Following a mornings work with the dogs, my friends and I headed south from Paige to the historical Texas town of Gruene, located just north of San Antonio. Intimations of the up coming crowds began to appear as we approached the turn off of IS 35 to Gruene, heralded by an announcement from the GPS that traffic congestion was ahead…. Finding parking in the town was a challenge compounded by Saturday crowds of shoppers and a city parking lot 50% closed off from use. We finally found parking across the river which was actually a bonus (at the time anyways – more on that later) as it allowed us a walk into town stretching stiff muscles from the long drive.
Henry Gruene son of German immigrants was the founder of Gruene – now a historic busy market town, entertainment and tourist centre. Henry was an interesting character; one of the participants on the 1870 long horn cattle drive up along the famous Chisholm Trail (a subject of singers and Hollywood features – what an interesting dude Fuzzy Knight must have been… ) from San Antonio to the Kansas City stockyards and the one way trip to east coast dinner plates.
Seemingly tired of the cowboy life after that, Henry came home to the area, married a local girl and built the town of Gruene beginning in 1872 with the establishment of a water wheel gristmill on the Guadalupe River. A saloon and dance hall, feed store, mercantile shops, blacksmith shops, lumber yards and a car sales lot followed in quick succession. Cotton was the main crop and together with ranching a main driver of the economy. Following the destruction of the cotton crop in 1925 by a boll weevil infestation , the town went into decline until it was registered in the National Register of Historic Places in the mid 70’s and restoration began. Many of the old original buildings are still here including the lovely Victorian home Henry built for his wife.
We had a lovely walk around the town, looking at the old buildings, Exploring Gruene Hall – a sort of road house – whose walls were covered with photos of C and W stars as well as neon beer signs, wandering around the shopping area, vintage mercantile stores and local vendors markets. Interestingly enough there was a total lack of produce, lots of alcohol though, plus my favorite – metal work – and lots of other interesting booths.
After a couple of hours we were ready to head back to Paige. Once we arrived at the parking lot we were faced with a small problem. The parking lot attendant had gone AWOL and the lot was full – including vehicles parked on all the access roads. We were trapped, just like in a bad episode of the twilight zone…….. A lovely young couple were already there in the same situation. A call to the police yielded the information that they couldn’t do anything because it was private land, a call to the company who controlled the lot yielded the info that they couldn’t do anything because it belonged to the city…. Does anyone hear the twilight zone theme music????? At that moment a couple of 30 something ladies appeared who were also stuck in the same situation. They were driving a jeep – the drivers statement was I am getting out of here – and she did – ???????????? – (no mention of the method used will be made here). Her departure opened up a gap in the row ahead of her. Our new friends who were also stuck managed to wiggle their truck through the gap and then kindly offered to wiggle ours through. He is a mechanic that works on ford trucks and knew the steering. Voila – we were free!!!! As always the kindness of strangers never fails to amaze me and renew my faith in people.
