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.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
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?
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