Janice Williams Loves Austin

May 31, 2010

Backtracking to Muenster

Filed under: Radio stuff — Janice @ 9:49 pm

Since we’ve just had a long Memorial Day weekend with very little to report — unless I go into specifics about how clothes at Target didn’t fit when Beth and I went shopping — I will backtrack a month and tell you about our trip to Muenster.

Muenster is up close to Oklahoma and near Gainesville, Texas. I am on the radio in Gainesville every afternoon on 1580 KGAF, your hometown station! You can listen live at kgaf1580.com as a matter of fact. My friend Steve owns the station and he invited me to come up and participate in their live broadcast at the annual Germanfest in Muenster. It was the weekend of our wedding anniversary, but Mark said he was up for it and that gave us two nights in a hotel we couldn’t otherwise afford, so we went for it! And we had a wonderful time. Here are some of the highlights.

We took off on Friday night after we got off work and stopped at one of our favorite restaurants, the Monument in Georgetown. It always has great fresh home cooking. Might be a good idea to get there earlier in the evening next time. Seems they had run out of many of the daily vegetables, but, no mind, it was great. They have huge chocolate malts served with the big cold silver cup they are mixed in, but I’ve never had one since we always stop for a meal. One day I’ll stop just for the malt.

It was a long drive and we were into Gainesville way after 1 a.m. But no pressure for the next morning and we first got up and bought fried pies at a bakery on the square and walked around downtown Gainesville. Then we drove west to Muenster early enough to see lots of the bike riders in their associated bike ride coming through downtown Muenster. Everywhere we went, Mark was introducing me and making sure people knew that I was THE Janice Williams from KGAF, which didn’t seem to make a bit of difference.

We found Dee Blanton, the morning man and GM of the station and Steve soon came along and we had the broadcast going. This was the first time I’d been on live radio in a couple of years, so it was interesting. I still let them do all the heavy lifting since they are on that station every day and know the area and where they wanted to go with the broadcast. I played the straight man.

Mark enjoyed the festival and wandered around and took lots of pictures of the activities and he brought me a big old brat covered in kraut that was wonderful. Mark went off for the afternoon and discovered the fabulous wind farms north of Muenster and lots of wildflowers and took many pictures.

After the Saturday broadcast, we went to the station itself. I had been there a couple of times before, but never with Steve to show me around. The station was in an old building since the 1940s, but Steve had a new building constructed that is just adorable. It’s amazing how small a station can be now with no need for lots of engineering equipment and record storage and big tape recorders, etc. A few computers and that’s just about it.

When I had been up before, I explored the old building and just was fascinated by all the history in it. Elvis had a live interview in one of the rooms and there used to be live bands perform on a regular basis from that station. I enjoyed touring it alone, but it was even more fun with Mark and with Steve explaining things and showing us what he had done. I took a few more souvenirs (like cool spikes that used to hang on the newsroom wall to spike the news stories as they came off the wire).

I don’t know that I’ve written about Steve blog before. We have a long and intertwined history in radio in Dallas and Austin. When I was working weekends at Mix 102.9 in Dallas, he was hired for weekends. I was very familiar with his name because he had been on the air on KVIL and KLUV in Dallas and was very prominent. I remember driving into the station on a Sunday morning to take over from him on the air and listening to him and almost dreading meeting him, thinking he would have a big ego because of his success. But I immediately found the nicest guy and we became fast friends very quickly. We met in about September of 1992 and he got married in November and we got married the following April, so we also had the wedding fever in common at the time.

Steve was also working at ABC radio at the time. I was desperate to get out of traffic reporting and had applied at all of the stations/formats that ABC had. Steve called me on a Sunday night one night to let me know that the night girl on the station he worked on, StarStation, had resigned. He told me exactly what to do and who to call and how to casually just be “checking in.” It worked exactly as he said it would. When I called to check in they said, “Hey, how lucky! We just had a girl quit, come in for an interview.” I got that job so then Steve and I were working together at ABC.

