Gone But Not Forgotten in San Antonio! - Part II (Eastland: for sale, living)

[Sweetie Pie]

Awwwww Bud, don't give up on SA GBNF!!! It's just that some of us that were there, just don't remember some of the fine details!!! And like Mud said, don't really want to name names!!! LOL!!!

I remember going to see a concert at Hemisfair Arena in the early 70's. Don't remember which one, but outside of the Arena, we saw a cop that was kind of chubby and pink, looking very much like a swine abusing a long hair, pretty bad. Had the guys hands cuffed behind his back, and his face smashed up against the wall. It wasn't a pretty sight to say the least, and pretty much traumatized me for a very long time.

Another time, SIKK and I, where driving through Olmos park, and saw some Police busting a couple of long hairs for something. We pulled up and asked the Cops for directions to some where, thinking we could distract them long enough for the long hairs to throw any contraband out of sight. Cops told us to to move along, that we were obstructing justice.

Yeah, there were some redneck Police back then, and I thank my lucky stars I never came up against any. There was a Chief of Police in Alamo Heights at that time, who was notorious for making drug busts, to clean up the area. He loved to pull over non-residents and rattle their chains. Some times he found something, and the sometimes he didn't. I'm sure he helped to keep a lot of riff-raff off the streets of Alamo Heights back then.

Also some friends of mine were driving down Broadway, near Austin Hwy., around lunch time, late 60's.
Saw an Alamo Heights cop blast a bank robber out side of a bank. Shot him cold dead. That left a pretty big impression on my buds!

I also was lucky enough to have friends whose families owned ranch land on the Northern out skirts of town. We would usually once , a month, chip in, for a keg, and have a party out on those properties. I think we called them "woodsies" back then. SIKK grandmother had property at Nakoma & 281. We'd say :Hey, there's a party at SIKK's grany's place that weekend. Another SIKK parents' owned a sizable ranch at 1604/Wetmore road. They started an annual party called the "Grackle Fest". Many kegs, costumes, frozen grackle throwing, grackle call contests. Awww, good times. Until the Banditos showed up one year. LOL!!!

Speaking of the Banditos, does any one remember the "Slave Inn", on Jones-Maltzber/Loop 410 area??? My family and I lived in the neighborhood right behind it, mid to late 60's. Pretty cool stuff going on in the parking lot. Can only imagine what went on inside!!! LOL!!!

[wCat]

Sweetie....a grackle fest???? LMAO!!!! That is the funniest thing I've ever heard. We should start an annual party like Eeyore's Birthday Bash in Austin only honoring our beloved GRACKLES!! Frozen grackles!!!! LOLOLOLOLOL! (think PETA would allow it? )

[Dwangle]

I don't think anyone has talked about the Bandido's. First I wanna say that a Grackle fest would be cool. We could decorate our cars with purple spots...

[wCat]

Originally Posted by Dwangle

I don't think anyone has talked about the Bandido's. First I wanna say that a Grackle fest would be cool. We could decorate our cars with purple spots...

Grackle Fest....think of the bands we could get!


I'm still laughing thinking of frozen grackles.....Sweetie....was it like a cow chip toss? I mean what was the target? Did ya roast any of them? What wine do you serve with Grackle? Boonesfarm Strawberry Hill???

[Dwangle]

We could serve French frys on asphalt..

[wCat]

Originally Posted by Dwangle

We could serve French frys on asphalt..

Haha! Yep! I remember trying to fry an egg on the pavement in the sixth grade. My best friend and I took this very seriously. We had on aprons....spatulas in hand...salt and pepper and a little tray with a plate for each of us. I can't imagine we were actually thinking of eating it! Maybe it was the presentation we were after. Unfortunately it wasn't a record scorcher day so we got something similar to Egg Drop soup!

[Sweetie Pie]

Originally Posted by wCat

Grackle Fest....think of the bands we could get!


I'm still laughing thinking of frozen grackles.....Sweetie....was it like a cow chip toss? I mean what was the target? Did ya roast any of them? What wine do you serve with Grackle? Boonesfarm Strawberry Hill???

Originally Posted by Dwangle

I don't think anyone has talked about the Bandido's. First I wanna say that a Grackle fest would be cool. We could decorate our cars with purple spots...

