Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2009 > June > 01
Monday, June 1, 2009
What to do while I’m out of town
As you read this, I’m headed to Colorado to spend time with seven close friends and four dogs in a remote cabin near Durango. Pray that no harm results from reading books, playing bridge, embarking on hikes, riding horses, cooking on campfires or delivering stray witticisms. This means I’ll miss some choice parties through mid-June.
June 2: Leadership Austin’s Best Party Ever honoring Mayor Will Wynn and former Leadership Austin director Lee Thomson at the Long Center for the Performing Arts.
June 4: 5:30 p.m. The Austin Equation discussion with Heather McKissick and Bijoy Goswami at the Leadership Austin offices. 6:30 p.m. Vino y Virtuosos for Hospice Austin at Laguna Gloria. 8 p.m. Summer Sizzle Fashion Show at Antone’s.
June 5: 8 p.m. Majestic Party for Austin Pride at the Paramount Theatre. Also at 8 p.m., Texas Swing for Project Transitions with Alvin Crow and Nancy Scott at Saengerrunde Hall. (My advice: Bop between both.)
June 6: 5 p.m. Vaughn House Casino Night at Onion Creek Country Club. 6 p.m. Austin Babtist Women for Pride at Republic Square Park. 8 p.m. Roy Lozano’s Ballet Folklórico de Texas at the Paramount Theatre. 9 p.m. Tribal Nations costumed Art Party at Ayers Mansion. 11:59 p.m. The World Air Sex Championships at Alamo Ritz.
June 7: 7 p.m. Celebrate Chef Roger’s Life at Boggy Creek Farms. 7:30 p.m. Sunday Night Social at Saba.
June 10: 6 p.m. Fire and Ice Gala for American Gateways at Mansion at Judges’ Hill. Also at 6 p.m. Soul to Sole Festival at Tapestry Dance Company & Academy (continues through the weekend).
June 12: 6 p.m. Impact Austin Annual Gathering at Dell Jewish Community Campus. Also at 6 p.m., MDA Camp Fundraiser at the Other Side.
June 13: 10:30 a.m. Mimosas & Memories for Historic Old Shiner Town at Shiner Restaurant & Bar. 6 p.m. Diplomacy in Motion for International Hospitality Council of Austin on the Austin Steam Train.
June 14: 8 p.m. Ru Paul’s drag racers Ongina and Shannel at Oil Can Harry’s.
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Early Dad’s Day 3
For Parts 1 & 2, see earlier postings below …
During the 1990s, my parents returned, in retirement, to Houston and their 12 grandchildren. My father had already begun to withdraw a bit from public life. He still enjoyed fishing, watching nature on the deck, or socializing with family. But his interactions with strangers were mostly confined to greeting other folks in his tree-shrouded apartment complex on Memorial Drive, while walking his stalwart miniature schnauzer, King Alfred.
That, and he worked in my sister’s shop, Blue Willow Books. For a while, I thought Valerie employed my father in, essentially, make-work — errands to the bank and post office, that sort of thing. Then I’d listen. He’d learned the personal histories of hundreds of Blue Willow customers. Meanwhile, my sister had magnified my father’s social traits 10-fold, becoming a genuine celebrity and triumphant businesswoman in West Houston. Man, if Valerie had my job, she’d rule.
During this century, my father has endured health problems that seemed to mirror the Stations of the Cross — things usually got worse, rarely better. Crippling arthritis. Open-heart surgery. Parkinson’s disease. Then, recently, paralysis as a result of a blood clot along the spine. He even predicted, in whispers, that 2008 would be his “last Christmas.”
I realized his morale had bounced back last week, when, still learning to walk, he told me the personal backgrounds of all the people on the wing of his rehab facility. One patient’s relatives went to the same Houston grade school my siblings and I attended; another played baseball with a nephew. Yet another had been a New York City cop: “He doesn’t like to be told what to do.”
That made me smile. His funny, sweet stories — told with a twinkle in his voice — assured me that Dad was back. Big time. And I would continue learning, through example, how to make friends of strangers.
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Early Dad’s Day 2
For Part 1, see earlier post below …
During the 1960s, my father worked in advertising. It wasn’t all “Mad Men,” but it was close enough for Houston. Cocktail parties and barbecues were staged on preternaturally smooth, San Augustine lawns. My father’s laugh grew heartier, but I sensed, even at that age, office politics injected its poison through the mid-century modern family rooms. Dad held his own, but this was not his crowd. He preferred a slower, sweeter pace to socializing.
During the 1980s, Mom and Dad retreated to the country. This repeated a previous pattern of working in small towns, having already ranged from Kilgore and Jacksonville in East Texas to La Grange, Columbus, Caldwell and Schulenburg nearer to Austin. Their new home, Mexia, represented a major, longer-lasting shift. They stayed on the shores of Lake Mexia for many years, and through jobs, church and volunteering, they got to know just about everyone for miles and miles around. Although, oddly, not Mexia’s most notorious ex-patriots, Anna Nicole Smith and Sir Robert Allen Stanford.
More to come …
