I'm a liberal pagan living in West, Texas. Yes. That West, Texas.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

WEST, BY GODDESS, TEXAS

The Village Bakery, which is for sale in case you'd like to start a new career and move to West. to the left is the Village Dress shop. To the right is the West Furniture Store.

This is the Czech Stop where all the tourists buy their Kolaches. It's actually 2 buildings..to the left is the gift shop/pay for your gas/get your cokes, sandwiches, etc. To the right is the Bakery where you can buy dozens of Kolaches, bread, Butkas, etc. But like I said..it's the tourists that keep it going. And they are open 24/7 and are jam packed all the time.Think they are closed on Xmas..The building to the left is the old Dairy Queen.
This is my town..this is part of a 3 field baseball complex for the kids of West. Built entirely by city money and donations from citizens.


Baseball is king in West, and all the kids have some one to aspire to be like..Scott Posednek..who won the World Series along with the rest of the Chicago White Sox.
This is the entrance of the complex..everything is to the right..three fields, each with their own batting cages. They just built a new concession stands and bathrooms this past year.







this is the second field.




Our volunteer fire dept. Can't see it but there are 5 doors for our trucks. We're in the process of getting another tanker for grass fires.


City Hall, with the gazebo to the left. I have a picture of it some place.








This is the corner directly across from City Hall and always has a field of bluebonnets..Not so much this year.


The world famous Pizza House, home of the Skunk Egg. See the little skunk to the left? You can click on these and they will enlarge.




The Old Czech Smokehouse and Bakery. Where they make the best kolaches i town..the Pizza House is off to the right.



Home of the future Sonic..Old home of the Dairy Queen.





Bold Springs Baptist Church Community Center. Where they make the best hamburgers in the state of Texas.




Community Grocery, where they have the best baaaaaaaacon in the world and only place that carrys the best cracklins..I eat them for snacks, lots of the Czechs grind them up and use them to batter fish and fry them..Man..is it good.


Snokhous's...where you can go for anything that needs to be welded..or built or shod.






Wolf's Sports Bar...Inside is every decal for every team in Texas, high school, college and professional. Also home to several drunks I know and where Inky works part time.




West Food Mart. The second of the 2 grocery stores. This one is bigger and has cheaper prices. But Community Grocery has Patsy Patsy Patsy and she's worth the extra money just for the gossip she provides. Plus we like to talk bullshit about my best friend David O.


Jupe Mills..They and the Czech Stop employ most of the work force for West.


West Public Library.


My home away from home.


http://west-tx.com/
Places you can go to check out West, Texas. Plus Labor Day is when we celebrate our Westfest. But I will be doing an update about a month before the event..and a recap after. So there she is....Bohunk General. My little town. Where every one wants to be but not every one is lucky enough to live here..

32 comments:

rosemary said...

What a great little town...and cool photos. I like that I can see you taking the photos in your side mirror! Yup, the Library is the best home away from home one can have....now, if they just had a food stand it would be perfect.

yellowdoggranny said...

rosemary:the baseball fields with the consession stand is behind the library. The Senior Center is right next door and they serve meals till 1pm for $1.50 for anyone over 50 or who ever needs the meals.
plus..remember this is West..it's only about 3-4 miles long, so there is plenty of places to go to get snacks..ha..I live 3 tenths of a mile from there.

Travis Erwin said...

Hope you don't mind, but I added a link to you for this week's collection of My Town Monday posts.

Jan said...

Great tour. I sure wish we had a Patsy at one of our grocery stores. That would make grocery shopping something to look forward to.

Uh...no schools in West?

yellowdoggranny said...

travis:thanks for doing it..i appreciate it.
jan:I am going to go around and take some more pictures..I didn't take any of the vets, or the other bars, the churches, schools, the country side..some of the people you hear me talk about..the other resturants, the streets..etc. we have a brand new highschool..well, not brand new.but under 10 years...

yellowdoggranny said...

http://traviserwin.blogspot.com/

check out travis's blog..he lives in amarillo, texas and is a writer...i always call amarillo amadillo, texas.

David Cranmer said...

I spent the last year in Louisiana near the border of Texas, and I have a sister who lives in the NE corner of your state. I know it's a huge place, but from the parts I've seen, it's a great place to live.

Intense Guy said...

Hey! Thanks for the tour! With goddess and the queen living there - no wonder everyone wants to move there.

Snokhous just shouts "Texas" to me - although I've only seen Armadillo... :)

You folks sure do take your baseball seriously. The folks around here for some unfathomable reason have soccer fields...as if that was a real sport! But it seems only buttroys have kids there - they are always late, have no idea where they are going, park everywhere except between the lines and leave trash all over the place.

yellowdoggranny said...

david:you can go to 25 different places in texas and not one of them will be the same..
intenseguy:some names in the telephone directory:
Bajar,Bezdek,Cepak, Cernosek,Dobecka, Dulock,Dvorsky,Gaydos, Gerik,Gloeckner, Hanzlicek,Hlavenka, Hoelscher,Hutyra, Jares, Jaska, Jupe, Kaddatz, Kaluzz, Kapavik,Kapczynski, Kolar, Kaska, Kostecka,Kucera, Kutscherousky, Lednicky, Lichnovsky,Maler, Machovsky, Mashek, Matus, Meurer, Mikuda, Mynarcik, Mynar, Nemec, Nemecek, Nors, Ondrej, Paraya, Pavlas, Pavliecek, Pfeiffer, Podsednik, Poehls,Polansky, Pokluda, Pospisi, Psencik, Pustejovsy, Rauschhuber, Rebernak, Rejcek, Schroder, Schoen, Sepeda, Skerik, Smajstrla, Soukup, Srubar, Stanislav,Skyora, Svacek, Svacina, Sulak, Tobola, Upmore, Urbanovsky, Urbis, Vanzandt, Veselka, Vicha, Vochoska, Verba, Webre, Wines, Yerger, Zacharias,Zahirniak, Zapalac, Zatopek, and Zimmerhanzel.There are some Smiths, Browns, Williams, White,etc. You know non czech names..But mostly? Czech's...

