What I miss?
What I miss, possibly the most? There was a time…
What I miss?
I’m guessing it was actually an ACL (Austin City Limits Festival), not South By, but the crowds are, or were, the same. Badges, badge holders, and out-of-town guests thronging our by-ways. Not much fun for a local.
At one point, Bubba wanted a black wristband indicating “local,” but that never came to fruition. Still, one time, at Guero’s on South Congress, the newer location? We show up for our regular, I’m thinking it was a Wednesday night deal, kind of regular, I would walk up from a certain trailer park, I would dodge Virgo girls, bubba would drink margaritas and throw the limes squeezes in the street, “I don’t want any (something) fruit in my drink!”
We were there for a while, until we both ran out of money, think I had a flaming cheese thing with whole-wheat tortillas and roll of the eyes from a waitress, a cup of the green salsa, and we got preferential treatment.
and we got preferential treatment
So it was a spring, might’ve been a warm fall evening, I’m unsure, but we were part of the thronging crowds of tourists.
“There’s a two hour wait,” the hostess said, then a waiter, he recognized us, “look: we have a table right here. Let me get you menus.”
Interrupted:
(Picks up the phone, hits bubba on speed dial)
“Dude, remember, the time, we used to eat at Guero’s, and it was South By or ACL, what year was that?”
“It was definitely South By, so March ’03 or ’04?”
Not currently showing in his archives, but a companion piece about the black wristband idea.
“DHMIL” in big silver letters. know what it stands for?
“DON’T HASSLE ME…I’M LOCAL”
Just the usual. Upset a tourist or two, but this was old Austin, and loyalty counted, as we would be back in the following weeks, helping that server pay rent, and the tight-wad tourists would be long gone. This was also before tipping culture got a little out of control.
Forget those tourists.
What I miss?
What I miss out of that scenario, true story, is that preferred patronage treatment. Pays to be kind to those who serve.
I doubt there was any peer-reviewed, starred report of any sort, merely a mention in our own, ongoing weblogs, and we’ve been doing it since then, too, although, our reach, audience, discernment, and relative lack of objectivity might have a point in here. I’m not sure.
Nascent online culture, Web 2.0, as it were.
What I miss?
Revisiting, “What I miss?”
The green salsa, that was the stuff, and an entirely different flavor from green salsa in San Antonio. That, and the “homemade” corn tortillas at Guero’s.
The dawning realization, and it is possible that I conflated two different Feed’n’Seed stores, but what I recall? As late as the mid-90s, maybe, the old feed store on South Congress advertised “Live Baby Chicks” in the spring, before Easter, a local tradition.
So before it was a Guero’s, the feed store sold live farm poultry.
Step into the street, look north, and there is the red granite State Capital, the home to current infamy and much political posturing with loud rhetoric and spineless politicians — not new in Texas. However the notion that we’re all hayseeds and hicks? Up until a few years ago, I’ll swear this is true, not much more than a mile south of the state’s capitol complex, live poultry for sale.
What I miss?
There’s a lot. Maybe I don’t miss it all.