buddenblog

Lytle, Texas

Note: for more pictures, click on Lytle under  photo albums listed in left hand column.

A week or so ago, on a clear, gentle spring day we took our dog, Rita, and our cat, Louie, on a drive to Lytle, Texas, about twenty five miles south of San Antonio. Lytle sits in the midst of a blanket of fertile farmland which was intensely green this April day.  It has a large, welcoming city park where kids come to play and families have picnics and birthday parties and such.  (Click on thumbnails to see bigger version and check out the Lytle photo album where there is also a map showing its location relative to San Antonio).  This Saturday there were several picnics and a big birthday party for a little tiny girl going on.  After showing off Rita and Louie in the park we walked down the old main street of Lytle which straddles the railroad tracks.  Now Interstate 35, the main road to la Frontera passes along the east side of town.  Of course more contemporary commercial
development has sprouted there.  This development includes an H.E.B.(our local and only significant chain of supermarkets -- a south Texas institution, really) whose arrival made a lot of  people in Lytle quite happy. 

When we were walking down the old main street, we came upon a couple putting gorgeous, huge fake flowers in a giant outdoor basket.  They'd bought the basket as an Easter decoration and thought it was just too spectacular to put away and use once a year so they were replacing the Easter decorations with spring ones.  The husband was very anxious that I know the idea wasn't entirely theirs:  a friend around the corner had also decided to have year-round decorations.

Husband and wife were very happy to have moved to Lytle where they could afford a small, pretty house and both could be close to work.  They told us about the Lytle Music Festival Saturday, May 21 from 2-10 PM.  We are planning to go.  Here is the poster announcing  the program.

Lytle was started (founded sounds too purposeful) by John T. Lytle, a Confederate soldier who'd come out West to be a rancher and trail driver in the 1860's.  I think under his influence, Lytle built a railway station on the International-Great Northern tracks which boosted the town considerably.  By 1883, Lytle had a general store, a bar, a casketmaker and facilities for shipping.  By 1884 50 people called Lytle home and it had a Union church (I'm not sure what a Union church is).  By 1892, the population had grown to 100 and there were four general stores, two livestock breeders and a Methodist church.  Although the population of the town sounds small, little towns like Lytle were centers for farmers and ranchers in the area.

In additon, coal had been found in the region. The three mines, The Carr Company, the Berreti Company and the Belto Company hired 500 workers.    I don't know how long the mines have been abandoned, but now they are apparently just large overgrown pits.  It would be worth finding them on another trip.

By 1904, the population was 212 and the Lytle school had 62 students and two teachers.    Today it is a private home. The town was incorporated in 1912 when there were 600 inhabitants, a weekly newspaper, five general stores, telephone services, two lumberyards and the Lytle State Bank. A hotel had been built in 1895 called the Bush Hotel, later changed to the Rose Hotel.

Oil was discovered in the region, but it seems not to have made a significant impact on the town's economy.

By 1930, hard times were evident in Lytle.  An irrigation company had failed to complete a facility and the town lost its incorporated status.  The town still did not have water or disposal facilities.  Under the leadership of Dr. W.H. Joyce, the president of the Chamber of Commerce the town acquired these basic services and in 1951, it was reincorporated.

The history of the Lytle Church of Christ fills in the picture a bit more.  A Church of Christ congregation that was established at the head of Luros Creek outside of Lytle in the 1840's. There is little information until 1948 when it seems the CoC in Natalia in Atascosa County had grown large enough that it was decided there should be a Lytle congregation.  This new congregation appears to have gotten its start at a tent revival led by "a brother Profitt from Oklahoma" on Main Street.  It seems to have been so successful that the Lytle School Board gave the congregation permission to meet in the high school band hall which originally served as  a stockade and base jail for Hondo Air Force base which today no longer exists.  It now and for some time has had its own church building.  We didn't get a picture of it, but we did of the Baptist Church which now is largely Hispanic.  See photo album.

