I wonder if he ever thinks about the girl that jumped off the old bridge and got stuck in the mud instead of killed?
Quote of the Day
Our quote of the day today comes from native Texan and Hollywood star Gary Busey. A few years ago, Busey told an interviewer that a doctor told him that he had "The Strength of 10 men with jobs".
As I've noted before, Gary is not from Bastrop, but is from Baytown, Texas, which at the time he lived there was known as Goose Creek. He then moved on to Oklahoma with his family and ultimately landed in L.A. But I've got a friend in Bastrop who could double as a brother for Busey. My friend lives out in Cedar Creek, and has the look and attitude down pat. Everytime I see my friend, I think of Busey.
The Strength of 10 men with jobs? What the hell does that mean?
As I've noted before, Gary is not from Bastrop, but is from Baytown, Texas, which at the time he lived there was known as Goose Creek. He then moved on to Oklahoma with his family and ultimately landed in L.A. But I've got a friend in Bastrop who could double as a brother for Busey. My friend lives out in Cedar Creek, and has the look and attitude down pat. Everytime I see my friend, I think of Busey.
The Strength of 10 men with jobs? What the hell does that mean?
Monday, August 24, 2009
What's your favorite thing about Bastrop?
My favorite thing is the fact that I get to know more folks in town than in the big city. I know my pharmacist, my doctor, their staffs and many of the folks who work in the restaurants I patronize.
I particularly like keeping my money in the community as much as possible. So many businesses in today's world are chains that are owned by mega-corporations. Others, although American owned, sell so much chinese crap that they might as well be foreign owned.
Lock's is a favorite store of mine. They know my name and take very good care of me. David Lock always has something to say as well. Going to Lock's is truly like living in Mayberry, R.F.D. where you feel like you are Andy Taylor going to the drug store.
I love going to Anita's and the Deli Depot and Baxter's because the people who own those restaurants and who work in them truly value your business. Anytime I've had a problem in any of these places they are instantly addressed and solved, usually by the owner herself. They're all restaurants on Main Street in Bastrop, and they are great places to eat. That's where lots of my friends often go and I've had lots of good times and meals at each of those places.
As I said, I like local businesses. For example, the independant music store in cities and towns large and small has mostly gone the way of the full service gasoline station. Bastrop has an excellent small music store, Owen's Music. They rent and sell band instruments to the area kids in the band programs and give lessons and sell guitars and bass guitars and such. If you're needed standard musical instrument accessories, they've usually got what you need.
Lots of small town Texas towns had independant local businesses like pharmacies and musical instrument stores and record stores and sporting goods stores and tire stores and the like when I was coming up. As someone who has been playing guitar at a beginner level for the past 30 odd years, I've always enjoyed shopping trips to local musical instrument stores when visiting friends and relatives through the years in small town Texas.
From East Texas to South Texas to West Texas, I've visited all kinds of very cool music stores that usually had great deals on guitars. There's a killer guitar store down in Alpine, Texas that I love to visit, and I used to buy a lot of strings at Mundt Music in Tyler as a kid. There's a score of Austin music stores, my favorite of which is South Austin Music, conveniently located next to The Saxon Pub on South Lamar.
I like small gun shops and fishing stores as well, and both of those, like the independant music store, have been replaced by big box retailers like Academy, Cabela's and the like. Bastrop also has a pretty decent gun shop, being John's Guns. Again, like Owens Music, not the biggest selection, but I've bought a gun from them and it was a good deal for a very nice used weapon.
Lake Bastrop Marine offers some limited fishing tackle, and the outfitting store on Main in Elgin likewise has fishing and some hunting gear. I hope the outfitting business in Elgin is still open, as I haven't been to downtown Elgin in at least a year now.
Used to be, Gibson's Discount Center, K-Mart, Western Auto and True Value Hardware stores used to have very respectable gun and fishing departments. These stores used to vary their inventory by region, so if you were in Corpus you'd have an entirely different selection than you would in Longview.
We're lucky in Bastrop to have a few independant stores like these. I patronize them often, if for no other reason than to try to make sure they'll be here tomorrow when I really need something.
These small independant stores were once the backbones of local towns ability to get those kinds of products without driving to the nearest town big enough to absolutely have those kinds of stores.
What are your favorite local businesses in Bastrop County?
I particularly like keeping my money in the community as much as possible. So many businesses in today's world are chains that are owned by mega-corporations. Others, although American owned, sell so much chinese crap that they might as well be foreign owned.
