Austin Nostalgia

Somebody mentioned The Fabulous Thunderbirds to me today. The last time I saw them, as I mentioned in an earlier entry, was as the opening act for Timothy Leary at Armadillo World Headquarters.

Armadillo World Headquarters was where the stoner bands played, back when "stoners" were called "hippies." It was a large room, with its floor covered with great swathes of stained carpet. Beer could be bought there, and munchies, and other things, if you knew who to ask. There was a beer garden outside, where the Austin Friends of Traditional Music met every other Sunday.

They had a Christmas Bazaar every year, where local craftspeople and artists presented their wares, to the accompaniment of great music. All the best bands played there--Stevie Ray Vaughn, The Allman Brothers, Jerry Jeff Walker, Willie Nelson, Steve Goodman and the Fabulous Thunderbirds were just a few. Does anyone else remember Shiva's Headband?

It was torn down to make way for a huge hotel complex. They sold bits of it as it was being demolished, and people who helped said that all sorts of interesting things were found in the walls.

Of course, once I get to thinking about The Dillo, I have to think about Les Amis. While the Dillo was south of the river, Les Amis was just a block west of the drag, on 24th St. It was a cafe that sold sandwiches and other trendy things, had great coffee, and you could get a bowl of brown rice, cooked to perfection and oozing with melted Swiss cheese for 75 cents.

Once we moved to Round Rock and trips to Austin were organized outings, rather than hop-on-the-bus-and-go-downtown efforts, we didn't get there so often. After not going for a long time, I drove by there one day and saw a pile of blackened lumber being 'dozed up. I guess it burned down, though I never did see anything in the news about it. It had arguably the worst and filthiest restrooms in Austin, but the coffee and brown rice made it all worthwhile.

There also used to be a really good sandwich shop on 23rd, across from the church. I think it's a parking lot, now. It was small, hot and crowded, with Boston ferns hanging everywhere and spider plants, and aquariums on every available horizontal surface except, of course, the tables.

You could get a wonderful sandwich on heavy artisan bread, with cream cheese, avocado slices, alfalfa sprouts, cucumber, tomato, onion, mushrooms and sunflower seeds. With the exception of the chewy bread and the sunflower seeds, Thundercloud makes a Veggie Delight that reminds me of those.

When I first came to Austin, I thought I would die of pneumonia, from going into the freezing A/C in every store and restaurant, and the 100 degree temps outside. By the time I realized that wasn't going to happen, I knew that I loved the place, and I've just told you three of the reasons why.