Radar love at the Hangar Hotel

We adore Fredericksburg, Texas, with its charming shops and art galleries, outstanding restaurants, wineries, and historic attractions, from its German heritage spotlighted at the Pioneer Museum Complex to the National Museum of the Pacific War. 

But here’s one reason that makes us take flight — the Hangar Hotel.

The hotel resembles a true plane hangar (above left), mainly because it’s located at the Gillespie County Airport. But it only mimics a World War II-era building, because inside there’s a delightful boutique hotel. You’ll find 1940s music playing when you enter the lobby, decorated with period posters, antique luggage, and nods to Hill Country war heroes. Rooms contain period art pieces as well, including rotary phones, subway tiled bathrooms — and our favorite — comfy armchairs constructed from old leather bomber jackets. And at night, electric candles burn in the window in remembrance of those fighting far away.

The hotel’s only minutes from downtown Fredericksburg, but do visit the charming Airport Diner that resembles a train car and the Officer’s Club with its leather chairs, fireplace, grand piano and bar, the perfect spot for a late-night cocktail or conversing with friends.

Naturally, you can fly in, park your plane and enjoy a weekend away. We didn’t have the luxury of a private plane, but we loved every minute spent at the Hangar Hotel.

Hail Fredonia: Marx Brothers began in Nacogdoches

Anyone who has ever watched a Marx Brothers movie knows that the family of comedians were also classical musicians. Harpo (far right), who got his name from the instrument he mastered, could also play several other instruments. Chico (middle) performed on the piano, Groucho (left) sang and performed on the guitar and Zeppo was a vocalist. Like most acts of their time, the brothers got their start in vaudeville, sometimes performing with their mother Minnie, Uncle Albert Schönberg (stage name Al Shean), Aunt Hannah and brother Gummo.

  

How they got into comedy dates back to an evening in 1912 at the Opera House in Nacogdoches, Texas.

 

Old Opera House in Nacogdoches, Texas

The troupe was performing when a runaway mule caused a ruckus on the street outside the opera house. The audience, distracted by the noise like modern drivers viewing an accident, ran outside to see. Groucho didn’t appreciate losing his audience to a mule so he began making jokes about the town, saying things like “Nacogdoches is full of roaches” and “the jack-ass is the finest flower of Tex-ass.”  To his surprise, the audience thought the snide remarks were funny. And that’s how the brothers added ridiculous comedy to their routines.

“They got their comedy act started here,” said Mike Bay, Visitor Services Coordinator at the Nacogdoches Visitor Center across the street.

You might also remember the fictional government of Freedonia in the Marx Brothers film, “Duck Soup.” Nacogdoches was the site of the Fredonia uprising in 1826, when residents rebelled against Mexico and briefly created the Republic of Fredonia.  

 

"Duck Soup"

According to “Film Guide to Duck Soup (1933)” by Erin Glossl of the State University of New York-Fredonia, the film was a box office disaster when it was released in 1933. Glossl gives two reasons for its failure:

“One was that it was the beginning of the depression and not many people had money to spend on the movies,” he writes. “The other was that film was a satire and sometimes went over the heads of the audience. When the movie was revived in the 1970s, it became a classic because of its spoof on war and the government. Benito Mussolini, the dictator of Italy took the film as a personal insult and banned it from the country. The Brothers greeted this news happily. But, foreign countries weren't the only ones that were upset by the film. In Fredonia, New York, Mayor Harry B. Hickey protested the movie. He claimed that the movie was giving the real Fredonia a bad name. The Marx Brothers said to the mayor that he should change the town's name.”

Today, the Nacogdoches Opera House is the Cole Art Center, part of the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art.

Cheré Dastugue Coen is a food and travel writer living in South Louisiana who is the author of several Louisiana romances under the pen name of Cherie Claire and the author of “Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History,” “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country” and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.

Please bring our Blue Bell back!

I love Blue Bell ice cream, and I will take every chance to brag about how I visited the Blue Bell Creameries and got to taste ice cream fresh off the line before it was hard freezed for delivery. Not to mention that if you take the creamery tour in Brenham, Texas, you get free samples in the ice cream parlor at tour’s end.

Talk about heaven.

When the recalls started in April, when some of the Blue Bell ice cream was found containing listeria strains and pulled from the shelves, I had just purchased two gallons from Walgreens, which was having a sale (keep this in mind for future purchases for they do this regularly). I checked the numbers on the bottoms of my ice cream and found that they were not part of the recall. Naturally, I ate every last bite.

My mother did too.

There are few things in life more scary than being out of Blue Bell.

Unfortunately, the company closed down its production temporarily and the stock was pulled from shelves all over the South. It was a sad day for ice cream lovers.

I’ve been hearing rumblings that Blue Bell is back in business. Just to show you how much Southerners love their Blue Bell, Dan E. Roberts posted a photo to Facebook of three Blue Bell trucks on the highway and that photo, as of Monday afternoon, was shared 54,049 times and I actually saw the numbers move as I wrote this.
          And then...the bad news. Blue Bell posted this to Facebook:
You may have noticed a few photos or videos of our trucks on the roads recently. Unfortunately they are not out delivering ice cream…yet. These trucks are making their way back to markets that remain open and will be used once we begin distributing ice cream to stores again. As a fan of our Facebook page you will be one of the first to know when we do announce our return to stores. Thanks for your support!
          I'm heartbroken and I'm not alone. Worse, could the lack of Blue Bell ice cream also be the reason for the deluge that hit Texas? One has to wonder.

But while we are on the subject, Blue Bell is located in one of the most scenic and historic regions of Texas. Known as Brenham/Washington County, the region is located halfway between Houston and Austin on Hwy. 290 and is the site of the “Birthplace of Texas.” The historic town of Brenham and surrounding countryside includes more than 30 bed and breakfasts, nine hotels, four wineries, antiques shops, botanical gardens, live theater, summer festivals, museums and so much more. Even if you can’t tour the Blue Bell Creameries, there are so many great reasons to visit.

Hopefully, Blue Bell will be up and running soon and you’ll be able to taste that delicious ice cream as well. For more information on Brenham/Washington County, visit www.visitbrenhamtexas.com/.

In Texas, like everything else, the art is really big!

            They say everything in Texas is bigger. In Eastland, west of Dallas, that includes artwork.
            You’ll spot what we mean the minute you leave the interstate for a Blizzard at the Diary Queen — a giant Campbell’s Soup Can that would have been courtesy of Andy Warhol if he had created it himself exists just off the exit ramp.

            The soup can is one of numerous pieces of giant art placed throughout Eastland. The artwork first began as a class assignment and turned into a community-wide project, according to the town’s tourism web site. Each piece of art — classic artwork blown up large — also includes a story of the painter and the piece. Artwork includes those by Norman Rockwell, Dr. Seuss, Van Gogh and Mary Cassatt, to name a few.

            To travel through Eastland and view these dozens of massive art pieces, stop by the Chamber of Commerce for a map — or the soup can next to Dairy Queen on the Interstate Service Road. For more information, visit http://www.eastlandfoundation.com/outdoorArt.html.
            As an FYI, the town named for Texas Ranger and San Jacinto hero Captain William N. Eastland was founded in 1891. Its growth occurred in 1917 when oil was discovered here.