Today with a population of roughly 2500 and growing slowly, the face of Lytle has undergone dramatic changes.  It's now 61.2% Hispanic, 36.5 Anglo, 21.6% "other" and 1.6% American Indian. This obviously adds up to more than 100%.  I don't know why.  The median age is 34.4, and there are slightly more women than men.  It is more comfortable than some South Texas towns, probably because it's not too far from San Antonio and it is right on the Interstate.  The average income is $34,857; the average house value is $64,000.  Of the households, 96 have an income of under $10,000 a year, 269 under $25,000, and 463 have an income of less than 40,000.  There are 52 households with an income over $100,000 and two with an income over $200,000. The Anglo population is quite a mix with people reporting family origins in Denmark, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Portugal, Armenia, Belgium, Sweden, Russa, Poland and France in addition to Scottish, Scotch Irish, French and English.

Information for this comes from from
The Small Towns Research Project at Palo Alto Community College, http://www.city-data.com/city/Lytle-Texas.html
Lytle Church of Christ
and our trip to Lytle.

 

San Antonio Politics: Who controls San Antonio? A beginner's search

In the San Antonio mayor's race,  Carroll Schubert the conservative listed as major supporters and friends, not just contributers, some of the richest, most powerful people in San Antonio. Who are these people and why are they so powerful?  And what should the rest of us know about them?As a relative newcomer to San Antonio, and someone who is definitely not powerful  I had grown accustomed to hear that developers ruled the city.  I imagined Republicans were all developers and all developers were Republicans.  I imagined they all  fit my personal stereotype of developers as cigar-chomping, crude and ruthless, maybe tied to gangsters and in the habit of giving bribes. I was wrong.  There's a network of super-rich, superpowerful people, not all of whom are developers, but many of whom benefit greatly from ruthless development.They  include construction people, engineers, oil people, and financial people, lawyers and publicists and people in the media.  But it's more complicated than that.  And I have to say, a lot of the people on Carroll Schubert's list are very impressive people, often bold, often adventurous,  with much achievement and a real sense of civic pride and community commitment. They can't possibly all be seeing eye to eye on the Bush/Perry/Christian Right agenda. Most of them, at any rate, don't come across as anything close to right wing Christian zealots. Yet in their support of Republicans they damage all of us and themselves. I am guessing that they are united by bonds of community and self-interest which lead them to narrow perceptions of the best way to do things. They'd probably guffaw if they heard themselves described as people who have a narrow view, but we're all susceptible, none more than those who are successful in a powerful but limited arena and who spend their time surrounded by same, especially in a larger culture which defines the world as black and white and drives us into opposite corners.  I suspect, too, among some of them there is a certain inability to think outside the box of already-used approaches to making money, a "don't fix it if it ain't broke" attitude which doesn't admit that "it" is broke. Many of them a do have the city's best interests at heart and  they believe they know best how to tend to them.  But they don't.  There are other perspectives they should know about.  In possessing, what shall I say, a limited mindset they aren't different from the rest of us. We all benefit when we allow our mindsets to come into contact with other mindsets. This is how good change comes about.

We need to talk to some of these people.

For others of you who may be as naive as I was, here's a basic introduction into what these folks do:

• Charlie Amato -- Founder, Chairman of the Board SWB Corporation, insurance, mortgages and "investment solutions". Founder of Businessmen's Hall of Fame.
  
