for my homies (a sixer)

i try not to make too many FB references on here…

…but this one i thought was necessary.

i don’t know if every little town has this, but lately a facebook group popped up called “you know you’re from lockhart when…”. i see the updates. i see the posts. and i’m not even part of the group. i guess i get all this ’cause i list “lockhart” as my current place of residence, as it has been for thirty-three of my forty years of life. while JAB posted that he knows he’s from lockhart ’cause it’s on his drivers license (as it has been on every license he or i have ever owned, i’d wager – despite the years he lived in san marcos) i put in for the group before i saw his post (as of this writing i’m still not approved) and thought to myself, “you know what – i don’t need to put it up here…i have a website for that”. so on that note…

six things i dug about growing up in lockhart, texas

6. summer meant three words – “state park pool” – there is also a “city park pool” in lockhart, which was cheaper, closer, and didn’t require a park membership to go to, but for some reason mom always drove us out to the state park pool. every day, all summer, i was there – rain or shine…literally. there’s even newpaper clips of teri (my sister) going off the high dive!

5. one stop shopping on the town square – now it’s just real estate offices, lawyers offices, title companies, and such…but back then it was all about retail! rosenwasser’s, true value hardware, jc penny’s, gellman’s, glosserman’s, and bill’s dollar store! i think that completes the roll call of businesses wal-mart killed off slowly but surely starting in about 1982. and if they didn’t have it, you could order it from sear’s, only a block off the square. and was convenient for us! fuck the internet!

4. baker’s got bills to pay, too – ah, the baker theater. i oft lament about how cool it is to go back to see movies at the alamo drafthouse at the village ’cause it’s where i saw the original “star wars” the summer it was released. that’s true. what i don’t often mention is i saw “the empire strikes back” when it was first released at the baker theater in lockhart. this is also where i saw the first “r” rates movie i ever saw in theaters – “urban cowboy”, which i firmly believe i got to see ’cause the owners of the baker were having business issues and my money paid their bills just as well as dough from somebody who was actually old enough to see the movie. the one good thing i personally got out of reaganomics!

3. the little river bike trails – one of the few things i remember spanning my younger friends in elementary school (trey schroeder, todd krause, etc) on into junior high (lance, alex) and then into high school (JAB, the michaels) and while i still have a bmx bike AND live riding distance from them, i don’t see myself heading that way anytime soon. okay, well, now that i’ve written this i’ll probably go next sub-one hundred degree day we have…which buys me some time, i’m afraid. but if i go i’ll post pics if they’re still passable…hell, i even remember there was a jeep back there…and a swamp that seemed to go on forever!

2. my country-ass ‘hood – when i was a kid and you went to the end of my street all you saw, in all directions, was cotton fields. the railroad tracks. the end. that literally was all you saw to the end of the horizon. then came the ’80’s, and off to the right you got a HUD apartment complex. than came the ’90’s and they added HUD housing around it. than came the 2000’s and we got the subdivision off to the left that drove all the field mice into MY FUCKING NEIGHBORHOOD while it was being built. now for the 2K-teens we get a great view of the toll road. there goes the neighborhood. well, at least it’ll probably boost property values to where when i DO sell i can get out and get to austin and just stay there indefinitely, right? or maybe just do san marcos?

1. four grocery stores for 6,000 lockhartians vs. one grocery store for 15.000 lockhartians – no bullshit. when i was a kid there was “eagle food mart” (where my buddy trey shopped, across from sear’s), “super s foods” (where we shopped), “wuest’s grocery” (where my mom would later work part time to make ends meet) and finally “HEB”, which is now all we have. while it’s bigger than the one we grew up on, it just ain’t enough for this town. hopefully SOME other food chain sees that…or HEB bites the bullet and opens a second store. it’ll work…guaranteed.