Waco Is Weird

[CHIEF 5095]

Back in the 80's and 90's, Waco didn't seem to have much of a middle class. Workers got a low hourly wage with no benefits, and then, there were the wealthy. That's it. I remember several companies wanting to build in the industrial area out in Midway, and the city of Waco actively drove them off. These companies were going to offer higher wages, and jobs with benefits. Waco, M&M/Mars, Wells Cargo, and other established assembly and manufacturing companies didn't want any part of that. They had their own little shitty playground, and source of cheap labor, and no one was going to spoil it for them.

CHIEF

[AnotherUTFan 9808]

That was exactly true CHIEF, it was a real life Pottersville. General Tire closing didn't help. That fucked up a lot of families.

[SimonBolivar 10961]

2 hours ago, Al_4_ISU said:

When some buddies and I tailgated at Floyd-Casey in 2008, we all agreed that there was an "Indian burial ground" vibe in the air and that we just weren't welcome in this place.  I've never felt that anywhere else in my life, and at that time the only Waco weirdness I was aware of was the Branch Davidians and the Baylor basketball murder.

I'll never forget walking across a deserted tailgate lot to a row of porta pots with no one in line, and opening an unlocked porta pot to find an old woman in a Mennonite dress sitting on it.  I froze in terror and she slowly raised her head up to look me straight in the eye with an angry scowl.

I just slammed the door shut, turn, ran, and screamed like a little bitch.

God I miss that stadium.

[Al_4_ISU 12516]

Just now, SimonBolivar said:

God I miss that stadium.

You're joking, right?

It was the worst game day atmosphere and location I've ever participated in.  McClane looks light years ahead of it.

[BearSchlong 8134]

2 hours ago, Kyrie Eleison said:

meh...i enjoy the pace here.

No new scandals coming out of certain places, now that my ex moved from Woodway to The Woodlands.

[BearSchlong 8134]

double

Edited January 5, 2022 by BearSchlong

[BearSchlong 8134]

post

Edited January 5, 2022 by BearSchlong

[BearSchlong 8134]

On 1/4/2022 at 10:03 AM, statsman said:

1. The career and murder of “sort of journalist” William Cowper Brann. 

Funny you brought that up, as it's CSB time (again)

I might have been salty on the Baylor thread but didn't bring a gun, unlike these guys.

Judge Gerald's great grandson is a close family friend.  He and his wife read scripture at my wedding in 2018, and has traveled worldwide with my father and stepmother over the last 30 years.  @Kyrie Eleisonyou actually know this cat, he's a Beaumont mainstay.

James Harris's great granddaughter is my stepmother.

120 years later they (and their spouses, and my wife and I) were having dinner in Beaumont discussing ancestral history and figured out their great grandfathers had a gunfight in Waco.  Awkward silence.

I can't find it in my cloud account but I have a photo of the two of them hugging it out in front of this marker, which is on Austin & 4th in Waco.

 

Edited January 5, 2022 by BearSchlong

[SimonBolivar 10961]

26 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

You're joking, right?

It was the worst game day atmosphere and location I've ever participated in.  McClane looks light years ahead of it.

Yes and no. It obviously wasn't a good stadium and 90% of the time it had a bad atmosphere until about 2011, but it was a gritty home on Saturdays from birth until about 26. I loved every part of it. The new stadium is beautiful and in a great location, but it aint home.

[Al_4_ISU 12516]

1 minute ago, SimonBolivar said:

Yes and no. It obviously wasn't a good stadium and 90% of the time it had a bad atmosphere until about 2011, but it was a gritty home on Saturdays from birth until about 26. I loved every part of it. The new stadium is beautiful and in a great location, but it aint home.

As much as I despised my one visit, I can empathize with this view point.

[BearSchlong 8134]

Just now, SimonBolivar said:

Yes and no. It obviously wasn't a good stadium and 90% of the time it had a bad atmosphere until about 2011, but it was a gritty home on Saturdays from birth until about 26. I loved every part of it. The new stadium is beautiful and in a great location, but it aint home.

When I was 9 the Baylor cheerleaders would hook us up with those little plastic footballs that you could throw seemingly forever.  The parents had the swank armchair seats in section F, but always stuck us kids on the bleachers in the old north end zone (this was prior to the expansion from the early 90s).

We had some legendary pickup football games out in the grass parking lot at FCS.

