Ace Looks at his Hometown as an adult! essay by Esteban Erik Stipnieks
It was weird driving downtown and through New Braunfels. I was born in Austin
but quickly moved early onto New Braunfels. I was a part of a generation and
transition of New Braunfels….from small town to suburb. Now at age 34 and eating
a couple eateries over a weekend lots of things were looked at. Tourism is not going away. Tourism has been a part of New Braunfels existence
from the 1900s. The role of tourism has grown from late 70s onward. Now the
question is controlling it. Recollections of the early river rafters as Gruene
was remade into a tourist haven and hearing Green Grass and high tides. I was
taught early on stupid tourist was a redundant term. Gruene was a rough neck
place Gruene Hall with the outlaw
seemed well I have seen footage of Gary P Nunn playing London Homesick Blues a
bit risqué. Gruene remained distant from New Braunfels Gruene Hall and Crystal
Chandelier were somewhat removed from the hart of New Braunfels. The Comal River
grew progressively wild. In 1987 with an event at the park their was a degree of
humor expressed at Locals retake Landa Park. Tourism was a part of New Braunfels
the town in one extent lost control of it now it is trying not to eliminate but
control it. It’s weird seeing a prevalence of high end restaurants emerge.
Macadoos, the
Huisache grill and some of the other bars
are not the typical low brow tourist dives. There is a shocking realization old
standbys of another era are gone they represented……a time when New Braunfels was
more then just a tourist trap and suburb.
Krause’s was perched west of a mini rail yard, a couple grain elevators, office supply company near downtown. There was the mill Westpoint, there was also far more agriculture. This meant the center of the town was lively. A boat factory has been replaced by the outfit for Schlitterbahn; Cement plants mark the Balcones escarpment to the north and south of town along with a crushed rock gravel pit. ADM still is at Dittlinger Mills but what was once a mill complex is now Landa Park and the Wurstfest grounds. The Abandoned mill now under other ownership stands as a memorial to what New Braunfels was. The plethora of other stores now along the interstate nearby show how much things have changed.
From industrial to tourist perhaps the most striking example is the Landa Park area. For how many years did the Landa Power plant exist without polluting the mill race with PCBs or lead paint? Look at how Landa Lake avoided real pollution from the gasoline powered glass bottom boat, mercury contamination from a steam powered boat fired by coal? There is a guano processing facility that existed in civil war era. The Wurstfest grounds were an industrial area for how many years? Yet the Comal River and Comal Creek avoided real pollution issues by what? A fishable river scene in its beauty now….beckons tourists like a Beacon.
Schlitterbahn eating at the depot it was interesting seeing. While Schlitterbahn awoke from the slumber of Saturday night and the night crew had finished work Park Guests were going for breakfast speaking of it. Having worked a summer at Schlitterbahn it was like what Jimmy Buffet said about being on a film set. He never saw a movie the same way again. With MacAdoos and others you have an interesting secondary conflict emerging and finally a counter balance to the threat of turning New Braunfels as convenient backdrop like Main Street USA. Working Schlitterbahn I encountered many echoes of New Braunfels past. One can not work the place and hear echoes of New Braunfels past Robars and even echoes of the 1970s appear in décor and feel. Schlitterbahn in many ways works because unlike Sea World where I have worked as well is that Schlitterbahn is not so slick not so mechanized not too hyper organized. There are echoes of a Germanic heritage a family owned hotel near Berthesgarten and areas of Schlitterbahn bear a resemblance. The Bavarian village of yore has been swallowed by Schlitterbahn. Yet as I see the new bar and New eateries on downtown…..can it be that the total dominance of Schlitterbahn be checked…. The best thing for Schlitterbahn perhaps is that it no longer is dominant.
After covering the first female professional boxing match in New Braunfels I drove past the Brauntex. I was blown away by change. New Braunfels had gone from a bit detached from San Antonio to a part of metro area in formation. Highway 46 once a back road arching between Boerne and New Braunfels through ranch land for goat herders had become something resembling highways between Denton and Ft. Worth. Austin is shoving its way into San Marcos San Antonio is shoving its way through New Braunfels and beyond. The Comal County fair now seems an anachronism from time go on. The sentiment was a siren song to a past that did not exist. Who misses the pollution from the mill on the Gaudalupe.
I exist as a hybrid Denton for all its drama in the early 1990s yielded some very shocking results. In the struggles the graphic drug use. In and among the drama a different character emerged. Ideals were more then pie in the sky concepts they were something to be lived out every day. Instead of denying darker realities they were faced up to dealth with head on. Leaders must first and foremost serve. Instead of a longing for past glory the focus was taking what made the good days good and bringing it into the future.
As New Braunfels struggles with the present reality it must prioritize. It must decide clearly what made it great. I think the bonds of community the embrace of original, serendipitous and beauty always were New Braunfels strengths. How does it look like in the 21st century? Plumeyer photography(his warm personalty and quality craftsmanship are echoes of the very best of NB past), in many respects Schlittberbahn’s past can continue to offer cues. Many of the fun quirks of Robars echo in the older section of the park. KNBT’s form embracing a revolution that occurred near New Braunfels continues to be contrary to ordinary. The other elements MacAdoos, Naeglins, Granzins, Lare nice checks. Sentiment is nice but sentiment without reason can be dangerous. Let’s face it New Braunfels high failing to acknowledge the realities of the 1990s produced more then a little folly. By luck and local control New Braunfels dodged bullets in the past. Change is coming yet those in the business community, cultural community and government must have a core value system that like student of judo must take the energy of change, control it and direct it. Lip service must be backed up action. You can not hide from the change that is enveloping New Braunfels yet it must be directed according to the very values and quirks that made New Braunfels so unique so loving and so beautiful to begin with. New Braunfels failures to acknowledge and direct change have had dire consequences (highlighted in a fictional tale) in the past.