Top 5 Items for Sale at the Alamo Gift Shop

When you visit the Texas Holy Land you're going to want a keepsake to take home with you.  "Remember the Alamo" isn't a request, it's an order.  And to do that you'll need to hit the gift shop.  Don't worry though, like all gift shops, the Alamo shop is easy to find.

 
While perusing the merchandise you might have difficulty acquiring just the right tchotchke for your mantle or cubicle.  After all, you're probably all jacked up on Texas while on the premises.  To make it easier, we've picked out a few items that stood out on a recent visit.

Top 10 lists are too hard so here are the Top 5 Items for Sale at the Alamo Gift Shop:

5.  These Metal Mug Type Things:

I don't know if there is a specific name for this type of old timey metal mugs and I'm not sure why they appeal to me so much but...just look at them!  I want to hold one by a camp fire and drink mead out of it.  Or coffee.  Or Kool Aid.  Anything really.  The only downside is that they were about $40 a pop.  For that amount of dough I'll probably take my mead in a paper cup.

4.  Frontier Rifle Pen:

If this doesn't just scream "ALAMO" then I don't know what does.  We don't like to admit that most gift shops have items that can be found in any other gift shop at any other attraction in the country.  But this pen BELONGS in the Alamo gift shop.  It just flat out belongs there!  Plus it's functional:  you can write stuff with it and whatnot. 

3.  "Come and Take It" Needlepoint

The "Come and Take It" slogan may have started with the American Revolution but it also has a strong association with the Texas Revolution.  Add in the DIY needlepoint aspect and you end up with something not just distinctly American but also uniquely Texan. 

2.  Cartridge Candy

Keeping within the firearm genre (this is Texas after all), we have what may be the only historically educational candy that I've ever seen:  Cartridge Candy!  Kids can fill their musket mouths the old fashioned way.  The only thing I'm cautious about is the ambiguity of whether you get a "gum ball" or "candy ball."  Either way, it's fine but surely you'd like to know exactly what you're getting into snack-wise.

1.  Coonskin Caps

If, after a visit to the Alamo, you don't want to buy a coonskin cap and wear it around the River Walk for the rest of the day then I don't want to know you.

Hopalong

Carl's Corner is a truck stop/town located along I-35 that you've passed by on the way from Dallas to Austin or Austin to Dallas or some such other destination in that area.  It's was incorporated by trucker Carl Cornelius and a handful of his thirsty friends for the purpose of being able to sell alcohol in the primarily dry area. 

If you had driven past it several years ago you would have seen this colorful and charismatic truck stop (this picture is from 2003):

Years ago it burned down and and was ultimately replaced with this non-charismatic blasphemy:

The biggest disappointment of the new place is the absence of Carl's famous dancing frogs.  Here's what they used to look like:

Originally there were six dancing frogs.  They lived in Dallas before they hopped to Carl's.    Fortunately they were all saved from the fire.  Three of them went to Nashville and, for a while, the other three lived across the highway from Carl's.  Ultimately though, they went back home to Dallas and you can now visit them atop a Taco Cabana on Greenville Avenue:

            

Will this be the Frogs' final home?  Somehow I think their travels will continue in the future and I look forward to following them hop up and down the great state of Texas.

Boys Don't Cry in Greenville, TX

We showed you one small town that was used in the filming of the film "Boys Don't Cry" and now we have another. Although this town is significantly larger...Greenville, TX:


Hilary Swank's character walks around the downtown square on the way to the court house. You can see that the "Sabine Trading Post" isn't there anymore but remnants of the sign are.


And then up the stairs of the Hunt County Court House which is yet another great looking Texas courthouse and soon-to-be the topic of an upcoming "Marking Time" entry.


The camera tilts up to show off the rest of the courthouse and even though the film (which is based on a true story) doesn't take place in Hunt County they didn't make any effort to hide the giant "Hunt County Court House" carving at the top of the building:


I didn't go inside so I have no idea if the interiors were shot inside the actual court house. Guess I'll save that for my next trip to Greenville.

Hull & Oats

Thanks to Wheaties, the idea of combining cereal and athletes seems completely natural.  Doug Flutie took it up a notch with his Flutie Flakes and several years back Brett Hull, while he was still with the Dallas Stars, managed to get his very own breakfast treat:  Hull-O's!

The expiration date on this box is April of 2000 and I remember picking up the box somewhere in North Texas.  I'm not sure if they were distributed anywhere else.  Proceeds from the sales went to Camp John Marc for Special Needs Kids in Dallas.

Instead of a toy surprise inside the box you had the option to get your very own "Hull-O's" t-shirt for the low, low price price of $13.95 (plus shipping):

At the time I didn't want to cut up my super collectible box but at this point it's a minor regret that I just have to live with. 

Recall Me Maybe

You've probably already heard about the Blue Bell recall due to concerns  over listeria.  When a crisis like this erupts we turn to Twitter to gauge reactions from the public.  Let's see how people are faring with this lactose intolerance:

@MollySneed chooses defiance and/or denial:

@ThisIsNattyYo reacts with grief:

@GentleGlide is overwhelmed with despair:

@OnlyInTexas1 remains loyal...perhaps to a fault?