• Ernesto Ancira, Jr. -- Huge car business and links with energy resources here and in Mexico, among other things.  Also treasurer of Schubert's campaign.
• Hope Andrade -- Vice Chair, OptimaCare, a home health company.  Commissioner, Texas Highway Commission (think toll roads).
• Sam Barshop -- Barshop and Oles, developer of luxury shopping centers, etc. including over the aquifer and founder of the La Quinta Inns motel chain (which I have to say we frequent because they always allow pets).  Recently he and wife Ann donated big bucks for UTHSC's Sam and Ann Barshop Center for the Study of Longevity and Aging, interestingly enough opened at the Texas Research Park on the west side of San Antonio, a park which recently had been losing tenants, not gaining them.
• Bob Coleman -- Founder and Chair, Texace, a company that manufactures hats.  But don't be fooled.  This guy's company lists as its partners Troon Golf, an organization which "creates extraordinary experiences at the greatest golf properties in the world...Golf's first and foremost luxury brand" and St. Andrews Links Trust, the ultimate fancy golf club in Scotland where, incidentally, Tom DeLay just had a vacation at Jack Abramoff's expense.  I'm not suggesting a link (excuse the pun). I think this guy really likes rubbing elbows with the very rich and famous.
  
• Gene Dawson, Jr. and Sam Dawson -- Owners, Pape-Dawson Engineers, "the largest locally owned engineering and surveing company in San Antonio."  Projects include Valero Corporate Headquarters, SBC Center, Rogers Ranch and The Dominion, La Cantera, Retama Park and the Hyatt Hill Country Resourt, The Quarry at Lincoln Heights, and another bunch of quarries, not so pretty, owned by Martin Marietta Materials; surveying Project Starbright which is the Toyota site and various highway projects. They build in the Hill Country and over The Aquifer
• Trish DeBerry -- Partner, Guerra, DeBerry, Coody: Marketing and Communications.  Political campaigns have included work for Bush/Cheney in 2000, the National Republican Party, National Republican Senatorial Committee, Jeb Bush for Governor campaign, Rick Perry for Governor Campaign, and the Henry Bonilla Campaign, these campaigns with a general emphasis on Hispanic voters.  Also has worked on PR for No Child Left Behind and the White House Initiative on Education.  The firm has done "crisis" work for Lumbermens/Professional Golfers Association as well -- Think PGA Village.
• Walter Embrey -- President, Embrey Properties, Ltd, a national development company specializing in commercial and multi-family ventures including the Isom Trade Center where buddies have offices, and other projects including over the Aquifer.
• Tom Frost is Frost Bank.
• Bill Greehey -- Bill Greehey is Valero, one of the hundred best companies to work in in the U.S.  It also is number 55 of the Fortune 500.  If corporations have to exist, this is one that should exist.  It has worked very effectively to develop technologies that reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions and is open in reporting aspects of cost and technology concerning greenhouse gases, all the way down to the consumer.  It's a company that receives a Triple A rating in inclusion of Hispanics on the Board and in high positions according to a 2001 La Prensa San Diego article.  This in a world in which 854 of Fortune's top 1000 companies have no Hispanics on Boards or in executive positions and in which 20 entire industries including health care, sporting goods, food and grocery wholesalers and securities firms don't.  It also participates very actively and generously in charitable giving in San Antonio.  Charitable giving is an iffy area for corporations, and Valero is a master at combining fun and commerce with charity in its participation in San Antonio PGA Tour events, but it gives widely and to a diverse group of organizations.  Valero doesn't need to support Republican Right candidates.  IF it does.
  
• Jack Guenther -- If I'm right, Jack Guenther is a member of Guenther and Son, Inc., family.  Guenther and Son is  the Pioneer flour company which now owns several brands and distributes frozen products as well as flour and the like.  Jack seems to serve on many Boards among arts and charities organizations.
• Gordan Hartman is a developer who builds lots of homes over the Aquifer.
• Jim Hasslocher -- Frontier Enterprises/Jim's Restaurants.  Hasslocher's company had run the Tower Restaurant in Hemisphere Park since it opened and lost the contract to Landry's a year or so ago. The restaurant wasn't very good and wasn't really making anywhere near the most of the opportunities the Tower presents.
  
