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December 5, 2023
Growing Up In Bandera
By Glenn Clark
The Bandera Prophet
I have been giving a lot of thought lately to how things used to be around Bandera when I was a kid, and just how to get my great grandkids to understand. Brody is the oldest, and his favorite thing to do in Bandera is taking his remote controlled cars to the skatepark to do some ramp jumping. It is a real treat when Mackenzie and TJ join us on safari, riding in our golf cart along the river in search of Bigfoot. For me as a kid, stuff like that would have been Buck Rogers material or completely unimaginable.
In their minds, it is an exciting new adventure to ride in a battery powered vehicle along First Street, scanning the trees and brush for anything that might pass for a Sasquatch sighting. At the same time, I recall walking barefoot along a dirt road, completely surrounded by mesquite and huisache, in search of a fishing hole, or carrying an inner tube on a return trip back to the old Mayan Road bridge to take another float trip downriver. Floating all the way to Dripping Springs meant the day was ending and it was time to head home.
I feel a deep sadness realizing their lack of enthusiasm is a reflection of my own disinterest in things my elders pointed out to me in earlier times. There are so many things that come to mind in small tidbits, that I'm sure are small parts of a larger conversation my mom and I had riding around Bandera in that old Chevy truck back in the day.
"Hey kids, see that house? That's where I lived when I was your age.” "Look, that's St. Joseph's Catholic School where I used to go to school when I was your age.” "That old house is where my Granddaddy Kindla used to live and it didn't have any inside plumbing so we used an outhouse.”
"Hey Pawpaw, what's an outhouse?" "Can we go to the playground now?"
Some day when I'm long gone, will they recall any of these things I have pointed out to them? Probably very little, if any at all. I was living in a time when fast food drive-thrus were pretty scarce around the Hill Country. For them, it's become a pretty common way of life where meals are prepared by others, rather than at home in mom's kitchen. During my life as a kid, I struggle to remember a single time when we went out as a family to a restaurant for a meal. Large families were common back then, so that may explain why people avoided the expense associated with dining out.
I get the old saying about trying to teach an old dog new tricks. Have you ever considered that maybe the old dog is content with the old way of doing things? It is difficult sometimes when you have been Growing Up In Bandera all these years, and all of a sudden things ain't like they used to be. All you have to do is listen to the music we had as kids and compare it to what's on the airwaves today to realize we are headed to hell in a handbasket!
#392 2023
In their minds, it is an exciting new adventure to ride in a battery powered vehicle along First Street, scanning the trees and brush for anything that might pass for a Sasquatch sighting. At the same time, I recall walking barefoot along a dirt road, completely surrounded by mesquite and huisache, in search of a fishing hole, or carrying an inner tube on a return trip back to the old Mayan Road bridge to take another float trip downriver. Floating all the way to Dripping Springs meant the day was ending and it was time to head home.
I feel a deep sadness realizing their lack of enthusiasm is a reflection of my own disinterest in things my elders pointed out to me in earlier times. There are so many things that come to mind in small tidbits, that I'm sure are small parts of a larger conversation my mom and I had riding around Bandera in that old Chevy truck back in the day.
"Hey kids, see that house? That's where I lived when I was your age.” "Look, that's St. Joseph's Catholic School where I used to go to school when I was your age.” "That old house is where my Granddaddy Kindla used to live and it didn't have any inside plumbing so we used an outhouse.”
"Hey Pawpaw, what's an outhouse?" "Can we go to the playground now?"
Some day when I'm long gone, will they recall any of these things I have pointed out to them? Probably very little, if any at all. I was living in a time when fast food drive-thrus were pretty scarce around the Hill Country. For them, it's become a pretty common way of life where meals are prepared by others, rather than at home in mom's kitchen. During my life as a kid, I struggle to remember a single time when we went out as a family to a restaurant for a meal. Large families were common back then, so that may explain why people avoided the expense associated with dining out.
I get the old saying about trying to teach an old dog new tricks. Have you ever considered that maybe the old dog is content with the old way of doing things? It is difficult sometimes when you have been Growing Up In Bandera all these years, and all of a sudden things ain't like they used to be. All you have to do is listen to the music we had as kids and compare it to what's on the airwaves today to realize we are headed to hell in a handbasket!
#392 2023