BlueSquirrel

I know whereof you speak! LOL I am really starting to love this. It brings up such memories! The place you are talking about was a friend of mine's house. He lived at the corner of Bremond and Baldwin. It was a marvelous house. The piece of equipment out front was some sort of projection equipment. He used to put a sheet up - hang it from the tree branches - and show movies on it. He also brewed his own beer for a while. We dubbed it "Frank's Bird Blest Beer" because he would put it outside in 5 gallon jugs and the birds would bless it - repeatedly! LOL He played an instrument called the Daddy Banjo which consisted of a snare drum body with a Fender guitar neck. For a few short moments we had a small band called the Uni-sins, ah, but that is another story! We only played out two times. Once at Theodore's and then again the same night out in southwest Houston at the Napoleon Square apartments in a place called Bonaparte's Retreat. It was quite a night!

I am looking for information about Georgia O'Keeffe's time in Texas. She lived and taught art in Amarillo and Canyon during the early 20th century. I've been researching this for a while now. Any additional information would be appreciated. Here are the details that I have: 1912-1914 Supervisor of drawing and penmanship with the City Public School of Amarillo, Texas Magnolia Hotel on Polk Street 1916-1918 West Texas State Normal College in Canyon, Texas 500 20th Street, home of D. A. Shirley 1905 4th Street, Hudspeth House 1918 Recuperating from influenza in Waring and San Antonio Oaks Ranch or The Oaks in Waring, TX Hotel Lanier in San Antonio Cafe del Rio in San Antonio Thanks

Dino Lee came off very subdued at the Porno Picnic. I don't think he was really ready for what was happening. After all, the guy was a performer and a lot of what went on was very much for real and not on a stage. The next night at Fitz's he attempted to make up for it. I still remember him announcing over and over that "this (his Fitzgerald performance) was the real Porno Picnic!" What a silly man!

I went back and checked my map. The Porno Picnic was held at the corner of McGowan and Bailey. The property faced McGowan, right where Albany dead ends into it. If you came down Albany it was a dogleg turn up the driveway. It was a wierd property. There was a long warehouse -like space on the east end of the building and another similar, but smaller space on that closer to Albany. Behind it all was a little house. It was all one building to the best of my memory, but it was as though it had been added onto haphazardly. I have no idea what it was in its original incarnation, but it was a wonderful place to hang out. The Porno Picnics got way out of hand in the end. I worked the door in 1985. There was a cover charge and people showed up from God knows where. It got pretty wild and strange. I stayed away from the last one. Little bit too much strange for me.

I really loved that neighborhood. I used to live on Mason and walk every where back then. Investors started buying up the houses in the '70s and '80s and tearing them down, leaving vacant lots. The neighborhood became dark and spooky in a bad sort of way. It wasn't simply the oak trees. They were beautiful. I had friends who lived all over around there back during the '70s. Bad things started happening, lots of burglaries, muggings and worse. Friends of mine woke up to find a woman dead in front their house. Another friend's purse was stolen off a table in her house while she was unloading her groceries. I still have a hard time understanding why they put such high density properties up on those narrow streets. They actually made West Gray narrower! I guess they wanted that cozy Montrose feel. I drive down McGowan pretty regularly when I taking the back streets on the way home. I just have to shake my head.

Roger managed Anderson Fair for a while. One of the folks I remember from Liberty Hall was named Roberto. Another was a guy named Mike Condray. Roger the dodger Ruffcorn is sadly missed. He was a nice guy and a good friend.

The first Porno Picnic I went to was in the late 70's, '78 I think. I was beginning to think that I was the only one who remembered these times! The woman who lived in the house there was named Linda of Higgler's B Shop fame. She had a series of resale/junk shops. L & B Trading Post was one of them. She had a store on the north east corner of West Alabama and Audubon about the same time that the Porno Picnics were starting up back then. Ah, the bad old days . . . . sigh.