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All the old ones I was drug around to

Bars

When I was a kid growing up in West Austin, my parents seemed to want to take me places I didnt care about darkening the door of, especially at the tender age of 7 years old or so. When my Mom met her future husband of 30 plus years we moved here from Ft. Worth with her to start a new life in 1966. We first met him, (my future step dad) at "The Tavern" at 12th and Lamar. It was still a beer joint then and owned by some of my step dads good friends Ticky and Lee Sulivan. My older brother and I waited in the car on this cool December night, but all the while we were mezmerized by the "Terminix" bug that sat atop of the rotating sign just across the street . We never thought our first visit would end up watching some larger than life sized cock roach spin round and round. We were finally asked to come inside and join the grown ups and this was the first of my many visits to the old swiss chalet looking building. This is where I literally cut not only my eye teeth but my initals were carved into one of the old oak wood tabels. My brother and I got bored rather quickly and one of the owners asked if we wanted to earn some extra money. We jumped at the chance to wash beer mugs in the kitchen. Just behind the kitchen was a quaint little spot that served as a pizza kitchen. That kitchen was a one man shop owned and run by the owner Buzzy Buck. Buzzy Buck's Pizza Kitchen must have been the first pizza delivery shop in Austin. Buzzy would take a phone in order, hand toss the made from scratch dough and pop a large pie in the oven and when it came out he locked the door of his tin shed behind the Tavern, jumped in his little orange Karmenghia VW, and off he went with a great piping hot delivery towards the campus area somewhere. This among other spots is just the tip of the old Austin iceberg that I will continue to share in later visits. Sorry gotta run...let me know if you want more and I will post as time permits....there are some great memories stored in my old austin memory bank.

Welcome and... Yes! More stories!

Welcome realoldaustinite. Your story about The Tavern is great. That's a place near and dear to my heart... as you can tell. I also watched that Terminix bug go round and round.

Please do add your memories either to comments in any of the current stories or add new stories. We need them.

Scholtz Garden

Can't believe no one has mentioned Scholtz's which was down on San Jac not too far from the Capitol...really a god-awful place to work....with the first tips of the night one of us usually played Waltz Across Texas or In Heaven there is no Beer. If I hear anyone holler out my old waitress number I still jump (after 37 or 38 years! And I will never ever forget Chester the bartender singing out "las' call for alcohol--LAS' call!" --the words that signalled our salvation! .Kate

In '68 one of the dufus frat

In '68 one of the dufus frat pledges in my pre Animal House UT frat (we didn't have a house) actually stole the bug as part of our pledge initiation scavenger hunt. ;-) What a dufus!

The Terminix Bug

Ahhhh...."THE BUG"....where does it reside today? Yes the memories of old bars in downtown are endless. They range from the Alamo Lounge to The Flamingo on Lake Austin Blvd. How long have you been in Austin? I will add more stories today...Maybe the old Alamo Hotel stories from the past will be a good start. TTYL