We worked together there for about 5 years when Steve and his family moved to Austin for a new job for his wife. We kept in touch and in 1999 we came down to Austin and  Steve took me by his new job at a new place called “StarSystem” and showed me what voicetracking was. Before long, I was also doing voicetracking at ABC and realizing how it all worked. Just about the time I decided to send a tape to Steve’s boss, he called with the news that they needed a sub for a girl that would be out on maternity leave. He had already recommended me to the boss and I needed to get a tape to him ASAP. That I did and we drove down and interviewed (oddly, that was a trip on our anniversarly 1999) and I got that job and moved down immediately.

Sadly, Steve and I didn’t get to work together too long at that job. His wife returned to her Dallas job and they were moving back to Dallas within a few months. But now we are working together again at his station KGAF. There were other jobs in there, too, that Steve clued me into and benefited me tremendously. Great friend and mentor.

After we left Steve (who had a long drive back to Dallas and dad duties once he got there) we went back to our motel room and just collapsed from exhaustion. It had been a long day. Happy anniversary to us!

Sunday morning we had breakfast at Braum’s. We don’t have Braum’s in Austin and I miss it! This morning we dilly-dallied a little more and Mark showed me all the cool things he had seen on Saturday at the windmill farms. It is really pretty country up there, but that wind does blow! I’m glad they are harvesting it.

More broadcasting from the festival and then I had a big surprise when someone came up that knew ME. It was one of my old listeners from Amarillo, Danny Houston and his wife Julie. I knew him when he was 16 and stayed in touch with his parents long after I left town. Now we’ve all reconnected on Facebook and he saw that I was going to be in Muenster and he and his wife had just been down to see one of their kids at college, so they stopped by. It sure threw me for a loop to KNOW someone this far from home.

We finished out the afternoon at 3 p.m. and headed on toward Austin. We made a quick stop in Pilot Point to visit my old Uncle Dick, too. We had another fabulous stop on that trip home, but I don’t have the pictures of that, so I’ll save it for another post. It was the historical Sefcik Hall east of Temple. It was a stop on our wedding day, so it was a stop on this anniversary trip, too. That story to come!

May 23, 2010

A Winters Weekend

Filed under: Family,Food — Janice @ 11:40 pm

First, I was looking back on some posts and see that an Elton John post just ends abruptly. I wonder what happened there? I may go and smooth the edges one of these days so it doesn’t end so abruptly, but I think it went for a long time after that and I probably won’t ever rewrite. Bummer.

I went this weekend to Abilene for an aunt’s 98th birthday party. I have only seen her a few times in my life. She was married to my grandfather’s brother and he died long before I was born. She remarried, raised her own children and stepchildren and we saw her only from time-to-time. But I have been in touch with her daughter and was honored to get invited. I drove up to Winters and spent the night with my cousin Edna who I had only met once before. I drove her up to Abilene for the party.

I have spent some time today just trying to remember and write down the stories that Edna told me. She has a LOT of stories and they are all good. My great-grandmother, who I knew and remember because she was alive until I was in college, was her aunt and neighbor from the time Edna was born until she had been married for a few years. And apparently my great-grandmother was a busybody and told Edna exactly how she needed to run her life. This comes as no news to me. She had four sons and had a hand in ruining several marriages. I think the only reason my grandparents managed to stay together was that they moved far away and avoided contact! Edna told me of an uncle’s marriage and his mother saying, “We are going to get a divorce.” And he did!

There were stories about others, too. The stepmother that had a knife pulled back and was ready to plunge it into Edna’s back when Edna’s father intervened. The stepmother who hated all the kids in the family and schemed to move far away. The son who wore himself out taking care of his elderly father and died young. Tragic stories. And sweet stories, too. Like my great-grandfather being sweet and comforting and a second daddy to Edna after her mother died when Edna was 8 and her own father was too worried about her little sister to realize she needed comforting, too. And funny stories like Edna’s husband reaction when he heard that my great-grandmother was moving away from their neighborhood — “Hallelujah!” And funny (and very disconcerting) stories about my great-grandmother eating like a pig (I would say farmhand, but Edna said she ate more than any of the men that worked the farm). She insisted on 6 pieces of buttered toast with her breakfast and would leave for a day of visiting and say, “Cook a big meal tonight Edna, I’m going to be hungry.”

