Day 18 - Winter Rains on 12th & Chicon (East Austin)

Old White Swan sign

As I sit around up late at night reflecting on the day's events, I find that I was quite bored and tired.  I slept part of the day.  Not sure if it was me getting old or genuine fatigue from the work week.

I started thinking about my maternal grandfather.  My mother told me a few stories about him going out to hang with friends and listen to music off of 12th Street.

Before my mother passed, I took her around Austin in hopes that she may teach me a thing or two about her days during desegregation, the Civil Rights movement, and her short time while residing in Austin.

Mom always talked about how country parts of east, north and south Austin were in her time.  Going to 45th Street was a special place if you were crazy, since the Texas State Hospital was built there.

Today, for me, the state hospital seems a short ride down I-35 highway with a quick detour to Central Market coupled with a brisk stroll in the area park, ending with warm kolaches from the Kolache Factory.

So, I took a brief ride over to 12th and Chicon Streets to take a look at my grandfather's old stomping grounds.  I had a feeling as I peered into the eyes of the multiple vagrants meandering about that things had changed from times in the 1950s.

When I moved to Austin, I stumbled upon 'crack and ho' alley smack through 12th and Chicon.  It was a bit less intimidating than anything I came across in the Murder 5th, a horrible name describing the rough 5th Ward District in Houston, Texas, where I grew up as a small child, or the boogie down South Bronx that I favored when I worked and lived up in New York/New Jersey. Nonetheless, for Austin, 12th and Chicon had become synonymous with prostitution, crime, vagrancy, open drug use, and any under belly activity the city's conscience could imagine.

Despite its reputation, 12th and Chicon has a memorable history all its own as another hot spot for music, food, drink, and fun times for African Americans.  Both 11th and 12th Streets were lit at night by historic moonlight towers, a cost effective lighting structure, designed to light the midnight sky in Austin starting in the 1880s as an alternative to smaller and more expensive street lights. Austin is one of the few remaining cities in America that continues to use  a system of moonlight towers.

I tried to imagine my younger, cool grandfather walking by the moonlight tower's illumination to find a friend at the Legendary White Swan located near 12th and Chicon.  Down the way, there was Sam's Barbeque serving the best meats and cold drinks money could buy.  First stop, Sam's BBQ for a small bit of some brisket and some sides topped off with lemon aid to cool himself during the hot humid night.  Half a block down, there was The White Swan, a juke joint and place to see and be seen by everyone with good music and loud laughter as people walked about at night.

Now, most people would probably be scared to drive by let alone walk around the intersection. Recently, the Legendary White Swan came under new management and considerably much whiter as hipsters and the like came to see the local dive as a new hang out spot.  Liken to my grandfather, the White Swan continues to be a place to hear soul music with the addition of a variety of less well-known artists from all around.  It use to be part of the famous Chitlin' Circuit and has transformed itself into a dive part of the hipster circuit. A small cultural miracle it seems.

The funny thing about 12th Street is that it has served as the boundary between historic African American neighborhoods of Rosewood and Chestnut in East Austin.  Chicon separated these neighborhoods from the few blocks to Swede Hill. However, with segregation in full swing by the 1950s, many of the Italian, Irish, Swedish, and German residents left East Austin as part of the white flight out of East Austin and the forced relocation of most African Americans east of I-35.

I never had the pleasure of talking with my grandfather about his time in Austin or much of anything.  The sad thing about the death of older people is that their memories go with them.  I'm left to wonder and imagine what times were like for him and his young family.

The little that I've learned has to be shared with my children.  On Sunday, I'm going to have a historic tour with the kids to show them the locations and talk about the history they continue.

After some reflection, the day was not a total waste as it may have seemed.

I still passively struggle with getting my water in on the weekend as I continued to this day.  However, I made it a point to keep eating my vegetables if only as a new habit that I am learning to maintain despite my best efforts to forget.

The rain should clear up.  Looking forward to tomorrow's excursion into the past.

Sam's BBQ in East Austin