Lock's is a favorite store of mine. They know my name and take very good care of me. David Lock always has something to say as well. Going to Lock's is truly like living in Mayberry, R.F.D. where you feel like you are Andy Taylor going to the drug store.
I love going to Anita's and the Deli Depot and Baxter's because the people who own those restaurants and who work in them truly value your business. Anytime I've had a problem in any of these places they are instantly addressed and solved, usually by the owner herself. They're all restaurants on Main Street in Bastrop, and they are great places to eat. That's where lots of my friends often go and I've had lots of good times and meals at each of those places.
As I said, I like local businesses. For example, the independant music store in cities and towns large and small has mostly gone the way of the full service gasoline station. Bastrop has an excellent small music store, Owen's Music. They rent and sell band instruments to the area kids in the band programs and give lessons and sell guitars and bass guitars and such. If you're needed standard musical instrument accessories, they've usually got what you need.
Lots of small town Texas towns had independant local businesses like pharmacies and musical instrument stores and record stores and sporting goods stores and tire stores and the like when I was coming up. As someone who has been playing guitar at a beginner level for the past 30 odd years, I've always enjoyed shopping trips to local musical instrument stores when visiting friends and relatives through the years in small town Texas.
From East Texas to South Texas to West Texas, I've visited all kinds of very cool music stores that usually had great deals on guitars. There's a killer guitar store down in Alpine, Texas that I love to visit, and I used to buy a lot of strings at Mundt Music in Tyler as a kid. There's a score of Austin music stores, my favorite of which is South Austin Music, conveniently located next to The Saxon Pub on South Lamar.
I like small gun shops and fishing stores as well, and both of those, like the independant music store, have been replaced by big box retailers like Academy, Cabela's and the like. Bastrop also has a pretty decent gun shop, being John's Guns. Again, like Owens Music, not the biggest selection, but I've bought a gun from them and it was a good deal for a very nice used weapon.
Lake Bastrop Marine offers some limited fishing tackle, and the outfitting store on Main in Elgin likewise has fishing and some hunting gear. I hope the outfitting business in Elgin is still open, as I haven't been to downtown Elgin in at least a year now.
Used to be, Gibson's Discount Center, K-Mart, Western Auto and True Value Hardware stores used to have very respectable gun and fishing departments. These stores used to vary their inventory by region, so if you were in Corpus you'd have an entirely different selection than you would in Longview.
We're lucky in Bastrop to have a few independant stores like these. I patronize them often, if for no other reason than to try to make sure they'll be here tomorrow when I really need something.
These small independant stores were once the backbones of local towns ability to get those kinds of products without driving to the nearest town big enough to absolutely have those kinds of stores.
What are your favorite local businesses in Bastrop County?
Sunday, August 23, 2009
A Regular Feature: Bastrop Bad Hair Pt 3
With the prevalence of photos of bad hair on the internet, I suspect a semi-regular feature will emerge here, with me searching for uniquely bad hairstyles the likes of which I've seen in town. Since I won't be showing actual photos of Bastropians, this should lessen the chance of me getting assaulted by posting a picture of an actual Bastrop Bad Hair persona.
I couldn't resist a few photos of one of my favorite zany Hollywood stars Gary Busey. For some quality Gary acting, watch Point Break with Keanu Reeves. They make a good team, just like Reed and Malloy on Adam-12 or Starsky and Hutch.
For real grins and giggles, to to youtube and watch some Busey videos espousing some of his "Buseyisms". I promise it will make you smile, or at least shake your head. Here's a Buseyism..."NOW! NO OTHER WAY!".
Gary's not from Bastrop, but he easily could be. He's really from just down the road, in Baytown, Texas.
More Bastrop Bad Hair Pt 2
Here's another variety of styles you're likely to see in Bastrop. As I write this, at 11:41 PM, I'm saying that if you were to head to Walmart right now you'd see a hairdo similar to one of the above.
More likely, you'd see a mullet or stringy ponytail sported by an old guy who is almost bald, yet insists on wearing what I call the Bad Hair Dude Ponytail. Someone needs to tell these fellows to shave their heads. Be like Brittany.
"Hey dude with the Mullet. Yeah, you. 1982 is calling and they want their haircut back".
Of course, the look that Nick Nolte is sporting in his booking photo above is seen all over Bastrop. Usually a little shorter or a little longer, the general effect is the same. Pandimonium.