Edna was a wonderful hostess. Keep in mind this woman is 92. She lives alone in a large, beautifully kept home. I arrived about 10 o’clock and she set out chicken salad on a lettuce leaf, crackers, cheese, fresh tomatoes, a dip, chips, and a punch she had made. And she was berating herself because she forgot to make a cake like she intended, so we were reduced to only ice cream, several kinds of cookies, and “crock pot fudge” for dessert. It’s a wonder I didn’t starve (since I do take after my great-grandmother). For breakfast she insisted on scrambled eggs and sausage and toast, plus coffee.

She would have loved for me to spend Saturday night, too, and I was tempted because there were so many more storied to tell and I had a long way to go home, but I left her and sped on down 183 back to Austin, some late-night work, Mark, and kitties. I was extra grateful this morning to wake up in my own bed and not have that drive today. But I hope I can go back soon. You can’t count on too many visits when someone is 92 and I hope I don’t miss an opportunity.

Here’s Edna when we stopped in Tuscola for a piece of pie:

May 20, 2010

Music

Filed under: Austin,Genealogy,Music — Janice @ 10:53 pm

I guess I just needed a weekend of music at the Cherokee Music Festival to prime the pump and get me back out seeing live music because this week I seem to not be able to get enough!

Monday night I went to TC’s for the first time in a couple of months for Little Elmore Reed. They sounded great and inspired. Mark has new Ford drums and when he struck the head of the tom it just boomed through that club. He only used it on two songs that I really heard it, but it made an impact.

Wednesday night I went to the Saxon Pub to catch the Mystiqueros, since I am (apparently) writing an article about them. As usual, they were wonderful, though they were one short of a full quorum of Mystiqueros. Walt did more of his songs rather than band songs and I liked that. Mark had to go see some music Wednesday evening, too, but when he finished his rounds he came by the Saxon and finished up the night there with me.

Tonight, it was Bruce Robison at the Shady Grove for the music series. Rusty, the owner of the Shady Grove, always makes me feel so special and so welcome. He really does that for everyone if you give him half a chance. I intended to stay maybe until 9 o’clock to just get a taste of Bruce’s show. By that point, though, he had won me over completely for the night and I had to stay until the end. I got a Bruce t-shirt and wished I could have bought an album, but there is no Bruce Robison CD in- or out-of-print that I don’t have. But there is a new one on the way in a month or two and that makes me happy.

That’s a lot of music for the week and maybe there will be some more on the weekend, we’ll see. As for now I’m anticipating a quick drive up to Winters, Texas, tomorrow night and on to Abilene for my Aunt Leola’s 98th birthday party. I told Mark was going to Aunt Leola’s birthday and his reaction?  Who is Aunt Leola? I really confuse him with my ever expanding family. He’s been by my side for 18 years and — truly — paying attention, but the family members are growing exponentially. Aunt Leola was married to my grandfather’s brother Uncle Ted. Uncle Ted died in the 1940s in a hunting/gun accident. Aunt Leola went on to marry again and we didn’t have a lot of involvement with their family over the years, but we’ve always been in touch. I have been in touch this last year with her daughter so I was graciously invited to come up for the birthday and I’m looking forward to it. I probably haven’t seen Aunt Leola in 30 years. I may be escorting 2 older members of the family, too. Edna, who I have written about before, and her sister, Vera Lee. I will know more about whether they will be riding with me or maybe I’ll be riding with them (yes, Edna drives at 92 years old).

