IH-35 looked so empty back then. I know the newer folks knock the natives for always thinking Austin's finer days are gone. If the new folks stick around long enough, they'll be missing the good ol days when it only took an hour or two to get to work and you didn't need to be in the top 1% to afford rent or a home. Bottom line: Too many damn people in this town! If it was up to me, we would have seceeded from Texas and erected a border around the city in the mid to late 80's to keep folks from moving here.
OMG! I moved to Austin in 1980 and remember much of what was in the video. I must be getting old because I loved Austin so much more back then. Not so much now... They call it "progress". :(
lived in Austin since 1966 at age of 12,,,still live there 46 years later,,,Oh the memories this video brings back,,,terrific,,,,Robert class of ' 72 Crockett High
Arrived @ Ft Hood in late73 Austin a couple times a week depending on who was playing. Every weekend staying @ the motor-courts in South Austin, out of the Army, and living permanently in Austin in mid 75. AKA "The right place at the right time." Thanks for the memories.
Oh how I miss the old days. Remember when my neighbor and I would ride the bus from North Austin to downtown to the movies at the State or Paramount when we were around 12 or 13. Kids can't do that now days. When I graduated from H.S. in 1960, Austin's population was only 121,000.
My family stayed at the Villa Capri motel in 1972. Yep, right under the highway. I ate at Night Hawk and 2-Js (great hamburgers!). Listened to KOKE (even before they adopted their “Sterling County” campaign) and KNOW and Penny Reeves & Bob Cole. Watched Phil Miller and Vic “The Brick” Jacobs for sports news (Brick? Brick? You got the brick!). Went to the movies at FOX Theater and the Americana. Great memories and a great video.
Wow! 183- Suicide alley! There's a term I haven't heard in decades, and it's probably more appropriate now. So many wrecks at the last off-ramp at Lakeline Mall. I miss Northcross, when the skating rink was the center of everything.
I miss the old Airport i used to live by highland mall and the neighbor hood was right on the flight path, the house used to shake every time a DC-10 would take off !!
Overwhelming memories. Taco Flats-- if Ur old enuf 2 drive up U could buy a quart of Old Milwakee- 63 cents-- a good buzz for $2 when Ur broke. jams at Armadillo & Soap Creek -- Freddie King, Bugs Henderson, Doug Sahm. Great BBQ & Mex food, parties at the Pier and Dry Creek Saloon. Watchin Fab Thunderbirds at One Knite, watching Stevie become a monster guitarist. Being the only white guy playing at East Austin's Devil's Playpen I could not have been blessed with better memories of a town.
Worked at the Villa Capri for 3 years. Great job on the composition. Wish they could have gotten a snapshot of "The Stallion" on North Lamar - incredible chicken fried steaks for cheap for years.
Grew up behind the Chief drive in. They would change the decor every three or four years or so. Artists would work under tarps until unveiling night...searchlights and all. Grew up in the 50's & 60's and get real misty when I see this. Shared almost every one of them at one time or another. Then, we became a "sanctuary city" and all the rest. Alas!
+Ray Speir I had an aunt and uncle and cousins who lived on C Street off Koenig. Always passed by the Chief (and also occasionally the Burnet Drive-In) when visiting them.
While watching this I thought of a hundred stories I could tell about growing up in Austin, and about all those places. Thanks for putting this together; what a nice trip down Memory Lane.
Nice to see - moved here in 1984 as I was stationed at Bergstrom AFB until 1986. Bought a house here, could not sell it and moved back in 1991. The good old days are gone - now it is extremely expensive, over bloated, ultra liberal and horribly crowded.
Oh yeah..as one of the KOKE-FM DJ's during the 70's, I managed to frequent most of the places in the video. Joe Gracey..RIP. After my bartending shift at Mike n' Charlies..I would stop by the Pizza place around the corner to hear Stevie Ray..playing for tip's at the door. I even sang with "Steam Heat" at the AWHeadquarters one night! Austin is not the same..but, nothing is. Great memories..thanks for sharing!
The earliest movie I can remember seeing was The Poseidon Adventure at the Chief Drive In. Not long after, it was torn down and re developed as a business park. I have a lot of memories of a pizza place called Scampi’s Organ Palace that opened at that location. Had a huge pipe organ and was similar to a Show Biz pizza.
