Yes, the statue of Buddy Holly and the Walk Of Fame were once on Avenue Q. I took photos when these things were fairly new, freshly installed. Later, they were moved closer to the Buddy Holly Center off of 19th, where they can be found today.
And there it is, just as it used to be. Let's look at some of the plaques.
I remember when Joe Ely played guitar and sang in a coffee shop tucked into an alley between Broadway and 13th Street, just off of what used to be College Avenue, across from Texas Technological College, as it was called then. I remember an old Gibson acoustic he used then. It was pretty beat up. I wonder what happened to that guitar? I was just beginning to learn to play myself. I had a long way to go. I STILL have a long way to go.
I think I took these photos in 2002, so I guess this monument had been around for at least a few years-- more than I thought.
My wife and her second husband used to have a motor home. They would load it up every year and head for Turkey, Texas for Bob Wills Day. We talked about doing that but she'd been there and done that. She warned me that hotels and motels would be booked up and hard to find and the crowds would be enormous. So we didn't go there. I don't regret not going. Travel and crowds are two things I don't enjoy very much. And my wife had had her fill of traveling. Enough.
Yes, a time came years ago when I decided to sell some of my old toys that had been in storage in the attic of my childhood home. I got these things in the late fifties, early sixties. First, check out this nearly life-sized Mattel M-14:
Is this thing realistic or not? Times have changed! It would not be safe for any child to be seen with a toy like this. My cousins and I used to walk a few blocks to a place where we could "play army". I carried this thing and they had Thompson machine guns that were just as realistic. No problem in those days. I sold this on eBay to a gentleman in Houston, Texas. I won't tell you how much money I got for it. It was more than I expected.
It took two A batteries in the stock and made noise when you pulled the trigger. I was a gun nut when I was a child. I read about the M-14 in Popular Mechanics and I wanted one! Way too young. I grew out of that, thank God. I matured.
The other item I got some money for was this Marx Medieval Castle play set:
Do kids have an interest in stuff like this anymore? Or is it just phones and electronic games?
Do children still use their imaginations? Imagination might become subversive. Signs of an active imagination might trigger psychiatric treatment and some form of chemical lobotomy.
Some of the knights were not part of the set. I just threw them in. I believe though that they were also Louis Marx products.
Well, this was off-topic but until I have new pics I will just go through my archives. We will be more regional and more topical next time, with old views of the Stubbs BBQ memorial and Abernathy, Texas. These will be the FIRST set of photos I took in Abernathy, shortly after the turn of the century. That sounds odd, doesn't it?
When I was a college student I lived in North Overton, in several different places over the years, and most of my student friends lived in that neighborhood. But the neighborhood deteriorated badly and eventually it became the target of urban renewal. I took photos when the project was in an early stage and many buildings were still under construction, and some of the old neighborhood had yet to be demolished. These photos were probably taken about fifteen years ago.
I really did not like to see this because I had so many memories of the old neighborhood.
Streets were still narrow but the population density increased a lot. I didn't see that as a good thing.
The glass here indicates that a car was broken into.
This used to be Bob's Cafe.
On the opposite corner there was a duplex where I spent one semester with a roommate. All that was left, when I took this photo, was the driveway.
After so many years, this project is still not quite complete!
The Overton Hotel was just going up. I ate in the restaurant a few years ago with my wife. It's a great place if you feel like dropping a hundred bucks for a modest meal for two. No thanks.
There in the distance is the damnable football stadium. The existence of such structures I offer as evidence that we are, in fact, NOT an intelligent species at all. Clever apes, maybe.
If you want to know what killed the old Overton North, I can sum it up very easily: greedy absentee landlords.
And there it is, just as it used to be. Let's look at some of the plaques.
I remember when Joe Ely played guitar and sang in a coffee shop tucked into an alley between Broadway and 13th Street, just off of what used to be College Avenue, across from Texas Technological College, as it was called then. I remember an old Gibson acoustic he used then. It was pretty beat up. I wonder what happened to that guitar? I was just beginning to learn to play myself. I had a long way to go. I STILL have a long way to go.
I think I took these photos in 2002, so I guess this monument had been around for at least a few years-- more than I thought.
My wife and her second husband used to have a motor home. They would load it up every year and head for Turkey, Texas for Bob Wills Day. We talked about doing that but she'd been there and done that. She warned me that hotels and motels would be booked up and hard to find and the crowds would be enormous. So we didn't go there. I don't regret not going. Travel and crowds are two things I don't enjoy very much. And my wife had had her fill of traveling. Enough.
