Riffs, Roams and Raves:
Riff: StoryFest, Oct. 12–14 In case StoryFest isn’t on your radar, here’s your chance to put this tremendously entertaining event on your calendar. The three-day festival celebrates story in all of its forms.
Stories told in song will be performed by singer songwriters at the Opera House at 7-A Ranch’s Pioneer Town Thursday evening, October 12. Headliners include Michael Hearne, Don Richmond, and Jimmy Stadler.
Spoken story in the form of historical tours and a re-creation of the Great Wimberley Train Robbery narrated by Texana historian Mike Cox, will take place Friday afternoon.
Story as Film will be demonstrated by the documentary, “Honky Tonk Heaven: The Legend of the Broken Spoke” on Friday evening.
Other Friday night events include “Friday the 13th Ghost Stories” about departed Wimberley citizens at the Pioneer Town Cemetery, as well as ghost stories and song swaps around a campfire.
On Saturday morning, a Star Talk will reveal “The Science of an Annular Eclipse.” Other stories, like “Momentous Historic Events That Have Occurred During Eclipses,” will anticipate the annular solar eclipse that day.
On Saturday afternoon a program of stories about the settlers, cowboys, ranchers, cedar choppers, outlaws and others who tamed this part of Texas and called it home will take place.
Story in its visual form will be pursued by local Plein Air painters throughout the event.
On Saturday evening there will be a VIP Reception featuring completed Plein Air works, CDs of featured performers, and books by storytellers.
For more details and ticket information go to wimberleystoryfest. org.
Roam: Bellville, Castle and Knives Two hours east of Wimberley, north of the I-10 corridor between Brenham and Sealy, is the charming town of Bellville. About 40 minutes west of Houston’s suburb of Katy, it is the seat of Austin County. The town is saddled with a “Moderne-style” courthouse that was built in 1960 as a result of a fire that destroyed the original courthouse. One of the interesting things about the downtown’s layout is that the courthouse is ringed by a circular road within the town’s square. It allows traffic to flow through, leaving the shops on the square relatively undisturbed by cars moving through town.
Bellville once flourished, like so many small Texas towns, from the cotton it grew and even more so when the Santa Fe railroad line was completed in 1880. Today the population hovers at about 2,000 people and many of the town’s old homes are restored Victorians. It has a long history of Anglo, and later, Czech and then German settlers who came during the “good health” or Turnverein movement. A superbly robust and breathtaking example of a Turnverein pavilion still exists in town.
For this week’s roam, I went in search of another kind of building in Bellville called Newman’s Castle. As a winning example of “good crazy,” the owner of Newman’s Bakery, Mike Newman, built a castle for his primary residence. You can tour it by visiting the bakery by 10:30 a.m., paying $20 for a wristband and driving about ten minutes to the property. A guide there offers a “crazy good” introduction and then turns you loose to roam the castle on your own. Built from cinder block made to look like stone, it comes with a moat, a drawbridge, and a 62-foot tower. It is an authentic curiosity and a creative feat of uncommon tenacity. Newman built it single handedly, starting in 1976 and completing it in 1998. Kids on the tour absolutely loved it, especially the dungeon, as evidenced by their delighted screams heard throughout the compound. I won’t spoil it by providing too many details, but if you have an hour and youngsters who could use a delight, visit Newman’s Castle. It is definitely quirky. In some circles it might be considered Outsider art. Just a block from Belleville’s downtown is Phenix Knives. Housed in an historic 1891 blacksmith shop, it is the home of bladesmith and cutler, Cowboy Szymanski who was featured in the first season of the History Channel’s “Forged in Fire.” At one time, his wife Ilena told me, Bellville had five blacksmith shops and each one chose a specialty to master. Cowboy found a way to carry on the tradition by specializing in knives. Down to earth, dynamic and friendly, he makes superb custom blades that are meant to be used and passed down as heirlooms. I saw him tutoring a man who came to make his own knife, coaching him with every strike of the hammer how to work the heated steel. In the back of the shop, a 10-year-old boy was making a knife from a horseshoe. Cowboy studied with bladesmiths across the U.S., and in Italy, Germany, France and Spain. One of his trademarks is forging “Damascus Steel” knives. This is a unique and worthwhile stop for any traveler and perfect for those people who love working with their hands.
Rave: The Old Cochran Store About nine miles outside of Bellville on Highway 159, I found a treasure called the Old Cochran Store. From the outside, it looked like an old general store — modest, unassuming and thoroughly broken in. Inside it revealed itself to be a country diner serving American food made from scratch.
Taking orders was septuagenarian Charlie Latimer. A self-described “cow man,” he claimed to be “the busboy” because “he wasn’t allowed back there in the kitchen.”
“Back there” was his wife, Mary Helen, a retired surgical nurse who seemed to have the Midas touch when it came to making food for others.
She’d outgrown, one by one, every restaurant she’d owned, Charlie said, including one in Round Top that proved to be a “monster,” because it was so darned successful. As fate would have it, the complex where it stood was sold and Mary Helen had the chance to relinquish her “monster” with a kind of relief. Several years later, though, she and Charlie found this old store outside Bellville and bought it. It has become, Charlie said, “their newest labor of love.”
Open three and a half days a week, it is certainly an outlet for this couple’s openhearted bounty. His humble, good-natured warmth greeted me as I ordered my meal and only proved to be more pronounced as we talked. As I put my card on the counter to pay, he politely told me to put it away. “Sit down and enjoy your meal first. You’re in the country now.”
His simple statement caught me off guard and I sat down feeling thoroughly welcomed.
Before leaving, I left a note thanking them for the delicious meal and was surprised the next day when Charlie phoned. We chatted some and learned a little more about each other and our families. He told me that a Latimer fell at the Alamo, and that another one was commanded by Sam Houston to burn San Felipe in 1836 to deter the advance of Mexican troops.
“Our roots run pretty deep,” he said, without boasting, and I could only agree. To learn more about this gem, go to cochrangrill.com.