I've never seen an entire family sporting mullets and Jennifer Beal hair like the one pictured above, but I'll kiss your rear if there wasn't at least one family who had mullets like that in Bastrop in the 1980's.
Some examples of Bastrop Bad Hair Pt. 1
None of the folks featured above are Bastropians. But these are some styles you might see if you were hobnobbing at an event with the elite of Bastrop.
The bearded, heavy helmet hair style is still very popular in Bastrop. The more beard, the better.
The Trump combover is also very popular, although often when it is seen in Bastrop it is oily and unwashed.
The final picture features some chick with a "WTF" hairdo. Some kind of rave generation variant of the "Texas Big Bar Hair" hairstyle.
Rain and other random Sunday thoughts
Rain. We need it. We have not gotten much of it lately.
I watched, both on TV and out the window last night as the storm coming in from the north slipped right around the City of Bastrop. It got kinda stormy looking tonight but as with one other night this past week, despite the thunder and lightening, no rain.
These 100+ days have been kicking my rear end. I don't like them. You'd think I'd be used to them, having lived my entire life in this part of Texas where 90's and 100's with loads of humidity are common. But it seems every year, I wilt a little bit more when faced with outdoors activities during the 100's.
Bastrop often seems to be in a weather warp as far as rain is concerned. Although Bastrop was recently ranked as one of the top 9 in Texas drought stricken counties, there has been some rain around this summer that we have not got at my house. Several weeks ago, we had the marvelous evening long rainstorm, and several of my co-horts remarked they were tempted to dance naked in the rain, it's been so long since they've seen a good drenching.
Everyone's yard looks like hell, except for those with lots of shade on the grass. Parts of my yard, like many others, are surviving but it's taken it's toll. Just a repeat of last summer. Then the yard looks like hell throughout the winter. This spring, we had a bit of rain, and the yard began recovering. I watered and fertilized and tended and even raked some of the dead spots to get the grass to spread in faster. Just as it was looking good, and just as we had the herb and tomato garden producing, whammo. No rain.
The garden held on, with daily watering, until about mid-july. My neighbors peach trees normally bear some fruit, no matter how dry, but this year the growth process didn't even happen. My watermelons never really did anything, but we got a few loads of tomatos and lots of different types of herbs and peppers going until everything just wilted. The intense heat and lack of natural rainwater just took it's toll.
Just like last summer.
I'm big on tomatos, you see. I like them to smell like tomatos and taste like tomatos and it's rare that you can find a decent tomato in the stores. I hardly found many at the Farmer's Market this year, except for some way overpriced heirloom tomatos but they sure were good. On at hot day, coming back to the office, there's nothing like biting into some fresh tomato slices glazed with some sea salt. Maybe a little italian dressing and bleu cheese if you wanna get fancy, but on occasion I've been known to eat a chilled tomato like an apple, if it's good enough.
We've developed a slight addiction to Jalisco's breakfast tacos on Saturdays at our house. The lack of good breakfast places on the weekend in Bastrop is lamentable. There is always The Texas Grille, or Maxine's on Main and then a couple of mexican food places have both american and mexican breakfast fare.
I like the City Cafe breakfast buffett but the main problem is that it's in Elgin, which means driving on the suicide highway, State Highway 95 that runs from Bastrop to Elgin and back. We don't much care for that highway, and it seems like someone is always getting killed on that highway. People speed, they pass like idiots, they tailgate, they talk on cell phones with their car seats all laid back like it was a massage parlor and they literally scare the crap outta me every time I'm on that road. I avoid it whenever possible.
It just seems like there's always someone getting killed in car wrecks in Bastrop, and often not on Hwy 71 but on Hwy's 20 and 21 and FM 304. Entire families have been wiped out in the recent past. Some of it is alcohol related but much of it is dumbass related. Someone is breaking some traffic law and driving fast enough that a bad wreck happens and someone dies.
One thing Bastrop has no shortage of is BIG TRUCKS with EXTENDED CABS. Many of these trucks are the super-duper heavy duty trucks and are often diesel powered. They range from the utilitarian to the ridiculous in tire size. I realize many folks in Bastrop have either travel trailers or horses and livestock that need to be pulled in trailers and that trailer pulling requires horsepower and torque.
