The first stop was in Hillsboro (just a little south of
Itasca and not too far from Carl’s Corner) where we stopped for gasoline and a
Dr. Pepper. I remember it because I
wanted to know where the hills were.
For some reason I needed to know the answer to this, and I made certain
to ask everyone I saw why there were no hills in Hillsboro. Finally Dad put me back into the car and we
drove down the road to West.
Wait a minute!
West? It was a great stop, and I
was introduced to my first kolache at a bakery where no one spoke English or
Spanish, but why was the name of the town West when clearly it was South
of Fort Worth? Dad rushed me back to
the car.
It was just about one half of an hour before we stopped
again. Mom went into a convenience
store for a few minutes, and Dad, my brother James, and I walked around
outside. I couldn’t read much at that
time, but I could figure out some simple words. It didn’t take me long to figure out the name of the
town—Waco. Now Waco is pronounced with
a long ‘a’ as in ‘David,’ but I was absolutely certain it was pronounced a
short ‘a’ as in ‘wacko.’
I needed to know how and why this town got the name
Wacko. Was there something wrong with
the people living there? Or was there
something wrong with the people who stopped there as we had done? As soon as Mom came out of the store, we hit
the road again. A little fast as I
remember.
Where was the big wooden horse in Troy? I want to see the temple in Temple. I can’t hear the bells in Belton. Is everyone in Georgetown named George? We spent the night in Round Rock, and I
never did see that rock.
The next morning was a new day, and the things so important
to me yesterday were already forgotten.
Our first stop was the Texas capitol building in Austin. I think I was actually speechless. I can remember the giant paintings hanging
on the walls in a big room. Sam
Houston, William Barrett Travis, Stephen F. Austin, and many other heroes of
Texas history were depicted there. But
as hard as I tried I couldn’t find Davy Crockett. I was told he was on one of the paintings, and all I had to do was
look, but he should have had a prominent place on the wall. He should have been easy to find.
I didn’t say anything about this, but it bothered me that I
couldn’t find the greatest hero in world history among the paintings on the
walls of that huge building. Didn’t
they see the television show about him?
I kept my disappointment to myself, but I thought about this for years.
We hit the road again, but this time we turned east and
drove to a market in Elgin. There Dad
bought a big bag of sausages, some Dr. Pepper, Grapette, Big Red, and orange
Nehi sodas along with some ice for our cooler.
As we traveled, we munched on those sausages and drank those sodas to
cool the burn, but we kept on munching.
This was my first taste of the famous Elgin ‘Hot Guts,’ and it certainly
wasn’t my last. Yes, they were hot, but
to someone raised on fresh jalapeno peppers for breakfast, this wasn’t a
problem, even at my young age.
We ended up in San Jacinto where Sam Houston and his rag-tag
army defeated General Santa Ana and gave Texas its independence from
Mexico. I understood some of this, but
why didn’t anyone acknowledge Davy Crockett’s contribution? That night we were on Galveston Island and I
saw my first palm trees. But where were
the monkeys and coconuts?
I think we spent another night there before driving up to
Houston. Somewhere in that city we
stopped for lunch and I can remember that hamburger as though it was
yesterday. It had three slices of bread
and two pieces of meat. I didn’t know
this could be done to a hamburger, but there it was. Should I eat the top part or the bottom part first? I can’t remember just how I resolved this
problem, but I also don’t remember going hungry.
We got back on the road and that night we slept in San
Antonio. The next morning I had one the
best surprises of my young life. We
went to the Alamo.
I couldn’t understand how the big battle took place with all
the department stores just across the street, but I was assured this was where
it happened. There was as much about
Davy Crockett as I could hope to find.
Coonskin caps were being sold at a small desk set up in the courtyard
out front, and small plastic rifles called ‘Betsy’ were right beside those
caps. Finally someone appreciated this
great hero.
There were a number of cannon on display nearby, and I
didn’t want to leave without taking one of the cannon home with me. Dad told me I could have one if I could get
it into the car by myself, but in the end, I left it behind to safeguard Texas
again if need be.
There are other missions in the San Antonio area and we did
go to one or two of them before we drove to Brackenridge Park for a late lunch
picnic. Then we drove into the evening
before we stopped in San Marcos. The
next morning we were back on the road, and Dad was in a hurry to get to some
destination before it was too late.
By mid-morning we were a few miles to the east in Lockhart,
and Dad stopped near an old brick building where he disappeared behind it for a
while. When he came back to the car he
had a bunch of meat and bread wrapped up in butcher paper for us to enjoy for
lunch—if we could wait that long. The
smell was wonderful, and I don’t think he drove more that a few blocks before
stopping the car. We devoured the
barbeque. As if that wasn’t enough, we
were parked just a few yards away from another barbeque place. Dad went in.
It was quite a few years later before I became a regular
customer at those two places, and I certainly miss them now that I live in
California. The first one was Kreuz
Market (now known as Smitty’s), and the second one was Black’s. Two of the best.
We traveled home with a huge bag of barbeque, but by the
time we drove into our driveway late that evening, the bag was empty, the sodas
were gone, and James and I were asleep in the back seat.
I started the first grade in the fall of that year, and a
few weeks into the torture process, I was asked to tell what my family had done
that summer. Like a true Texan, the
only thing I could remember was the Alamo.
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