I came within four feet of being shot by Charles Whitman on August 1, 1966. The story is below.

On April 1st, 2007 I got to ascend the Tower and shoot a photo from the west side of the observation deck. This was the first time I had visited the University of Texas Tower observation deck since prior to August 1st, 1966, when Charles Whitman rained down a withering fire of bullets from this vantage point. Thanks to some connections I have made, I was allowed to go along with a group of former Austin police officers who were on the tower that fateful day and participated in the elimination of Whitman.

The photo confirmed my suspicions. The white air conditioning unit on the roof of the Union Bldg in middle of that photograph probably saved my life on August 1st, 1966. At 11:55 a.m., along with two of my Longhorn Band friends, I was standing on the sidewalk just under the now-existing black sign with white letters that reads "Wish." In 1966, the entire ground level area where Wish, Austin's Pizza and Sprint now occupy spaces was one large drug store/soda fountain-cafe called Renfro's Rexall Drug Store. This is where I met my Longhorn Band pals every school day that semester.

Whitman may have considered us for targets, since he could have probably seen our heads over the ac unit. But he probably could not have seen our bodies and at that point in the rampage, he was aiming for midsections. Instead, he chose to shoot a 38 year-old military veteran named Harry Walchuk, who was standing in the door of a narrow newsstand that was located just to the south of us.

This burg is responsible for many things known world-wide that actually got started here. Let's compile a list of the good, bad, and ugly... bragging is fine.


Tex-Mex food

• Fajitas - "Sonny "Fajita King" Falcon claimed to have opened the first "fajita stand" in Kyle, Texas, and in 1978 a "Fajita King" stand in Austin...The popularity of the dish certainly grew after Ninfa Laurenza introduced it on her menu at Ninfa's Restaurant in Houson Texas, on July 13, 1973, but that was under the name "tacos al carbon," and increased still further as a "fajita" after the item was featured at the Austin Hyatt Regency Hotel, which by 1982 was selling thirteen thousand orders per month."
• Breakfast tacos and Migas - Perhaps not invented here but inarguably made into the ever present breakfast treat by our local fry cooks

Mass Murder

• Charles Whitman - he single handedly invented 20th century mass-murder. We now have EMS, SWAT teams, and copycats as a result

Psychedelic Rock

• The 13h Floor Elevators - "The first use of the term "psychedelic rock" was on the 13th Floor Elevators' business card , designed by John Cleveland, and circulated in December 1965. The term was first used in print in the Austin Statesman in an article about the band titled "Unique Elevators shine with Psychedelic Rock" , dated 10th February 1966."

Corona

• Gambrinus introduced Corona to the US via Austin. It was mainly associated with The Oasis back then

Wakeboarding

• "Sometime way back around 1985 in Austin, Jimmy Redmon invented a “water ski board” that would eventually become what we know today as a wakeboard."

In early 1970, I went into the Maverick Steakhouse on South Congress, in Downtown Austin. After waiting about 15 minutes with no service, the manager came to our table and asked us to leave. He kindly explained, "Sorry, we don't serve Hippie food here."

The good old days!

Shiner Bock took off in the mid-70's in Austin and thanks to that we have the wonderful story and even better, the beer today. Prior to that, Shiner was the beer of choice for the country folks. As usual, the counter culture has a large part in this story. There were kegs of Shiner and the omnipresent white cups with the Shiner logo at every Cosmic Cowboy bar and event. Happy hour was a bit different back then... one dollar pitchers and two-for-one drinks meant that Shiner and Lone Star greased many an enjoyable conversation.

Another Austin tradition that seems to have fallen off was the pilgrimage to the Shiner brewery. It went something like this:

1. Wait for a nice day in early summer
2. Head down to Black's in Lockhart for a barbecue lunch
3. Continue to Luling, stealing a watermelon from a field and eating it in the car along the way
4. Blaze through Gonzales
5. Arrive at Shiner and wonder how the brewery could be so small
6. Take the 5-minute brewery tour
7. Spend the next hour or two in the hospitality room
8. For bonus points... you could swing by Staples on your way back for a quick dip in the falls

Yes, that is certainly the proper summer's day BBQ, Beer, and Swimming checklist.

Surely you've been to Ginny's at least once. You remember, it was that time you went to see Dale Watson on a Wednesday night. Maybe it was on one of the chicken shit Sundays. Or perhaps, it was even before that... before it was Ginny's even. That little square building of honky tonk perfection was originally Dick's Little Longhorn. Ginny inherited it through kindness and duty. In any case, it's safe to say "It don't get more Austin than that."

Ginny and Sharon (as far as I know) are still tending bar, the music is still real country music that fosters participation. The type of music that has fused the Austin culture together better than any other force.
Please, for me, go to Ginny's, sit at the bar, order a Lone Star, enjoy the no-cover-required music, and savor the way it used to be. Oh and by the way, the restrooms are the way they used to be also!