But I see lots of fashionable type folks who have no more of a need for a F350 Super Cab than I do for a third foot. I work with some of them. I listen to them gripe about their poor gas milage and the high cost of diesel. Trucks so big that they have to take up two spaces due to their width and length. Trucks so big that the "aw screw it" mentality of many of their drivers is evident upon seeing the horrible parking job they do in parking lots.
I am often unlucky, having some erstwhile cowboy truck parked so close to the drivers side of my car that I can't get in the drivers side. It's happened more than once at HEB and Walmart where I enter the store and when I leave, some humongous truck that could tow a small school building is parked literally as close to the driver's side of my car as it can get without touching the car.
So close that opening my driver's door is impossible. So you have to enter from another door and climb over the seat. In some cars, as you begin to become well-established in middle age, climbing over seats and across seats is a much bigger deal than it was just 10 years ago.
These super big trucks remind me of vanless vans, if that makes sense. In some of my mispent youth in the 1970's, I can recall "cruising" in custom vans owned by a couple of friends. The super big trucks are often luxurious but lack the best part of a big vehicle: The back part of the van.
I often try to imagine my more country friends who drive these behemoth trucks and wonder what kind of custom van they'd have if they didn't have a truck. For sure, most of them would sport some kind of longhorn horns on the front. TV's inside for watching Jerry Springer reruns. Most of the fellas I know would be extra proud to have some sort of water bed in their van, just as they would have back in the day.
I've been trying to intimate to several of my big truck friends that what they really need is a 4wd heavy duty Ford or Chevy van, something that would tow their load of livestock but also provide some sort of rolling bar for their continuing exploits.
I watched, both on TV and out the window last night as the storm coming in from the north slipped right around the City of Bastrop. It got kinda stormy looking tonight but as with one other night this past week, despite the thunder and lightening, no rain.
These 100+ days have been kicking my rear end. I don't like them. You'd think I'd be used to them, having lived my entire life in this part of Texas where 90's and 100's with loads of humidity are common. But it seems every year, I wilt a little bit more when faced with outdoors activities during the 100's.
Bastrop often seems to be in a weather warp as far as rain is concerned. Although Bastrop was recently ranked as one of the top 9 in Texas drought stricken counties, there has been some rain around this summer that we have not got at my house. Several weeks ago, we had the marvelous evening long rainstorm, and several of my co-horts remarked they were tempted to dance naked in the rain, it's been so long since they've seen a good drenching.
Everyone's yard looks like hell, except for those with lots of shade on the grass. Parts of my yard, like many others, are surviving but it's taken it's toll. Just a repeat of last summer. Then the yard looks like hell throughout the winter. This spring, we had a bit of rain, and the yard began recovering. I watered and fertilized and tended and even raked some of the dead spots to get the grass to spread in faster. Just as it was looking good, and just as we had the herb and tomato garden producing, whammo. No rain.
The garden held on, with daily watering, until about mid-july. My neighbors peach trees normally bear some fruit, no matter how dry, but this year the growth process didn't even happen. My watermelons never really did anything, but we got a few loads of tomatos and lots of different types of herbs and peppers going until everything just wilted. The intense heat and lack of natural rainwater just took it's toll.
Just like last summer.
I'm big on tomatos, you see. I like them to smell like tomatos and taste like tomatos and it's rare that you can find a decent tomato in the stores. I hardly found many at the Farmer's Market this year, except for some way overpriced heirloom tomatos but they sure were good. On at hot day, coming back to the office, there's nothing like biting into some fresh tomato slices glazed with some sea salt. Maybe a little italian dressing and bleu cheese if you wanna get fancy, but on occasion I've been known to eat a chilled tomato like an apple, if it's good enough.
We've developed a slight addiction to Jalisco's breakfast tacos on Saturdays at our house. The lack of good breakfast places on the weekend in Bastrop is lamentable. There is always The Texas Grille, or Maxine's on Main and then a couple of mexican food places have both american and mexican breakfast fare.
I like the City Cafe breakfast buffett but the main problem is that it's in Elgin, which means driving on the suicide highway, State Highway 95 that runs from Bastrop to Elgin and back. We don't much care for that highway, and it seems like someone is always getting killed on that highway. People speed, they pass like idiots, they tailgate, they talk on cell phones with their car seats all laid back like it was a massage parlor and they literally scare the crap outta me every time I'm on that road. I avoid it whenever possible.