• .Tim Hixon -- Hixon Properties.  But not your typical developer.  He is a memeber of the Downtown Alliance and active on The Riverwalk.  His business interests appear to be focused on the center of the city.  If anything, he is a protector of the Aquifer, at least as far as I can tell.  He has been called the champion of Government Canyon Park, a new park over the Aquifer.  He is an ardent conservationist and a member of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission.  He fishes and has hunted.  All you liberals out there who've never lived away from a city, this is okay as long as you're not hanging out with a bunch of drunks and shooting animals with automatic weapons or from the comforts of home or not giving them a chance by shooting from a car in a private game reserve or from the comforts of home over an internet connection or something like that.  A lot of true hunters have a real understanding and appreciation of wilderness.
• Peter Holt -- The San Antonio Spurs, of course, are Peter Holt's baby.  He can afford this baby because he is the owner of Holt Enterprises, the nations largest CATERPILLAR dealership, and one of the largest dealerships in the world.  He is the fourth generation of CAT dealers, his grandfather, Benjamin, having developed the first CAT.  CATs I'm sure you know are useful in big construction.
• Ed Kelley -- President and CEO of USAA Real Estate Co.  He is also (or has been) the chairman of the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation, a private organization whose purpose is to attract new business to San Antonio.   I learned some interesting things at the SA  Economic Development Foundation's website.  Most of us I think are aware that the service industry is San Antonio's biggest source of employment hiring 32% of workers. Trade is second with 24% and government is third with 20%.  Did you know that construction only accounts for 6% of employment and finance, real estate and insurance combined only account for 7%? These last industries are responsible for much concentrated wealth in our area. Unemployment has been creeping up since 1999 whenit was 3.9%.  I believe today it is in the area of 5.6%. You might also be interested to know that the EDF is promoting the fact that we have low density housing as an advanatage to living here.  Translate that to urban sprawl.  Also it is advertising the fact that McMansions are cheap here.  Read development, urban sprawl, resource guzzling.  Yet, they advertise that we have wonderful clean air, without mentioning that it is increasingly threatened by the urban sprawl they are promoting.  As is our water.
• Cyndi Krier -- One of the more strident members of this group.  She is a professional go getter for herself and has benefitted from the support of extreme right organizations including Texans for Governmental Integrity, founded by Dr. James Leininger, a somewhat shadowy extremist with lots of money.  She has been a state senator, a Bexar County judge and a USAA lobbyist.  She is currently on the UT Board of Regents where she will serve until 2007.  The UT Board of Regents is an interesting group to look into.  Krier also is a member of the Philosophical Society of Texas, It's kind of fun to look this site over.  It doesn't appear to be extreme, but rather genteel in its approach to Texas history and issues.
• Lowry Mays -- The Chairman of the Board of the (in)famous Clear Channel Communications.  He's a member of the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation.
• Joe C. McKinney -- Vice Chairman of the Board, Broadway Bank; Retired chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase Bank, San Antonio Region.  Is (or has been) chairman of the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation.
• Forrest Millar -- President of SBC External Affairs and Planning Group.  Is he a stand-in for Ed and Linda Whitacre?  Don't know much more about him.
• Sam Millsap -- Attorney, former Bexar County District Attorney, specializes currently in health law and employment law.  It's possible he has, at times, actually been one of those nasty trial lawyers that Bush so dislikes.  In 1985, he won "The Good Guy Award" from the Texas Women's Political Caucus and the Mary K. Polk Leadership Award from the Texas Council on Family Violence.  Most recently, although an advocate of the death penalty,  he has spoken out in favor of a moratorium on the exercise of the death penalty in Texas saying, "Our system in Texas is broken.  Until it is fixed and we are satisfied that only the guilty can be put to death, there should be no more executions in Texas."
• Palmer Moe -- Is currently the Managing Director of the Kronkosky Charitable Foundation in San Antonio.  He worked in the busines of energy for thirty five years including as President and Chief Operating Officer of Valero from 1983-1992.  Currentlyhe is on the Board of Whiting Petroleum of Denver.  The Kronkosky Foundation looms large in the life of San Antonio to which it devotes most of its many financial resources.  You might be interested to learn that its program areas include health and human services where it concerns itself with quality of life issues for the elderly and people with disabilities, with child abuse and neglect and with medical research; cultural efforts devoted to "meaningful activities" and the broadening of public participation and to improving and expaning public use of "information and learning" available in museums and public libraries; and expansion and improvement of public parks, zoos and wildlife sanctuaries, the prevention of cruelty to animals , and assistance to victims of "public disasters" in Texas.  The Kronkosky Foundation gave a lot of money for the development of Government Canyon Park.