May 18, 2010

Cherokee Music Festival Day 2

Filed under: Music — Janice @ 10:24 pm
The last 24 hours sure have gone quickly. It was a really good day to wrap up the music festival. I just walked in the door from seeing Paul Thorn play and it was outstanding. His music has such great lyrics and just the right amount of quirkiness. But I have to say I love seeing him live best of all because of the stories between the songs… sometimes that have nothing to do with anything. Tonight he began telling about his bulldog Grady that lives in the backyard and has killed 8 cats that have come to eat his dog food. Paul hates to see any animal end before its time so he’s put up a sign that says “Cats Stay Out,” but it hasn’t helped. He went on and on about the dog and then said, “That doesn’t have anything to do with anything, I just wanted to talk about my dog.”
A line I had heard before, probably more than once, but always makes me laugh… He said, in his Mississippi accent, “Perhaps before you came to the Paul Thorn show tonight you’re wife or girlfriend left you and you contemplated suicide. Well perhaps this next song will give you the conviction and fortitude to carry through on your plan.” His drummer Jeffrey was very nice. A rockabilly looking guy from Nashville, he really seemed to appreciate Mark’s efforts and invited us to Nashville to see them, etc. Super grateful, humble, nice.
The rest of the day was great, too. Musically, it started with John Fullbright at noon. I had only seen him sing a few songs at a gig Mark had a few weeks ago with Randy weeks. He was amazing and I wanted to hear more so I was glad for this full set. He was solo, playing harmonica, guitar, and keyboards. He has that same quality that I love about Paul Thorn and Hayes Carll and Ray Wylie Hubbard and Jack Ingram and Lyle Lovett and on and on…. All my very favorites… he says wry things between his songs. His lyrics and melodies were amazing. I would direct you to myspace, but I don’t have an internet connection to go see what is on it from  him. I love a song about diamonds growing in the backyard and he says to go ahead and take all you want but leave the flowers, because flowers don’t grow like weeds. It’s beautiful. He has a way of making it rhyme and puts a tune to it that makes your heart ache.
I also enjoyed sitting next to Tom and Amy from Fredonia, Texas. John grew up across the street from Tom’s mother in Okemah, Oklahoma, so they were already big fans. It was fun to see their enthusiasm.
Next up was Sam Baker. I haven’t ever seen Sam with a full band, so this was really a treat. Like John (Hayes, Lyle, Jack…) he has the amusing stories and some full fledge jokes between songs (i.e. a man and his wife die at an old age within hours of one another. They get to heaven and St. Peter is registering them to come in. The man asks St. Peter if it is possible to get a drink in heaven. St. Peter says, sure they order Jameson whisky by the trainloads there. The man asks if he might be able to get a steak. St. Peter says, Certainly, we have only the best, most heavily marbled steaks and everything we serve up here we serve with butter and with salt.  The man turns to his wife and says, “And if it hadn’t been for you and your damn bran flakes, we could have been up here 10 years ago!”
A big surprise for me was to see Sam’s friend Dana Wheeler singing with him. She is an amazingly talented actress and, apparently, singer, too. I sat next to her husband in the audience and enjoyed visiting with him. She is in Friday Night Lights and is one of those actresses that you “know” when you see her, though you might not know her name. The first time I saw her I nodded and said “Hello, how are you?” thinking she ewas someone I see frequently out at gigs. Then, later, someone clued me into the fact that I only know her from television.
After Sam the day became kind of a blur and I did some coming and going. I heard Kevin Welch, Griffin House, and the Subdudes.
Tonight’s Big 3 were Bob Schneider and Robert Earl Keen and Paul Thorn. Mark and I were both looking forward to seeing Bob Schneider. Mark because the bass player, Harmony, is a good friend of his and me because the drummer, Conrad, is a good friend of mine. They both were here and we both had good catch-up visits with these true blue people.
Robert Earl was Robert Earl and had the crowd singing along with every word, especially on the super long extended rockin’ version of the Road Goes On Forever. His encore was Feelin’ Good Again, which is probably my favorite Robert Earl song, and then Gringo Honeymoon. The song isn’t really a favorite of mine, but the story of crossing the river on a boat into Mexico brings back fond memories for me so I like it for that.
Other than the music today, we did get more huge breakfast burritos from the little store in town. Sadly, they won’t be open tomorrow so it was our last. The Baptist kids were having a car wash so we donated, but didn’t have time for the wash. We also went into a hardware store that had been open since 1947. The smell that greeted me when we walked in was the smell of my dad’s garage– enough that it brought tears to my eyes. There was oil, pesticides, and lots of dirt. This hardware store was as cluttered and disorganized as Daddy’s garage, too, except that many of the items here were “new,” as in unused, but not new as in recent. Mark bought a little can of Sherwin-Williams paint just because it was such an old-fashioned label.
We were running short on time coming back to the festival, but we still took time to stop and see the Gray Cemetery (which I hope to get out and explore a little more tomorrow) and take some pictures in the blanket flowers.
I can’t say enough good things about this wonderful festival and the people who put it on and pay for it. Very generous people. One of the charities that benefits from this festival is the Cherokee Children’s Home. I was sitting on the dam of the creek letting my feet rest in the healing spring water and a girl came and sat down beside me. She had on a t-shirt from Cherokee Children’s Home, so I asked if she worked there or was a volunteer. She said, “No, I’m a child.” She certainly wasn’t a “child;” she was a sophomore in high school. She introduced herself to me as Michelle. She told me that the kids that were in 8th grade and up got to come to the festival to enjoy the music. There were about 20 of them there, she said. She goes to Cherokee High School and her class has 17 people in it. The senior class has 6 this year. That is a small town. We had a good visit about her plans. It made me feel very good about the money from this festival going toward her care and education. As I stood up to leave (and her offering to help me get up since it was a struggle), she stuck out her hand and said it was nice to meet me. I love schools that teach those polite manners.

