Vanishing South Austin

I read today, in the Austin American Statesman, of the passing of South Lamar Plaza shopping center, which is giving way to a new development of apartments and retail space.  My earliest memories are rooted in that place on South Lamar.  It is difficult to describe the nostalgic memory and the feeling of loss as the physical buildings vanish.  Yet the memories hang on like a shimmering and impossible to touch mirage.

Growing up in South and Southwest Austin, back in the sixties and seventies, there were only a handful of grocery stores and shopping centers in South Austin.  Among them, Twin Oaks Shopping Center, Oltorf and South Congress, Southwood Mall, and others I am sure that escape my memory.  This was before Barton Creek Mall, Northcross and Highland Mall, and Westgate.  These centers were where South Austin shopped in the 60's and 70's. 

I spent countless miserable hours waiting in the Beall’s Department Store at South Lamar Plaza as my homemaker Mom walked her fingers through the towers of patterns for making dresses.  This was a neighborhood store and the people who worked there remembered us.  Probably ALL of my clothes came from Beall’s.  Next door to Beall’s was Handy Andy Groceries.  Aside from the old HEB that sat in the current home of Cavender’s Boot City, (if I remember correctly), Handy Andy was the only place to buy groceries in South Austin.  This was before Kash-n-Carry at S. Lamar and Barton Springs and Rylander’s on Bee Cave Road.  Eventually Handy Andy became Piggly Wiggly Grocery.

And then there was Lamar Plaza Drug Store.  Owned by the Karne’s and had the wonderful B.C. Allen working with them behind the Pharmacy counter.  Back then the Pharmacists were “Druggists”.   That drug store provided us at least two generations of cough syrup, antibiotics, and band-aids.

Long gone is the skate rink, (where countless friends had birthday parties,) that became the Armadillo World Headquarters which eventually became an office building.  The bowling alley is now the Bike Shop.  My hair was buzz-cut at Barton Springs Barber Shop, where the small bottles of coke cost a dime out of the vintage coke machine, and there was always a Super Bubble gum waiting for the end of my hair cut.  Dad went once a week before work whether he needed a cut or not.

Things change yet memories remain.  The old South Austin is slowly disappearing and being replaced with trendy shops, apartments, high-rise condominiums.  For me the loss is bittersweet yet change is a normal part of progress.  

My roots in South Austin run deep and long and like those of an old Oak they survive and are part of my childhood and formed who I became.  Though the buildings are disappearing, the memories of the shops and people, while difficult to touch, are a sweet and solid foundation of my life.

Firearm Safety is a Verb

Firearm Safety is a Verb

After shooting from my mid-teen years to the current time, I had developed my own idea of safety rules that I had assumed were good enough.  Even taking the Texas Hunter Safety class in High School did little to further my ideas about how to safely use, transport, and store a firearm.  (As a sidebar I took Hunter Safety in 1979 while I was in high school.  We were encouraged to bring a gun for show and tell.  This class took place IN the high school!  I also recall that many of us had gun racks in our truck’s rear windows, with a shotgun or rifle displayed.  I recall another time once school principal came on the overhead speaker, “Gentlemen, deer season is over, please leave your rifles at home now”.  Oh the good old days.)

I didn’t shoot much as a kid with my Dad, and received little instruction from him while growing up.  In my early 20’s we were out in the country and I was shooting at some cans.  He walked up to watch.  After shooting a couple I brought the rifle’s muzzle up and it nearly reached ninety degrees straight up when he shoved the barrel back down and sternly said “keep your rifle pointed downrange!”  Admittedly I was offended that he would be so bold as to correct me as I had been shooting several years by then, and had done just fine thank you.

Similarly the same thing happened to me at a skeet shoot I was at a couple of years later.  An “old guy” fussed at me because I was not intentionally keeping my muzzle pointed in a safe direction.  Even though we were on the range and I was on my station, he admonished me as I turned to look back and the muzzle started to follow. 

Both my Dad and this gentleman knew what I had not yet learned.  Safety is a VERB.  When handling firearms you have to intentionally and actively be safe.

Another time, just a few years ago, I was taking the qualifying test for my concealed handgun license.  The range officer stopped me and asked me to put my index finger in the register position, (off the trigger and alongside the frame), as we weren’t ready to shoot.  He then later had to tell me to stop pointing my pistol at my feet.  He was actively keeping all of us safe.  It was his primary mission.  He knew that safety is a verb.

A year or so ago I was on a range taking a basic pistol course, and the instructor started us from the very beginning.  Our pistols were in their cases lying on the ground.  He walked up asked me to open the case.  I did and he told me to pick the pistol up.  The pistol was secured in the foam inside the case.  So I did the easiest thing, I reached into the trigger guard with my index finger and started to pull.  “STOP!” he yelled.  I had committed offense number one.  Never lift the weapon by sticking your finger inside the trigger guard next to the “launch button” as he called it.  I knew the pistol was unloaded and safe, but he didn’t.  He was actively practicing safety while teaching good habits.  He knows that safety is a verb.