• John Peveto -- Founder of a very lucrative nation-wide chain of brake repair shops called Brake Check.  It seems like he has a real sense of fun:  he is a member of Los Compadres, a Harley motorcycling club and Cigar Solamente, a cigar aficionado's club which does in some magical way obtain the occasional Cuban cigar.
• Gene Powell -- Bitterblue, Inc, a development corporation.  It also seems to include a little oil company.  Cute.  Powell was a 2004 Bush pioneer and his wife contributed $5000 to the Bush Florida recount effort. He is also one of the biggest contributor to Susan Combs, the strongest advocate for Texas HB 2833 which seeks to define "any combination of city actions limiting impervious cover [over the aquifer] to 45% as a "taking" for which the landowner must be fully compensated.  (See aquifer alert on this blog)  He is a prime developer of land over the aquifer.  His most recent over-the-aquifer project is a development south of 1604 and between Lockhill-Selma and Salado Creek where he is building 1250 homes and some commercial on 716 acres. He was recently in the news when with his partner Denton Communities he volunteered that by mistake he had thinned cedar trees on a tract near the proposed PGA Village, a tract which was endangered species habitat.  He set aside some other acreage for the birds.  Powell makes some token efforts to give money to conservationists and liberals.  He has donated 500 dollars to the Bexar County Land Trust and 500 dollars to Patti Radle's campaign for City Council.  Patti is a social activist and in my mind the only really, really honest with herself as well as the rest of us councilperson..
• Carl Raba -- Doctor Carl Raba (BS;MS; PhD Engineering, Texas A&M) -- is the chairman and CEO of Raba-Kistner Consultants.  He and his wife who is retired chair and CEO are the only folks I know of on this list who have a school named after them:  Dr Carl and Bunny Jean Raba Elementary School, "Home of the Rattlers", located on Raba Drive in  the Northside Independent School District.  Raba-Kistner does consulting and testing in environmental, forensic and pavement, and it does geotechnical engineering.  It is precertified to do about a hundred things related to road construction for the Texas Department of Transportation.  Good things it's done: the handbook on managing lead-based paint in city housing where it was used before 1978; the leader in the area in using recycled materials, particularly concrete at Brooks City Base where it showed that it was not only environmentally sounder to do this but economically wiser.  Not so hot: City government still remembers that "Raba-Kistner had cost the pubalic taxpayer millions of dollars during their work on the Alamodome" and had a negative reputation for not doing an adequate job there.  Thus, they were not considered for work on the San Antonio River Improvement Project.
• Edward Steves -- from an old, old San Antonio family.  His family's homestead is a major attraction on the San Antonio Conservation Society's list of historic homes to visit.  His wife is on the board of directors of said society.  His family's business initially was lumber, but today it is a manufacturer of thousands upon thousands of doors sold nationally and, the company hopes, soon internationally.
• Tullos Wells -- Managing partner of the San Antonio area offices of the law firm Bracewell and Giuliani: yes, that Giuliani.  This is one of the largest law firms in the country.  Wells is Board Certified in labor and employment law and hospitality, sports and entertainment law.  He tends to defend against charges of discrimination, etc, and does it with great success.  He is interesting in part because he is Chairman of the Board of the Austin San Antonio Intermunicipal Commuter Rail District and he is a gung-ho advocate of commuter rail.  You can hear him talk about it at www.tpr.org by clicking on Texas Matters #139.    He says there's only so much concrete you can pour, and you simply can't pour enough to build roads to link San Antonio and Austin.  He's a colorful and detailed speaker.  With him at the helm of the board, I can't believe it won't work.  Interestingly, Sam Barshop and Carroll Schubert are on the board of the commuter rail district.
• Marty Wender-- sounds like a mentsch, socially. He is a big time developer, responsible for the 3500 acre planned, mixed use development known as Westover Hills.  Among other things.  He seems particularly proud to have facilitated very fast the conversion of hiway 151 into a mini freeway that bisects the development.  He's listed as one of the top 100 developers in the nation.
  

