Have you ever held a fossil in your hand…a glimpse of a time long ago? Today we found a ‘place’ that has been frozen in time. This tiny burg called Luckenbach, established in 1849 (population 25) remains as it was…one unpainted general store with a beer tavern, a rural dancehall and a little eat’n place called the ‘Feed Lot’ that’s sometimes open.
If you are very lucky, as we were, there will be friends under the huge old spreading oaks…joking among themselves and playing guitar and singing country songs. There is a famous country song about this place so folks know about it, but you have to work to find this treasure. The souvenir thieves swipe the town signs as fast as they get put up.
We picked up a couple of delicious, hot, drippy, Texas Bar-B-Que. sandwiches and a couple of cold drinks and sat ourselves down in the shade of the oaks to soak up the music and the ambiance of this place. There were a couple of huge old mock orange bushes in bloom that overlaid the air with perfume. I can’t think of a more perfect way to pass the time on warm lazy afternoon.
I asked a cowboy if I could take his picture and we struck up a conversation. He showed me his picture in a magazine. He was leaning up against a tree…singing. Wanted to know if I wanted him to the autograph the picture and hustled off to find a pen. He signed “Judy…good to meet you in Luckenbach” C.R. Mayfield.
Then he wanted to know how the heck we’d found this place!
