Springtime in Austin

I often talk about the two times a year when you know why you live in Austin - and this is one of the times.

It dawned on me that I've been enjoying springtime in Austin for more than 50 years, starting my Freshman year in high school. In Texas, all extracurricular school activity (except football) ultimately ends up in Austin. It's all lumped under the UIL - University (of Texas) Interscholastic League - and there's an almost endless list of competitions, playoffs, contests, meets, etc. in academics, athletics, music and more. Since 1910, school students have been coming to the University of Texas - and Austin - in the Spring. Sometimes multiple times a year, if you were lucky.

My Freshman year, we took a one-act play to the state finals, but failed to win. My first exposure to oral interpretation was at a UIL completion in Austin; I was a last-second replacement for somebody who couldn't make the trip. I read James Weldon Johnson's The Creation and placed 3rd. Every year, the Junior Historical Society held it's award banquet in Austin. I frankly can't remember what you did in JHS that was award-worthy, but hey, it was another trip to Austin.

And then, during my junior and senior years, there was the year-book conference. At that time, Steck Publishing printed most of the school yearbooks in the state, and the company sponsored a big conference and workshop every year. It was downtown in the Driscoll Hotel, already legendary. The State Capitol was just a short stroll up the street, and back then, the building and grounds were open all night. I know that for a fact.

Even after high school, Austin beckoned. My sophomore year at ACU, I got in trouble in Dr Treet's French class. He had it on good authority that I was with a group that had gone to New Orleans to Mardis Gras, missing his class. I had not. My roommate,  future brother-in-law and I went to Austin, instead.

There's just something about springtime in Austin.