Just last week my son Walter and I were setting up a fun photo with me and my AR-15.  I had made sure the rifle was unloaded and there was no magazine in it.  He was going to take a photo from near the front of my rifle.  I pulled back the bolt and locked it in the open position.  I then closed the dust cover that disguises the fact that the bolt is locked back.  I wanted a magazine in the well and pulled out an empty one and walked into the room where Walter was setting up the photo.  I said, “the gun is empty and here is an empty mag”, and I let him inspect the magazine.  He looked at me and then at the rifle, “Is the bolt locked back?”  He couldn’t tell since the dust cover was closed.  I was so proud.  HE was actively being safe.  I pointed the muzzle in a safe direction and let the bolt slam forward.  I then pulled back the bolt and locked it into the rear position.  I showed him “clear”, he nodded, and I closed the dust cover and we started taking photos, safely.

Practicing firearm safety is work.  It is a verb and must be done actively.  Every moment you have to purposefully, intentionally, and actively know the condition of your firearm, where it is pointing, where your finger is in relation to the trigger, and how it affects others.  Safety has to be taken to the extreme all of the time, every time.  Like others through the years who have taught me, safety must be taught firmly.  One should not take admonishment personally and we should give it freely.  Safety must be the primary goal!

Prepare to defend yourself!

About a year ago I took forty something years of experience with firearms to my first ever in-depth training on pistol shooting.  In one of my previous blogs, “Shooting and Being Shot” I touched on that first trip to the shooting range in Victoria.  I’ve now spent five weekends in Victoria at the shooting range in the past year:  Three for training in defensive pistol with Arrowhead Firearms Training and two for defensive urban rifle.

This last trip I learned the Farnam Method of Defensive Rifle, from a wonderful, humorous, and arguably one of the most experienced trainers in the world, John Farnam of DTI, Inc.

After a three hour informative lecture and two days of intense Urban Combat Rifle training I came home with a GREAT appreciation for the practical use of a tactical carbine rifle and a new set of skills that compliment my defensive pistol training.

John sends out emails to his students, sort of a “mini-blog” that are very well written and very interesting.  The following is clip from a recent email:

14 Mar 12

Comments from a reconstructive investigator and friend:

"My work in reconstructing domestic shooting (non-accident) events has lead me to these conclusions:

1) VCAs (Violent Criminal Actors) who ply their trade with the expectation of encountering a significant 'fight' represent a minuscule minority.  The vast majority are simply looking for an easy score with minimal exposer to risk.

2) When substantial resistance, particularly gunfire, emanates from an unexpected source (the intended victim), nearly all VCAs voluntarily disengage, immediately, and run away, having no interest in any kind  of 'fight.'

3) VCAs who do not immediately disengage upon encountering substantial resistance, and, in fact, close with you while under fire, are unbalanced, or are willing to make 'the wager.'  They are willing to risk life and limb for a chance to murder you.  At that moment, you will call his bluff, or not!

4) The best evidence that a person is fundamentally unwilling to employ lethal force in calling such bluffs is his self-deceptive belief in a talisman.  He will try to convince himself that, by sole virtue of the fact that he is carrying a particular gun or ammunition, he will merely have to waive it in the face of evil spirits to make them go away.  Such talismen take many forms, and the naive commonly carry several.  They are 'safe' only so long as their theory remains untested!

My summary of the four conclusions above:

1)   Bad guys look for the weakest and easiest targets and avoid those who appear otherwise.

2)   If a bad guy mistakenly chooses a victim trained in self defense who is prepared – he will run away.

3)   If he is a gambler, he may try to assault, rob, rape, or murder you anyway.  The victim has to make a choice to give up or use his or her skills to survive.

4)   Just because the victim has a weapon, (gun, knife, martial art, etc), and he or she shows it to the bad guy, doesn’t mean the bad guy will run away.  The victim MUST be prepared to use it.

My attitude towards gun ownership for defensive purposes has changed drastically over the past year.  I often have friends to decide they should get a gun for protection.  My advice now is to attend a intro to handguns class somewhere.  Borrow a gun, or use a “range” gun from the trainer if one is available.  At any given class there will be a variety of guns show up that one can try out, hold, and hear the pros and cons of each from the instructor.  Then at the end of the class a person can make a choice on which gun to buy, or to not buy a gun at all.  Owning a gun is a HUGE responsibility that some people probably shouldn’t take upon themselves.

If and when the decision to purchase a gun is made, it is up to the purchaser to learn how to safely handle, shoot, clean, and store the gun.  I suggest the new gun owner take as many classes as possible.  Learn how the gun works.  Learn how to clear jams (stoppages).  Learn about ammunition, cleaning, legal responsibilities, how to deal with the police, and how to keep ones self out of situations where actually having to use the gun is necessary.

Looking back at the second conclusion in the quoted lines above, a person would be wise to be prepared.

At the very least, be prepared in that situations are thought through in advance.  “What would I do if I was getting gas at night and a stranger approached me?”

Be prepared by being aware of your surroundings.

Be prepared with the confidence of knowing that whatever “weapon” you have, that you can get to it, that you are able to use it physically, and that you are able to use it mentally.