The back dining room at The Dun-Bar East on Pulliam Street in San Angelo, Texas, my favorite restaurant on this earth.
I am genuinely saddened to hear that E.L. Konigsburg - one of my favorite writers when I was 12 and still one of my favorite writers today - has died. Her books were so intelligent and funny and urbane in such unexpected ways. The cosmopolitan or otherwise high-toned stuff in them was always accessible and always tempered with heart and humor. Those books was never patronizing, never stuffy, never sentimental.
E.L. Konigsburg wrote about smart, dissatisfied children who strike out to seek wonder in the mundane world. My hometown in west Texas felt like a cultural dead zone a lot of time when I was growing up and that’s part of why Konigsburg’s books were so important to me. I remember bringing a copy of The Second Mrs. Giaconda with me to Boy Scout camp in New Mexico in the summer of 2000 and feeling just awful when I realized it was among the belongings of mine that had been ruined by a surprise rainstorm one night.
Anyway, rest in peace, Mrs. Konigsburg.
No turning back…Spillway @ Lake Nasworthy. San Angelo, Texas in 1979 (give or take).
This is some real life Breaking Away shit.
“I guess I better break the bad news to you. Catfish Corner burned down this week - it will have to be bulldozed. I know you will miss going there for “AUCE.”* Try to be brave, son.”
- from an email my mother sent me today
* For a long time this place’s sign advertised BOILED SHRIMP AUCE and it took me about 17 years to realize that ‘auce’ was not ‘sauce’ minus the letter S but in fact stood for ‘all u can eat.’ Anyway, adios Catfish Corner. Goodbye yellow-brick road.
A tremendous amount of praise is due to Kimberley Meyer of the San Angelo Standard-Times, my hometown paper, for these stellar photographs of this year’s rodeo, which is, I think, still in town as I type this. I remember being shocked when I realized that Rodeo Day is NOT a holiday on the calendars of most schools in America, and then feeling like a little bit of a dope for being shocked because, come on, dude.
Two extra days in Texas cuz of flight cancellations, mmmyeah baby baby. This means two extra days of hanging out with my dog, eating fattie Mexican lunches, bowling, having weird dreams in my childhood bed, not being at work, etc. Shit, y’all. Christmas never ends. It truly is a wonderful life.