The dog flew so we went to Charlotte, Texas

A week or so ago, Rita the dog tried to fly.  She had chased a cat up and over a concrete retaining wall which was maybe ten feet off the ground and sloped at maybe an 80 degree angle.   I was strolling a few feet ahead of Rita and Jim who called out to me so I could see what what was going on.  At the exact instant I turned to look, Rita sailed back towards us in a giant arc up over the top of the wall, ears flying, rear legs out behind her and front legs folded in front, just like Pegasus the flying horse.  But she had no wings, so she landed with the proverbial sickening thud on hard ground.  You can imagine what we feared.  Fortunately, although shaken (all of us), she had only suffered a not too serious injury to her left knee.  The vet ordered rest and then only limited, controlled walks for the next couple of weeks.

Restricted to the life of a quiet house dog wasn't to her liking, so we decided she needed a country drive.  We almost always take her on our country drives, but this time, we would not take her up dirt roads to chase cats and cows, only to towns where we could keep her on the leash.

We headed south on small roads, passing through, for instance, Poteet, "The Strawberry Capital of the World."  That Monday, the town was picking up after its annual strawberry festival.  Trash collectors wandered through the remains of carny rides and booths on the fairgrounds  and men hanging off the backs of pickup trucks were still picking up thousands of orange cones along the road.  One of those perennially sad days after.  No more the hundred thousand visitors: just a dusty, somewhat battered looking small town with a water tower that was a giant strawberry.

More or less randomly we had chosen Charlotte, Texas, maybe 45 miles from home, as our destination.  If we hadn't chosen it, we'd likely have driven right through barely making an effort to  notice it.  As in a lot of South Texas towns, even its few downtown buildings were scattered, set back from the main crossroads. 

Here you see the front of the library and the side of the grocery store.  Caticornered from where we were standing and across the street were the garage for schoolbuses and next to it, a small fairly new building that seemed to house some regional offices.  We were standing next to a converted garage-mechanic workshop which I'll describe below, because it is a good contradiction to the saying, "what you see is what you get."

To our right as we faced the library, there was a playing field on which kids were playing baseball when we arrived with the water-tower behind it. 

As Jim took pictures (he takes lots more than I do), I walked Rita alongside the garage/mechanic building and realized it looked a little odd.  One part of the side facing the street had been stuccoed and three nice outdoor chairs sat around a table. 

So I continued around the corner.  Behind a chain link fance sat a garden which, if it were a bit bigger I would have taken for a garden in a city park in Mexico.  And lo and behold, this side of the building looked sort of like a house, or maybe some kind of rendition of a house as installation art.  I was attempting to get some photos of the flowers when the owner appeared and -- invited me in!

Well, not just right away: after we'd talked enough for her to be sure I wasn't going to try to scam her or worse.  She and her husband, the mechanic who presided over the workshop side of the building had moved to Charlotte from nearby Jourdanton (see pictures of Jourdanton in the Charlotte and Jourdanton, Texas photo album) and converted half the structure to their home with the proceeds from the sale of the sale of their more conventional ranch-style home in Jourdanton.  What gives the house its unusual installation art aspect are the painted windows: there is only a double french door, no real window facing the garden.

