THE LAKEWOOD CONNECTION

Image from cinematreasures.org

I can certainly understand why at least half the people here in Wimberley seem to have come from Houston.  After all, it's such an easy trip due west on I-10, very little traffic, maybe three hours tops.  The perfect weekend get-away to the Hill Country.  What I don't get is all the weird connections that keep popping up between Wimberley and the old central Dallas neighborhood where I grew up -- a neighborhood called Lakewood.

For one thing, getting here from Dallas on a Friday evening is anything but easy.  It's almost twice as far as the trip from Houston, you get to travel down I-35 with hoards of other people, and then you get stuck in gridlock from Georgetown south through Austin.  There are lots of other weekend getaways that would be much easier for Dallasites to reach.  Still, there must be some magnetic attraction that draws them here to this tiny hippie hideaway -- and not just from Dallas in general, but from Lakewood in particular.  Let me give you a few examples.

I should start off by telling you that when we bought this place, we didn't know a soul who lived here -- from Dallas or anywhere else -- so that had nothing to do with why we chose to retire here.  However, one day when I was working out at my gym in Houston,  I heard the woman next to me talking about her house in Wimberley.  "You have a house in Wimberley?  We just bought one there ourselves!"  Her name was Betty Brents, and we became friends.  It wasn't until later that I discovered her husband Dan grew up on the same street in Lakewood that I was born on -- Alexander -- and went to my same high school, though he was several years ahead of me.  Some years later, after he spent time in the military, married Betty and had two sons, they moved back to Lakewood, lived one street over from my sister Carolyn, and had many friends in common with her.

Sibby with my sister Carolyn.

Sibby assists my son Austin, while Carolyn and I look on.

Then there's my friend Sibby Barrett, who runs a fabulous cooking retreat, Onion Creek Kitchens at Juniper Hills Farm, where my whole family loves to take classes.  Turns out she used to live in Lakewood too, and owned a bakery there that my sister Carolyn loved so much, I once called and ordered a gift certificate from there for her.  But wait, there's more!  Last time we all took a class there, Sibby's younger sister was there visiting.  We got to chatting and I discovered that, back before their mystery-writing-father Neal Barrett moved them all to San Miguel de Allende, the girls went to Lakewood Elementary for a few years, and Sibby's sister was not only in my fourth grade class, but also my Girl Scout Troop!

Another time Dan and Betty, whom I mentioned earlier, invited us to a party at their beautiful log cabin home here.  Betty was introducing me to a few of the women when I heard my hubby calling to me.  "Uh, Beck?  You need to come over here!"  Apparently, as soon as he had walked up to the guys surrounding the beer coolers, a total stranger had turned to him and said "Now I suppose you are going to tell us you went to Woodrow Wilson too, huh?"  "Um, no.  That would be my wife."  Turns out half the people there had gone to my high school, though most were a good bit older than me.  I did know one guy though.  Or at least, he knew my family.  He grew up just down the block from us on Bob-o-Link, and went to our same church downtown, where our grandmothers were friends.  I think I was even named after his step-mother Becky.  His name was Harold Vanburgh back then, but after he ditched his law career and took up acting, he switched it to Hawk Storm.

Speaking of high school, do you recall my mentioning Debbie-from-high-school?  That's her on the right, above.  The thing is, we didn't actually know each other in high school.  However, we did share a mutual friend.  That would be Sarah, there on the left.  Sarah and her hubby live in New Jersey, but when she found me on facebook a while back, and realized that both Debbie and I were now living in Wimberley, and were both Mother-Earth-types who probably had a lot in common, she hooked us up.  Turns out we had been running into each other at Mimas about once a week for ages, with nary a clue that we were both from Lakewood!  Oh yeah, and did I mention that Sarah and her hubby happen to own a home here in Wimberley too, where they plan to retire some day?

Oh, and we mustn't forget Jean, the pretty blonde there on the left.  We met during a weaving workshop out at Old Oaks Ranch.  We got to talkin' and, yes, she too used to live in Lakewood -- just a couple of doors down from my sister!  In fact, I think maybe she taught at Lakewood elementary, and my niece used to babysit her kids.

Here's the biggest shocker of all -- one I just discovered this week. You know Robin and Mac, the couple that owns Wimberley Cafe, the place where I go for my weekly fix of Migas?  I assumed they had lived in Wimberley forever, but no.  Guess where they lived in the 90's, and where their kids went to school?  Yep, Lakewood!  It is a strange, wee little world, is it not?