Last week we lost yet another one of those things that you just rely on being there: James Stanish passed on. If your had ever eaten there, "Mr. Top Notch" surely either took your order and/or cooked your meal. Everyone seems to mention the Dazed and Confused connection with Top Notch as if that is the defining attribute. It's not. Top Notch has always been a place where you walked in and felt like family. We don't know yet whether they will re-open and try to keep going without James. I hope so but in either case we will have lost a part of our Austin family.

Update: the family has decided to re-open the restaurant and keep going. Give them your support.

Today, there are pan handlers on every street corner. Back in the good old days, there were hippie flower sellers. Remember them? I think they were officially called "The Flower People". They each had a white plastic bucket of long stem carnations and each had their own style of marketing and actually put some effort into it. The main technique I recall was their ability to twirl a long-stem flower on their index finger for hours. Much like watching someone spin a basketball or ride a unicycle, it look effortless and easy.

Effortless and easy... that pretty much describes the culture of the times that allowed not only the omnipresence of these hippies of commerce but also allowed one of them to rise up to run the circus:

As Joni Mitchell said "you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone", and so I feel about Les Amis. I never really hung out there beyond the occasional lunch or afternoon beer. The crowd there was always a little too artsey, too east-coast bohemian, and the menu was expensive! Looking back though, "Les" was a cultural nugget for old Austin and especially for campus culture. It was there during the riots, during the fawning disco days, during the punk scene, and it had a place and purpose in each of those.

The film "Viva Les Amis" should be required viewing for anyone on this site. Good history and snapshots from our time gone by. Here's one for you... look familiar?

We used to follow the Lotions around wherever they played, mostly. They were a big part of the raggae movement in Austin. I can't believe no one has mentioned the Armadillo World Headquarters yet, gee whiz Wally, I spent way more time there than I did at my high School, the beer garden was always a place to score, eat, drink, socialize. I even saw Rush play there, Turk Pipkin performed, hundreds of bands did, usually admission was only 8 bucks! The only time I ever got to see Zappa was at the 'Dillo. All the way out cool artwork on the walls from Michael Priest and others. I remember being at the last dance at the 'Dillo, their last show, on New Years Eve, During Kenneth Threadgills set, our friend Rusty fell under the stage and passed out, the front of the stage had a curtain across it, so when he fell, the curtain sung back, and rusty disappeared behind the curtain, and we couldn't find him till he woke up at the end of the show when the hall cleared out.. yeah good times!!

Skating down the hill at auditorium shores on a cardboard box, during the free Sunday concerts, I remember taking our bong into those.
We even took our bong into city colosium, (the old army hanger by Palmer auditorium), we saw Styx there and Fleetwood Mac.

Used to have breakfast, or lunch with Clifford Antone at Trudy's pretty often, Cliff was good people, don't believe the horseshit, he gave lots of guys their break, and lots of people a job.

Miss the Stallions slightly green gravy on the CFS, a good meal, I cried when those places were torn down, I still have a t-shirt with an angry armadillo coming over the top of Texas Bank.

I worked on and off, (mostly spent the night on the couch), at Riverside Sound Studios, and worked or hung out with Herschel C, Eddie H, Bill J, Ricky M, Lloyd M, Jim Yanaway, Bob Livingston, I fondly remember very sweet Connie Hancock, and all the Hancock ladies, Tejana Dames, the jazzmanian devil himself, and lots of others, it was the place that made the Austin Christmas Album..... and Austin Records put a lot of bands on the Austin music map.... It closed in 1989... I was the guy that ripped out most of the electronics...I really missed that place.

Who remembers the old "Super Roper" station KOKE FM - 95 point something on the radio dial? Coming from Dallas to Austin in the early 70's we had nothing like this station. What a mix of music. You could here a set of Willie, Michael Murphey, Leon Russell, Bob Dylan then from nowhere a Frank Sinatra song?!?! I remember the 10 to 2 DJ "Joe Gracey" he was fantastic and always funny! I remember his sign off was bluegrass "Turkey in the Straw" while he pontificated old time sayings, "Don't take no wooden nickels", "Drink lots of water", and ended with "Stay off your feet and come when you can".
Then about 75, 76 the ominous cloud of "DISCO" rolled into Austin, KOKE's rating numbers went in the toilet and the greatest venue for the Austin Sound, Outlaw Country was gone overnight. I mourned for months. I saw Joe Gracey later about 78 or 79 at the Casita Gorges out on East Riverside across from the Back Door. He had a tube running down his nose and I heard he had been fighting cancer of the throat or tongue. How ironic for a man who made his living with his voice. I don't know what happened to Joe after that but he made great memories for me and others and was an Austin Icon of that era. Another day in paradise as he used to say.