Download & Print
October 29, 2025
Growing Up In Bandera
By Glenn Clark
The Bandera Prophet
I often think of the conversations I have had in recent times while sharing stories of long ago with grandkids and other young folks. The really young ones have zero attention span when it comes to most of my tales. As we ride around in our golf cart, I can point out the places of interest concerning my days of growing up in Bandera and they just wanna go throw rocks in the river or head to the playground.
The older kids will looked confused trying to imagine a world that is completely foreign to them.
"Grandpa did you really get to count an evening swim in the river as taking a bath?" After considering the low flow conditions of the river they are used to seeing these days I can understand their hesitation to buy into that story. I struggle at times myself trying to understand how we enjoyed all those days of swimming and tubing in the river loop around Bandera. Was the river always running full back in the day or were those special times just so great that they stand out in my memory?
It's getting difficult to keep up with all the changes taking place in our town. New houses going up and lots of old homes are being remodeled. It's good for business but it's hard on some of us oldtimers watching the quiet childhood memories giving way to a more modern world. Short time rentals are now in places where I once visited with my friends back in the day.
As far as my personal life is concerned, there are some pretty obvious changes in my habits here in my "golden" years. Seems it takes me all day long to do what I used to do all day long. The priorities are still there but the days just aren't long enough to get everything taken care of and still find time to go fishing.
There was a time when I used to see Arkey Blue in The Silver Dollar quite regularly, but now I see him most often in the OST at breakfast time. The Dollar is more inviting to me during the daylight hours by way of the back door now, rather than the night time and those stairs at the front door. Some old habits just need a little tweakin' as I continue Growing Up In Bandera.
GLENN CLARK #442 2025
I often think of the conversations I have had in recent times while sharing stories of long ago with grandkids and other young folks. The really young ones have zero attention span when it comes to most of my tales. As we ride around in our golf cart, I can point out the places of interest concerning my days of growing up in Bandera and they just wanna go throw rocks in the river or head to the playground.
The older kids will looked confused trying to imagine a world that is completely foreign to them.
"Grandpa did you really get to count an evening swim in the river as taking a bath?" After considering the low flow conditions of the river they are used to seeing these days I can understand their hesitation to buy into that story. I struggle at times myself trying to understand how we enjoyed all those days of swimming and tubing in the river loop around Bandera. Was the river always running full back in the day or were those special times just so great that they stand out in my memory?
It's getting difficult to keep up with all the changes taking place in our town. New houses going up and lots of old homes are being remodeled. It's good for business but it's hard on some of us oldtimers watching the quiet childhood memories giving way to a more modern world. Short time rentals are now in places where I once visited with my friends back in the day.
As far as my personal life is concerned, there are some pretty obvious changes in my habits here in my "golden" years. Seems it takes me all day long to do what I used to do all day long. The priorities are still there but the days just aren't long enough to get everything taken care of and still find time to go fishing.
There was a time when I used to see Arkey Blue in The Silver Dollar quite regularly, but now I see him most often in the OST at breakfast time. The Dollar is more inviting to me during the daylight hours by way of the back door now, rather than the night time and those stairs at the front door. Some old habits just need a little tweakin' as I continue Growing Up In Bandera.
GLENN CLARK #442 2025
The older kids will looked confused trying to imagine a world that is completely foreign to them.
"Grandpa did you really get to count an evening swim in the river as taking a bath?" After considering the low flow conditions of the river they are used to seeing these days I can understand their hesitation to buy into that story. I struggle at times myself trying to understand how we enjoyed all those days of swimming and tubing in the river loop around Bandera. Was the river always running full back in the day or were those special times just so great that they stand out in my memory?
It's getting difficult to keep up with all the changes taking place in our town. New houses going up and lots of old homes are being remodeled. It's good for business but it's hard on some of us oldtimers watching the quiet childhood memories giving way to a more modern world. Short time rentals are now in places where I once visited with my friends back in the day.
As far as my personal life is concerned, there are some pretty obvious changes in my habits here in my "golden" years. Seems it takes me all day long to do what I used to do all day long. The priorities are still there but the days just aren't long enough to get everything taken care of and still find time to go fishing.
There was a time when I used to see Arkey Blue in The Silver Dollar quite regularly, but now I see him most often in the OST at breakfast time. The Dollar is more inviting to me during the daylight hours by way of the back door now, rather than the night time and those stairs at the front door. Some old habits just need a little tweakin' as I continue Growing Up In Bandera.
GLENN CLARK #442 2025
I often think of the conversations I have had in recent times while sharing stories of long ago with grandkids and other young folks. The really young ones have zero attention span when it comes to most of my tales. As we ride around in our golf cart, I can point out the places of interest concerning my days of growing up in Bandera and they just wanna go throw rocks in the river or head to the playground.
The older kids will looked confused trying to imagine a world that is completely foreign to them.
"Grandpa did you really get to count an evening swim in the river as taking a bath?" After considering the low flow conditions of the river they are used to seeing these days I can understand their hesitation to buy into that story. I struggle at times myself trying to understand how we enjoyed all those days of swimming and tubing in the river loop around Bandera. Was the river always running full back in the day or were those special times just so great that they stand out in my memory?
It's getting difficult to keep up with all the changes taking place in our town. New houses going up and lots of old homes are being remodeled. It's good for business but it's hard on some of us oldtimers watching the quiet childhood memories giving way to a more modern world. Short time rentals are now in places where I once visited with my friends back in the day.
As far as my personal life is concerned, there are some pretty obvious changes in my habits here in my "golden" years. Seems it takes me all day long to do what I used to do all day long. The priorities are still there but the days just aren't long enough to get everything taken care of and still find time to go fishing.
There was a time when I used to see Arkey Blue in The Silver Dollar quite regularly, but now I see him most often in the OST at breakfast time. The Dollar is more inviting to me during the daylight hours by way of the back door now, rather than the night time and those stairs at the front door. Some old habits just need a little tweakin' as I continue Growing Up In Bandera.
GLENN CLARK #442 2025