It just seems like there's always someone getting killed in car wrecks in Bastrop, and often not on Hwy 71 but on Hwy's 20 and 21 and FM 304. Entire families have been wiped out in the recent past. Some of it is alcohol related but much of it is dumbass related. Someone is breaking some traffic law and driving fast enough that a bad wreck happens and someone dies.
One thing Bastrop has no shortage of is BIG TRUCKS with EXTENDED CABS. Many of these trucks are the super-duper heavy duty trucks and are often diesel powered. They range from the utilitarian to the ridiculous in tire size. I realize many folks in Bastrop have either travel trailers or horses and livestock that need to be pulled in trailers and that trailer pulling requires horsepower and torque.
But I see lots of fashionable type folks who have no more of a need for a F350 Super Cab than I do for a third foot. I work with some of them. I listen to them gripe about their poor gas milage and the high cost of diesel. Trucks so big that they have to take up two spaces due to their width and length. Trucks so big that the "aw screw it" mentality of many of their drivers is evident upon seeing the horrible parking job they do in parking lots.
I am often unlucky, having some erstwhile cowboy truck parked so close to the drivers side of my car that I can't get in the drivers side. It's happened more than once at HEB and Walmart where I enter the store and when I leave, some humongous truck that could tow a small school building is parked literally as close to the driver's side of my car as it can get without touching the car.
So close that opening my driver's door is impossible. So you have to enter from another door and climb over the seat. In some cars, as you begin to become well-established in middle age, climbing over seats and across seats is a much bigger deal than it was just 10 years ago.
These super big trucks remind me of vanless vans, if that makes sense. In some of my mispent youth in the 1970's, I can recall "cruising" in custom vans owned by a couple of friends. The super big trucks are often luxurious but lack the best part of a big vehicle: The back part of the van.
I often try to imagine my more country friends who drive these behemoth trucks and wonder what kind of custom van they'd have if they didn't have a truck. For sure, most of them would sport some kind of longhorn horns on the front. TV's inside for watching Jerry Springer reruns. Most of the fellas I know would be extra proud to have some sort of water bed in their van, just as they would have back in the day.
I've been trying to intimate to several of my big truck friends that what they really need is a 4wd heavy duty Ford or Chevy van, something that would tow their load of livestock but also provide some sort of rolling bar for their continuing exploits.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
DRINKING ON SATURDAY NIGHT, IN BASTROP, TEXAS
There's a few things to do for the outgoing soul in Bastrop, Texas. It ain't 6th Street in Austin. It ain't Deep Ellum in Big D. It ain't downtown or Washington Avenue in Houston. But if you're interested in a few adult beverages and maybe some live music, then there is usually something going on.
The historic Bastrop County drinking spot for those in the know who don't mind driving a few miles outside of Bastrop proper is LEON'S in Rockne. You can go to the Catholic Church in Rockne and head on across the street for a cold one after church. It doesn't happen "all the time", but it happens. Beer. BYOB. Sometimes they have bands, otherwise they have the best jukebox in Bastrop County. LEON'S is so damn historic as to warrant it's own future blog post.
If you're wanting to confine your roaming to Main Street or thereabouts in Bastrop proper, thankfully there's a few diverse options, several of which serve hard liquor, which is essential to any drinking expedition.
With all due respect to LEON'S, I wish they'd get their liquor license, because even though you should always have a designated driver, open containers in cars are still illegal, even with a sober driver. An open bottle of liquor accessible to the occupants is an open container, as I have been told by several law men.
The drinking often begins and ends at Cindy's Gone Hog Wild on Main Street. It might be actually called Cindy's Sports Bar, but I'm too lazy to google, and I really don't care what they call it. For all intents, although wonderfully remodeled, it is still THE GENUINE OYSTER BAR. For those interested in an unimportant historical detail, the old GOB sign which reads THE GENUINE OYSTER BAR: THE PEARL OF BASTROP is still visible above Cindy's when approaching Main after crossing the Colorado River bridge from Highway 71, painted years ago on one of the upstairs walls of the building.
It's fancy now, and like it's sister bar CINDY'S ICE HOUSE just across the Travis County line, it's owned by the same folks. The owners like to drive around in their logo bearing white Hummer. The Ice House tends to be sort of a biker hangout, but that's mostly good because bikers these days are generally not criminals. They want to look like criminals, and perhaps act tough, but generally they're civil lawyers and accountants and middle managers and architects who need excitement and meaning in their lives. Somewhere over the past decade, a Harley became the Corvette and twenty something girlfriend of the mid-life crisis, and you see the yuppie motorcycling hordes around Austin all the time at CINDY'S ICE HOUSE.
