Janice Williams Loves Austin

Ah. Underwoods. The name from my childhood brings back many happy memories, begging my parents to let us eat lunch at Underwood’s after church. It was a big black building on Amarillo Blvd. (Route 66!) and had a big tile depiction of the Underwoods’ man. I wish I had a picture of that building.

But it was the food that was most memorable. Barbecued steak and cherry cobbler and hot, HOT, delicious rolls fresh from the oven.

Years roll by and Amarillo’s Underwoods closed. Every so often, we would find ourselves in Brownwood and would take the opportunity to eat at the Underwoods that still operated there. Waco had one, too, until just a few years ago. A meal at Underwoods is one of the very few I would recommend that you plan a trip around.

So that is exactly what I did. I came up for my family reunion today in anticipation of eating at Underwoods in Brownwood tonight. It is the last remaining restaurant of the chain that used to cover Texas. I have never been a fan of cafeterias, but Underwoods is different. At most places, you have to pay for every little item you pick up. At Underwoods, you buy the meal and can have all the side dishes AND cobbler AND rolls you want. Ahhhhhhh. So this is what I had:

I’m not a great food photographer. I didn’t want to be too obvious about it so it was a one shot snap. That is the fabulous barbecued steak as the main course. I wonder why other barbecue joints don’t have barbecued steak? It is a wonderful thing. They don’t have brisket, but they do have sausage and ribs. I can’t break tradition and have anything but the steak. Yum. But you know how I search for great fried chicken so I had to try it here, too. One thing Underwoods has over Allen’s in Sweetwater is that they have honey ready and waiting on the table for your chicken. Yum. The beans were like homemade Ranch Style Beans, the mashed potatoes were just so-so, the potato salad was really good and different (did it have cheese in it maybe?).

Those hot rolls are worth the trip alone. And they keep coming around with hot, fresh ones, just like grandma used to do.

As for the cobbler, I talked to Mom once I got to my motel for the night. She asked if I had had the cherry cobbler. I said, no, I had considered it and opted to go with the peach this time. There was a pause and then Mother solemnly said, “That was a mistake.” She could be right, I’m sure thinking about running by about 11 a.m. tomorrow for a quick taste.

Anyone that knows my capacity for food might be surprised that I did NOT clean my plate at Underwood’s tonight. Fabulous, but SO much I did stop short.

As for the other adventures of the day, I stopped first at the Newburg Cemetery and communed with my ancestors for a long while. I hoed weeds off of lots of graves and put out flowers and just wandered. I’ve done so much genealogy lately, a lot of the names were more familiar than they have been before. Two of my cousins came by while I was there, so we had a short visit and I will see them more tomorrow. It is very comforting to be 140 miles from home and bump into cousins.

Tomorrow—- REUNION!!

I can’t believe the weekend is already here. How quickly a week goes by when you are out of town for two days of it! And I didn’t work at the “office” today either, so it really was a short work week. Just the way I like it!

I wanted to backtrack a little bit to my trip to Amarillo and our wonderful Memorial Day. I’ll skip all the travel troubles on the way up on Sunday (which began with waking up at 10 a.m. when I needed to be leaving the house at 10 a.m.).

Monday, Memorial Day, dawned bright and windy in Amarillo. A beautiful spring day. The night before had been full of hail and rain and tornadoes all around us in the Panhandle. Quite exciting! But Monday was clear and calm (well, except for the wind) and beautiful. Mom and my sister Mackie had driven up the day before and I flew up. I had arrived earlier than they did, so I had already had a good visit with my Aunt Dorothy.

We went to Aunt Dorothy’s for lunch. You should be well acquainted with her family from my entry about Trent’s graduation just a week before when they were all in Waco for the festivities. But they were happy to throw another party for us in Amarillo because they are great party throwers and great cooks, every one of them. I always have to take a picture of the beautiful table at Aunt Dorothy’s because it is always so elegant, even with paper plates.

The kids are ready to dig in. I don’t blame them. From top to bottom we have a big plate of donuts, a casserole of oat meal and fruit, French toast, monkey bread, a ham and hashbrowns and cheese casserole, an egg and sausage casserole, and fruit. Nothing like a light breakfast!

These are the same kids you saw at their uncle’s graduation and Ph.D. ceremony at Baylor. AnnaBeth, Alex, and Jonathan.

They had the day off from school so they could be with us. I got to see Jonathan the next morning at home since he is only 5 and will start kindergarten in the fall, but the others had gone to school for the last week or so. Here they are, still yearning for that good food.

They weren’t the only kids on hand. My cousin Heather dropped in, too, with her baby girl Sidney. I am always flattered because my aunt (and lots of that family) will interchange my name and Heather’s name, confusing us with one another and saying that Heather always reminds them of me. That is high praise because she is a doll and has the sharpest wit. Plus she’s really really smart. This is not the greatest picture because of the bad photographer and the moving target, but it is Heather.

