The temperature was in the low 40s this morning and is supposed to get into the middle 90s this afternoon. A fifty-degree swing. That’s spring in Central Texas.
Maybe today we’ll go get some breakfast and later we’ll drive up to the lake and sit outside and perhaps we’ll eat some fried pickles, which I like very much. I was thinking about the lake because of the awesome cover of this new Brown County Area Guide for 2023. I received a few advanced copies because I wrote a little piece in there. The cover photo shows Lake Brownwood, and rumor has it that it was taken by my photographer friend Scott Coers.
I’ve been particularly enjoying this Area Guide because Danielle and I have been taking our little daytrips every Thursday, and this week we went down to Fredericksburg. We picked up a similar guide for that area and I was thumbing through it. These guides, from whatever town or area you go to, are very similar in form and function, but the thing that really strikes me about these guides is how many locally owned and operated businesses there are in these great Central Texas towns. I see how much work and sweat and money has gone into building these businesses and I have to take my hat off to all these entrepreneurs who are out there doing their best, making things better for everyone. In Fredericksburg we stopped in at one of our favorite eateries, then we walked over to my buddy Bob’s cigar shop (Tabak Haus… go by next time you are in Fburg and tell Bob I sent you!) We like to sit around for hours and chat with Bob and the regulars there. But, the point is that all of these people – hundreds and hundreds of them – have put their life savings, they have gone into debt, sacrificed and scrimped and saved, just to try to build something lasting and good. I’m in awe.
Some will succeed. Some will fail. But they all have tried. They put it all out there and risk everything.
In this Brown County Guide, I’m flipping through the pages this morning and I’m seeing businesses owned by my friends. These are great people doing great things. Friendly faces I see almost every day as I walk around downtown. And when I go to another town, say, Fredericksburg, I don’t know the people. I don’t know the faces. I know Bob, but I don’t know the rest of them. But I know that they are all the same. I can see that they love what they are doing too. They are excited and flustered and scared to death, and pushing forward, trying to make a go of it. It’s something to behold.
It would be great if the economy was good and taxes and regulations were low and there were plenty of good people looking for great paying jobs. But we don’t really live in that world. So these folks just go out every day and do all they can do to try to make things better. I salute them.
The Brown County Area Guide will be available very soon just about everywhere. Make sure you get one. Check out the businesses in there and make an effort to visit them.
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Michael Bunker is a local columnist for BrownwoodNews.com whose columns appear periodically on the website.
