Janice Williams Loves Austin

July 23, 2009

Another Celebrity Death

Filed under: Family — Janice @ 11:19 am

It has been a string of celebrity deaths this year…  Locally, Willie’s tour manager and my friend Poodie Locke, writer Bud Shrake, and musician Stephen Bruton. Nationally, Ed McMahon, Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Walter Cronkite…

And now Gidget. I didn’t know Gidget’s name until I saw her obituary, I just knew her as the little Taco Bell dog. What a cutie. It makes you realize how much advertising CAN appeal to you and engage you. I’m sure it is an advertiser’s dream to have a commercial and character became so appealing and pervasive and part of the culture (except, of course, without the accusations of stereotypes and racism that eventually came up with that cute dog).

Reading about her death and the series of commercials makes me realize how much those commercials were intertwined with our life at the time…  though I might not have thought of it again without this reminder.

In our Christmas decorations I believe we have several little toy stuffed Taco Bell dogs. I think they are in the Christmas decorations because one of them had a Santa hat and said, “Feliz Navidad!” Or it least it did when it had batteries and wasn’t corroded. The others say “Yo quiro Taco Bell,” but they are also in the Christmas decorations.

All of this wouldn’t make me wistful except that those commercials remind me of my nephews when they were just boys, not the college men they are now. Somewhere along the mid- to late-nineties, we took the boys to see Mark’s dad and his wife out in Lindale, in East Texas. Galen and Pam had a farm and they raised donkey and had some new baby donkeys, so we thought it would be fun to take the boys out to see them. Brandt and Conner were maybe about 8 and 6 at the time? Maybe a little older.

We lived in Carrollton at the time and I remember as we left town, driving first on I-35, and talking about the Taco Bell commercials. The popular commercial at the time was in conjunction with the movie Godzilla and the chihuahua had a tiny little trap set for this huge creature and was saying, “Here leeezard, leeezard, leezard.” I don’t remember the joke exactly, but we were, I think, recreating the commercial if OTHER characters had been put in that role. I only remember the boys said, “A nun!” and I sang like the nun in the Sound of Music and sang, “How do you solve a problem like the leeezard,” and I was quite proud of myself for coming up with that. I remember there was LOTS of giggling and fits of laughter on that part of the drive.

I remember a little bit about the visit with the in-laws itself because we have pictures of the boys with the donkeys (somewhere…. real photos). But I also remember the drive home for two reasons.

First, that was when Halley’s Comet was in the news regularly and was visible, they said, at night. [Note: I think it was Halley's, but some comet anyway] Of course, living in the city, it wasn’t visible at all. But driving through dark East Texas that night, I looked up and, sure enough, there was a little “smudge” in the sky, like a little faint cotton ball instead of a twinkling star. That was fun to get to show the boys and discuss astronomy and the wonders of the universe.

Finally, my sweetest memory of the night…  We were still playing games just to keep ourselves awake and keep the boys from being bored. I told the boys we were going to play a game. I would say four statements and one of them wasn’t true. I can’t even remember the first two statements, but I think they were two statements that the boys would automatically assume were true statements, meaning one of the last two statements had to be false. Then my last two statements were:  “Brandt is my favorite nephew” and “Connor is my favorite nephew.”  There was lots of laughing and argument about which boy was my favorite and which one “won” the game, etc. It seems like the boys must have spent the night with us that night because I remember being back at the house with them. At some point, I pulled Brandt, the older, more worldly, nephew aside and said, “About that game, you know that YOU are my favorite nephew, right?” He just kind of nodded and said, “Yeah, I know.” Then, I pulled Connor aside, Connor, the younger, sweet, less-self-assured, nephew aside and said, “About that game, you know that YOU are my favorite nephew, right?” He looked at me and said, “Really? I thought it was Brandt!”

Now I’m thinking that maybe they shouldn’t get to read this entry (and they probably won’t). I would hate for either one of them to think they aren’t my absolute favorite, because they are.

All these memories because of a sweet little chihuahua. May she rest in peace and her family know she gave the world a lot of joy.

