This is now but that was then. Things ain’t like they used to be. With the constant changing of the landscape here in Bandera we all have our stories of how it used to be. The older the generation, the more changes you can relate to in these fast-moving times. Along one block on Main Street you will see a new real estate office, a dental facility, an attorney’s office and then a convenience store where according to many folks you can get the best burger in town. I can close my eyes and visualize an insurance office where I went to register for the draft and got some insurance coverage for my first car. Next door there was Rhodes Country Shopper and then Frank Mansfield’s Appliance Store. Then on the corner was the Phillip’s 66 station where I worked during my high school years. No, we didn’t serve hamburgers at that location back in the day.
Across the street from the home where I was raised on the corner of Eighth and Pecan you will now see The Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall. Back in my early days there was a log structure that once was used as a corn crib and another old barn used by my uncle Phil Kindla to store hay. There were some old posts and boards right near that corner that once served as a pig pen according to what I was told.
One recent day as I was passing the intersection of Seventh and Cedar I watched as some men were cutting down a mesquite tree on the corner of the St. Stanislaus Catholic Church parking lot. Now I will admit that it was not a pretty tree and it never was as I recalled it being the only shade in that playground area of St. Joseph’s Catholic School when I was a kid. I have asked myself over and over why it bothered me so much to see it being removed. Here I am weeks later still trying to figure it out while knowing in my heart why it is so troublesome. I can’t look to the future without having visions of the past.
Maple Street from the location of the Boy’s and Girl’s Club looking east to the Hondo Highway was little more than a pasture road for the first couple blocks in my younger years. Turning on one of the crossroads toward the river could be hazardous due to a lack of any kind of maintenance back then. Some of those roads still showed a little evidence of the millrace that once cut a path through that area. Don’t look for it now because it has disappeared not unlike the freedoms we enjoyed as kids while Growing Up In Bandera along the Medina River.
Editor’s Note: Want more Growing Up in Bandera? Copies of the Growing Up in Bandera: Volume 2 are on sale at the Bulletin’s office. Shipping options available throughout the U.S. Call 830-796-3718 for more information.