Cherokee Music Festival Part 1

Filed under: Cemeteries,Family,Genealogy,Music — Janice @ 10:10 pm

It is Tuesday night, but I am backtracking and posting things I wrote over the weekend at the Cherokee Music Festival. I had no Internet connection there so I wrote for myself as much as for you. Pictures to come, but Mark’s got the good ones…

So, let us rewind to Friday night…

***

I’m blogging from the RV tonight with the rain pouring down and Kevin Welch singing “Come a rain, come a rain now” from his new CD. I’ll see him sing it tomorrow.
We just saw Delbert McClinton rock the tent and put on a great finale to a very pleasant day. I first saw him perform in about 1981 in Amarillo and I don’t think a thing has changed except his band members haven’t aged. Not that he and I have either, now that I think about it.
I spent last night in this RV. My first ever camping experience. I don’t believe I ever want to rough it any more than this. This is plenty, though it is luxurious. We have air conditioning, a mattress, a refrigerator, a coffeepot, and a potty and shower. No complaints at all. Yes, we have a sound system and a TV if we want it and computers…. Though no internet access so that is roughing it by 2010’s standards.
This festival is something else. I don’t even want to tell you the name of it because I don’t want it to get any bigger. Actually, the promoters/founders don’t really want it to get any bigger either. It is just right. If I made a list of all the things that would make for the “perfect” festival, I could check off most of the list easily for this festival. Beautiful setting, great performers, and accommodations right backstage.
This is a festival that Mark worked last year. He stayed in a motel about 15 miles away and, of course, spent the whole day here on the grounds and then went up to the motel. He saw that the festival promoters offered to their guests the ability to rent an RV and have it set up and waiting for you when you arrived and have it taken away and taken care of after you left. He told his company that that was what he needed next time, so that is what we have this year. An RV is right behind the stage for us. It is easier for us than for any of the concert-goers. How great it is to be able to go to the bathroom or get something to eat or drink easily or just rest. I got a little bored and tired this evening so I crawled off and napped for at least 30 minutes or more. I got up when I heard them announcing that the next band was getting ready to start.
It has been cold out here this evening. I remembered I had a cape/poncho thing — very light — in my car so I snagged it and was much happier. There were many women in the tent with no sleeves and short skirts. I don’t know how they stood it. It is QUITE chilly. And the rain is coming down. The wonderful thing is that this festival is under a very big, very nice, and very well constructed tent. It has “walls” that were all pulled back and opened during the day, but when it became apparent that rain was going to come down, they were pulled tight and it was snug and dry inside. I hope tomorrow is dry and sunny and warm, and I do think that is in the forecast. Tomorrow there is music all day long.
Not only did I see Delbert tonight, the music started at 6 p.m. with David Jacobs-Strain, a singer/songwriter from Oregon. He played with a backup singer and a harmonica player and he played guitar. He was entertaining and enjoyable. Maybe not music I would buy or listen to otherwise, but good for a concert. He was amusing between songs, too. He quipped, “You know you live in Eugene, Oregon, when half of your friends parents grow pot for a living.” After him was a singer/songwriter from California named Jude Johnstone. I think she was from California, but now I think of her New York/NE accent and I could be wrong. She played with a very unusual band:  all stringed instruments (fiddle/viola/bass). She played keyboard and had the saddest songs. Hers were all very slow and very sad. She was good, but sleepy, so that’s when I went to take my nap. Next up was Jimmy LaFave. I’ve seen Jimmy several times and his keyboard player Bratislava is my favorite thing. He plays accordion and really is a showman on the piano. He can liven up an otherwise sleepy show, too.