July 20, 2009

An Historic Day

Filed under: At home, Family — Janice @ 11:45 pm

I can’t let this day go by without the discussion of where I was when…

July 20, 1969.  Our family moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado in January 1969 and when July rolled around we were taking a vacation back to Texas to visit the grandparents. I expect it was our first trip back to Amarillo and Canyon. I would have to go back and check the dates of the moon landing, but I am assuming that they landed on the moon in the module on the same day that they got out and walked on the moon? As we were driving south through New Mexico and that barren countryside near Mount Capulin, we were listening on the radio to the news and live coverage of the landing. Mother pointed out the landscape to me and my sister and made it almost feel like we were landing on the moon ourselves, we were so remote from the world.

Mother commented, I remember, that she just didn’t know if this was something we “needed” to do or not (the Space race). With the wisdom of a 10-year-old I said that we “had to” to beat the Russians. She didn’t quite agree that that was a valid reason to be risking lives like this.

It was exciting and tense as we waited for the module to land. Mom pointed out that we didn’t know WHAT could happen, they might just sink in dust for all we knew. She had us on the edge of our seats and the lunar module, thankfully, sat on top of the moon surface.

My nighttime and the actual moonwalk by Neil Armstrong, we were at my grandparent’s house. Mamma and Papa Williams lived between Amarillo and Canyon, sort of in the country, but they had a lot more neighbors close to their house on their road than we had when we lived nearby. We had a real farm, they just sort of dabbled in living in the country.

I remember nothing about the evening except that we were all in the big living room watching it all unfold in front of us. After the big moment and the first steps, Mother and I stepped out onto the front porch and looked up at the big moon. It was full and bright and I was trying very hard to see if I could see the men up there somehow. It was very difficult to believe that what we were seeing on television was happening there within our sight, but not really.

I will have to check Mom’s diaries someday (or Mom can comment here) to see if we went on to the other grandparent’s in Eastland for a visit or what else we did on that trip. I don’t remember anything except the moon landing and the first moon walk. But it was quite a memory. I’m glad I was just the right age to experience it with awe and wonder.

July 18, 2009

Walter Cronkite: Legend

Filed under: Music — Janice @ 2:43 am

I went on for pages and pages about my Michael Jackson memories. Michael Jackson and I had the musical connection where I played his songs and went to his shows. I may not have the number of memories about Walter Cronkite, but I have already shed more tears over his death than over Michael Jackson’s (… one would have been more….). No one can be indifferent to Walter Cronkite. He was inseparable from our American experience for 20 years… and beyond.

When we lived in Colorado, I became interested in watching the evening news. I remember making myself watch a full 30-minute newscast with Walter Cronkite and really feeling like I had LEARNED something that day. It was kind of eye-opening at the time that they did this EVERY day! As I got into high school and aspired to be a news reporter, Walter Cronkite was, of course, already legendary and had been on TV my whole life.

Somewhere around my senior year in high school, the Amarillo Symphony did a patriotic performance with a narration. I don’t remember the musical piece or the narration, but I distinctly remember the narrator:  Walter Cronkite. My journalism bunch of kids and our teacher, Mrs. Shepic, went to hear that performance. I don’t know how it was arranged, but we all got to backstage and meet our hero, Mr. Cronkite. He was incredibly gracious and had that wonderful, wonderful voice. I got his autograph at the time on my program. I know I still have it– how could you throw away something like that? Now, as to where it is, I’ll have to investigate that. Some box of keepsakes somewhere in this house, I’m sure.

My news and reporting career went by the wayside somewhere along the way in college, but I have continued to understand the JOB of the news reporter to report the facts without coloring them with opinions and speculation. Walter Cronkite was the ultimate when it came to an honest reporter. He also understood the difference between news and entertainment. Can you imagine Walter Cronkite reporting on the latest American Idol episode or Hollywood gossip? No, you can’t.

Of course, I grew up in the era where our news was given to us by 3 TV stations (and you could only watch one) and a newspaper and maybe the radio. I learned about the Vietnam war, the Apollo space program, the Watergate break-ins and hearings, the resignation of a President, attempted assasingations of our President, and American hostage-taking in Iran from Walter Cronkite.  Yes, I watched Harry Reasoner and Barbara Walters and David Brinkley (well, he might have been slightly before my time) and Mike Wallace and Ted Koppel and more, but we all know that when you wanted news, you turned on CBS and listened to Walter Cronkite.

