Gone But Not Forgotten in San Antonio II (Dallas, Austin: buy, high school)

[wCat]

Originally Posted by BudB

Cat, i believe the name Vulcan Gas Company originally came from a business like the one on your Sanborn map. It was simply a business created to supply urban homes and offices with a stable supply of natural gas at a time when it was also used for lighting thru much of the 19th century. How Austin's long gone Congress Ave. psychedelic club got the name is a question worth asking so the next time I run into those who ran it, I'll ask. Keep on truckin'! Bud b

Thanks Bud. I appreciate the save! Vulcan/Vapo....both sound like great places for a psychedelic club!

[BudB]

I should recall but do not, did San Antonio ever have a "nite club" like the Vulcan? Seems like it must have but many of the "heads", as we were then called, from SA had moved to Austin for college or whatever and stayed put. Before I left SA in 1966 there was a place downstairs on Market at Alamo named the Purple Onion that featured jazz and the beginnings of non traditional music. But memory tells me that it was mostly a typical watering hole with small combos playing. I saw Publio & the Valiants there a couple times about 1963/'64 but that entire block was demolished shortly thereafter to make way for the Palacio del Rio when Hemisfair came to town. So where did SA's hipsters, flipsters, cool chicks, stoned dips and hippies hang out for the rest of the sixties?

[mudpuddle]

Originally Posted by Dwangle

.

Ok Didn't The Vulcan Gas Company become Armadillo World??

You guy's should know that!!

Dwang, I wouldn't say "The Vulcan Gas Company *became* Armadillo World",

I would say Armadillo World HeadQuarters *replaced* the VGCo.

They were way different places,

but, they were each *The Place*.

At AWHQs, one group I remember in particular was
Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen.

Originally Posted by BudB

.
I should recall but do not, did San Antonio ever have a "nite club" like the Vulcan?
Seems like it must have but many of the "heads", as we were then called,
from SA had moved to Austin for college or whatever and stayed put.
Before I left SA in 1966 there was a place downstairs on Market at Alamo
named the Purple Onion that featured jazz and the beginnings of non traditional music.
But memory tells me that it was mostly a typical watering hole with small combos playing.
I saw Publio & the Valiants there a couple times about 1963/'64
but that entire block was demolished shortly thereafter
to make way for the Palacio del Rio when Hemisfair came to town.


So where did SA's hipsters, flipsters, cool chicks, stoned dips
and hippies hang out for the rest of the sixties?

Bud,
the closest thing to the Vulcan, in my opinion, was the Mind's Eye.....
on the Austin Highway, a few blox past the Bun n Barrel.

It predated the Vulcan slightly,
and it could get rough at times.

The Elevators played there a couple times,
otherwise I don't remember the other band names from there.

Charles Winans, RIP, ran the Light Show,
and I do believe he had some sort of hand opening the joint.
and I do mean *joint*.

Charles also opened the first head shop in SATx, on Broadway near Hung Fong,
it was called GrandMa's Tea Shop.
The Feds ran him out of town for a while,
and a place called US replaced GrandMa's.

He also organized *concerts* at a place called MountainTop,
which was out IH10 6-8 miles outside of 410.

Charles was the real thing, and had an encyclopedic knowledge and recall
of San Antonio from the 50s 60s 70s.

At one point he managed the Sir Douglas Quintet.
etc etc etc.

other clubs.........

The PusiCat.... in the shadow of the Transit Tower... a real hot spot.
The YardBirds and Lord August and the Visions of Light

Home.... short lived, located on the East side of San Pedro, first alley south of Woodlawn.
one of my running buddies opened it,
and Shiva's Head Band played the opening night.

Love Street Light Circus.... on Commerce in the Shadow of the HemisTower.
The Elevators played there as well.

Friend of mine kicked off a riot one night out front,
and we watched the chaos from a Pizza Joint next door.
The SAPD showed up and cleaned house.
Curb to curb, elbow to elbow, nothing but jackboots and billy clubs left standing.

The TeaPot.... beerJoint/BluesClub...
located on the South side of Burleson St east of Austin St
and the RR tracks were to the East.

Blind Smitty played there a lot,

and my favorite at the TeaPot was Blue Wallace. He was a one man band.

Played a harmonica that was mounted to the neck of his guitar
with a flexible gooseneck.
and he beat a drum with a foot pedal contraption.
Sure wish I had a picture of him and his setup.

A few years after,
I was driving by there and spotted a blueW sign
being used to block off a broken window.
So, I harvested the sign, and still have it to this day.
Picture below, I put a Coke can in to show size.

After the TeaPot closed down,
a friend of mine opened a strip club in the building/shack,
But there was a murder in there on opening night,
so that became the only night.

the Blue Note Lounge
the White Room
Tiffany's Lounge
the Bijou
the Rabbit Habit
the Bwana Dik
the ScotMans Club

There are many other spots where the
"hipsters, flipsters, cool chicks, stoned dips and hippies" hung out in SATx,
but I'm tired of typing for now.

mud........