Sidney deserves a better picture though, because she is a beautiful child that like to say “outside” a lot!

We had a wonderful gathering and lots of laughs and fun and then Mother and Mackie and I went to the cemetery for a Memorial Day service honoring veterans. Daddy was a Korean war veteran and served in the US Air Force and he is buried in a new section of the cemetery called the Field of Valor. They had a very nice service for Memorial Day. This is where we were, because if you can find a tree in the Panhandle (and they are all planted, they are not native), you take advantage of it. Have you ever seen a flatter landscape?

But the ceremony was this other direction. Notice the wind blowing the flags straight out. The storm the night before had destroyed a lot of the large flags they had on display in the cemetery and there were leaves and branches strewn across most of it.

There was a nice flyover (several, in fact), too.

We did some grave visiting while we were in the cemetery. That is what Memorial Day is for, after all. At one time I lived in Amarillo with two great roommates, Diane and Beth. Beth’s parents are buried in the same cemetery as Daddy and I finally found their graves. I knew them both well when they were alive. Diane’s mother died before I knew her, but she is also buried there so I checked on her grave since Diane lives in San Antonio now. My Uncle Homer and my grandparents (Mother’s parents) are also buried in this cemetery, so we visited them all. Mackie had come prepared with flowers and flags for everyone’s graves.

Next we went across town to the other cemetery and visited Daddy’s parents graves, my dear cousin Judy who died in December, and my older brother who died as a baby.

Through with the cemetery visits, Mom and Mackie took me to my friend Sandy’s so she and I could go visit Jamey and have a mini-college reunion. This is Sandy’s sweet cat at her front door.

Sandy and I visited Jamey at his radio remote (add that to my list of why I’m glad I’m not in radio— remotes on holidays!). Later we had dinner with my mother and then we stopped in to see my cousin Larry for a bit. A really good day with lots of great visits and lots of people to see and lots of good people to remember fondly.

If you’ve seen my main site you can see where I’ve spent my time today. It is getting closer to what I want it to look like - - - i.e. less “homemade” and more appealing to the eye. I wish I had taken some graphics courses somewhere along the way so I would know some of the basics. Since I didn’t, I know what I like, but I don’t know how to achieve it.

Today I am cleaning out a closet and I finally found a missing packet of letters. I thought these letters had somehow disappeared, but they showed up today. Hooray! These are letters from listeners. Not my local listeners here in Austin, these are letters from listeners when I worked for ABC Radio in Dallas. Most of these letters are from prisoners in other states. Some very interesting stories (and drawings, too!) there. Those stories still to come.

But first, another Christmas adventure. Last week my friend Marsha read an article in the New York Times about cemetery and grave decorating. You’ve read about my cemetery visits to see my own relatives, but I can also appreciate cemeteries where I don’t know a soul. The article said that the San Fernando II cemetery i San Antonio was one of the cemeteries that is being decorated more and more at Christmastime, despite the cemetery rules. Marsha and I decided we would drive down to San Antonio and see the cemetery.

I served as a poor navigator, but we eventually stumbled upon the San Fernando II cemetery. There is also a “III” and an original San Fernando Cemetery. The San Fernando Cathedral is Texas’ oldest church and has a fascinating history. We didn’t go to the cathedral downtown, but I hope to one of these days.

We soon saw what the article was talking about with graves decorated with poinsettias (real and silk), Christmas trees, presents, food, tinsel, and more. It almost has to be seen to be understood, but the pictures will give you an idea.

This was one of the more simply decorated graves. I liked the little Santa doll on the marker.I hope I didn’t appear to be gawking or making fun of these graves while I was there (or now). I understand the need of the friends and relatives of these people to connect with them at the holidays. It is a way to include the whole family.

If you didn’t know about this custom,you might assume this was a new grave and the funeral had just occurred, leaving the flowers and decorations behind. But, no, this is just decoration for Christmas. Obviously, one of the more elaborate graves at San Fernando.

But this is my favorite:

The statuary in this cemetery was beautiful, and I liked how this grave’s Madonna was included in the decoration. Bless the Mireles family. I hope they had a good Christmas.

I got home that afternoon and told Mark about our adventures. He asked whose grave we went to see. I explained that I didn’t know anyone that was buried there, I only went to see the decorations. Mark has always been quite supportive of my cemetery interest and has gone with me many times, even climbing high, chain-link fences, to get to the graves we wanted to see. But he thought this was pretty weird. Unusual, yes. Weird, I hope not.

I think this is a beautiful tradition, but I don’t know that I want it to catch on and be widespread. I wasn’t even able to get my house decorated for Christmas this year, I don’t know when I’d find the time to decorate graves, too.