I think they should have called the new place Cindy's Oyster Bar. Drinks are a bit more expensive than elsewhere but that keeps the riffiest of the riff-raff out, a problem that the old Oyster Bar never really could seem to solve.
For this blog, it shall be known as Cindy's Oyster Bar, because that's what I think they should have called it. COB. Apologies to the owners of Cindy's, but many of us older townfolk still like to call it THE OYSTER BAR, and at times when feeling grandiose THE GENUINE OYSTER BAR: THE PEARL OF BASTROP.
Cowboys, working class folks, local professionals and some bikers are often the usual suspects here. The TV's blare a bit loud at certain times but it's clean and it's nice and they make good drinks generally.
There's no smoking at Cindy's in Bastrop, but just a short hop down the street is The Big Mouth Grill bar and restaurant. You can smoke in that bar, and the drinks are cheaper there than elsewhere. Less cowboys and more bohemians tend to frequent here, but as will all social nightclubs in Bastrop, no rule is absolute.
Across the street from Big Mouth is Baxter's. Baxter's is the fanciest and nicest restaurant that Bastrop has, and a while ago Terri the owner opened a nice little bar that has it's own separate door. I think it's called a martini bar but they have everything there. It's smaller and a lot quieter and although connected to the restaurant, it's actually fairly quiet and low key for those times when you're not wanting to mingle with the regulars from either of the other two bars.
Gracie's sometimes has bands on weekends and serves beer. She also has great country cooking food as well.
Across from Cindy's is a Mexican Restaurant called Ramos that features a full bar and good drinks, although they don't stay open as late as Cindy's, Big Mouth and Baxters. Ramos used to be a nightclub called THE WESTERN PLEASURE CLUB, and some of my old dear cowboyish Bastrop friends considered it nirvana when it came to dancing and carousing. It met it's demise years ago, and suffice it to say, there are several lonely cowboys in town who cry every so often at the mere mention of it's name.
There's a bar down at Chestnut Square, where the movie theaters and bowling alley is. I've never been there, but heard it is ok, but it's not the crowd I run with. Most of us in town didn't think adding a bar to the teen movie theater/bowling hangout was not the greatest thing in the world, and it's yet another sports bar, so I haven't been in there. Besides, all my favorite spots are right on Main street and in Rockne.
In any of these locales, you're likely to encounter Bastrop Bad Hair at it's finest.
The historic Bastrop County drinking spot for those in the know who don't mind driving a few miles outside of Bastrop proper is LEON'S in Rockne. You can go to the Catholic Church in Rockne and head on across the street for a cold one after church. It doesn't happen "all the time", but it happens. Beer. BYOB. Sometimes they have bands, otherwise they have the best jukebox in Bastrop County. LEON'S is so damn historic as to warrant it's own future blog post.
If you're wanting to confine your roaming to Main Street or thereabouts in Bastrop proper, thankfully there's a few diverse options, several of which serve hard liquor, which is essential to any drinking expedition.
With all due respect to LEON'S, I wish they'd get their liquor license, because even though you should always have a designated driver, open containers in cars are still illegal, even with a sober driver. An open bottle of liquor accessible to the occupants is an open container, as I have been told by several law men.
The drinking often begins and ends at Cindy's Gone Hog Wild on Main Street. It might be actually called Cindy's Sports Bar, but I'm too lazy to google, and I really don't care what they call it. For all intents, although wonderfully remodeled, it is still THE GENUINE OYSTER BAR. For those interested in an unimportant historical detail, the old GOB sign which reads THE GENUINE OYSTER BAR: THE PEARL OF BASTROP is still visible above Cindy's when approaching Main after crossing the Colorado River bridge from Highway 71, painted years ago on one of the upstairs walls of the building.
It's fancy now, and like it's sister bar CINDY'S ICE HOUSE just across the Travis County line, it's owned by the same folks. The owners like to drive around in their logo bearing white Hummer. The Ice House tends to be sort of a biker hangout, but that's mostly good because bikers these days are generally not criminals. They want to look like criminals, and perhaps act tough, but generally they're civil lawyers and accountants and middle managers and architects who need excitement and meaning in their lives. Somewhere over the past decade, a Harley became the Corvette and twenty something girlfriend of the mid-life crisis, and you see the yuppie motorcycling hordes around Austin all the time at CINDY'S ICE HOUSE.