I loved Davis Hardware, they had everything. Rode the kiddo train at the Chief Drive In. We were too poor to buy snacks so we took in mayonnaise jars of iced tea. Lived next to the cemetery on Hancock and we would walk down the cemetery wall to the Stop N Go to get Dr. Pepper Icees. Austin had a character all it's own then. Now it's high rise condos for rich people and huge buildings with Google logos on them. You can't even see the Capitol except on Congress Avenue. I wish someone would hurry up and invent a time machine.
Nice to see some of what I grew up with memorialized. I've lived here from the ripe age of 'just born' in 1977, can't seem to leave even if most of the things I remember are long gone, and the feel of the city has changed so very much since then. Cheers y'all, thanks for makin' this and thanks to my mom for emailing me the link.
LOL my step dad worked at Butterkrust and my sis-in-law worked at Glastron. In fact we lived near Butterkrust and i would hang out at Taco Flats. Up the road was The Stallion and we used to eat there often. I remember when the Austin pop. signs were just over 100k. I was actually born at the old Bergstrom Air Force base because my real dad was in the military. The Aqua Fest was the best and the old speed boat races on Town Lake. Does anyone remember The Skyline located way out on North Lamar? it was a cool place to go see live music and dance.
I remember Dirty Sarah at Dry Creek. She had a menu with sandwiches, burgers and other items, but she only cooked burgers. "Did you bring your bottle back?" She wouldn't sell you another beer until you did. Her name was Nina until she decided she was Sarah in the 50s. Alas, most of us here today were once interlopers.
i have lived here since 1969, and agree with everybody, "i miss the old Austin".The original Jorges Mexican restaurant, the Stallion, friendly Texas drivers. All lost to time.
So much fun to watch this! When I moved to Austin after graduating from Boston College in 1981, it looked a bit more updated but those days on Sixth Street and the Kirby Cafe were memorable, not to mention my great colleagues at KVUE-TV--we had a lot of fun working together!
Don't forget The Pop Shop, Gibson's Handy Dan, Woolworth, Kmart, Bonanza and Sirlion Stockade (Before buffet) Resturants, El Torito, Safeway, low-water crossings.. What I remember from the late 70'-'86
That is my father's place (Hector's Taco Flats) mentioned at 0:26. He actually started the jalapeno eating contests way back in the day. Glad to see they are still around.
Great walk down memory lane, but didn't see the Vulcan Gas Co., where I spent many nights listening to Shiva's Headband and other great bands! The light bulb joke is so true...the best part about the growth in Austin is that we now have so many more restaurant choices, but the traffic really sucks.
Someone just sent this video. EXCELLENT! EVERYONE that lived there will say "it was better back then." Music at The Pier, KOKE-FM, Austin Sun newspaper, ARMADILLO, Soap Creek Saloon, all the bands, I saw them all! BARTON SPRINGS, Hippy Hollow, where the fajita originated around '80.(maybe not). WILLIE NELSON'S AUSTIN OPRY HOUSE.(got in a fight there). the scenery, driving legal with open containers. the HIPPY GIRLS!! I'm missing Austin since I heard about the 18 year old girl, freshman dancer Hasuka Weiser from Portland, getting murdered Sunday. I used to drive that exact area dozens of times always thinking how beautiful it was on the UT campus. I know where it happened very well. right next to the football stadium. Hallowed ground. gyms, stadiums, auditoriums and bars all around. I spent quite a bit of time there in the 70s. RIP
I remember that railroad crossing back in the early 70's. I had a 68 Corvette then and hated those tracks. I do remember having to stop or twice on I 35 to let a train cross. I was going with a girl from North Austin and drove from Bergstrom to her house several times a day it seemed. Thanks for reminding me of that.
Great video, like others here, I have lived my entire life here since the early 50's. Been to many places in the video, and watched Austin change so much. Great to watch, and step back in time.
Vulcan Gas Company, Woody Hills, Good Food, the Garden, Salvation Sandwiches, Les Amis, Walkin the metal steps of death down to Hamilton pool at 3am, Barton's nekkid at midnight, Club Foot, Liberty Lunch, Arron's Rock& Roll, Violet Crown, Martin Brothers, Egg Roll Stands, Soap Creek with Delbert, Jimmy...giving Glastron workers a ride home- who smelled like solvent, Drinkin' beer on the WAY to the club, a $15 oz, Aquafest on town lake, Only two big buildings, one gold and one black, Student co-ops, John Ailee for 40 years, Hansel & Gretel's, A Lethal -dose chicken fried steak at The Stallion, Big Boy's at Raul's, Jimmy Gilmore at the Alamo Hotel, the Doll House, Seis Salsas, West Lynn Grocery, dirt roads in Clarksville, Crash ANY party if you got a guitar and 6 pack 'o shiner...and most important, girls who would smile at you for no reason at all.. OMG, I spent the best years of my life there during Austin's time of innocence.