July 16, 2009

Walt Wilkins at the Saxon Pub

Filed under: Music — Janice @ 1:46 am

I have become a hermit. I honestly can’t even remember the last time I went to a show of my own volition. I have seen so much music because it is required of me or I get paid to be there that I forget to go and just enjoy a show. Tonight I did get out and go to see Walt Wilkins and the Mystiqueros at the Saxon Pub and I’m so glad I did. Just like a car needs gasoline, there is just something I need in the way of music, or people, or camaraderie, or maybe just neon, but I had such a pleasant time. Walt has a way of making each person the most important person in the world for the moment and I felt that welcoming spirit when I first stepped up to the sidewalk and he was outside. Then I started seeing more and more friends: pretty little Melinda Ann and Jon Paul (who I appreciate constantly putting this show on Facebook so I didn’t forget about it), Dan, Wes, Rich, Micky, Mike, and on and on. It was as fun as a show at Hill’s used to be without the sweating and with a great view of the stage.

I had to move up where I could see and hear the show clearly and enjoyed every note and every lyric. I got to sit and visit a moment or two with lovely Tina, Walt’s wife. They are off to cool Colorado and New Mexico next week, lucky folks.  I won’t go into a blow by blow of the show except to say he’s a fabulous songwriter and the harmonies and music that band can put out are incredible. We are very blessed in this town to have music like that on a Wednesday night for cheap!

July 15, 2009

My July 4

Filed under: Family, Food — Janice @ 1:25 am

I have many things that need to be written, including my promised “birthday gift” for Aunt Dorothy and about today’s trip to the Hood Reunion, but let me give a quick recap of last weekend’s July 4 celebration at my cousin Tracee’s in Amarillo.

Tracee is my “little” cousin. She was the first child of any of my first cousins and she was born when I was 7 and my cousin Ronny was 4, so we played together a lot as we were growing up and she always seems to be included in “our” generation, since the next ones in “her”generation came along maybe 10 years later. She is all grown up now and the mother of three adorable children and has a wonderful life with a terrific husband, Marty. I was in their wedding in 1985 and I don’t think I have a single picture of it! I thought of that last week and will have to request some.

Tracee hosted the big fireworks and July 4 celebration and birthday party for Aunt Dorothy at her house. I decided that would be a good weekend for me to take my mother and Aunt Louie up for their oldest sister’s birthday (Aunt Billie lives in Arkansas and I couldn’t get up that far to get her, too). I got Mom in Dallas, went to Oklahoma to Aunt Louie’s new apartment near Lake Texhoma and we were off through southern Oklahoma toward the Panhandle.

I should note, or Mother will put it in the comments, that there are NO GAS STATIONS in southern Oklahoma. Mom told me I was in charge of watching the gas guage, which I did. I watched it drop and drop and drop and prayed that the next hamlet would have a big Exxon station with 12 pumps. None materialized. And most of the “towns” that I saw mileage markers for were nothing more than a flashing light and a, well, that was it. Fortunately, there was a meager little beer stand just before we crossed under an interstate and we were able to fill the car. I don’t think we would have found many cars coming our way to help us out there in the wild boonies either.

I’ve written before about the fabulous meals that Aunt Dorothy’s family can produce. There are simply no better cooks than in their family. None. And their meals are always “just right.” Super abundance, for sure, but always the right choices for main dishes, side dishes, desserts, etc. Check out this array of hotdogs, hamburgers, and brats from the grill, dips and chips and macaroni salad, too:

The spread

The party included the three aunts/sisters, me and my cousin Donna and her husband Ken from the next generation, Donna’s kids Tracee and Trent and Tracee’s husband Marty, my cousin Judy’s daughter Heather and her husband Jody and their baby Sydney and Judy’s son Chris and his wife Kaci and their baby Alyssa. And Tracee’s three. I think that makes 18.

Dessert was Red Velvet Cake AND Italian Cream Cake and ice cream… cakes baked by Tracee. She is super woman. I am in awe.

Fireworks were supplied by the Amarillo Globe News at a local park which sits just mere yards from Tracee’s backyard. Here is part of our bunch. You’ll notice my mother is wrapped in a blanket. I was too! It was downright chilly in Amarillo. I think it was about 76 with a breeze blowing and I haven’t felt temps like that since maybe April in Austin so I was COLD.

We watch fireworks

Here are the little girls in the family, Annabeth, Alyssa, and Sydney. I did not get an equally handsome picture of the boys Jonathan and Alex. I wish I were a better photographer and organizer of photo opportunities.

