Welcome to South Austin

Here we visit the former location of the Armadillo World Headquarters, a legendary venue that brought huge acts to Austin between 1970-1981. Owner Eddie Wilson talks to Austin's own Brothers and Sisters into playing a song about a fallen friend. I took my wife to our first date at the Armidillo. We went to see Tom T. Hall.

This is why people love Austin so much and guess what? It's in South Austin.

They have two of these restuarants in south Austin. They also own Scholz Garden.
http://www.scholzgarten.net/ I am posting a video about Scholz on one of my other blogs: http://txastateofmind.blogspot.com

The reason that they call it Nutty Brown is because the original business at this location was a factory that made Nutty Brown Pralines. Before it became the cafe, someone had a western clothing store there. I still have a couple of western shirts that I bought there. Now it's a big time music venue. A couple of weeks ago, (I live about 3 or 4 miles away as the crow flies)Pat Green played at there. I could hear it from my front porch. I guess it was pretty loud that day.




Read more about the Cafe at: http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/11/141634/restaurant/Southwest-Austin/Nutty-Brown-Cafe-Austin

or read more at the Hill Country Hippie Blog: http://hillcountryliving.blogspot.com/2008_05_04_archive.html

Zax is a nice place. Somebody has dumped a bunch of money into this establishment. I remember it as Charlie's Hamburgers then as an Austin Music Venue and later Al Capone's Italian Restaurant. Well, those places are gone and I wish I had video, but I don't. However I take consolation in the fact that I never went to any of them except Charlie's Hamburgers anyway and now I do have video of the current and future incarnation of this building from the past. This was posted by WiseGeorge.

My memories go farther back. When my dad had a shop less than a block away, this old wooden building was a venetian blind factory. According to my mom, during World War II, this building was a skating rink. My mom and her dad were run over by a drunk sailor just outside this building.

This is Oltorf heading east from I-35. Oltorf is about 3 exits south of the river on I-35. Deep South Austin here. They are filming the south side of the street. Not far from my old neighborhood. Travis High School is on Oltorf, just on the west side of I-35. I went to Travis in the 10th grade.

Well, I might be from South Austin, but in my opinion the best enchaladas in Austin are at The Frisco Shop. All their food is good, but I love the enchaladas. This video shows the last day at their old location. It reopened a few months later down the road. Visit The Frisco Shop; http://www.frisconighthawk.com/frisco/regrandopening.html

Amazing sight...........

I found this picture (wisegeorge took the photo) and it reminded me of Jim Green. Jim was a true South Austinite. He was a good businessman but he had electic ways. This old shop just up the hill on South Lamar from our shop has had many reincarnations. But it has always been an automotive repair shop.



After Jim closed this shop, he and a lady named Gertrude opened a pizza restaurant out in Oak Hill in the Albertson's Shopping Center (the Albertsons is now closed). I have got to say that this was some of the best pizza I ever ate in my life. It was there for a long time until Mr. Gatti's decided to open their first GattiTown in the same shopping center. It spelled the end of Gertrudes.


Wisegeorge is doing a great job documenting the real Austin. I wish that you would visit his blog at www.wisegeorge.blogspot.com.

Today is Easter. Some of us are baptists, some catholics and every religion in between. Now in South Austin, they have a celebration of life every sunday at Maria's Hippie Church..

Stevie loved South Austin.

Well, I will give the answers to How Can That Be in a few days. Having too much fun with it right now.

The South Austin Trailer Park and Eatery is fairly new. It is located on South 1st Steet, just a little ways up the hill from Barton Springs Road. If you are still lost, its a couple of miles south of the River on South 1st. It's real close to Freddy's.

This is part of the new "South Austin Look", but it fits the old too. Enjoy

To prove that I really have earned the name of South Austin Lifer, I have posted some questions below. See how many you can solve. Email me with your answers,
mcarlson12@austin.rr.com

How Can that Be?

I have met my cousin with my same name, Mike Carlson. My dad’s father was an only child and I had two uncles, one of my uncles never married and the other one didn’t have any children.

How Can That Be?

I have a cousin that is my first and second cousin.


How can that be?


My brother in law and I have an aunt in common, but we are not related.


How can that be?

My wife’s cousin’s kids are my third cousins. I am not kin to my wife’s cousin.


How can that be?


My momma’s first cousin’s nephew is first cousin with my brother in law.

How can that be?

My sister’s mothers in law’s nieces are my first cousins.

How can that be?

My mom’s first cousins mom is the aunt of my brother in laws first cousin.

How can that be?

My daughter’s maiden name was Cox and my wife’s grandmother’s maiden name was Cox

How can that be?

My sister and her husband have the same first cousins.

How can that be?

My aunt’s child is my dad’s second cousin?

How can that be?

My second cousin’s mom is the sister in law of my brother in law’s aunt.

How can that be?

My second cousin’s mom is the grandmother of my wife’s cousin’s kids.

How can that be?

I went to my wife’s family reunion and met, Mike Carlson.

How can that be?

Have Fun.
I’m normal, I think.

Mike

Here is part 2 of A Few Minutes in South Austin. This is just a few minutes of a look at a SMALL portion of Zilker Park, in South Austin. This park is huge, people. 351 acres. The Rolling Stones played there recently. Also some scenes in the movie "Dazed and Confused" were reportedly filmed at Zilker Park.
The river you see is Barton Creek, and it spills out into Austin' Lady Bird Lake, which is another name for the Colorado River. We called President Lyndon Johnson's wife, Lady Bird. She helped to restore the native areas around Zilker and downtown Austin surrounding the Lake that we used to call, Town Lake.

This is the theme song for "Austin City Limits". Always think of the old "Armidillo World Headquarters" in South Austin when I hear the song. Enjoy

I really like this video by WiseGeorge, because about halfway through the video, he films my dad's old shop. On the video he is cussing Sam's Auto Care. That was the shop that we moved into in 1969. We kept the parking lot full too. Today, Music Makers leases the building from my mom. It looks alot nicer today.

James White opened the Broken Spoke in 1964. The who's who of Country Music has played there. It is a real Texas Honky Tonk. Those old red walls could really tell some stories.

Well, most people think that the charm of South Austin started with the Armidillo World Headquarters. There might be something to that. It was located just behind the area of the current Threadgills. Willie, Waylon and the Outlaws started it and every popular singer at the time showed up at the Armidillo. It was in the seventies and quite weird. The bikers, cowboys and the hippies all went to the Armidillo and got along quite well. The Armidillo was in an old qlansit hut building used previously by the military. My dad's shop was next to the Threadgills location in the 60's. At that time it was the location of the Squirrell's Inn, a beer joint. I remember it was green in color and my dad used to go there and have a few after work. I spent many hours there. Next to it was a Mexican Beer Joint that I don't remember the name of. Across Riverside was the Big Bear Food Mart.
I took my wife on our first date to the Armidillo to see Tom T. Hall. After the Squirrell's Inn was torn down they built the Marimont Cafeteria. This is the building that now houses Threadgills. WiseGeorge shot the video that follows. I have talked to him and he has tried to film most of South Austin, so I will probably use a lot of his videos to tell about South Austin.

Enjoy the film of Threadgills.


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I was raised in South Austin, it was much different than today, but it still had the same flavor. We were always laid back.

Enjoy the video


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