I think they should have called the new place Cindy's Oyster Bar. Drinks are a bit more expensive than elsewhere but that keeps the riffiest of the riff-raff out, a problem that the old Oyster Bar never really could seem to solve.
For this blog, it shall be known as Cindy's Oyster Bar, because that's what I think they should have called it. COB. Apologies to the owners of Cindy's, but many of us older townfolk still like to call it THE OYSTER BAR, and at times when feeling grandiose THE GENUINE OYSTER BAR: THE PEARL OF BASTROP.
Cowboys, working class folks, local professionals and some bikers are often the usual suspects here. The TV's blare a bit loud at certain times but it's clean and it's nice and they make good drinks generally.
There's no smoking at Cindy's in Bastrop, but just a short hop down the street is The Big Mouth Grill bar and restaurant. You can smoke in that bar, and the drinks are cheaper there than elsewhere. Less cowboys and more bohemians tend to frequent here, but as will all social nightclubs in Bastrop, no rule is absolute.
Across the street from Big Mouth is Baxter's. Baxter's is the fanciest and nicest restaurant that Bastrop has, and a while ago Terri the owner opened a nice little bar that has it's own separate door. I think it's called a martini bar but they have everything there. It's smaller and a lot quieter and although connected to the restaurant, it's actually fairly quiet and low key for those times when you're not wanting to mingle with the regulars from either of the other two bars.
Gracie's sometimes has bands on weekends and serves beer. She also has great country cooking food as well.
Across from Cindy's is a Mexican Restaurant called Ramos that features a full bar and good drinks, although they don't stay open as late as Cindy's, Big Mouth and Baxters. Ramos used to be a nightclub called THE WESTERN PLEASURE CLUB, and some of my old dear cowboyish Bastrop friends considered it nirvana when it came to dancing and carousing. It met it's demise years ago, and suffice it to say, there are several lonely cowboys in town who cry every so often at the mere mention of it's name.
There's a bar down at Chestnut Square, where the movie theaters and bowling alley is. I've never been there, but heard it is ok, but it's not the crowd I run with. Most of us in town didn't think adding a bar to the teen movie theater/bowling hangout was not the greatest thing in the world, and it's yet another sports bar, so I haven't been in there. Besides, all my favorite spots are right on Main street and in Rockne.
In any of these locales, you're likely to encounter Bastrop Bad Hair at it's finest.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Bastrop Bad Hair
I write this blog to talk about Bastrop, Texas and what's it is like to live here. Like everywhere, there's good and bad in Bastrop in lots of different ways. Some people think it's paradise and some think it's hell and the rest of us are somewhere in between. It's where we are, and it is what it is.
I call it Bastrop Bad Hair because there is lots of Bad Hair in Bastrop. My friend Ruby, a native Bastropian, once made me nearly choke to death over lunch when she used the term Bastrop Bad Hair the first time around me.
We were dining in the Deli Depot and some folks she knew walked in to get something to eat. Ruby observed, in her exaggerated southern belle-ish style that she often affects when being humorous that "Oh, that's so and so and her new man, what's his name. They've got the Bastrop Bad Hair."
As I spat out the food onto my plate because I was convulsing with sudden laughter, I finally became composed enough to ask "What the hell is Bastrop Bad Hair?"
Ruby responded that this term is how she and her friends, dating back to the days of junior high school, have been labeling their fellow Bastropians as either good haired or bad haired. Good hair doesn't mean that it's cutting edge style, it just means it's been washed that day and is in a reasonably well-maintained format in some semblence of order on a person's head.
To illustrate Ruby's term Bastrop Bad Hair, let me return to the folks who inspired the comment when they entered the restaurant. One of the women had hair sort of like Kate Gosslin, who currently has the "big lump o' hair in the rear of the head leading observers to wonder if she has some huge growth on the rear of her head causing this horrible look" hairstyle.
The wearer of the hairstyle is one of the "elite" of Bastrop, and she sported that particular hairstyle long before Kate did on her reality show. So I guess that counts for something, at least in the world of Bastrop Bad Hair.
