TOT reader Pat Stephenson shared this photo of her grandchildren, Zoe and John, at Easter in Houston, 1986. It was probably taken at Foley's. I'm not sure, but it looks like Zoe, on the left, is having a great time and John is terrified. If so, that's understandable --- that's one scary bunny!

Easter services at Shiloh A.M.E. church in Galveston, 1910. Although Reedy Chapel A.M.E. had been in Galveston since the 1840s, by the 1860s a second A.M.E. church was needed to service the increasing number of African American residents who lived west of 25th Street, so Shiloh A.M.E. was built.

The choir sings on Easter Sunday in the Methodist church in San Augustine, 1943. I guess it was pretty much "socially illegal" to to to church on Easter Sunday without a hat back then, and I surely do like these. I also like the white gloves being worn by the young woman second from the right.

The greatest Texas Easter photo of all time? The pure, unabashed joy on San Antonio farmer Sam Smith's face as he celebrates rain on Easter Sunday after a prolonged drought in 1951 takes me to my happy place every Easter. Taken by Harvey Belgin and nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. 2m

I always smile when I see old photos of ZZ Top. This one was taken in 1975 (I think) and it is a DANDY.

Goodness gracious Albert Collins was a MONSTER guitarist. Jimminey! Wherever you are tonight, I hope you've washed your dishes! www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBoj...

One of my own photos. I saw this old Chevy Fleetwood (is it a 1947?) next to an abandoned house at the edge of a North Texas town, Aspermont, maybe, in 2009. I always stop to photograph abandoned cars. I don't know why: nobody ever buys such photos. But the cars speak to me in voices I can't ignore.

An 1895 photo of men standing with a Texas Brewing Company wagon at 8th and Houston Streets in Fort Worth. What I love is how you can tell what the men did by their dress. There are some brewers, a guy in management or sales, a maybe a deliveryman etc... From UT-Arlington Special Collections.

The entire 1983 Stevie Ray Vaughan ACL concert has been uploaded. I've queued it up to start on "Tin pan Alley," but the whole thing is worth watching --- after you "like" this post, of course. 😃 youtu.be/MrbAaQ3BXgA?...

One of my own photos. Scene in a West Texas blacksmith shop, 2018.

It's Friday, y'all! Here's a scene in a saloon in Palo Pinto County, 1906. The man leaning up against the bar in the back looks like he might be a rough hombre, but I may just be imagining things again. I love the whiskey barrel, too. This may have been Mineral Wells, Strawn, Mingus or Gordon, Tx.

You've got to win ONE game. Which running back are you choosing and why?

Jeff Hamilton, Sam Houston's slave, bodyguard and driver, died 85 years ago today in Belton, Texas. This photo shows him late in life. His life story is fascinating but way too detailed to be written in 300 characters, so I've attached it in a separate screenshot.

tinyurl.com/yzps2rbe I like mountain music Good old mountain music Played by the real hillbilly band I like bread and biscuits Big, fat fluffy biscuits My dear old Ma just makes 'em grand We like to sing and play And try to make folks happy We hope you'll say WHAT? Please pass the biscuits, Pappy

Cowboys at a ranch in north Texas or the Texas Panhandle. This was taken by famed cowboy photographer Erwin E. Smith, a working cowboy who taught himself to take great photos and left probably the best archive we have of the way of life of the old-time cowboys. From the Amon Carter Museum.

I've mentioned before that Austin city Marshall Ben Thompson was a bad man. On May 1, 1881, Johnny RIngo, shown here and himself a noted gunfighter, was arrested by Thompson for creating a ruckus in a brothel. Unwilling to take his chances with Thompson, he paid his fine and left for Tombstone, Az.

Congress Avenue in Austin in 1876, just 40 years after independence from Mexico.

Good Lord ... I just woke up at 1:07 a.m. craving a Fletcher's Corny Dog. This is not an easily-satisfied craving AT ALL. Gloom, despair, and agony on me. 😟

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud74... Blind Willie Johnson's "Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground," the haunting 1927 song that got put on a gold-plated record on Voyager 1 and sent into space back in 1977. Here's that song. It gives me chills. You may also recognize it from the movie Paris, Texas.

TOT reader Hoppy Hopkins kindly shared this nice shot of the old Texaco station at Hill Top, Texas, which is just a few miles west of Fredericksburg. This building now houses the justifiably famous Hilltop Cafe, at which I've had several very fine meals. Any of y'all eaten at the Hill Top Cafe?

Three brothers from Texas at a Resettlement Administration farm near Bakersfield, California. Per Dorothea Lange, who took this photo, they were Dust Bowl refugees. The barrel that is visible was for water. Dorothea took this in 1935.

George P. Levy, mayor of Weatherford from 1892-1896. Mr. Levy, a French Jew, moved to Weatherford in 1882 and was elected Mayor despite not being a citizen. He later returned to France, dying after the first World War. His wife and daughter subsequently died in Nazi concentration camps.

Houston Street in Wharton, Texas, circa 1900. Almost all of these buildings still stand. The drugstore is now Cuevas Mexican restaurant. It does my heart so much good to know that these old buildings aren't always torn down. Preserve, restore, repurpose. This is the way. 🥰

The Arcane Texas Fact of the Day: 160 years ago today, on April 1, 1866, Jesse Chisholm commenced his first cattle drive up the famous trail that would be named after him. Over the next 17 years, five million cattle and one million mustangs would follow. Here's an 1873 map of it.

