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Our neighborhood history continues . . .
(What’s a WABAC Machine? Find out here.)
1962 • Burkhart’s Motor Dining opened on Burnet Road; it became Top Notch (left) in 1971.
1964 • J. D. Harper became the owner of Crestview Pharmacy.
1965 • Ronnie and the West Winds—featuring Ronnie Prellop of Crestview Minimax IGA—performed at IBEW Hall on South Congress in Austin.
1973 • The Chief Drive-in (right), which opened in 1946, was torn down so Commerce Park could be built at Koenig and North Lamar.
1981 • December 31: Eddie Wilson reopened Threadgill’s on North Lamar, one year after he closed the Armadillo World Headquarters in downtown Austin, on December 31, 1980.
1987 • Musician and original owner of Threadgill’s, Kenneth Threadgill, died.
1993 • Lucretia and Jonathan Doyer opened a food trailer at Crestview Shopping Center, later to become Little Deli. • Richard Linklater’s film Dazed and Confused was filmed at several spots in Brentwood and Crestview, including Top Notch on Burnet Road and Violet Crown Shopping Center and Centennial Liquors at the intersection of Lamar and Brentwood.
1995 • Longtime Crestview neighbors Helen and Neb Parson (right) moved back to their childhood home in Arkansas after he retired. We missed them so much. When they lived on Morrow, Neb always shared his abundance of tools and farm implements, and he planted a garden behind his garage, where it got the most sun. Helen knew the art of soul-satisfying home cooking, and she canned and preserved the harvest from Neb’s garden. Sometimes one of them would call and say, “Meet me at the fence,” and they’d share just-picked vegetables from the garden, a home-cooked meal, tools for a project, or news of the family or neighborhood. For years after Helen and Neb moved away, the coral honeysuckle that everywhere else grew up and beyond the fence never filled in where they “met us at the fence” and showed us just how easy it is to be a good neighbor.
2000 • Faith Lutheran Church celebrated its 50th anniversary.
2001 • Brentwood Elementary celebrated its 50th anniversary. Then-Mayor Kirk Watson proclaimed October 2, 2001, Brentwood Elementary School Day.
2002 • Northwest Baptist Church and St. Louis King of France Catholic Church celebrated their 50th anniversaries.
2003 • Jean Graham continued meeting with neighbors about her idea for the Wall of Welcome. • May 17: The first Violet Crown Festival was held. • Crestview Baptist Church, Crestview United Methodist Church, and Episcopal Church of the Resurrection celebrated 50th anniversaries.
2004 • First Cumberland Presbyterian Church celebrated its 50th anniversary at its current location. • The Brentwood Elementary School mosaic wall was dedicated on March 27. (See one of the tiles from the wall, left.)
2005 • December 31: Brentwood and Crestview neighbors participated in the First Night Austin Grand Procession, wearing handmade violet crowns and following a 10-foot-long Domino the Pig puppet created by Jean Graham.
Our WABAC trip continues with “WABAC Machine, Part 6,” next up on Voices of the Violet Crown.