25 Years In Austin, TX

It just dawned on me that on Monday, May 28, I have lived here in Austin, TX for 25 years (sincs 5/28/82)! I moved here with my mom (who passed away here on 12/20/05 at the age of 83) from Falls Church, VA (I lived there from 8/25/70 until '82) following the death of my dad. I was born and lived in Oakland, CA until 1970. Living in Austin these past 25 years has really been interesting, to say the least. I have played a LOT of music in clubs, rehearsal rooms, etc. with all kinds of musicians and bands. Austin in a very musical city, for real, just not in the way it's pitched by the entertainment media. The best music here is made by unknowns in little dives scattered across the town. There's some really great players here. Austin is still a cool place to live, but it's gotten so expensive and crowded since the '90s boom that it's not the laid back oasis that it once was. It's still a lot better than a lot of other places, and it is the ONLY place I will ever live in here in Texas! It is NOTHING like it anywhere in this state. As a kid, I used to visit family that lived here in the '70s every year and it always seemed so peaceful compared to the Washington D.C. area, which is not the case these days. Anyway, it's really hard to fathom that it's been 25 years since I moved here as a teenager with braces on my teeth. It's been one heckuva ride!

Congradulations Heather!

I moved to Colorado from Dallas when the mass migration from the east coast/rustbelt states to Texas started. (about 1982)

Everything was gettin' so expensive and crowded it just wasn't any fun anymore... :shock:


:grin:

Good on ya Heather! I lived in Austin most of my life. I even lived in Falls Church when I was very young, but that was a long time ago. We've been in California for the last 8 years now. It's nice here but I'm really homesick and miss my family and friends. Maybe this will be the year we move back home.

IT aint austin no more its Wastin.Its gone & will never come back.Been
around these parts since 1970.Been raped by the god almighty dollar.Want
to move but dont know where.I better stop while Iam ahead or Ill offend a
lot of people.

True Dat! Where does that time go? I got here a little more than a year
before you did Heather (the last week of The Armadillo World Headquarters actually, and I didn't know they were closing).

Like you I've lived here longer than anywhere else. Now I can tell stories
like I heard when I moved here! Where I live now was on the edge of town
it was all pasture north of Rundberg lane.

I've always thought of it as an oasis. Seems to be a lot more thirsty people
hanging around these days!

That's all too true ibob and bastrop

bastropo, I know what you mean. Austin is a city that has grown out of control and too fast. It used to be such a magical place. Still is I guess, but it isn't the same as back when. I make it back for visits a couple times a year and am amazed at the continued growth since we moved away 8 years ago.
But it is my home town and I'll always love it for better or for worse. I was a card carrying South Austinite for many years, but when we do move back I may look for a place outside of town.

Yea I remember that SH.William cannon was a country road.My grandmother
& aunts lived here would visit in the summer when I was a kid.IT bums me out
When i think about it.Now its happening in Bastrop been here since 81 I
thought Wastin was getting full of its self back then.

I could be mistaken, but I think Austin's City Manager now earn's (?)
as much as the president of the United States of America earned
when I moved here.

I've lived in Austin for 7 years. It's a great place and I'm glad to be here.
It's changing but so does everything else.

I'm moving to Boston in Sepember and I'm really looking forward to it

congrats heather

Huh, my son leaves Tuesday for Austin with a fresh certificate in audio engineering from Boston University in his pocket. He says it seemed the most livable and affordable city he could go to and have a shot at getting a decent job in his profession.

I lived in Austin 1990-1991, and again for a while in 2003. I know what you all are saying about the changes but compared to a lot of big cities I think it's still pretty hip. "Keep Austin Weird!"

I spent about two months in Austin with a Texas buddy back in the winter of
73-74, and I have a lot of great memories of the place. There was a ton of music everywhere..I can recall seeing Commander Cody, Wilie Nelson and others at the Armadillo World Headquarters, a combination beer hall concert venue.
What a cool place. I can remember some local bands there, too, like Greezy Wheels and Frieda and the Firedogs, who I think included Marcia Ball.

I also remember going to a place called the Soap Creek Saloon that looked like someone's living room more than a bar/club. Mance Lipscomb was playing there one night...just him and an acoustic guitar. Talk about the real deal.

At the time there was this artist named Jim Franklin who was doing colorful armadillo filled murals all over town.

Riding around the Hill Country, bugs the size of small planes., Lone Star beer,
surviving on nachos are some of the things I remember. My friend and I had joined the construction workers union by paying $25 and we got jobs as bricklayer's assistants...carrying bricks up scaffolding. Got like $8 an hour back then which was good money but it was the hardest work I've ever done.

