Annedendum

Jake's - My first visit was with a few friends (old Austinites) who swore by the onion rings. We squeezed into an old booth and I felt that I was taking my life in my own hands. I was the one next to the wall that held an old neon beer sign that buzzed and sparked the whole time I was scarfing down the ORs. A young couple came in and put a quarter in the juke box, obviously playing "their song." When they groped each other and attempted to dance, Old Jake (I guess that was who it was. . .) nearly had a spell of apoplexy on the spot. "Stop it! Stop it! You can't dance in here! City Ord'nance!" I nearly jumped out of my skin! Made a believer out of me, yessirree dog!

Nau's - I wonder now (no pun intended) if Nau's is as exclusively Old Austin since old Hollywood Henderson put it on the map with his Lotto win. Nevertheless, my Aunt Jo Anne (the Old Austinite of the Boykin family) has been meeting at Nau's on Thursday for lunch since time immemorial. (What does "immemorial" mean anyway?) Her Lunch Bunch includes: Louann Temple (wife of Larry, former press secretary to LBJ), Jo Betsy Lewellyn, Carol Sikes (who with her husband Charles used to own Bo-Peep where Lady Bird shopped for the grandchildren), and a few other notables.

Austin Memorial Park - I remember my grandmother, Rubye Opal Heath Boykin (she used to say "Why didn't they name me Rubye Opal Pearl and be done with it?!") always told her daughter, Jo Anne. . ."Now, Jo Annie, when I die don't bury me at Austin Memorial Park. You drive by that way every day when you go to work and I don't want you to think about me every day and be sad." So when my grandmother died. We buried her out at Capitol Memorial Park on IH35. Jo Anne worked for Conger Pogue at All Air Sea Travel on Lamar. And every day she went to work, she looked at Austin Memorial Park, thought about her mother anyway, and laughed.

Corner Shoppe Mall - More people in Austin frequent this place than would care to admit. It's always my first stop for skins, skulls and plaster columns. The prices are good and some of the goods slightly resemble a freak show. Just steer clear in the heat of the summer, they do the rendering in the backyard.