Back when trail riding was still pretty new, there were world-class trails to ride right here in our Austin City Limits. Forest Ridge stands out as one of the greatest. The entire length of old Spicewood Spgs. Rd. was bordered by cedar woods. These woods were laced with jeep track that was cut by the one-time residents of that area: the Jollyville Cedar Choppers. It was commonplace to enter the trail on the South side and be able to ride for hours and/or miles without retracing your path. You could make it to 3M, veer over to Jester, up to Great Hills, or just stay in the woods on highly technical, rocky paths. The water tower was the most common destination which reminds me of one of the greatest losses that has been incurred due to the zealousness of the nature conservationists.

Let's say your were heading for the water tower, once past it, there was a nice hill that had several highly technical paths to its summit. Once there, the landscape opened up to a beautiful open field about 1/2 acre in size. Who knows when or how it got started but in this open field, there were literally hundreds of rock sculptures, more like found object assemblies, scattered across the landscape. Some of these were random piles of rock yet some were amazingly artistic. They either resembled an intentional figure or had an abstract balance that conveyed beauty. In any case, this glade was one of those "secrets" that insiders enjoyed and the majority of the population had no concept of its existence. That is until the Balcones Canyonlands Conservation folks got involved.

First, fences were erected to deny access to the hill top (hikers, bikers, all denied). Artificially introduced plants were brought it to try to shield/hide previous trails. Weekly work teams spent time on the hill covering, hiding and generally trying to "naturalize" the area. I support conservation efforts and although I don't agree with some of their tactics, saving land as natural vs. developing it all is a good thing.

Elda's was one of those places that was a legitimate "hidden gem". It was the personal residence of a married couple from Mexico, I think, and they opened their home as a restaurant. The other bonus was that they were open on Friday night until past 2:00am. Cabrito and guacamole, amazingly good. The old man taking your order to the old woman sitting at her dinette table and both of them disappearing to the kitchen to cook it, even better. I can't remember where they were located except it was on the East side on a hill.

Inner Sanctum went through a couple or three metamorphoses, always tracking what was cool in Austin. Progressive Country to Punk. Inner Sanctum had it all when you wanted it. They also provided an essential service to the local bands of the day by being about the ONLY retail outlet for those rare events known as recordings by Austin bands.

Austin has always had a special thing for bumper stickers. Way beyond a statement of political or commercial affiliation. Austin stickers are our zeitgeist. Memorable stickers are:

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I "heart" Austin - plain, simple, popular, says it all

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- another veneration theme but I liked the siluouette guitarist

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- South Austin pride

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- Oat Willie standing in his barrow
(many thanks to Nick!)

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- the Spoke had already been around about a'hunert years by then

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And folks... the granddaddy of them all -

Waterloo Records - what other community has the creativity to use this humble raw material for so many statements of Austin and it's people?
Update! See what I mean?