Hippie Hollow Park Lots of basal cell carcinoma on sun exposed ball sacks at that place. Remember after you Nair your sack, be sure to apply at least SPF 50 to the exposed area.
Yeah, usually my wife and I are in the nude for the evening times. So I get it bro. Where's me lucky charms?!
No thank you.... I don't play with the sun. How many sunburns does it take before one learns this lesson.... One bad burn as an adult and we ain't friends no more.
I've written about some of this before. Back in the mid to late '60's and early '70's, sometimes 15 or 20 of us, often a few more than that, used to drive up to Paleface Park in the upper reaches of Lake Travis where the Pedernales enters it and the coves and cliffs are, camp out at a particular cove and have a fantastic time. There was a path to take down to the water and you could go skinny dipping during the day, and maybe at night, although some girls wore cutoffs and just went topless. Getting naked wasn't a big deal. It was a cove, so there often was a little bit of privacy, but we weren't hung up about it. You very rarely saw a park ranger or a county sheriff, and never at night, when we'd make a fire, maybe pass something around. There were often a million stars to gaze at. A friend of mine usually brought a Sunfish sailboat I could borrow, someone else a ski boat if you wanted to ski. Maybe a canoe. There were always floats and a ice chest or two with beer and water carried down. Maybe a pint of Crown tossed around. We went to Paleface 3, 4 or 5 times a year on a weekend between May and September for these camp outs. A bunch of hippies having a get together. Most of us fit the description, but some had to look "straight" for work. There was a winter campout we had every year at Paleface. Have to add that, because for fun, those were some of the best, as hard as that might be to believe considering how the weather could be. We'd do it, weather or not. There were other trips to Austin as well into town. Music at the Vulcan Gas Company, later the Armadillo. The clubs, of course. There would be parties to drive up for from Houston. Friends going to UT would naturally stay in Austin over the summer if they could and some did. Other friends had gone to UT and were hanging on to Austin, figuring out ways to make enough money to live here. Good friends. We could crash on a couch or throw a sleeping bag on the floor for a night or two. Buy some groceries, maybe help cook something (I can cook things). Share a bed if things worked out. What was cool is that you could rent little houses cheap in what would now be considered central Austin. Some of our friends from Houston searched them out and rented them. For example, there were cottages on the side of Castle Hill above Baylor Street, west of North Lamar and north of west 6th. You walked up little concrete steps to them from the street. One or two bedroom places with big windows, a porch, tiny kitchens, one bath for under $100. Trees everywhere. The "castle" at the top of the hill. Three girlfriends of mine from Houston were living in one that I went to school with. They were a combo of going to UT and "hanging onto Austin." One beautiful day, when I was visiting the girls, somehow Leonard Cohen ended up sitting on a blanket with a guitar and singing some of his songs, relaxed and just enjoying himself. Someone in one of the other cottages had run into him, in town for a concert, and asked if he'd like to come over and have some tea or whatever else he might enjoy. Soon, there he was on a blanket in the grass surrounded by 30 or so of the residents and their friends, including us. For well over an hour, I had one of the best times I've ever had. Heck, that afternoon turned into a very nice evening after he left. Those days were a wonderful time, one that I miss. Anyway, some of those friends have moved out of state, a few have passed away. Several are still in Houston, thank goodness. A few, like us in the summer of 1980, moved to Austin over the years. Now Paleface is called "Pace Bend Park" and it's very different. You have to pay to get in. There are dozens of rules and regulations. Years ago, some county commissioner's relative, I assume, got a contract to build concrete tables and benches, my guess is a couple of hundred of them, all over the place. Heck, in areas no one ever uses. A bit of corruption, in my humble opinion. Yes, things have changed a lot. Austin is still the best city in Texas, though, in my opinion, if you have to live in a city. I could say more about changes, but I'd rather remember good times from back in the day.
