For many people, August means getting ready to go back to school. For Austinites this year, it also means coping with the ongoing drought and more triple-digit heat.

John and Judy Carlson, Wanda and Emory Muehlbrad, and Louise Cooke all moved to Crestview around 1950, during a years-long drought that, at least for now, still eclipses our current exceptional one. They share a few of their stories in the video clips below.

John Carlson grew up on a farm near Georgetown several decades before Interstate 35 was built in this part of Texas. At that time, North Lamar Boulevard north of 45th Street (the Austin city limits) was part of the route between Georgetown and Austin. John’s family had a Ford Model T, produced between 1908 and 1927 and considered the first affordable automobile.

Wanda and Emory Muehlbrad moved into Crestview when theirs was about the only house on the street. (Click here to learn more about Wanda and Emory in the film A Community Mosaic.) This clip also includes several mosaic images from Jean Graham’s Wall of Welcome at 7100 Woodrow Avenue in Austin.

Louise Cooke, a California native, talks about moving to Austin after she got married. She also shares wise words of her mother, who was born in Germany.

We interviewed John and Judy Carlson on September 5, 2009; Wanda and Emory Muehlbrad on February 9, 2008; and Louise Cooke on January 25, 2009.