When my children were young they went to summer camp in Comfort, Tx. every year.
When I picked them up we would go on up to Fredericksburg, eat and enjoy the shops. On a Friday or Saturday evening is when we headed down to Luchenbach for the ‘gatherings’.
The original ‘Beer-joint’ was scenic but what was ‘magic’ was the gathering of people in the evening. They came from all over, many with their guitars, and the evenings were spent talking and singing. There was no rowdiness, everyone was polite. Many of them knew or had been there in earlier years when Willie or other big stars were there.
Some of them had already recorded songs and I’m sure many more went on to some measure of fame, if I could only recall their names years later! Beer drinking went on but it was still ‘child friendly’ compared to now days.
The outdoors was bare bones, tree logs and tree stumps to sit on unless you brought your own folding aluminum chairs. Wooden spools [telephone line spools?] were the few tables.
Guinea hens roamed all over. I had never seen one before and my son gathered some of the long pretty feathers, which I still have in a large baggie in his closet.
There was 1 outhouse, ONE! Lol.
Memories probably grow fonder as the years go by, but my kids have some good memories of Luchenbach in a nicer, kinder time.
Luckily I wasn’t a beer drinker because I had to drive us to our south Texas town later those ‘once a year nights’, lol.