Memories of Our Austin - Things

Things Invented or made famous by Austin

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:44:11 -0800

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."

Shiner

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:46:19 -0800

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:

Wait for a nice day in early summer
Head down to Black's in Lockhart for a barbecue lunch
Continue to Luling, stealing a watermelon from a field and eating it in the car along the way
Blaze through Gonzales
Arrive at Shiner and wonder how the brewery could be so small
Take the 5-minute brewery tour
Spend the next hour or two in the hospitality room
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.

The Pleasure Of One Year and Several 'Visits' Afterwards

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 14:48:20 -0800

I happened upon Austin at the invite of my best friend in high school(Upstate NY early'70's)in Nov.1974. I was in college in Okla. and he at UT. Sooo I went and experienced Austin on substances no longer the quailtiy they were back then. Imagine walking into the 'Dillo 3 days before Thanksgiving seeing that mural of Freddy 'Strait From Heart' King & drinking my first Lonestar and ordering up a chalupa and a Chocalate chip cookie. On that one visit I knew I had to live here. I quit college moved to Austin became a partime Rest. Mgr and full time part-taker of everthing musically-epicurian-artisan Tejas Hill country had to offer.
So my question is, other than the places, people, and things mentioned here does anybody remember:
1.The original 'Hole-In-Wall' off 'The Drag'
2.Mother Earth (I saw Tommy Shannon play there I think with the 'Fools').
3.Mad-dog and Beans (right anround the corner from Inner-Sactum.)
4.Ice Scream You Scream or even 'Nothing Strikes Back' ice cream parlour (if you had a serious case of the munchies, nothing like black-lights/deadheads and a chocolate-banana malt with whipcream and a nilla wafer).
5.BalconesFault (if you remember the 'Savages' you can't forget the 'Fault')
6.Too Smooth, The Electromagnets, 40times it's Own Weight.
7.Antones, Soap Creek, Blue Parrot, The Filling Station, Bee Caves, Mt.Bonnell......'Hippie Hollow'.
8.W.N.'s annual 4th picnic.
10.Middle Earth
11.I'll need to be refreshed here, out by Lake Travis there used to be a co-op run eatery that served family style dinners great viddles!!!!
12.Shivas Headband (I heat they'll still going strong)Commander cody,Asleep at the Wheel.

The lottery to end all lotteries...

Sun, 31 Dec 2006 21:02:09 -0800

In the late 1960s students had a deferment from being drafted and sent to Vietnam. But if you quit school or whatever, you were open to being called up...

That all changed on 1 December 1969, with the first of the lotteries that drew out the dates of the year - and the order that they were drawn was the order that you'd get called up, regardless... As a student, you could finish the current semester, or the end of the school year if you were a senior.

I wasn't included in the first draw - that covered guys born before 1951. My draw came up the next year...

With a group of others, I walked to some place on what was then 19th Street (now Martin Luther King), somewhere near the top of the hill that goes down toward Lamar Blvd, to read the results in the window of some sort of news place.

Me? I got a high number - but it was a sad day for many others with smaller numbers. I remember some guys on the South Mall with tee shirts with their numbers written/printed on them...

Sometimes it really was just the luck of the draw...

The Sign that 'Twerbled'...

Tue, 26 Dec 2006 16:58:38 -0800

Somewhere up past 24th Street on the Drag as some sort of big roadside sign, on the west side of the road, and somehow I think there may have been a pizza place nearby? Anyway, this sign was held by a massive steel 'H' beam, big enough to back into and almost be completely hidden.

And someone, probably many of us, discovered what an amazing sound it made if you backed up into that way, then kicked backward with your heel! It must have been something to do with the height and size and harmonics or who knows what - but everyone agreed that the correct description of the sound it made was "twerbling"...

I'm sure it must have driven the local shops mad, with loud and rowdy groups of drugged out hippies, walking up to the sign at all hours of the day and night, kicking it and laughing...

Update! Zanthan was there...

Google Bucket

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 23:02:01 -0700

If you get here through a search, then you remember something listed on this page. Do us a favor and log-in and record that Austin memory!

Treaty Oak - still there in spite of the attempted VooDoo killing
North vs. South Tug of war - The North won, I believe
The Buccaneer - a seedy bar in the south
The old dinner theaters - on the edge of town... speaking of that!
The Edge of Town - a night club in a converted dinner theater
Dessau Hall - country girl, I think you're pretty
Jalapeno Charlie's - in that strange building on S. Lamar
The Hanging Tree - more S. Lamar weirdness
The Chaparral Lounge - what's this "new Chaparral" bullshit?
The Split Rail - I remember this as a biker bar
Duke's Royal Coach Inn - punk club on Congress... Joe King's homeroom
Maggie Mae's - remember when it was so narrow and one of the pioneers of 6th street?
The Salt Lick - before it was famous. The best Friday lunch was to fill a cooler and head out Camp Ben McCulloch road for the afternoon.
Holiday House - wild animals and burgers!
2J's - good burgers, loyal following
The Draught House - the one before the Draught Horse!
Lone Star Beer sign - stood above the Drag for a generation
Dry Creek Cafe - still kicking and lot's of ink spilt already... add your special experience
Scarbrough building and store - Austin elegance
The Silver Dollar - WAY before Dallas, the night club
The Raw Deal - the original... east 6th back in the day
Update: nice photo show of the old RD
The Poodle Dog - still there I think, as is...
The Horseshoe Lounge - got kicked out of there once
emmajoe's - small e, small place, small cover, huge talent every night

Kassel Beer

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 20:26:18 -0700

Who's with me here? I recall going to the Handy Andy and looking over the beer cooler many-a-time. The lowest cost item there was a case of ~~Castle beer which I think was a Pearl brewery product~~update! see comment. I shudder to think what Pearl did to save costs on that case of beer but I always enjoyed the mad-libs style puzzle under each and every bottle cap... and the beer.

Bumper Stickers

Sat, 04 Mar 2006 13:21:28 -0800

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:

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

- another veneration theme but I liked the siluouette guitarist

- South Austin pride

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

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

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?