Remember the Alamo!

-

The Alamo is a part of Texas folklore and is hardwired in the brains of Texans from the day they are born, but a recent book (Forget the Alamo) argues that it is all a huge myth. I listened to the authors being interviewed on Fresh Air and other radio outlets (and podcasts) and they completely soured me on the Alamo. 

Nonetheless, my first stop of the day was the Alamo, if only because I had last visited it with my parents and siblings (11 of them) in 1966 on the way to Mexico City. So I had to see it again just to see how much it had changed. 

The guided tour ticket was $45 and there was no way I was going to shell out that kind of money for a myth, so I opted for the free ticket that allowed me into the Alamo church building. That was enough for me. I asked someone to take my photo so I could have a comparison between 1966 and 2023, 57 years later! Here they are.

In 1966, on the way to Mexico City, Mexico


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Driskill

-
Image
My next stop, before the first "official" stop of the day - the LBJ Presidential Library - was The Driskill , an iconic hotel which opened in 1886 and is located on the corner of 6th & Brazos Streets in downtown Austin.  Colonel Jesse L. Driskill came to Texas in 1849 and became a prosperous rancher and cattle baron. He spent $400,000 to build The Driskill Hotel as "the finest hotel south of St. Louis." I parked the car and walked to the hotel and impressed to no end. It was the ultimate in luxury when it was built and it remains the ultimate in luxury today. I was tempted to stay for breakfast since my own hotel’s breakfast was crap, but I had a schedule to keep so I moved on after 10 minutes. Portrait of Colonel Driskill which presides over the opulent lobby The opulent lobby
Read more

Blanton Museum of Art

-
Image
Every guidebook I read and every website I consulted listed Blanton Museum of Art as a must-see attraction in Austin and as one of the best museums in Austin. The art museum is located on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin, and its art collections are housed in the Mari and James A. Michener Gallery Building (I didn't know that Michener, a Doylestown native son, had a connection to Texas).  I spent about an hour and a half at the museum and then called it quits. It was an early and busy day, so I headed back to the hotel to call it a night (but not until after I drove to Mount Bonnell and stopped in at  BookPeople , Texas’ largest independent bookstore and a staple in Austin’s book community since 1970). Here's some of the art I saw and liked at the Blanton Museum of Art. Plexus No. 44 , in the plaza between the museum's two main buildings An Albert Bierstadt painting (also saw one at San Antonio Museum of Art) A Fredric Remington painting
Read more

Gruene, Texas

-
Image
My Fodor's guidebook for the Texas Hill Country mentioned a little town called Gruene (pronounced "Green") and called it a "pristine portrait of Texas history" and said it was "revered as a place of Texas legends." In the center of town is Gruene Hall , a dance hall and saloon that served as the social venue before becoming a live music venue in the 1970s. The entire town has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.  I decided to stop in the town on my way to Austin as it was only a short detour off I-35. I parked the car in a large open parking lot, and did my own walking tour of the little town, which has a boutique hotel, antique stores, lots of restaurants, a river outfitter, and tons of specialty shops. For an early dinner, I decided on a burger at the Gristmill River Restaurant which is housed in the old river-powered cotton gin. For dessert, I got a scoop of sea salt caramel ice cream in a waffle cone from Rhea's Ice Cream s...
Read more