Little girls

And I did relinquish the camera so I could be in one photo. Me and some of the girl cousins–Heather, who everyone thinks looks like me and that flatters me tremendously, Kaci, who looks so much like Heather you wouldn’t know they are in-laws, me, Donna, and Tracee. And girls… there was a better picture of some of yall, but I looked worse and it is my blog. Sorry.
Cousin

And this was the honoree, Aunt Dorothy (right) and her sisters, Pat (left)and Lou Helen (middle):

The sisters

I spent many happy July 4s with the Jackson family and was glad I could do it again. You can see that is a family that knows how to decorate and celebrate, as well as cook.

July 9, 2009

Genealogy

Filed under: At home, Family — Janice @ 2:04 am

Yes, there are lots of things I need to write about! I’m behind. I got the answers to many of my outhouse questions from my Mother and aunt over the weekend, but I’m afraid the details might be too gross to actually document. To learn that my great-grandmother never had indoor plumbing is a shock…especially since I “knew” her. Well, hers was the first funeral I ever went to, so I guess I met her there. But not only did she not have indoor plumbing in her life, she didn’t even have an outhouse! Maybe that is how you live to be 90 years old… you never stop squatting.

Okay, moving on. I have will have to download pictures and write about getting together with friends in Amarillo for lunch. And fireworks and children and food galore at my cousin’s house for my dear aunt’s 86th birthday. And I promised to write about Aunt Dorothy as her birthday gift and that is going to take some time and effort. I will also write about my friend Steve’s radio station in Gainesville and what I am doing in the way of radio work for him.

And I’ll write about the odd stories my uncle Dick tells me. He swears my great-great-great-grandmother was Native American, but I’m having difficulty finding anything that would seem to confirm that, but he has been quite accurate on many of his memories. But he also told me that both of the great-great-grandfathers fought in the Civil War and I know they were both too young and I don’t believe they did. And he also tells, again, a spooky story about my great-grandfather being a murderer and I feel like he’s telling the truth there and that is just pretty creepy.

All of that will have to wait as I get back in the swing of the work week and catching up on doctor’s dictations, music playlists, managing the Shady Grove show tomorrow, and writing for money.

But, of course, somehow I did manage to find some time tonight for genealogy. That lead about the grandmother being an Indian/Native American is too interesting to not follow up on. I had just written about her on my family project and wrote that I don’t know much about her family at all. I have her parents’ names and that is it. But Googling every combination of things I could think of, I finally think I have a lead. I found a family tree website with an entire history of what COULD be her family. The names and dates appear to match up and her father was a logger in Alabama. I don’t have much to go on to prove it at this point so I will have to see what I can find.

Now to the downside of genealogy. I find a website like this and I’m reading through all of this extensive family information that this man has obviously put a LOT of love and work into. This is no small feat. He has this family going back into the 1400s in England (see? no Native Americans there) and lots of documentation. The man who put this site together is in San Antonio and it has his email, so, of course, I am thinking about writing him and asking if he might know anything more than what I can see here. But then, yes, then, the biggest drawback of genealogy. The man had a few pictures posted of his family and relatives. I believe this is probably the son of the man that put the information together (along with a wife, baby, and alien), if his info is right, I have to accept the fact that they are my family, too.

If I put a website together with many pictures of my DISTANT family (I’ll put that to prevent hurt feelings), I’m sure there would be some that might come off like this…not because they REALLY look like this, but because that might be the only picture of I have of that family. Maybe that is one of the reasons I haven’t ever put up my genealogy site like I want to. Of course, if I put the immediate family and first, second, and even third cousins, we are a pretty handsome bunch, so we’d be okay with those pics.

And I could go into stories of cousins that I have met through genealogy that I hope never to talk to again in my life. Just because you share some DNA doesn’t mean you have the same level of class or good sense. And I’m sure this man was quite proud of his Walmart shirt and the wife/girlfriend had probably bedazzled her sweatshirt herself and it was her “Sunday” sweatshirt, but still. At least they have a dress on the baby and she’s not dressed up in a clean Pamper for the Sears photo. As for the alien in the back, I’m quite certain that he and I do not share DNA. I don’t think they have it on his planet.

Powered by WordPress