Mark told me to put this in my blog so I will. We were sitting watching someone play and there was a very pretty woman sitting in front of us. I said, “I know her…” Mark said, “Well introduce me!” I never did figure out how I know the woman and her husband, but they looked very familiar.
The other fun part of my day was going to Comanche. After we got up and going this morning and had breakfast tacos that were out of this world good (from a grocery that opened in 1890), Mark went to work and I went north. We were about an hour and a half from Comanche, so I ran up and went to the library to see my cousin Margaret and to peruse some genealogy information. She set me up with some books she thought I might be interested in and she was right. One is a new history of the county with contributions from locals about people. Of course there were several articles about the Cunninghams, many I had the information. But there was an article about Grandpa Moore that gave more information than I knew about him so I’m eager to go home and see how it all fits into my information. I also found some little facts about a grave in the Newburg cemetery I wanted– not that I have the answer to my question, but additional facts.
Finally, before I left that historic county, I stopped to see if my cousin Tommie was home. No one was there. I haven’t had a return phone call from her daughter this week either and that concerns me. I hope they are all okay.
Without the allotted time for our visit, I visited the cemetery instead. I took some pictures of the graves that had the new Texas Ranger crosses added last summer and took some big pictures so I can record actually WHERE some of the graves are in case someone came to the cemetery without knowing where to go to see Grandpa Moore or the Hallfords or Aunt Myra. The weather was very nice for grave visiting today, but got a little blustery while I was on the road.
The blanket flowers up in this part of the world are fabulous this year. All the way up here and all the way to and from Comanche I admired them. They are a deep red with just the tiniest tips of yellow. They are down at a low level on the ditches and then a bright yellow flower is sticking up higher and producing the next level. Then there are white Queen Anne’s Lace flowers producing a third highest level. Occasionally there are the sturdy, waxy, white bull nettle adding to that third layer, too.
Mark’s still working on the stage, but I’m hoping he will be home soon. I am going to try the shower, but he was supposed to bring shampoo and I don’t find it in his dop kit. I think I may go un-shampooed this weekend, but I will have to rinse my hair, it is getting gross.

May 7, 2010

Not the same crocheted thing

Filed under: Austin — Janice @ 7:18 am

I am getting terrible about updates. In the morning I think, I’ll do one tonight, for sure, because I’ll have time then. At night, I always get home from work later than I think I will, have typing to do, recordings to do, I get off on a few tangents of online news and Facebook, and then it is 2 a.m. and I’m up way too late. I think, I’ll get up in the morning and update and you can imagine how that  comes out as I turn the alarm off and lay there another 10 or 20 or 30 minutes before scrambling to get my act together for the day job. Weekends? We’ve been traveling and having a ball on the weekends, driving late into the night and barely making it home in time for work. But, I am keeping a list of topics and hope  more time makes itself available to me (or I’ll find a better form of caffeine).

—

One thing I have been wanting to write about for weeks — and now I want to write about it because I think I will learn about the mystery of it all–is the crochet covers popping up in Austin.

