South Lamar Is an Only Child Now
Wheatsville's Guadalupe store closes Oct. 25 after 45 years, undone by rising costs, falling sales and planned Drag construction. A letter to the South Lamar store, which just inherited the whole family.
6 min read
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The Drag
Browse Old Austin Grouch posts about the drag, Austin nostalgia, and the city habits locals still argue about.
Use this topic hub to explore satire, memories, and cultural commentary about the drag in Austin, Texas.
7 posts · Newest first
Philosophy Was Behind the Radiator
I walked a vanished Drag used bookstore from memory, shelf by shelf, from the soggy free cart to the buy counter where a clerk once priced my soul at forty cents in store credit.
5 min read
Unit 3B, Rio Grande Street, $385 Including Water
On football Saturday I went back to the West Campus block where my $385 apartment once stood and measured the new student towers floor by floor, from the sidewalk up to the rooftop hot tub.
5 min read
Guadalupe Street Changes Its Inventory Every Odd-Numbered Year
The state's hemp ban took effect today, so I walked the Drag counting freshly emptied glass cases and wondering which storefront the Capitol will repaint next.
5 min read
The Day They Sandblasted the Stories Off the Walls at 2538 Guadalupe
My palm hit the new brushed-nickel door handle at the Hole in the Wall and immediately knew the building had been lobotomized; what was once a sticky-floored pressure cooker where Alejandro Escovedo played surprise sets for beer money now requires a $18 ticket minimum, sells oat-milk old fashioneds, and has painted over every Sharpie confession and phone number that once catalogued thirty years of Austin mistakes.
6 min read
The Meter Maid on Guadalupe Knew Your Name and Your Excuse
Betty used to cruise the meters from 24th to 29th in a golf cart older than most freshmen, waving at regulars and only writing tickets when you truly deserved it; last week the new plate-reading cameras zinged me $34 for eleven minutes over on a spot outside the old University Co-op while I was buying one remaining real paperback, no conversation, no mercy, no Betty.
6 min read
Hole in the Wall: Still Here, Still Holy
It's survived everything Austin has thrown at it, which at this point is basically a siege.
4 min read