Boris Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Adios from West Texas. .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cottonmather0 Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Hey I grew up in San Angelo (or at least 5th - 12th grade) and my mom still lives there. Those are great pics.Bouquets Unique florist used to be owned by a friend's mom. We spent a couple of weekends one summer working on that building when she first moved in. We hung a suspended ceiling and painted, among other things. I need to go out for a visit soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNiche Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Hey I grew up in San Angelo (or at least 5th - 12th grade) and my mom still lives there. Those are great pics.Bouquets Unique florist used to be owned by a friend's mom. We spent a couple of weekends one summer working on that building when she first moved in. We hung a suspended ceiling and painted, among other things. I need to go out for a visit soon.I've only ever been to San Angelo once, and I passed through it last Fall on my way back from far west Texas. I actually went out of my way to visit, just because I never have any reason to pass through on my way in between anywhere and anywhere else.It struck me as a really nice town, and Boris got some awesome photos. I've heard that the reservoir just above the town is near completely dry, so I was surprised to see any water in the Concho River. I do wonder what the economy is based on, though. For as well-maintained as it is, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot going on.What was it like to grow up there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gooch Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 What is the swayback building? (Pic under the bull). Nice photos! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChannelTwoNews Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 What is the swayback building? (Pic under the bull). Nice photos!It's the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts.I liked that photo tour as well, probably it's because it is one of the lesser seen places in the state. Does look like a nice place to visit, though. Might have to make a stop as I plan on heading west on vacation over the summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Nice pictures. The place looks eerily quiet, though. Is that how it felt? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cottonmather0 Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 I've only ever been to San Angelo once, and I passed through it last Fall on my way back from far west Texas. I actually went out of my way to visit, just because I never have any reason to pass through on my way in between anywhere and anywhere else.It struck me as a really nice town, and Boris got some awesome photos. I've heard that the reservoir just above the town is near completely dry, so I was surprised to see any water in the Concho River. I do wonder what the economy is based on, though. For as well-maintained as it is, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot going on.What was it like to grow up there?Eh, nothing too special. All of those small cities - Abilene, Midland/Odessa, Lubbock, San Angelo - are kind of like centers of their own universe as they cater to all of the smaller towns and communities around them, so I would say that growing up in a place like that makes one think slightly higher of it than it really is in the grand scheme of things. I left and went to college in a (much) larger city on the east coast and pretty quickly realized that I was still from way out in the sticks, even if it was one of the larger sticks. I'm not putting it down at all, just saying that I learned a lot about the world when I finally got out. Very small town, very parochial, not much to do but drink beer and play golf, even for the college kids. High school sports are HUGE. Generally the workbase is kind of poor - the rich people in town are all lawyers and insurance agents and the handful who own any kind of industry. Everyone else either works for the school district or college or the military or a service industry to one of those. There are a few outside companies that have come in lately: call centers and the like, but there's not many of those jobs these days. Hardly any oil or gas money in San Angelo - all of that is further north. It is always striking to me when I go back how poor the town is, or, at least, how there are no parts like Houston.Almost all of those pictures are from downtown or around downtown - generally, all of the action in town is on the west or southwest side of town and it's decidedly less attractive in those areas with wide city streets and very few tall trees except for the few in people's backyards. It's a very arid climate and geography and is very noticeable once you live somewhere else for a few years where there are lots of trees and the grass stays green on its own all year long.As far as the lake goes - what you are referring to is OC Fisher which is the most noticeable as the earthen dam stretches for about 10 miles right next to highway 87 on the north side of town. It was built for flood control and nothing else, so it's supposed to be dry, much like Addicks and Barker here in Houston. The river rises further north towards Odessa and flows through the basin of the lake year round. There is always water in the river, there's just hardly enough to ever accumulate in the lake. You can tell from some of the photos that the natural river channel is pretty shallow and narrow - it wouldn't take much rain upstream to overwhelm the banks through town, hence they built the dam (and floodgates) to keep that from happening in town. There is a similar reservoir on the south side of town built on the south fork of the river called Twin Buttes Reservoir and it's usually dry, too, for the same reasons. Upstream of that dam is much smaller Lake Nasworthy ("nasty-water") which is kept a constant level for city drinking water and recreation and is the lake you usually see when you are flying into town.EDIT: Nasworthy is downstream of Twin Buttes. Minor technical error on my part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cottonmather0 Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Nice pictures. The place looks eerily quiet, though. Is that how it felt?Yeah, downtown is very quiet. They've cleaned it up and renovated a lot lately, but not many people work down there anymore and there is no retail or consumer business down there at all except for stuff related to city and county government and tourists (all of those pretty stores in the pictures are touristy type places). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaggieMay Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Yeah, downtown is very quiet. They've cleaned it up and renovated a lot lately, but not many people work down there anymore and there is no retail or consumer business down there at all except for stuff related to city and county government and tourists (all of those pretty stores in the pictures are touristy type places).Thanks for these pictures. I like living in a big city but wouldn't mind being one of those tourists.... That's a nice little museum; and I see it's linked to some others that are off the beaten track. Just a reminder that Texas really is a big state. Got to get out more! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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