Welcome to a pinhole tour of Austin.
A pinhole camera has no glass lens.Instead it just has a tiny little
hole to view the world with.
The result is a little unorthodox.
You will notice right away that it has
a very "wide angle" sort of view and things
sort of round near the edges of the
frame. Elementary students often
make a pinhole camera out of something
as simple as a box of Quaker Oats.
As time permits, I have started to chronicle those places in
Austin which embody the truest character of the city;
spots not on the Chamber's web site. A few are already
famous but most are a little off the beaten path.
We are using a mechanical arm
to illuminate the thematic motif, as it were.
Please, do not be alarmed.
"the mechanical arm motif maker"
A Pinhole Tour of Austin
Our pinhole tour starts with El Patio
where the emphasis on Tex-Mex
is mostly on the Tex
and the Joseph family
has been serving up great
hot dishes since 1953.
I used to eat here two or three
times a week when I was younger and single.
They always served saltine crackers
where others might offer you
ordinary tortilla chips. Nowadays, you can have your pick.
What would it be like to be a golf ball
in a putt-putt palace?
For the true putt-putt lover
this is what Quality of Life is really all about.
Have a look at Peter Pan's Mini-Golf.
You have your choice of a
red, green, or blue ball and a putter
to go along with your choice
of red, green, or blue snow cone.
After a round of mini golf con snow cone
what could be finer than
a fresh hot donut or sweet roll
from the friendly confines
There's a special box that's been added
to the sign out front
notifying the neighborhood
of a fresh batch of hot donuts.
Time to pull up to the Drive-Thru
and get 'cha a hot donut
that'll sink in yer belly like a rock.
Yum.
Disc golf is the country club alternative
to complement your Austin lifestyle.
Started here in 1984, Austn now has six different courses.
From the word's of our founder,
Steady Eddie, "I felt the Frisbee had some
kind of a spirit involved.
Its not just like playing catch with a ball."
It's the beautiful act of flight."
Steady Eddie, creator of the frisbee (preceeded by Walter Morrison and the Frisbie Pie Company)
passed away in August.
He said before he died, "We used to say that Frisbee
is really a religion -- 'Friseeterians,' we'd call ourselves.
When we die, we don't go to purgatory.
We just land up on the roof and wait there."
Old man Barton should be allowed
to visit his old homestead, now nestled
within Zilker Park to see what a hallowed
hang-out was created after
Lyndon Johnson's Works Progress gang
came into this creek-bed and cemented
out a first class swimming pool back
in the thirties.
I swim here up to four timesa week, slipping into the dark water
in the morning and watching glimpses of fish
go by in the dark while I swim my laps (two).
Seeing this pool on a quiet sunny weekday
and a busy Saturday afternoon in summer
are two very different experiences. Try both.
On the weekends
my boys like to hang out near the stairs
and chase crawdads (mudpuppies).
