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a millinery store head for $398, has been there 25 years. Allens dropped these wise words about work and pleasure: “I ain’t got
Boots, where we scored our boots has been there 38 years. And no business riding a horse,” he said. “A horse is a tool not a pet.
The Countinental Club, where we listened to a rockabilly singer, It’s like a truck driver going out for a Sunday drive in a truck. But
has been there for 58 years. if a pretty girl wants to come around for a ride, I’ll get on a horse.
I’m a sucker for the pretty girls.”
Our favorite place, Lucy in Disguise With Diamonds, start-
ed 31 years ago as a vintage clothing store and morphed into And we’re a sucker for cowboy boots and South Congress.
an enormous costume emporium. Asked why Austin needs
8,000-square-feet of wigs, masks, feather boas, makeup kits, and Love,
costumes, employee Walter Young said, matter-of-factly, “People
will dress up and just go downtown all year round. We dress them John and Jody
up for lots of crazy things.” Like, 26-year-old Maxim Pozderac,
who was hosting a Star Wars Christmas party, and trying on a
Chewbacca costume.

South Congress likes to dress up, too. The blocks are daubed with
cute neon signs, painted storefronts, mosaics, and tricked-out
food trucks. And on the corner of James and Congress, is the
area’s most famous graffiti, the spray-painted message -- red-
letters-on-green wall – “i love you so much.” Talk about a Kodak
Moment.

We came to Austin right before the holidays – the decorations
outside Doc’s Bar and Grill included cacti wrapped with Christ-
mas lights – and every store piped in Christmas music or country
music or country-Christmas music. “Silent Night” meets “Boot
Scoot Boogie.”

Speaking of boots, we can’t end this postcard without telling
you about Jeff Blaylock, who started making boots 25 years ago
after getting bashed up one too many times as a bull-rider. He
was showing us around Texas Custom Boots over on First Street Texas crooner, James Anthony Johnson. Bottom: Custom cowboy boots
where he works. The conversation turned toward riding when he from Allens Boots. Opposite: Torchy’s Damn Good Tacos stand.

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