@NaheedRajwani was moved creatively:

The sad truth of the matter is that this recall is real and there's nothing any of us can do about it but wait...and tweet...and hope.  If Big Tex can come back from the dead then surely Blue Bell can too.

Marking Time #33 - Camp Howze

If you drive from Texas to Oklahoma and back as much as we do, you will quickly notice that near the border, on the Texas side, are signs indicating a that there is a World War II monument in the area.   Which begs the question, "What part of World Wart II happened in North Texas?"  A little exploration led to this Historical Marker:

The marker reads:

     "In operation from 1942 to 1946, Camp Howze served as an infantry training facility during World War II. It was named for General Robert Lee Howze (1864-1926), a native Texan whose distinguished career in the United States Army began with his graduation from West Point and included service in France, Puerto Rico, Germany, a South Dakota Indian War and the Philippine Insurrection, 1899-1902. 
     Clifford McMahon of the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce first contacted Federal authorities with the idea of establishing a military installation here. Attracted by the community's active endorsement of the plan, the government activated Camp Howze on August 17, 1942, under the command of Colonel John P. Wheeler. In addition to infantry training, the base was also the site of a German prisoner of war camp and an air support command base, now part of the Gainesville Municipal Airport. Services provided for the soldiers included camp exchanges, libraries, chapels, theaters, service clubs and a base newspaper, the "Camp Howze Howitzer." 
     The economic and social impact of Camp Howze on Gainesville was significant and was instrumental in the town's rapid growth and development. (1982)"

So apparently in the 1940's, near Gainesville, TX,  the Army operated a Training Base/POW Camp.  But if you go to the location today all you see is an empty field behind an historical marker.  That's because the Army had always intended it to be a temporary facility.  The buildings were not made to last and after the war they were torn down.  Some concrete foundations can still be seen if anyone wants to look for them.

In a letter to his sweetheart (which can be read along with tons of other old letters on this great site), PVT. Prune R. Brooks mentioned the shoddiness of the buildings, helping to explain even more why there's nothing left of them today.

He writes:

"11/28/44 

Dearest Donna,

Well honey here I am down in Camp Houze Texas and what a hell of a camp. The buildings are so old and so about to fall down. But the south is very beautiful and the girls are pretty as the devil. I stopped off in Fort Worth Sunday and went roller skating and met a few very nice girls and had lots of fun.

This will be a very short letter till the next. I haven't much time. Honey I want you to write often and please send your picture. I send you mine for Xmas. I will close for now and will compose soon again 

Love,
Verne"

But if you are in the mood to stop during your drive along I-35 to snap some pics of something historic, you can hit the Texas Travel Information Center in Gainesville (and take a much needed restroom break) to see the other historic World War II monument.

Look behind the great big Texas photo op and you'll find the 103rd Infantry Division Monument.  Sculpted by artist Edd Hayes and titled "A Call to Duty," the monument pays homage to the 103rd who trained, in part, at Camp Howze.

It's amazing what you can learn along the roadside.

Dallas-Opoly is Kind of Lame

At some point, on a birthday or at Christmas, you have probably received a themed version of Monopoly from a well intentioned relative.  Regardless of your varied interests, there is most likely a version of the popular board game meant to stuff your stocking.  To further our speculation, you probably opened it once, maybe even played it, and then put it on the shelf reserved for things you never touch.

All that preamble is to bring up the topic of "Dallas-opoly," which I found at Walmart recently.  Admittedly, expectations were high.  Perhaps too high to live up to.  Upon cracking open the box here is a professionally photographed marketing picture representing what I found:

The upside includes that all properties have been renamed as Dallas locations (with the exception of the Mesquite Rodeo which is included for some reason).  For example, the famed locations of "Boardwalk" & "Park Place" are now Reunion Tower and Fair Park.  Here's a look at some of the deeds:

Great shout-outs to locations in the city but other than the names, that's about it.  No location pictures, or specific information is added to the game and they all seem to be arbitrarily assigned to groups.  Additionally, the traditional "Chance" and "Community Chest" cards are replaced with "Contingency" and "Big Fun" cards.  Many of them aren't Dallas-specific but here's a sample that are:

My final complaint, and biggest disappointment, is the game pieces.  The totally generic tokens include a hand (maybe for Big Tex's hand?), a star (Lone Star, ok I get it but c'mon), a heart, a cowboy boot and a cowboy hat.  Sure, some of these can be related to Dallas but you can't tell me that most of these don't show up in Houston-opoly or even Sante Fe-opoly. 

There are surely better choices that specifically relate to Dallas and even though no one asked me I decided to make suggestions:

Making the pieces Reunion Tower, the Woofus, the Dallas Zoo Giraffe, the Pegasus, the Chapel of Thanksgiving and Big Tex would have gone a long way towards saving this game.  I can only hope that the makers of "Dallas Scrabble" and "Dallas Candyland" are taking note of this.