I can recall getting ready to fly back home back East sometime around February and we caught Dylan and the Band on the Planet Waves tour in Dallas-Fort Worth the night before I left.

It was a heckuva time and a heckuva place. I still have a lot of cool memories of Austin although I know it has changed a lot since that time.

The only places that stay the same over the course of twenty-five years are places that no-one wants to live in anyway. Funny thing, musicians and artists showing up in a neighborhood is the early warning sign that rents are going to go up. They move somewhere because rents are cheap and they can be loud and weird until all hours of the night. Hipster business owners open restaurants, bars, cafes and clothing stores to cater to that crowd. Then the press notices this charming arts community ("the Williamsburg of....") and the yuppies show up with a lot more money for condos and loft conversions. Old time residents who've been there for years, if not decades, start to get priced out of "their" neighborhood, followed by the musicians and artists. By the time the yuppies show up, there's no stopping it--that wave of money is going to fill the low-lying areas.

I lived in Austin from '86 until '00, and the first thing I heard when I moved there was that it was no good now and everything had been ruined since the glory days of the '70's. And I remember about ten years later reading that Austin had been ruined now in comparison to the glory years of...the '80's. And so on.

Austin's character has definitely changed, but I'd say the single biggest factor was the raising of the drinking age from 19 to 21 in September of '86 (sadly, three weeks after I moved there at the age of...17). The number of live music venues halved over the next year as the money from 30,000 freshmen (or rather, their parents) dwindled way down.

Clubs come and go, and for everyone moaning about how the Armadillo World HQ or Soap Creek or the original Antone's was the best place ever , there's an equal or greater number of people saying the same thing about Liberty Lunch or the Cannibal Club or the Antone's on the Drag. But when the fuel that keeps clubs open, beer money, gets cut off, that's when things get a little tighter.

Congrats Heather!! You must be a local by now. :wink:

When I'm sitting at home here in south Florida with nothing to do.. because there are so few places to play and listen to live music that people like us like.. I ask why am I here.

Development issues are the same all over.. :neutral:

"H.A.P."!
While I like visiting Austin, it NEVER motivated me enough to move there...

What was that James McMurtry song that went something like, "They say I shoulda been here back about ten years, before it got ruined by folks like me." ? I remember seeing cars purchased from Dallas dealerships, with University of Texas Longhorn Decals and bumper stickers featuring the skyline of Austin and the words, "NO VACANCY". Kinda tells the story. Now that I'm here, let's pull up the drawbridge.

Everybody who ever lived in Austin has a soft spot for the place. A lot of things about it (traffic, cost of living, urban sprawl) will never be as good as they used to be. However, I've never lived anywhere that people had more fun going out to hear music. I miss those late nights at Rome Inn, Liberty Lunch and Antones!

By the time the yuppies show up, there's no stopping it--that wave of money is going to fill the low-lying areas.



The "Yuppies" that evil mindless plague, they're starting to show up here in Pueblo.... :shock:

Hey Heather nice story. Sadly everything changes and rarely for the better.
But "the wheel is showing signs of getting ready to turn again" so everyone Keep The Faith. I think You're in one of the surviving bastions of Art left in The U.S.A.
In other words keep playing and good things'll happen.

Hey Heather nice story. Sadly everything changes and rarely for the better.
But "the wheel is showing signs of getting ready to turn again" so everyone Keep The Faith. I think You're in one of the surviving bastions of Art left in The U.S.A.
In other words keep playing and good things'll happen.

Thanks. On a related note, I vividly remember the albums that I was listening to that were new in 1982: "American Fool" by John Cougar Mellencamp, "Still Life" by The Rolling Stones, "Nebraska" by Bruce Springsteen, "Long After Dark" by Tom Petty, "1999" by Prince, "It's Hard" by The Who. Funny how little things have changed, I still consider those artists among my faves!

As a visitor to Austin on two occasions, obviously I have no idea what it's like to live there. But I really enjoyed the city, got to sit in with a few bands, caught a Willie Nelson concert, jammed with Ted Hall at Gino's, made a good friend who lives out in Hutto and did a whole gig at a nice little place at Lakeway. Sure, the traffic's a little heavy (have they finished that construction south of the city yet?), but nothing a lifelong London driver can't cope with.

No profound point to this post; just to say "Hi" to Austin and its residents and hope I can make it back sooner rather than later.