My attempt to share stories for each letter of the alphabet featuring our life in Austin B.C. (Before Children) 1975-1985. The 70s were a long time ago. 26 stories might be a stretch for my brain. I am way, way behind, but intend to make it to Z! Today I have made it to T.

As I go through photos for this series, I sometimes chuckle at what I am wearing. Or what my husband is wearing. And I have been surprised to see how many of the clothes were ones I made – like these plaid bell bottoms with cuffs I shared in the previous post.

Nice matching of plaid at the seams, if I do say so myself.

I don’t sew much anymore, but It was a favorite pastime then. I remember one time when I had the week off but my husband didn’t, so we couldn’t go anywhere. I spent the week just sewing. I was either working as a social worker or doing a social work internship at the time. I later realized that my week of sewing was so enjoyable because it was an antidote to working with people on people problems that are not easily solved or completed. While I was sewing, there was no conversation other than the thoughts in my head, or an old movie or As the World Turns on the television. I could make what I wanted with fabric I had chosen. If I made a mistake, I could rip it out and do it over. I had instructions to follow, including illustrations. I made the pieces fit together, even if I had to force the fabric to do my will. I could finish it to my satisfaction, or just stop and leave it be.

I can’t find any scraps from a dress I made that week, nor the pattern. It was a turquoise wrap-around dress – no buttons or zippers. I wore it fairly often, but wished I had used a lighter-weight fabric.

Imperfectly good therapy.

I suppose it could be embarrassing to admit that I still have scraps from almost everything I ever made, but I’m not. I could have worse traits. I thought it would be fun to make a mess in my sewing nook and pull out scraps to match with some photos. I wonder when it will be fun to put everything back?

I shared this photo in a recent post.

A simple loose-fitting sundress or jumper. I wore it to my husband’s high school reunion in 1981.

Me and my mom around 1983. At first I couldn’t figure out what that “bunny ear” is at my mom’s wrist. Then I remembered that I tied a hot pink belt at the waist of this dress. When she put her arms around me, it must have flipped an end up to reveal the back side.

Most of the clothes I made were pretty simple. (I promise, that dark top on the right was bright green.)
 

Sometimes I took on a pattern with sleeves, buttonholes, and pockets. And stripes.

Bad photo of us with me in a jumpsuit.

I even made a shirt for my husband. Silky synthetic fabrics with vintage images were popular. I’m just wearing one of his flannel shirts here, but I made a few things for myself with that 40s vibe.

This was one of my favorite dresses to wear around. I made the pattern twice. The other one in a light blue calico, but I preferred the print of the brown one. In my grad school graduation photo, you can see a sliver of this dress peeking out. They ended up in my girls’ dress up box.

I found a couple of skirts still intact. Was I ever that size? And I found more fabric scraps, but now things are such a messy mess from me looking through pictures and fabric scraps that I think it is best that I stop.

I stopped sewing for myself when I had kids, and started sewing for them. The only sewing I have done the past few years are port pillows and masks. The oncology center I go to stopped taking handmade items because of Covid, so I haven’t made port pillows in over a year.

Recently I have been thinking of making a few simple dresses that would be cool and comfortable. I wonder what size pattern? I wonder when someone will clean up the mess so that there is room to sew? I wonder if it will still be imperfectly good therapy?

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday, where other bloggers are responding to the prompt photo for today – not the one from August 21st. Pay them a visit. It will be good therapy. I promise.

n’lovd

 

My attempt to share stories for each letter of the alphabet featuring our life in Austin B.C. (Before Children) 1975-1985. The 70s were a long time ago. 26 stories might be a stretch for my brain. I am way, way behind, but intend to make it to Z! Today I have made it to S.

Look at those sweet faces!

There might have been a Ryan, a Michael, a Valerie?
Too many years have passed.

They were sweet children, but they were two. Two-year-olds have a reputation for a reason.

