DIXIE FAY HEY @ ONE OF AL COPONES NIGHTCLUBS JPEG

Originally uploaded by laura.tex

According to my uncle Jeb, who scanned in this and other family photos, this photo was taken at a nightclub owned by Al Capone.

Aunt Dick left a number of her personal diaries, which my cousin transcribed. I will have to try to find any reference to Mr. Capone.

My great aunt Ruth was a trailblazer in her own right

This photo was taken sometime in the 1920s, I believe.  My grandmother, who was much younger than her older sisters Dixie, Ruth, and Benellen, must have learned some of her bohemian ways from being raised by these strong women.

Recently on the neighborhood listserve there was all kinds of consternation and flame going on when the owners of Off The Wall, an antique/used furniture store on South Congress, put out the word that they have noticed a significant uptick in panhandling and presumably homeless people in this commercial corridor.  Their main plea was that neighbors not encourage the panhandlers by giving them money.  Someone on the list then proceeded to refer to homeless people as “bums” and implied that they are responsible for the increase in car vandalism and the like.  Well… that didn’t sit well with anyone else on the list.  It did, however, provide some great stories about people’s own experience with homelessness and the homeless in general.

I then recalled that my own grandmother had often voiced her fear of someday becoming homeless herself.  She kind of romanticized it, probably having grown up in the era of the hobos, but I’m sure she really did worry about it.  She befriended several homeless women who lived on the Drag near the University when she lived near there, one of which had been a doctoral candidate and the other a dance instructor from which my mom took classes in the ’60s.

The fact is, many people are incredibly close to being homeless, especially if they have any kind of mental illness for which treatment is nearly non-existent in Texas (here’s a great snapshot of what that means in Harris County for their county jail).  And that real estate bubble hasn’t helped, as the 44-lb. cat in New Jersey recently found out.  Two kinds of fat cats here in the land of the free – and both are losers.

My cousin Scott just sent me some transcripts from our great Aunt Dick’s diaries, which I’m planning to make a project out of sometime soon.  Just as a little sample, here is the entry for September 1, 1931:

Markie [Markham] raved about the depression, and how terrible times are; they’re going to have a special session of legislature this month to forbid the planting of cotton this fall*, and all the state employees salaries will be cut 15% or more.  Ruthy is simply sick about it, but she’s lucky to have a job at all, as it’s getting to where they just can’t be had.

Markie is a family friend and Ruthy is her sister.  They were living in Austin at the time and Ruth worked at the Capitol.

*UPDATE: The Handbook of Texas Online says that the Texas Cotton Acreage Control Act of 1931-32 was an effort to control the falling prices of cotton, due to overproduction, by limiting the amount of acreage being cultivated for cotton (not a complete ban) as well as to institute some soil conservation measures. This command-and-control-type measure was struck down in the courts in 1932.  I doubt the Texas Legislature of today would never do something like that!

I really want a vegetable garden. I’ve wanted one for awhile, way before the salmonella outbreak in commercial tomatoes, and it seems that I now have the space and enough sun to do it. That way I can be even more AUSTINative.

Yet, I sometimes kill houseplants, so how am I going to do with vegetables?

Thus far, I have more or less determined the best area in our back yard for vegetables, which need at least 6 hours of sun per day. The back yard gets more morning sun than the front, which tends to be better (from what I’ve gathered). Some of that prime sunny spot is unfortunately also where the gas and electric lines are, so a raised bed is necessary. I think the only problem with a raised bed in the Texas heat is that it might dry out a bit faster than a non-raised bed garden, but hopefully the good solid wood of the old doorframes (rescued from the remodeling project next door, see pic) I’m using, plus lots of compost and mulch, will help with that.

I’ve begun prepping for a compost pile. Some more rescued wood from next door may become a compost bin. I have been collecting kitchen scraps (all vegetable matter) and putting it in plastic bags in the freezer until I’m ready for the layering process – more or less equal parts brown (i.e., dead leaves or dirt) and green matter (such as wilted lettuce).

Next, I need some soil and then some plants. It’s too late here for anything but fairly large plants that can hold their own in the Texas heat. Probably some tomatoes, squash, maybe some watermelon…. whatever will live through the summer! And I will continue to try to get what I can from the downtown Austin Farmers Market.

Some great local resources on gardening:

• Travis County Ag Extension planting schedule
• South Austin Community Gardens – (they don’t have a lot of info online – may have to actually go to a meeting and meet some folks in person. Gasp!)
• KLRU’s Central Texas Gardener blog
• The Natural Gardener’s links page

I’m so ready to get this party started, but I know it will be a process and will be an adventure. More on my plans for getting rid of the St. Augustine grass, planting some lavender, and the trees in our yard and neighborhood later…

]]> http://austinative.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/austinative-garden/feed/ 2 lauratex I used two old door frames to form the beginning of a raised bed garden in our backyard. http://austinative.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/the-new-neighborhood-not-quite-the-same-as-the-old-neighborhood/ http://austinative.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/the-new-neighborhood-not-quite-the-same-as-the-old-neighborhood/#comments Tue, 27 May 2008 18:32:54 +0000 lauratex http://austinative.wordpress.com/?p=12 ]]>

We just moved into our new home in Travis Heights, so AUSTINative has been busy. We’ve taken a few breaks from unpacking to go check out the ‘hood, including walking around Stacy Park. When I was in the 5th grade, my parents moved us back to Austin from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and we moved into the Terrace apartments, at Academy and South Congress, while they started to build a house in the country. This was 1979 or 1980. South Congress was a very different place.