The Kate look-alike was accompanied by a male suitor sporting a mullet. Now, sporting a mullet cut in this day and age is offensive enough to warrant exclusion from restaurants and other forms of social interaction, but this mullet was not only "stringy" due to old age and thinning hair, but it looked like it had not been washed in several days. Had Exxon or Chevron been present that day, immediate negotiations for oil drilling rights would have occurred for the chance to mine the heavy oil on MulletMan's unwashed hair.
It was not attractive.
I myself occasionally suffer from Bastrop Bad Hair, and when that occurs, you see me with a cap or cowboy hat on. Although as a general rule, I do not leave the house in the morning until the hair has been washed. It's just the way I was raised. If you've spent any time around Bastrop, you'd know what I mean. There's just a lot of folks with unfortunate coifs on their heads. Either they are not aware of the horrendous nature of the style and/or condition or they just don't care. Sometimes you can even tell.
Other places in this great nation have Bad Hair within their populace. I've seen it in Miami and I've seen it in San Francisco. North and South, East and West. But after spending many years here in Bastrop, I've come to the conclusion that we are undoubtedly in the top statistics as far as Bad Hair.
I haven't always lived in Bastrop. I lived in some other towns large and small across this Great State, and it's nice to be back in Bastrop. I have a lot of interesting friends in this place, some old and some new. With having a family and a job, I don't get to see many of them as much as I used to or as much as I'd like to.
Some of the folks I write about on this blog are real and some are composites of several people and some only exist in my own mind, but they are inspired by actual folks I know, or at least my bullshit opinion of them.
So that's me, and who are you?
I call it Bastrop Bad Hair because there is lots of Bad Hair in Bastrop. My friend Ruby, a native Bastropian, once made me nearly choke to death over lunch when she used the term Bastrop Bad Hair the first time around me.
We were dining in the Deli Depot and some folks she knew walked in to get something to eat. Ruby observed, in her exaggerated southern belle-ish style that she often affects when being humorous that "Oh, that's so and so and her new man, what's his name. They've got the Bastrop Bad Hair."
As I spat out the food onto my plate because I was convulsing with sudden laughter, I finally became composed enough to ask "What the hell is Bastrop Bad Hair?"
Ruby responded that this term is how she and her friends, dating back to the days of junior high school, have been labeling their fellow Bastropians as either good haired or bad haired. Good hair doesn't mean that it's cutting edge style, it just means it's been washed that day and is in a reasonably well-maintained format in some semblence of order on a person's head.
To illustrate Ruby's term Bastrop Bad Hair, let me return to the folks who inspired the comment when they entered the restaurant. One of the women had hair sort of like Kate Gosslin, who currently has the "big lump o' hair in the rear of the head leading observers to wonder if she has some huge growth on the rear of her head causing this horrible look" hairstyle.
The wearer of the hairstyle is one of the "elite" of Bastrop, and she sported that particular hairstyle long before Kate did on her reality show. So I guess that counts for something, at least in the world of Bastrop Bad Hair.
The Kate look-alike was accompanied by a male suitor sporting a mullet. Now, sporting a mullet cut in this day and age is offensive enough to warrant exclusion from restaurants and other forms of social interaction, but this mullet was not only "stringy" due to old age and thinning hair, but it looked like it had not been washed in several days. Had Exxon or Chevron been present that day, immediate negotiations for oil drilling rights would have occurred for the chance to mine the heavy oil on MulletMan's unwashed hair.
It was not attractive.
I myself occasionally suffer from Bastrop Bad Hair, and when that occurs, you see me with a cap or cowboy hat on. Although as a general rule, I do not leave the house in the morning until the hair has been washed. It's just the way I was raised. If you've spent any time around Bastrop, you'd know what I mean. There's just a lot of folks with unfortunate coifs on their heads. Either they are not aware of the horrendous nature of the style and/or condition or they just don't care. Sometimes you can even tell.
Other places in this great nation have Bad Hair within their populace. I've seen it in Miami and I've seen it in San Francisco. North and South, East and West. But after spending many years here in Bastrop, I've come to the conclusion that we are undoubtedly in the top statistics as far as Bad Hair.
I haven't always lived in Bastrop. I lived in some other towns large and small across this Great State, and it's nice to be back in Bastrop. I have a lot of interesting friends in this place, some old and some new. With having a family and a job, I don't get to see many of them as much as I used to or as much as I'd like to.
Some of the folks I write about on this blog are real and some are composites of several people and some only exist in my own mind, but they are inspired by actual folks I know, or at least my bullshit opinion of them.
So that's me, and who are you?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)