We moved to Austin in the fall of 1975. My husband took a job with Mary Lee Foundation at the Live Oak campus, and I was hired as a teacher for the two-year-old class at Congress Ave. Baptist Preschool. As you can see, the class size was small. As it should be!

Ostensibly, the children were potty trained, but two-year-olds are unreliable little humans who often wait until the last minute has passed. Unreliable moods and behaviors too. Helpless one minute and fiercely independent the next. “Me do it!!!”

As I recall, the little girl was prone to both, a problem when she waited too long and refused help.

I had much younger siblings and did a fair amount of babysitting growing up, but being confined for 5 hours in a room with a bunch of two-year-olds on a rainy day, well – sometimes I bumped against the limits of my patience and creativity and just wanted to sit on the floor and cry like a two-year-old.

Let’s take a closer look at one of those sweet faces. He’s the one with a story I remember.

I’ll call him Michael, which might be his name. On one particular day, Michael had the impulse to bite. Repeatedly. He didn’t seem particularly out of sorts, but any time one of the other kids exposed a body part in front of his face, he just opened his mouth and bit an arm or a shoulder – whatever was available. Fortunately, none of the bites broke the skin or left a lasting mark.

The first time it happened, I looked him in the face and gave him a firm, “No biting!” And the second time. By the third time, I was face-to-face and put my shushing finger up against his lips and said, “No biting!” I don’t know how many times he actually bit someone, but I seems like he got every kid at least once.

I told his mother about the biting when she picked him up. The next morning, Michael’s mother approached me with a worried expression. “Did Michael bite you? Last night he kept saying, ‘I bite teacher.'”

I guess I made some kind of an impression on him.

Thankfully I don’t remember him having another day like that one.

On a side note: During the summer, there was a woman who coordinated recreation, including trips to the pool and some other fun activities. I really liked her and her energy with the children. Later, we met up again at First Methodist, where we are both still members.

Also – I made those pants.

This is my response to the Sepia Saturday prompt photo from August 14! Please visit other Sepia Saturday bloggers who may take you to faraway places or on a musical journey or share some research in response to the current prompt.

My attempt to share stories for each letter of the alphabet featuring our life in Austin B.C. (Before Children) 1975-1985. The 70s were a long time ago. 26 stories might be a stretch for my brain. I’m way behind!

I won’t even pretend that I can complete the alphabet prompts on time. I’ll share a two-fer and try to hurry things along. I have to admit, I’ve lost enthusiasm for writing about myself week after week and I’m missing the ancestors. The past few weeks I had computer issues, several medical appointments, and my daughter and I, in an attempt to remain calm in the midst of crazy, have watched 6 seasons of The Good Witch and all of the movies that preceded the series. None of that helped move things along here.

But, I gave myself this challenge and I intend to complete it.

R is for Renaissance Market

No stroll down The Drag was complete without turning the corner onto 23rd Street to visit the vendors at the Renaissance Market.

Vendors began selling on the Drag in 1969, but the city moved them to 23rd Street in the early 70s and rules were eventually established that excluded booths for imported items. It was a great place to browse the clothing, sandals, jewelry, and other items made by local artisans. Music was also a part of the scene.

When I asked my husband for a memory, he said that he especially liked the jewelry one of the artists cut from coins. He bought a necklace for himself with a pendant cut from a dime. We can’t find it. He may have given it to one of our daughters years ago.

Below, a glass tree sculpture and some small armadillos and birdbaths.

We bought a hot air balloon crafted by the artist pictured below, but we purchased it at the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar, not at the Renaissance Market (now known as the 23rd Street Artists’ Market). The balloon part was a copper toilet float. He used them for all of his “flying” machines.

My husband took this photo of the iconic Austintatious mural, painted in 1974 and visible in the photo above.

He also got a shot with no people in it.

Over 45 years later, the mural is still there. It has been refurbished and updated four times, most recently in 2014 when it was defaced with large graffiti. The original artists repainted and repaired the mural with donations and their own money. It now has a coating that paint will not adhere to, protecting it from vandals, but also from the artists themselves. They won’t be able to add anything more.