Hahahahaaha!!! Frozen dead grackles from the freezer!!! The "target" was how far you could throw them!!! It all was served with legal keg beer, and........................whatever you decided to BYO!!!!!

Bandido's in my eye's were soo cool!!! Never met a Bandito I didn't like!!!!

[Boss Rider]

Originally Posted by Sweetie Pie

Hahahahaaha!!! Frozen dead grackles from the freezer!!! The "target" was how far you could throw them!!!

Glad to see the forum is back up.

I went to the Sometimes Semi Annual Worlds Fair in Lukenbach once, and participated in what they called The Frozen Duck Races. It was in the bar, and they wet the bar down, put the 'racers' on one end and frozen ducks with a l-o-n-g string attached to it's ...nether end... on the other end of the bar. The object was to put the string in your mouth and at the go signal, start chewing, pulling the duck toward you. First one to kiss the duck's butt won! They also had a chicken flying contest, a bunch of RC airplane nuts called the Lukenbach Luftwaffe,and a live turkey race down Main St., with the losers being barbequed. Lots of fun and a Willy and Waylon concert afterwards.

[*mud*]

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Edge Falls was a great spot and lotsa fun in and around the water.

We went on a regular basis from the early sixties to the mid seventies.

My grandmother born in about 1906 had some real good stories
of going out their when she was a teenager.
I do too.

The Edge Falls topic was discussed a bit in GBNF one.

I google Edge Falls now and then.

A couple years ago I found this bit of info

.........................Handbook of Texas Online - CURRY CREEK...........................

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today I found this, and a link is at the end
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What Misty says about people trashing the place has always been true.
Back in the 1970's Pearl Brewing used the falls in one of it's beer commercials.
I'm not sure if Pearl Beer is still around anymore.

Richard Edge is a second cousin to the original owner, Amy Edge Harwell.
Amy Edge had two sons, Chester and Harold Harwell.
Chester was my grandfather.
The people that live adjacent to the property children of Harold.

The history of the property is that Amy Edge was given that piece of property
because it had the least farmable land.
Her two brothers got better pieces of land nearby.
Richard Edge is a decendent of one of her brothers and is a well-known business owner in the area.

Amy Edge Harwell's husband, Ambrose, was killed in car crash.
In the late 1950's and early 60's Amy and her sons
decided to open the falls to the public to make some extra money.

Over time, Edge Falls became a hot spot for high schoolers and college kids.

Misty is also right about the trash.
Back in those days, beer and pop cans came with those tops that the tab popped off the can.
As a result of being open 25 years there are so many of those tabs
and that 50 floods like the one that hit Texas a week ago
will probably never wash them away.

It can be a very treacherous piece of property because there are caves
and a lot of springs (which are beautiful) that cause a lot of moss to grow.

To get tothe most beautiful parts of the falls you have to crawl over lots of big and small rocks
and slide around some pretty tight spots.

My guess is that the stairs that my grandfather welded to actually get down to the Big Falls
has not been maintained and the road the that goes to the back side
of falls has not been maintained either.

Misty is also correct about the insurance problem.
Several people have died at the falls as a result of jumping off a 40 ft. cliff
into the water despite sign prohibiting jumping.
A drunk, young man from California was killed one day when I was working the gate in the mid 1970's.
The Sheriff's department had to call in a diving crew to recover the body.

My great grandmother was sued by the parents of the boy who died.
She was exonerated of any charges since signs were properly posted.
Not long after that Edge Falls was closed.
My mother, her sisters and their cousins had families of their own.
My great grandmother was elderly.
Chester had died in 1963 and Harold was in poor health.
Of course, the grandkids and great grandkids were sick of dealing
with the disrespectful and (now) litigious public,
alcohol related incidets and all the TRASH.
I probably picked up a million pounds of trash before the age of twelve.

It is beautiful piece of property. I wish now that we still had it in the family
but I would never want to have it open to the public.
If I ever won the lottery I'd love to buy it back for the family.

The last time I visited the property was in 1994 when my mother,
Jean Harwell Love, passed away.
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.........................edge falls - [domain blocked due to spam]........................
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[Deep Forest]

Interesting read here folks. By Chris Marrou, Channel 5 News:

KENS5 San Antonio History Blog (http://www.beloblog.com/KENS5/sahistory/ - broken link)