Here is just a hint of her garden:

The owner gave us a tour of the inside: her dreams of home realized. Just as examples: Mrs G.  had created an ideal kind of farm kitchen: very large, lined with white, glass-fronted kitchen cabinets combined with the family room: no partition, no "bar" or island so her family, grandkids, kids, husband, in-laws could hang out together, sprawled on the couches, playing games, cooking, together. 

I didn't take any interior pictures, but you can see Mrs G's garden in the Charlotte Jourdanton, Texas photo album.

Charlotte had another jewel.  Driving down a dirt road that circled the town, we came upon the Mexican Cemetery.  Mexican cemeteries are filled with color and life.  I imagine gatherings of the living and the dead happen regularly, not just on the Day of the Dead.

And there are many pictures of the Mexican Cemetery in the photo album.

Here is some information about Charlotte.

It is 45 miles south of San Antonio at the intersection of State Highways 97 and 85.  The population is about 1727.  Although many people are accustomed to think of small towns in the US as dying and only having old people left in them, Charlotte is growing, albeit slowly, and the median age is 29.6 years.  The population is 81.2% Hispanic, 18.1 Anglo and 1.9% American Indian.  The Anglos are a mix of German, English, Irish and "United States" which I take to mean mutt.

It's a poor town.  The median household income is around $25,000, and the median house value is around $26,000.  Only 49.4% of the people over 25 have a high school diploma.  Only 2.6% have a bachelors degree.  Only 0.3% have a graduate or professional degree.

Unemployement is around 9%.  Most working people work elsewhere, the average commute being more than half an hour one way.  It's worth noting that there are a number of adults who don't have cars.

The library squeezes about 9000 books into its storefront as well as about some audio and video materials.  It maintains three subscriptions.  It looks very well used.  The Charlotte high school has 136 students, the elementary school, 256 and the junior high 106. At least one of the teachers is an artist.

Charlotte also has girls' baseball teams: we saw them playing.

A relatively young town, being founded in the late 1800s, Charlotte never appears to have boomed, though oil exists. Farmers shifted from cotton to peanuts awhile ago, but since peanuts have lost a lot of their value, nothing has really replaced them.  You see cattle in the fields around Charlotte.  I don't know anything about how well the cattle business is doing.  The picture to the
left shows an active oil pump.

Most of South Texas is poor and is losing population.   Schools are poor with few services and few courses past the bare bones ones.  Post-high school opportunities are scattered far and wide.  Land prices are falling.  There are few medical services.  And while there are plenty of hard-working people, the jobs don't pay much.  In fact, the barter system seems to cover a lot of exchange. 

It's pretty in Charlotte. The air is clean and fresh in the spring; Mrs. G says there's always a breeze, even in the heat of summer.  She and her husband sit out on the swing in the garden to watch sunrises and sunsets.  She says the stars fill the sky: her stars, she calls them.  She likes living "right downtown" where she can walk to the grocery store and the post office and the library and her church.   She works hard.  She cleans houses. There aren't too many people in Charlotte who can afford a housekeeper, so I imagine she's one of the commuters.  There are some "ranchettes," five acre lots with suburban houses on split-up ranch land further north, within commuting distance of San Antonio. Her husband repairs cars and trucks and does some welding, though I gather he thinks of himself as retired.

Mrs G. exchanged housekeeping for the paintings on the walls of her house, inside and out,  with the teacher who is an artist at one of  the Charlotte schools.  In her spare time, she's laid all the brick surfaces and walkways in her garden and planted it.  The bricks she's found and been given; many of the flowers are heirloom, from her mother's garden.  She's also refinished much of the furniture in her house, found at flea markets and garage sales, in bright, smooth colors.

Check out the photo album of Charlotte and Jourdanton, Texas.  It should be available today or tomorrow.

Just West of San Antonio

It has been a rainy, gray winter here in South Central Texas.  This day in late February the sun came out and we saw the first  greening of spring.  You can look at the Sunday Drives in South Central Texas photo album for more pictures.