Texas trombonist & singer Jack Teagarden with a song about a man who visits St. James Infirmary and sees the body of his lover laid out before him. He reflects on her death, on fate, and on his own mortality. The tone is stark: resignation, sorrow, and fatalistic swagger. youtu.be/j9udjEXDpAg?...

Four lovely carhops at Palmer's Drive-In in Port Arthur, 1950s. I'll bet they made a mean chocolate malt. It's kind of got a "Happy Days" feel to it. Do any of you Port Arthur natives remember this place or where it was? Courtesy the Museum of the Gulf Coast.

The Ray Rogers Moblie Station at 5424 Broadway in San Antonio, 1982. Isn't it a beautiful structure? I love the Spanish tile, even though some of it appears to be missing. This building still stands (the wonders of stucco) and it is gorgeous.

Miss Abilene by the swimming pool of the Sands Hotel in Abilene, 1955. The hotel was at the west end of town on South 1st St., which was also Highway 80. It looks like the wind was blowing in Abilene that day. What a surprise. 😀 Courtesy The Portal to Texas History

A June, 1948 photo of a Texas & Pacific locomotive at Dallas' Union Station. I love old train photos!

Another cover of Neon Moon, this time a Norteño version by EZ Band, which is based in Houston. Any time an accordion joins the fray, fun will be had! Also, note the bajoquinto. www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0Aq...

Texas favorite daughter Kacey Musgraves with her version of a song made famous by Brooks and Dunn: youtu.be/7J-QsMC64kM?... When the sun goes down on my side of town That lonesome feeling comes to my door And the whole world turns blue There's a rundown bar 'cross the railroad tracks ...

Circa 1950, a view of the officer's quarters at Fort Davis. That's the wonderfully named Sleeping Lion mountain in the background. The post fell into disrepair after it was abandoned in 1891, but restored in the 1960s. It's pretty awesome to visit today. Have you ever been?

Willie Nelson played in Goliad, Texas, in (about) 1970. TOT reader Deborah Calhoun Collier's ex-mother-in-law attended the show and came away with 3 photos that Deborah graciously sent in. Here's the red-headed stranger with the mother-in-law and her wonderful glasses. I'll post a couple more soon.

San Antonio Police Dept. Captain W. C. Dickman measures a young woman's bathing suit to ensure it conforms with a city ordinance. I'm not sure but it could have been taken at San Pedro Park. Circa 1927. Courtesy the San Antonio Police Department Historical Society. Fewer than 100 years ago!

Friday night in Texas? Yes, please. youtu.be/_Nh-NsqBsGE?...

Newlyweds in Fort Worth circa 1895. I'm not sure who they are, but I love her beautiful dress. I do know that the photographers, Works and Krueger, had a studio at 3rd and Main in Cowtown. It's a relatively intimate pose for those days. Just a sumptuous shot!

One of y'all sent this photo of what appears to be lunch ladies to me about seven years ago and, as is my way, I've lost both your name and the information regarding who, when and where this was taken. These ladies look like the lunch ladies at every school I ever attended. Salisbury steak, anyone?

Johnnie Kluna kindly shared this INCREDIBLE photo of his great grandfather and grandmother, Robert Benjamin Kluna and Ollie Kluna. They had the first drive thru liquor store in Waller County history just off of old business Highway 290. Johnnie's family the “Kluna’s” immigrated from Czechoslovakia.

Mexican women arrive in the fields for another day of spinach picking in the fields outside La Pryor, Texas, 1939. You can see the baskets in the truck. Another stellar photo from the great Russell Lee. Really gorgeous.

Beach frolickers on Padre Island circa 1920. What a cool shot! I could use a good frolic right about now. How about y'all?

RIP Dash Crofts, playing Summer Breeze in heave now with Jim Seals. Both were born and raised in Texas. youtu.be/1KnK3z6DKaI?...

Elsie McMullen, a laundry truck driver, delivering dry-cleaned clothing to a house in Beaumont. How great is this photo? Yet another example of women doing jobs that men did before WW II. Taken by the uber-talented John Vachon.

The Arcane Texas Fact of the Day: It was 40 years ago today, on March 26, 1986, that Edith W. McKanna died at the age of 87. Edith was the first woman in Texas to get a pilot’s license and the first to own her own plane. The general aviation terminal at Winston Field in Snyder is named for her.

That time the great BB King and the equally great Billy Gibbons jammed together... www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTHs...

Traces of Texas reader Paula Ibarra forwarded this wonderful photo of the schoolhouse in Zavalla, Texas, back in 1910. I wonder if this is the entire student body and staff at that time. I think it probably is.

Buffalo hides being hauled to market in Weatherford back in 1874. These wagons aren’t just hauling hides, they’re hauling away the last great breath of the southern plains buffalo and a way of life that depended on them. From UT-Arlington Special Collections.

Traces of Texas reader Kelly Watson shared this nifty 1960s photo of downtown Cross Plains, Texas. I'm glad he did, because Cross Plains is one of my favorite small Texas towns. Cross Plains sits where the rolling plains of West Texas and the edge of the Cross Timbers collide.

Little Richard, Tammy Wynette, and George Jones --- a Texan --- in 1975.

"A tenant farmer on the same farm for eighteen years. He has six children. This year he was forced into status of day laborer on the same farm. The farm owner employed twenty-three tenant families last year. This year, the same acreage, using tractors, requires seven families." --- Dorothea Lange

A falling-down mansion at 105 W. Walcott Avenue in Comanche, Texas, 1939. By the time Russell Lee took this photo, it was an elaborate pigeon roost. It no longer exists, but some of the stonework under the patio still does and can be seen from the road in front.