Unknown said...

Makes me want to come back for another visit!

Rox said...

You should run the tourist information booth there! (Tell me you have a West Tourist Information Booth...)

Josh said...

Wow, if I'd have known I could pay to get a Butkas, I would have come to West a long time ago. Wonder how much one of those would set me back...

Anonymous said...

Sooner here,

I was fortunate enough to get a guided tour of beloved West By Gawd Texas by none other than Jac and it was 101 degrees that day and I still enjoyed myself. It is also the home of some of the coldest Dublin Dr. Peppers and Bud Lights Deepintheheartuhtexas.

I'll never forget when I met her at the Czech Stop and we hugged and cussed and laughed our asses off.

Just like the net, freinds are freinds, lol. Go see her sometime, it will make you glad you made the trip.

P.S.
She is one ornery devil so don't cross her, she can eat nails and crap thumbtacks, lol.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Thanks for sharing this great little town with us.

Unknown said...

Thank you for this great tour of your Texas town. One of my fondest memories is the visits to Sabinal, Texas, a one dog town back in the day) where my grandparents spent their retirement days on a farm there. It was a heavenly escape and made each return to Houston a reluctant parting. I LOVE small town Texas.

yellowdoggranny said...

junnney: your more than welcome to come back..inky asked about you the other day...ha
rox:nope, the town is too small to have a tourist booth...they just have me and the website.
josh:about $8 for a whole one I think...they are soo good.
sooner:i remember the first thing you wanted was a picture of me giving the finger..haha..we did have a great time...but you need to come this year for westfest...you can get drunk and we can walk to the apts.from the westfest.hah
buddha:they're making bbq this week...I can hardly wait. wish I could send you some..along with a kolache.
patti:thanks for stopping by...we all love our home towns..
worried:small towns in texas are special...the only thing i wish west was more of is ..cute..it's not a cute town..with cute little buildings or designed cute..it's all functional..the czech's didn't do cute..they did 'built to last'..and they did and do...

Pom said...

Great tour - love the photos of you in the side mirrors too! :o) I LOVE LOVE LOVE that you have a local "smithy" that's awesome!

Barrie said...

Thanks for sharing! And, guess what? My town is getting a Sonic too!

TheWayfarer said...

As John Mellencamp would sing, "Ain't that America!"
This is definately in the running for your best post of all time, IMNSHO.

debra said...

I had no idea there was a large Czech population over there.

Willym said...

Great tour YDG, can see why you call it home! Must admit I miss the small town we lived in - something about them.

And damn I want some of that cracklin' batter - sounds great.

Reb said...

What a great little town. One day I have to get to Texas to visit.

Raspootin said...

That is how I imagined West to look - kinda looks like the town my grandparents lived in Wyoming, Rawlins, but with no mountains :)

Awesome.

billy pilgrim said...

i hope the dairy queen set up shop somewhere else.

have i ever mentioned my weakness for ice cream?

Lyzzydee said...

Great Info, Love the photos!!

sageweb said...

What an adorable little town. some day I will visit

Allan said...

Thanks for the guided tour!

Dave said...

Every time we drive by, we have to stop in West at that Czech Stop. Okay, so maybe it has only been two or three times in the last ten years or so, but touristy or not, those Kolaches are so much better than what we can get here in San Antonio.

And the little pastries ain't bad either.

texlahoma said...

Looks like a great place.

yellowdoggranny said...

pom:i tried to keep from showing myself..but im not a great photographer..ha.there is a great story about the g.g. granddad of the 'smitty'...the clan came to town and where finding czech's and beating the crap out of them to scare them into leaving but czech's dont scare...they beat the crap out of him and his kinfolk are still here doing business and the clan is gone.
barrie:i miss our dairy queen, but man, i can't wait for the sonic.
ted:thanks I appreciate it..I was out all day today taking more pictures will do them next monday.
debra:we have 3-4 towns around this general area that are mostly czech..lots of germans too..especially fredriksburg..around austin.
willym:if you ever get back to mainland..come to texas..i'll make you cracklin fried catfish, serve you up some dublin dr pepper and top it off with some pecan pie.
reb:small towns in texas are a lot better than the big towns..especially Dallas...hell, that might as well be Chicago.ha.
raspootin:yeah, no mountains..although i wish we did have some.
billy:we have a dairy queen in Elmott which is about 9 miles down the road..and when I came back from visiting my granddaughter friday I stopped and got a small cone. Wanted a big one but those things are a heart attack on a stick.hmm, i think i do recall your love for icecream..and easter candy is going on sale today for 1/2 price at most dollar stores..go for it.
lyzdee:thanks very much for stopping by.
sage:you can come to west, texas any time..matter of fact..come this labor day..westfest..
allan:come down and get one in person...did you get a new car?
dave:I'll give you my phone number..next time your here call me and i'll show you were the 'good kolaches' are...
tex:you have a standing invitation to come down..i'll show you all the good things to eat that won't spike your diabetes..ha..

AngelConradie said...

That was SO cool! To actually see the places you've written about!

Heidi said...

Great photos! If things keep going the way they have been, maybe John and I should move to West and open up a GLUTEN FREE bakery. I'd even let people bring their pets in for a treat.