That sure is true!! I lived in Austin from 1969 to 1975 when I moved to Virginia. I returned to visit in 1985 and was surprised to find that the traffic had gone crazy and the people had changed so much. It was not the Austin that I had fallen in love with only ten years before. I'm sure Austin is still a great place to live but if you missed the early 70's, you missed the best times of all.
@ClubRegistration, I absolutely loved your Dad. I remember the original place, before the expansion, just a tiny shack. I'd tell you some stories only it would get both of us in trouble :-). Wonderful, wonderful person!
Mrs. Johnson's Donuts, the Superior Dairies milk carton water tower on the north shore of Town Lake, the giant glowing-eye insect outside the Terminex, the little grotto on the Capitol grounds, the free public pool at Patterson Park, Mi Casa Es Su Casa and Pancho's Mexican Buffets, fireworks at Capitol Plaza, the Holiday House restaurant . . . ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!Anybody got a time machine in their back pocket?
My Grandpa worked at Superior Dairies and was a milkman in the 40s. :) Holiday House was great with Charlie the Alligator! And Peter Pan Mini Golf on Lamar!
I came to Bergstrom AFB in 1963. Been here ever since. I wish you had shown the only place in the US where train tracks crossed an interstate highway, like they did by Hancock Center. !
This video shows two of the important places in my life, but you almost miss one of them. It mentions Bergstrom AFB where I lived off and on from the age of 10 and shows a quick picture of the Skating Palace. It also shows Barton Springs near the end where my hubby and I spent some fun hours when we were dating. He and I met at the Skating Palace, where I was captain married at the Bergstrom Chapel and our son was born on the base hospital there. We left there in 1962.
I remember pretty much all of these... and miss them. They forgot to mention Mad Dog and Beans. The Holiday House and Taco Shack on Airport Blvd., Players on 15th, Sound Exchange, The Varsity Theater, Les Amis, Wyatts Cafeteria, Majic Time Machine on Reeferside, and Bernards Breakfast Tacos on South Congress and Ben White... quite possibly the first breakfast tacos known to mankind. Then there was the bars.... The Backroom, Cardis, The Silver Dollar, The Lumberyard,San Antonio Rose/North Forty/New West, The Green House, Valentines, Chipendales Disco/Cody's/North Forty, The Party/Sundowner, and of course Dallas... before the hot tub place next door was acquired and turned into the most danced on floor in town.
I moved to Austin in 1998 but even in the short time I've been here, it's changed so much, remember when traffic at Anderson Mill and 620 wasn't that bad? or all that trouble they had trying to build the toll road. Time moves fast doesn't it.
Here since '68!! What about Holiday House on Barton Springs with Charlie the alligator??? And Mi Casa es Su Casa where Carmello's is now?? Bull Creek Inn where County Line on the Lake is??? And Kiddie City on Burnet Rd?? And then in the 80s the bumper sticker that was popular......"Pray for me I drive 183...Suicide Alley"
Does anyone know who put this video together? My brother and I are shown at the airport at about 1:08. My mother took the picture. I would like to know how they got it.
Nice, being from San Antonio, I think of Austin as my beloved second home. I didn't know you guys had an old Butter Krust plant like we did. Cool video.
Great images. Truly enjoyed seeing them. I recognize this music. The tune is a rip off from an old cowboy song called "When The Work's All Done This Fall." It is actually a good song.
Thanks for sharing this; it really brought back memories. I'll probably play it a few more times to get the most out of it. Those photos are so on target and the song...well, that is quite amazing also.
Great video of the good old days. Reminds me of a joke: Q. How many native Austinites does it take to change a light bulb? A. 5 - one to change the bulb and 4 to tell you how much better the old bulb was.
@marygeil830 Hi Mary, thanks for that. (it would have been nice if bro in law said howdy and a tip of the hat before he took photos) I'm overall pleased to be a part of the video, because old Austin (and the Americana) meant a lot to me... it's just hard these days to protect what happens to the pix we post on line. Thank you very much for your response and your hard work in putting this vid together.... great song too! I bet we were standing in the same line that day!!