I can’t name everything and everyone in the mural without doing some work, but that’s Stephen F. Austin in the center holding an armadillo. In later years, a crown was added above his head. The UT tower is on the right, Capitol building on the left. Some local characters, street scenes, and notable buildings. Willie was added at some point, and stands by the red truck bottom left. A “neked” Matthew McConaughey with his bongo drums, added some time after 1999. If you don’t know the story, you can find it online. Just a few weeks ago, he brought out bongo drums to rev up the crowd for Austin’s new soccer team. (He was fully clothed.) You can get a peek at Matthew and Willie and some other scenes in this news piece.

And more. Full screen is great for this one.

Hare Krishna. The street preacher. Who and what else can you find?

The mural repaired.

The artist Kelly Awn does most of the talking in both of the videos. He is also a founding member of The Uranium Savages, a satire and parody band which came into being around the same time as the mural. Although I knew about the band, I have never seen them in person. I watched a few videos and some of the scenes in this one looked very familiar. No wonder. They used scenes from the movie Outlaw Blues, which I highlighted in Photographing Film Stars.

I skipped the letter O, so going backward rather than forward in the alphabet …

O is for Off the Drag

At the corner of 24th and Nueces, one block west of the Drag, was Bluebonnet Plaza, a small cluster of businesses and restaurants with all the charm of old, weird Austin. Most of the businesses were in an old two-story building. On a Facebook page dedicated to old Austin, I found this great advertisement drawn by the artist … Kelly Awn! If you are keeping count, that makes three Kelly Awn references today.
I love this drawing! Unfortunately, a little was cut off from the top and bottom.

I think by the time we moved to Austin, Octopus Garden had become Mad Dog and Beans, a hamburger joint. My husband and I both wore Earth Shoes, but he assures me we got them on a trip to Dallas when we were students at Baylor. They did last a long time, so maybe we never bought any in Austin. Whole Earth Provision Co. still exists, but not at this location. There was a hair salon, The Leather Bench, a book store. It didn’t mean anything to me at the time, but the building was also home to The Texas Tribune, where Molly Ivins worked as a journalist. Oh, how I wish I could have met Molly!

The store we visited most often was Inner Sanctum Records, my husband’s favorite record store.

He had one of their posters. We can’t find it. That seems to be a theme.

Les Amis restaurant was on the east side of Bluebonnet Plaza.

Neither of us hung out at Les Amis frequently, but we ate there a few times and when I was in graduate school, I’d occasionally go with friends after class. The movie Slacker was partially written and filmed at Les Amis.

Of course there were other places north and south of the part of Guadalupe known as the Drag that we frequented. My husband attended UT his junior year and hung out with his APO friends at Shakey’s Pizza farther north on Guadalupe, and after we moved to Austin the APO folks would sometimes meet there for the beer, pizza, player piano, and sing-a-longs. One of our friends would often play the piano and lead everyone in A Boy Named Sue.

At the south end of the Drag, near the intersection of Guadalupe and MLK (19th Street at that time) my husband played his first of many games of Pong at the Roy Roger’s. The first Pong game in town!

Uncle Van’s Pancake House was also a favorite among UT students for breakfast or the munchies any time of day or night. My husband made sure to take me to his one-year-as-a-UT-undergrad haunts once we moved to town.

I keep thinking of other places where we spent time near the UT campus in those days, but I’ll stop here. Many of the old haunts are now occupied by chain stores and Starbucks. Toward the end of the video below, some old-time Austinites stand with signs where what was is no longer. And guess what? Kelly Awn is one of them. Four references for the win. (No. I don’t know him. He just kept showing up everywhere.)

C’est la vie.

This is my very, very late contribution to Sepia Saturday when the prompts were O and R.
I’m so far behind, I can’t even find the prompt photo for the letter O, but here is R.

Please visit others who are responding to the current prompt at Sepia Saturday.

I know this is long. Thanks for reading!