Reminiscing - by Danu

Mical’s wild hair (in his last blog, which you should read) has become the thorn in my side. I think about Austin’s changes every day; but, not until Mical (unknowingly, I’m sure,) posted a picture of someone I know in his blog did it really get me thinking.

Austin is an ever-growing popular town. I moved here during the Summer Olympics of 1984. Watching those games on a tiny TV, in a living room with no furniture was liberating and foreshadowed the lessons I would learn from the city of Austin that, frankly, I don’t think I could have ever learned from Brownsville, Texas. There’s a song by Erykah Badu- a fellow Texan- that reminds me of these simpler, younger times, called, “Puff”- “Back in the day when things were cool all we needed was bop ba ba ba ba ba da.”

The contrast of being the darkest person in my neighborhood in Austin, as opposed to the lightest in my neighborhood in Brownsville, would prove to be enlightening. The comparison of what I might have been, maturing in Brownsville, as opposed to growing up in Austin, from age 7 on, is as stark a contrast as what Austin was as to what it has become.

I remember when we could watch the fireworks in Zilker Park from my bedroom window. Now there is a large development of apartments that stretches above all the tree-tops in the way.

I remember when you could stay in a cheap motel on South Congress where the full-sized fridge would be full of beer from the couple before you and you wouldn’t be surprised to find a dead body under your mattress. Now there’s this stylish new-school renovation.

The picture of the man that Mical posted was this guy

that used to hang out on Sixth Street and frequented an all-ages club I used to go to called “Black Cat,”- which has since burned down. He was homeless, I’m pretty sure, and made jewelry to sell Downtown and, one night, gave me a necklace made with a shark’s tooth. He just wanted me to have it. I haven’t thought about that guy in forever until I saw that picture on Mical’s blog.

I remember going to “Raves” in the woods or at Chuck E. Cheese or at the Peter Pan Putt Putt Golf place. There are no “Raves” anymore…it’s even difficult to find a glowstick. And, I remember going to see Nirvana at Liberty Lunch- now there are just high-rise office buildings there instead. And, somewhere along the way, people quit dancing at concerts. You can barely get them to bob their heads. I’m thinking all the people that have moved here in the last decade are too cool to dance.
Like the Goodie Mob says, “People don’t dance no mo’- all they do is diss.”

And I can’t even tell you how many works of art- intricate, colorful murals that have been around since I was a kid- that have been painted over in the name of gentrification- not painted over with different murals, just sad, beige walls. It seriously breaks my heart. At least a small portion of the famed artist, Daniel Johnston’s history, still remains here.

I had a conversation with one of my neighbors yesterday who also has lived in Austin for the last twenty years and he, too, has noticed a change- not with just the landscape but with an over-all attitude that has prevailed in the last several years. You know what his theory was? That people have become less considerate since Bush has been in the White House. Now, I don’t have any scientific correlations; but the truth is, he’s right. I have noticed it, too.

I love quotes:

As Dylan Thomas put it…
“We who are young are old. It is the oldest cry.
Age sours before youth’s tasted in the mouth
And any sweetness that it has
Is sucked away.”

Charlie Louvin:
“I want to die young,
At a very old age.”

Joe Jackson:
“We are young but getting old before our time
We’ll leave the TV and the radio behind
Don’t you wonder what we’ll find
Steppin’ out tonight?”

And Harvey Milk:
“Let’s stop being dicks, at least for a little bit. Say, now through the New Year.”

I know it’s idealistic, but what if we could stop being dicks for a little bit? What if we let each other get in front of us in traffic, or actually waved when someone did let us in or what if we smiled at people walking by or held the elevator or just gave thanks a little more often? What if we gave that thanks out loud every chance we got?

Maybe the world would be a little more like the ’90’s…

Next week I’ll tell you about my visit to the “Mexican Circus” sponsored by the Shriners and Freemasons!

Always,
Danu