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[BudB]

Many thanx Mud for your broad and deep recollections of the wild & wooly days in SA's crazy places. As a footnote to the Vulcan/ Armadillo trips, you are totally correct in them being two separate scenes opened by two different groups tho with a little overlap. By 1970 the Vulcan guys had drifted out to San Francisco having tired of the police and other establishment hassles. Then along came home grown Eddie Wilson fresh from the Marine Corps who saw the need to replace the Vulcan and did so. The Commander Cody gig you mentioned was caught on tape and can still be found now on CD. But keep in mind that it was done in 1973 at the 'Dillo with tape deck less than state of the art. Still, nothing will ever replace "Down To Seeds And Stems Again" as an anthem for the age of hippies and kickers swinging and swaying together in a cloud of blue smoke inside the once defunct National Guard Armory on Barton Springs Road.
Thanx again for naming all the clubs and joints that once hosted the non-traditional sounds of the sixties and another big thank you for recalling Mr. Charles Winans the Alamo City's number one "head" back then and what a head he was. But SA was even harder on nonconformists than Austin so he and most of the others paid a high price for being rugged individualists of the mind plus a little too free of spirit, the kind that scares the squares. And as always the old wild west city's violence factor overshadowed the swinging people and places you named so one by one they flipped, folded, and faded.
Here by the way is the 13th Floor Elevators poster I managed to save from once upon a time in Austin. Click on the thumbnail for a bigger version.

[BudB]

It sure has gotten quiet here since Mudpuddle and I began talking about the good old days. Since nobody is interested in that I guess we can start discussing all the great shops in one of the GBNF malls around town. That usually brings in the messages but since I hardly ever went to malls could we start with shopping centers like Terrel Plaza for instance. It was home to Dick's Hobby Shop for many years and if there is one thing I truly miss these days it's a good old fashioned hobby shop. Man I must have spent hundreds of hours handling all the plastic airplane kits trying to decide which one was the coolest that week. On the Southeast side where I lived we had McCreles Shopping Center and it had a place called the Toy Box. It was a toy store in general but had a good supply of plastic kits too so was a regular stop for me. And the nearby Winns Stores also kept kits on hand so was another place to hit on Saturday morning. Somebody told me recently that Dibbles is still out on Donaldson but I can remember it when he was downtown across from the Alamo. I'm glad he is still open anywhere and wish there was one here in Austin. All we have is Hobby Lobby, Michaels and some Hobby Towns which sort of look like old time shops but somehow aren't really.

[satx56]

Hello Bud And Mud, if Dibble's was the one between Wilson and St. Cloud on Donaldson ..I've been there! Few times back in the 70's. I worked a lot around the area!! Had an old Mom and Pop Hobby shop back in my old hood!! Lang's Hobby Shop on South Flores between Southcross and Division!! Bought a lot of model car kits there!! The shop was the front room of there house nearest the street!! I went from one thing to another , molding plaster Paris items. Making lace or cracked marble keychains!! He even had true servo type Model airplane equip. There was an old Blacksmith shop across the sidestreet from the shop!! Kiddie City was around back then !!We had one about 2 blocks south of Military Dr. on Pleasanton Road!!
..Mud I've been up to old Mountaintop you referred to many years ago on at least a couple occassions!! Like a big cafeteria with rock patio out front !! Little Bldgs. surrounding it around the hill!! Gone now I guess!! It was just behind the Cervantes Arco station Years back!!

[Dwangle]

Well alright at the risk of making Mud prove me wrong I will tell it the way I remember it. It was called "Granny's Tea House". They specialized in those crazy Granny Glasses that Roger Mcguinn of the "Byrd's" had. They also had combs painted psychedilic. It "evolved" into the "Joint Effort". "US" was on main near SAC. They had a big black light room and sold wheat straw papers. "Seventh House" was down Hildebrand and became "Truckers General Store"-now it is "Cracker Box Palace"if it is still in business. There were a lot of hip clothing stores. "The Pants Station" sold bell bottom jeans and is now "The Sandwhich Garden". There was also "Galagaskin" and the "New American Cinema." There was also " The Great Gatsby's sandwhich shop". Other Head shop's I remember were "Mr. Naturals" on St. Mary's and the" Psychedellic Cellar " down town across from the Alamo and Bongo Joe.

[Dwangle]

Does anyone remember Hobby land? It was on Mccullough I believe. It was an old house. They had a train you could ride on and a Slot car track in the basement. Plastic models were standard gifts for boy's and I alway's loved putting them together. One time I got a balsa wood airplane kit and couldn't figure out how a bunch thin sheets of wood could become an airplane. Years later at SAC I took an aeronautics class and building a balsa wood plane was required. It got me hooked on them and I eventually graduated to radio controlled models. I remember Dibbles but they were more about trains and soldiers. I think I want to go check them out again. They are the only hobby shop left from the old days.

[Sweetie Pie]

Hey all you groovy groovers, please don't stop posting about the crazy daze. I love trippin' down memory lane again, even if my memory is shot!!! LOL!!! (go figure )
I went to the Minds Eye a few times, saw Shiva's at that club near Woodlawn. I wasn't yet 21 at the end of the 60's so didn't get to go into a lot of clubs. A couple of my friends lived out at Mountain Top (I thought it was called Hill Top) for a while. I remember the Head Shops, just not the names of them. I hung out at Sunken Gardens for the summer of '69. Went to a lot of great concerts at Hemisfair Arena, Municipal Auditorium, Olmos Park, (go figure), Drive Inn theatre on the S. Side. Did go to the first Willie Nelson 4th of July pic nic in Dripping Springs. Crystal Pistol, Rabbit Habbit, and J Alfred Proofrocks (sp.) were a few of my favorite watering holes in the 70's. Sure do miss KEXL radio.
S.P.

[Boss Rider]

Originally Posted by BudB

IOn the Southeast side where I lived we had McCreles Shopping Center and it had a place called the Toy Box. It was a toy store in general but had a good supply of plastic kits too so was a regular stop for me.

Hey, Bud, I'll bet we met at least once, then. I worked at the Toy Box in 58 and 59. Owner had a habit of firing you just before your 18th birthday so he wouldn'r have to pay minimum wages. Went from there to the Sinclair station across from the Catholic church nearby (St. Margret Mary?)