Author Archives: Martin
FREE RANGE: FOOD, NATURE, PLACE, AND MORE
“You may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?”
Funny how things turn out sometimes. I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, went to college in Massachusetts, and grew up (to the extent that I grew up at all) with fairly liberal political views. I … Continue reading
Posted in Place
Tagged Bay Area, boots, Dallas Cowboys, England, San Antonio, unreliable Italian cars, Williams College, Yankees
4 Comments
It’s a wonderful town
We recently spent a few days in the Big Apple, and the fact that the only souvenir we brought back was a bag of Nicola potatoes probably tells you all you need to know about us and our priorities. Basically, … Continue reading
Posted in Place
Tagged Central Park, farmers markets, Frederick Law Olmsted, High Line, New York City
2 Comments
Of Frederick Law Olmsted, Mr. Brown, and Mexican Coca-Cola
Frederick Law Olmsted has been on my mind recently, in part because while we’re spending a few days in New York, we’re staying on Fifth Avenue, opposite the southeastern corner of Central Park, unquestionably Olmsted’s best-known creation. Olmsted (1822–1903) was … Continue reading
Wings over Luckenbach: Jacob Brodbeck and the limits of history
This week, for spring break, we flew to Colorado to ski and to visit Heather’s sister Isa and brother John and their families. As I sat on the plane, gazing out the window at the green and brown patchwork unfurling … Continue reading
Posted in Place
Tagged aviation, Fredericksburg TX, Isa Catto Shaw, Jacob Brodbeck, John Catto, Luckenbach TX, nineteenth century, Texas Hill Country
2 Comments
Listapalooza: top ten books about Texas
Time for the next installment in our much-anticipated series of lists (our first two were on our top ten songs about Texas and our top ten books on the environment)! This time, we thought we’d offer up our ten favorite … Continue reading
Stonewall: permission to dig
There must be a story behind the sign at the front gate of the Stonewall Community Cemetery—I mean, who digs a new grave in a cemetery without permission?—but I don’t know it. Even though I wrote the entry on Stonewall … Continue reading
Posted in Place
Tagged Civil War, Handbook of Texas, Israel Nunez, Lyndon Johnson, nineteenth century, peaches, Pedernales River, Stonewall TX
1 Comment
The Great Texas Camel Experiment
Susan Orlean’s wonderful story on mules in the military in this week’s issue of The New Yorker mentions one of my favorite, and most unlikely, episodes of Hill Country history: the U.S. Army’s Great Texas Camel Experiment of the 1850s. … Continue reading
Posted in More
Tagged aoudad, camels, Camp Verde, Civil War, desert, Douglas MacArthur, Jefferson Davis, mules, San Francisco Chronicle, Susan Orlean, Texas Hill Country, The New Yorker
1 Comment
Massachusetts, part II: in defense of Thoreau
On our recent trip to snowy Massachusetts, as Heather told you last week, we carved out time for a pilgrimage to Walden Pond, just south of Concord, the very wellspring of American conservationism. Walden Pond, of course, is where that … Continue reading
Kerrville’s Singing Brakeman
Long before the first annual Kerrville Folk Festival in 1972, the city was for a short time the home of “the father of country music.” James Charles (Jimmie) Rodgers, nicknamed “the Singing Brakeman” for his background on the railroads, was … Continue reading
Posted in More
Tagged country music, Jimmie Rodgers, Kerrville Folk Festival, Kerrville TX, San Antonio, Texas Hill Country, Texas music, tuberculosis
2 Comments
The Frontier Times and auld lang syne
Happy Belated New Year, O Faithful Reader! And what better way to belly up to a brand-new year (and decade) than by contemplating the past? And what better place to contemplate the past, both personal and communal, than the Frontier … Continue reading
Posted in Place
Tagged Bandera TX, Frontier Times Museum, J. Marvin Hunter, John Wayne, museums
Leave a comment