One of my routes to and from downtown takes me to Lamar and underneath the train tracks just north of the river there. That underpass has always been a little mysterious because there is a painted memorial on a pillar dedicated to a 17-year-old boy who was killed by a drunk driver there in the 1980s. It says to drive carefully or you may kill someone’s kid. It, in fact, was the inspiration for my “Let’s Learn About Austin!” feature I used to do on the radio. I wanted to ask about those little interesting bits of trivia that were common knowledge to those of us who lived here, but not otherwise. Or things that might be interesting if you are part of the community, but just be true trivia if you lived elsewhere. I never did ask about that memorial on the air, however. It just seemed too personal and sad. I’m sure my listeners would have been able to answer any question I had about it, but that seemed morbid to award a prize for knowing about this poor boy’s death.

A few years ago, at least 3 because I was still on the air, “they” (the city, I’m assuming) installed panels from the sides of the walls of that underpass. The panels appear to be about a foot wide and maybe four feet tall and they are painted that bright bright blue that used to be used on highway signs and they had a white border, also like the highway signs. But they didn’t have any words or meaning. And they weren’t installed in a perpendicular fashion or any meaningful angles. Not meaningful to me anyway. There were about 9 on one side and 8 on the other and they were, apparently, “art.” I never got it and have never liked them.

Until a few weeks ago. After 3 years of pondering these panels and occasionally seeing where someone had painted graffiti on one or placed a sticker on it, I drove under the bridge and found them all crocheted! I seriously mean crocheted. They were all now “upholstered” in beautiful afghans. Or, some, not-so-beautiful afghans. Some are the zig-zag type afghans that my grandmother specialized in. I have two that she  made for me. Others were the simple stripe, stripe, stripe afghans in some truly old-fashioned color combos–like the brown/orange/yellow/gold stripes of the ’70s. Others were more the granny squares. All are in interesting colors and patterns and designs and finally – FINALLY – give you something to ponder and be amazed by as you sit stuck in traffic creeping under that underpass.

Of course, just seeing them led me to wonder who would do such a thing? Was this a case of urban art “vandalism” and they were installed without the city’s knowledge? That seemed unlikely. And these weren’t just afghans thrown over the panels, they appeared to have been created to fit perfectly over the panels. I hoped an answer would appear.

I often pick up the Austin Chronicle and let it sit for ages before I get around to glancing at it and throwing it in the recycle bin. I saw a few words on the cover the other day of an old one that leads me to believe this is a project of a group. If I don’t have time for writing, I hope you can believe that I don’t have time for reading either and I haven’t read the article to see what this was all about.

But then, I came home a different route this week. As I began to cross the river on South First/Guadalupe instead of Lamar, I noticed pillars along the new sidewalk. These short, chunky pillars that are there to protect pedestrians, I assume, were covered in crochet! Traffic is dicey at this point so I only got a glimpse of one and didn’t even notice the pattern or color, but there definitely was a blanket of yard there.

So that is the story and my perspective on it. I hope to soon read the article and update on what is going on in this city. It inspires me to learn to crochet. Mamma Williams was a whiz at it and whipped out lots of great afghans. I had her make one for me in red and black when I thought I would be going to Texas Tech. Later I got a spring colored pink and turquoise and white one. I also inherited her granny square afghan that was on the back of her big couch all during my childhood. Everyone is used and a comfort and a memory to me. Crochet is a wonderful useful artform.

—-

And I have been keeping a list of all the topics I want to write about and I must write about our fabulous trips to Muenster and to Greenhill. We’ve had some great trips, visits, experiences. I also want to make some comments about the comments that I’m getting on old blogs. I’m sure you don’t go back and see the comments after you’ve read an entry, so I want to bring some of those to the forefront so you know about the far flung folks I’m hearing from. I look forward to this weekend and THINK there will be time to write, but I also see that on this first weekend home in 3 weeks that I have at least 8 hours of typing facing me. I’ll make a rash promise of at least ONE update before the weekend is over.

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