Happy Birthday Dad! June 30, 2008
Posted by Sarah in family, Texas.1 comment so far
This is Texan style father daughter quality time.mailbox April 26, 2008
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This is what happens when a talented metalworker gets sick of people complaining that they can’t find his farm. My grandfather, as they say, was quite a personality. :)
Corpus Christi – a gay Jesus play March 10, 2008
Posted by Sarah in Performing Arts, San Francisco, Texas, Theatre.add a comment
I might not say this is great theatre in some vaulted literary tradition, but there wasn’t a single dry eye in the house as the lights dimmed and the performance ended.
Corpus Christi is a passion play set in 1950′s Corpus Christi, a city in South Texas. I grew up near there and will simply offer this link to any who doubt that the area is indeed conservative and religious. Naturally, I’ve wanted to see the play since it opened to protests and death threats in New York ten years ago.
Today’s performance in San Francisco was an entirely different affair – the Grace Cathedral hosted two performances of the play. The combination of homosexuality and Christianity is not a particularly volatile mix here, as evidenced by the number gay Christian churches and outreach programs.
Obviously, I live in a bubble. People in the queer community face discrimination and death every day, and every member of the audience was just as aware of that fact as I was – just last month a gay teen was killed in Oxnard, CA.
No wonder that the torture and crucifixion of a gay man touched a raw spot in all of our hearts. No wonder that audience member after audience member thanked the cast for speaking the message an all inclusive love. As the director said, this is a story that needs to be told.
I wish the cast and crew good luck at the International Gay Theater Festival in Dublin.
bike culture coming to a city near you… February 15, 2008
Posted by Sarah in Bike advocacy, Texas.add a comment
Lance Armstrong is opening Mellow Johnny’s, a cycling shop geared towards commuters, to promote a bicycle friendly culture in Austin. I will definitely be dropping by the next time I’m in the area. Click here for the story.
Beatles February 9, 2008
Posted by Sarah in My 2 cents, Texas.add a comment
Maybe because the warm, sunny weather today reminds me of Texas, I’m listening to the Beatles soundtrack of Across the Universe and thinking back. When my parents were in a particularly good mood, they’d listen to their Beatles albums on a record player stereo system about the size of a couch. My brother and I were fascinated by how the stereo automatically changed records and my parents would talk and sip their drinks. I remember Beatles nights as very good nights.
No Country for Old Men January 11, 2008
Posted by Sarah in family, Movies, Texas.1 comment so far
“Want a cup?”
“‘Preciate it.”
After looking at the coffee Sheriff Bell asks, “How fresh is this coffee?”
“I generally make a fresh pot ever’ week even if there’s some left over.”
Go Dad! December 31, 2007
Posted by Sarah in Bike advocacy, Texas.add a comment
Texas is not known as the most bike friendly state out there, so I was stoked to see that my dad and the City of Corpus Christi are considering bicyclists when they make improvements in the roads. Read the article here.
My grandmother November 21, 2007
Posted by Sarah in family, Texas.add a comment
One day, I’ll learn that sarcasm doesn’t always read well in print. (See the belatedly added footnote to yesterday’s post.) That post elicited an immediate response from my mother on a subject that I’ve been rather curious about – my grandmother, whom I never met. With permission from my mother, the e-mail:
One of these days, we need to sit down and have a good talk about women’s battle for equal recognition in our world. (This stems from your links on women and bicycling.) I personally have not had issues, even going through A&M in the old days. My mother, however, suffered mightily from her father and Grandpa’s family because she wanted to “work” outside the home. My grandma worked and controlled her own part of the income, but that was inside the family structure.
My mother was the 8th of 10 children of share croppers. She was a good student and graduated at the top of her high school class in Agua Dulce at the age of 16. She wanted desperately to attend the University of Texas at Austin. Her family had no money and she was ‘just a girl’. Finally, her Dad agreed that she could go if her brother Bill would also attend the university. (My Uncle Bill was quite the reprobate. He did initially go, disappeared to California riding his motorcycle, and was not heard from again for a few years. He was injured in a crash and it took a while for him to regain his memory. He evenutally returned to become a prosperous farmer, but never accomplished being a worthy human being.) She worked as a nanny and completed one year of studies in Austin. Her studies included Czech, and she received some money from Czech societies. We met the Prosatil family that she had lived with when we moved to Austin. They were very kind to you and your brother when you were little. She suffered from boils while there and gained a lot of weight so that her clothes no longer fit. She came back without a degree and attended the very new A&I for a while. She then taught public school in Violet living in the teacherage with three other spinster teachers.
Grandpa was 5 years older, graduated with a job and ready to be married. She returned to work after the wedding, but when Uncle Bob was on the way, she was no longer qualified to be a teacher. During WWII, because the men were away, she was allowed again to teach in the public schools, even though she was a married woman with children. After the men came back, the jobs went back to them ‘because they had families to support’. Eventually, she did sub work at our parochial school when the nuns were ill. She was hired in Robstown without a degree in the 60′s, and went through a grueling few years of working full time, raising all of us, and communting to A&I on Saturdays and summers to complete her degree. All the while, her in-laws just could not understand why. She only had a few years of working with all credentials before cancer took her away at the age of 52.
(By the way, she did ride bicycles and play full court basketball in high school. One of the most difficult classes for her at UT, however, was swimming. She never did feel comfortable in the water.)
Alicia Bock print October 25, 2007
Posted by Sarah in Photography, Texas, Visual stuff.add a comment
I grew up with pale blue skies, fluffy clouds, and flocks of birds settling on power lines for the evening, and this print reminds me of all that big open space in Texas. It may also coordinate with the painting of my grandfather’s house that I have hung in the dining area.
Click here for more of the artist’s work.
"LHMF" August 7, 2007
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