[SimonBolivar 10961]

3 hours ago, Post Oak said:

Your commute is fucked.  Can't take 35 and the Loop can be a shitshow at rush hour. 

When I have to go and see my folks in Axtell from Hewitt, I've started taking 35 to LaSalle to Orchard Ln to the Loop.  It's not ideal but at least I'm moving.

Yup, I get on google maps when leaving and it's avout 50/50 for loop vs 35. I really hate the loop so if its close I'll take 35.

[Samson's Wig 3195]

I won't let the family stop in Waco to take a piss when we're driving up to DFW from Austin.  Not worth it.

[BearSchlong 8134]

To OP's #1 point, this guy must have been a hoot.  Didn't realize his readership was so large.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cowper_Brann

Quote

In 1894 Brann moved to Waco, Texas, to become an editor with the Waco Daily News.^[2][3] By February 1895 he had decided to attempt to revive the Iconoclast, and this time the paper was successful, with a circulation nearing 100,000 people.^[2][3] With this new platform to communicate his views, Brann quickly became known for his stinging, often hateful attacks on various groups that drew his ire, including Baptists, Episcopalians, the British, blacks, and Baylor University.^[2][3] Brann attacked perceived hypocrisy from the Baptists with his seething prose, saying "I have nothing against the Baptists. I just believe they were not held under long enough".^[5] He devoted many paragraphs to his hatred of the wealthy eastern social elites, such as the Vanderbilt family, and deplored their marriages to titled Europeans. He characterized such marriages as diluting the elites' already-debased American stock with worthless foreign blood.^[5] He was equally critical of the New York social scene.^[6]

Baylor University, the prominent Baptist institution in Waco, drew constant criticism from Brann. He set off a scandal with allegations that Baylor President Rufus Burleson's son-in-law's brother Steen Morris, who lived with the Burleson family, had impregnated a student from Brazil.^[5] He alleged that male faculty members were having sexual relations with female students and any father sending his daughter to Baylor would be risking her rape. In Brann's view Baylor was, as he published, "A factory for the manufacture of ministers and magdalenes."^[5][3] Brann's constant attacks on the university enraged many of its supporters, and, on October 2, 1897, he was kidnapped by Baylor students who demanded that he retract his statements.^[2][3] Four days later, Brann was beaten by three men, including a local Baptist judge, who were angry that he had not left town.^[2][3]

I like being Presbyterian.

My son's FIL is the Pastor to the first Methodist to ever serve on Baylor's Board of Regents, so headway?

Edited January 5, 2022 by BearSchlong

[SimonBolivar 10961]

17 minutes ago, BearSchlong said:

When I was 9 the Baylor cheerleaders would hook us up with those little plastic footballs that you could throw seemingly forever.  The parents had the swank armchair seats in section F, but always stuck us kids on the bleachers in the old north end zone (this was prior to the expansion from the early 90s).

We had some legendary pickup football games out in the grass parking lot at FCS.

Exactly the type of thing we did just 10 years after you. the grandparents, parents, and my aunt and uncle were Bear Club members so we got the fancy "free" pregame meal in the North End Zone Club (extra green and gold skittles please). They'd go to their 50 yardline seats and they'd stick us kids in the empty endzone where we'd watch whatever 60-3 game was happening enjoying Lemon Chill and waiting on the dot race.

Edited January 5, 2022 by SimonBolivar

[Covri 6262]

1 hour ago, Samson's Wig said:

I won't let the family stop in Waco to take a piss when we're driving up to DFW from Austin.  Not worth it.

If you ever do let them I recommend this Stripes with the Laredo Taco company in it. They also have the best fired burritos this side of allsups. It’s just off I35 and that weird roundabout Waco has for some reason. 
 

[Trey3216 15380]

17 hours ago, Covri said:

If you ever do let them I recommend this Stripes with the Laredo Taco company in it. They also have the best fired burritos this side of allsups. It’s just off I35 and that weird roundabout Waco has for some reason. 
 

Or you could just stop at Health Camp and enjoy a burger, shake, and onion rings that aren't pulled out of the freezer like at 7/11/Stripes.  

[RDCanecutter 26513]

Ditto on the onion rings. Health Camp never claimed to be Good Health Camp, but the rings are worth a chance.

[Trey3216 15380]

Just now, RDCanecutter said:

Ditto on the onion rings. Health Camp never claimed to be Good Health Camp, but the rings are worth a chance.

Gotta get the large order so you can put a couple two tree rings on the Double Health Burger.