Honky Tonks & Dance Halls

I happen to like words.

Put a few of them together and you get a phrase, a clause, or even a sentence, the yeoman of language because it is a complete idea with a subject and an action, as in, "Jesus wept." String together related sentences and you enlarge the idea into the form of a paragraph. Relate enough words in sentences and paragraphs and you can write a whole book. Amazing.

All that to say that the lowly word is important. That's preface 1.

Preface 2.
One of the things you learn when you write a weblog is that your readers know more than you do, and if you "wing it" with your words, as I do, you will get caught.

Such was the case in the Gruene Hall post.

Now The Point (I try to have one):
I referred to Gruene Hall as a honky tonk and was informed by reader pkparks that it was a dance hall. And that there is a difference. My mistake. Gruene Hall does bill itself as the oldest Dance Hall in Texas, not Honky tonk. In my defense, Wikipedia defines a honky tonk as "a type of bar with musical entertainment common in the Southwestern and Southern United States." and if you do a search of "dance halls" on Google, the first website on the list is "Honky-Tonk Directory."

That aside, I enjoy these kinds of distinctions and I want to know the difference. If someone can enlighten me, I would be most appreciative.

Pkparks also referred us to the website dedicated to preserving Texas dance halls, here it is, http://www.texasdancehall.org.

Water From The Rock

FFW has made an occasional feature a regular feature, to wit: Sundays we highlight a work of art and attempt to relate the work to the liturgical calendar. Monday's we return to the normal food, news, events and bad, dad jokes.
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3rd Sunday of Lent
First Reading: Exodus 17:5

The LORD answered Moses,
“Go over there in front of the people,
along with some of the elders of Israel,
holding in your hand, as you go,
the staff with which you struck the river.
I will be standing there in front of you on the rock in Horeb.
Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it
for the people to drink.”
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Moses Gets Water Out if the Rock / J. H. Steen / 1650
Philadelphia Museum of Art




















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Gospel Reading
The Gospel of St John chapter 4.

“Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty
or have to keep coming here to draw water.

Christ and the Samaritan Woman / Bernard Strozzi / 1630

Speaking of Gruene Hall

We get quite a few readers who are new to Fort Worth, or visiting, and are looking for the different "sights and sounds" of Texas.

Here's a suggestion: Gruene, Texas (pronounced "Green").

Why Gruene?

Well, Gruene Hall mostly, the original Texas honkytonk. The fact that Gruene Hall and Bass Hall have the same name is an oddity of the English language. Gruene Hall is a barn with a cement dance floor, a stage, and a bar that serves beer, lots of beer. And they have live music. Mostly country, but all kinds of rock-folk-country music, and all authentic Texan. On a Friday or Saturday night it is packed and a lot of fun. But also, Gruene is kind of a funky little town with shops, a wine tasting room, a few restaurants and the Guadalupe River that runs right through it. When you get down into the Texas Hill country you definitely get the feeling that you are in Texas. It's much drier, more like southern California than Dallas, rooftops are often galvanized steel and the stone is that beautiful whitish- yellow, Austin sandstone. It's hard not to fall in love with "Hill Country" Texas.

Of course, every new Texan needs a visit to the Alamo. But while you are down there get out to the country and enjoy the wide-open, warm, dry spaces of Texas.

Final related suggestion: Get off I35 and try Hwy 281.