My mom and step-dad chose the Terrace because my grandmother lived there. I would take taxis with her to the Nighthawk restaurant and to the H-E-B at Oltorf because she didn’t like to drive. Otherwise, she would walk to the few other establishments in the area, including the Saint Vincent de Paul thrift shop. The other people you would see walking were, um, ladies of the night. Except I think they were out at all hours. Sometimes we would take a taxi or the bus downtown to The Bank, which was always a treat – I loved the smell of it and the cold air conditioning and weighing myself on the big scale in the lobby.

The Terrace itself was built originally as a motor court, I think. In the late 70s to 80s, it was definitely on the decline. The swimming pool was empty and had begun filling with leaves. As kids, my stepbrother and I didn’t care all that much – it was kind of fun to play around that, although a nice cool pool would’ve made the summer a bit more pleasant. Instead, we stayed up late watching old Clark Gable movies, like Mutiny on the Bounty, on Channel 7, one of only 3 TV stations in Austin at that time.

When school started, I went to Travis Heights elementary school. I remember the school and my teacher, Mrs. Ruiz, but I don’t really remember Stacy Park (except the pool) or the neighborhood around it. Walking around the park and the ‘hood today, I’m amazed at it. I even lived less than a mile away, in Bouldin Creek, for several years beginning in 1999, but never ventured east of South Congress. Zilker, Barton Springs, downtown, and the UT area were my stomping grounds. Travis Heights definitely has its own character and it will be interesting to get to know the new – old – neighborhood.

My great-grandmother, Mabel Martin, whom I called “Granny,” was a big part of my early life, for which I am very thankful.  She was a piano teacher and to her I owe much of the limited ability I do have to appreciate music. When I was about 5 or 6 she came to live with us for awhile, but soon went to live in the nursing home near Live Oak and Congress.  There, I think she flourished, at least as best as could be expected, as I remember her being very active.  She was even named “queen” of the nursing home and went on to compete against other “nursing home queens,” showcasing her piano playing skills.  Above is a not-so-great Polaroid picture of her being congratulated by none other than Cactus Pryor, a living legend in Austin as a radio and TV personality.

I love Willie Nelson.  Growing up in Texas, I’m pretty sure I took him for granted, and during my teen and college years I maybe changed the channel if the station played too much Willie.  But I came back to the fold by the time I graduated. 

Because my friends at 21st Street Co-op knew that he was cool and awesome and had influenced a lot of people, we all walked down to Antone’s when we heard that Willie Nelson’s 60th birthday party was happening.  This is when Antone’s was still on the northern end of the Drag, next to the Eckerd’s.  We didn’t have tickets but figured we could hang out outside and listen in… it turned out that a friend of mine who had really good music connections was at the show, and he let me borrow his VIP pass to get in for awhile.  That was awesome. 

Austin and Willie have become so big since then, you would think it might be difficult to get in to anything like that now, but you never know!  Just a few years ago Willie was playing at Stubb’s and we managed to sneak in through the bar area … of course, party crashing happens to be one of my specialties.  And I think Willie would approve… even (or especially) at the ripe age of 75! If you’re a fan of his, definitely check out this tribute to him on the Texas Monthly magazine site, or pick up the current issue.

Art City Austin

I love to walk. And bike. I dislike cars, but I still drive. I live in Austin, which is in Texas, one of the most car-centric places on Earth. But I’ve made some choices that will enable me to use a car less frequently, including living in a smaller home so that I can live close to downtown, with access to public transportation, neighborhood shops, restaurants, and parks.

Obviously Austin has a ways to go before becoming more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly. It’s interesting to hear what new residents of our town have to say about their choices – especially someone like Alexandre, the Compulsive Pedestrian. But I’m here to say that some things have gotten better since the ’80s and early ’90s.

There’s a history behind how downtown Austin’s streetcars came to their demise, part of which is covered in Robert Bryce’s piece and also related to the GM/Firestone effort to buy up and shut down streetcars across the country (documented partially in the film Taken for a Ride). This, combined with suburban development, made a once-vibrant Congress Avenue shrivel up and nearly die. In the late 70s, I remember going to a department store (Scarbrough’s) and a drug store (Woolworth’s) with my grandmother, who owned a shop on Congress. But by the mid- to late-80s those things were gone.

So here is my list of some pedestrian and cycling improvements in recent years:

1. A stronger community of cyclists and pedestrians: I recently attended a City Council candidate forum hosted by the Austin Cycling Association (which has a great list of Bike Month activities coming up in May), the League of Bicycling Voters, and the Yellow Bike Project; the conference room at the LCRA was filled to capacity. And, compared to Washington, DC, cycling advocates, Austin seems to have a much more diverse group, at least in age and income.

2. The Lance Armstrong effect: because of Lance’s success in racing and championing cancer survivorship, people in Austin as well as around Texas and across the country have more awareness of cyclists. I’m happy to hear that Lance Armstrong is now throwing at least some of his weight behind making commuting by bike more accessible in Austin.

3. More mixed-use development in downtown and other neighborhoods: of course, in many cases these mixed use projects such as the Domain are merely isolated islands not much better than outdoor malls that most people will reach with a car. But at least people have an option, which there was not much of in the recent past. There is the possibility of connecting these islands, although it may take a tectonic shift. Gas prices may help with that!

4. Capital Metro improvements: under the leadership of the recently retired Lee Walker, Cap Metro is about to expand into light rail. Overall bus service has improved, although it’s had a hard time keeping up with suburban sprawl and doesn’t reach some of the employment centers very well, such as Dell in Round Rock and some of the tech companies on Loop 360 and Research Blvd.

Of course there is a long list of things that need to be improved, first of which is education. What do you think, people of Austin? What can we do to improve the situation for pedestrians and cyclists? How often do you walk or bike instead of getting in your car? What would make you more willing to do so?