Tour of Crockett

Hold on to your hats, this is a looooong post. Today I want to take y'all on a tour of Crockett so you can see what we see every day.

First off, Crockett is beautiful. Trees bloom constantly here. In March, it's magnolias; April, wisteria; May, mimosas and azaleas; June, gardenias; July has brought crepe myrtles and I am so excited to see what the rest of the year brings. The city works hard to keep things beautiful and they do a good job. There are so many interesting flowers, trees and bushes for me to learn. I could spend a lifetime in Texas and never learn all of them!

Jed and I looking at some crepe myrtle

"mom, get that away from me!"

This amazing flower is Lantana. On Midway, lantana was an introduced noxious weed. Here, lantana is a cultivar that grows well but not rampantly. I'm thinking about putting some in our yard. I love the varying colors.

Crockett is shaped like a wheel. The outer part of the wheel is known locally as "the loop;" most towns in Texas are this way. The loop has major businesses on it--WalMart, grocery stores, hotels, etc. The spokes are the state highways that run through town and the neighborhood streets branch off from them. The hub of the wheel is a round-a-bout but instead of flowers in the middle, we have the Houston County court house.

The four main streets around the court house are known collectively as "the square." Crockett has worked hard to keep the square vibrant and it is home to quirky antique stores, restaurants, a bank, the Davy Crockett drug store where you can buy coon-skin caps and the local radio station, KIVY.
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I love KIVY. In the morning, they have the Lonnie and JoAnn show; in "real life" Lonnie is the Honorable Judge Lonnie Hunt and JoAnn is Miss JoAnn Warner, baseball mom and crazy driver. Lonnie and Joann are hilarious. Mostly I think it's their accents and expressions, but it's also the contests and give-aways. They have a daily contest called the Tinkle Can (can you guess what I thought it was?) where they put so much change in a can and you guess how much it is based on how it sounds. They also have trivia time where you either call in with a question or an answer; if you stump Lonnie and JoAnn or know the correct answer to their question, you get entered in a drawing. The prizes are hilarious--the other day it was a wooden cane. If you don't listen to KIVY, you don't know anything that's going on in town. Today I had the pleasure of meeting Miss JoAnn in person and it was as delightful as I'd always hoped it would be. Every town should have a KIVY.

Crockett is a very religious town. There are probably 50 different churches, easily, in and around town. Here are my two favorites:

The Methodist church has the most beautiful windows in town. I would love to go and see them from the inside.

The Central Baptist church also has great windows, but even more importantly, they have a message board! Around here, a message board is like scrunchy socks in the 80's--all the cool churches have one. I love reading the messages. Sometimes they are really inspirational, sometimes they are ironically funny and sometimes they are just plain strange, but they're always a treat to see. (I know I should have gotten a picture of the branch house, but I forgot. Maybe later. And no, I'm sad to say we don't have a message board. sniff.)

For a long time Crockett only had one stop light.

This was it. Now they have two, but most people don't really count the second one because it's out on the loop.

We love the Crockett Public Library. They have a good childrens' section, great fiction and non-fiction for adults, and more importantly, an awesome name.

The John H. Wootters Library. I don't know why, but my mind desperately wants to call it the John W. Hooters library. I can't help myself!

Another of our favorite places is the Davy Crockett Park. The park has a pond with a fountain, the American Legion building with an enormous tank out front (upon which you are not allowed to climb), several different swing sets, a jogging trail with three separate loops, tennis courts, 3 baseball diamonds, picnic pavilions and a pool.



We haven't been to the pool yet because their shallow end is still a little deep for Jed, but we're excited to visit soon.

One of my very favorite things about Crockett is that there are many old homes that have been well restored and are now show-places of antebellum grandeur.

I love all the gingerbread on this one. And that tower!

This one is probably one of the grandest homes in Crockett. Off to the right is a covered driveway with separate visitors' quarters. The large pillars cover them up in this picture, but there are matching white porch swings on either side of the door, too.

This is the Monroe-Cook house; it sits in front of the library and is open for tours on Saturdays and Sundays. We haven't had the chance to go in yet but it's on my list.

This old house is another one of my favorites. I love the window over the doorway especially. And--this house is for sale! If I were independently wealthy and completely bored, I'd take it on as a renovation project.

This house is across the street from the previous one; these people take their flags in and out every day. I love how cool and refreshing this house looks, surrounded by so many trees.

Ta-da! This is my absolute favorite house in Crockett. I love all the windows, the chimneys, the beautiful magnolia tree out front. I hope someone buys it who will put it to good use.

Yesterday we decided to check out the Houston County Museum, which is housed in the old railroad depot. It's open Wednesday-Saturday 10-3 in the summer and Wednesdays are free!

I am really mad at whoever parked their car there. This sign pretty much tells you everything you wanted to know about Houston County, right?!

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We were met by a really nice lady whose name I think was Myrna. She was really knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the museum and she loved Jed (but who wouldn't?).

I love the ceiling in what used to be the whites-only waiting room.

Lignite is a type of coal that is abundant in East Texas. This is the counter of the coal company that used to be in Crockett; they donated it to the museum and it's housed in the depot now. I love the curly wrought iron.

This is a replica of the counter at the Bishop's Drug Store that used to be in Crockett. The glass bulb used to hang in front of the store. The family gave it to the museum who attached it to the fan for a light fixture. Under the bonnets is an antique autoclave which was used to sterilize bottles and other pharmacy instruments.
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What would a museum housed in a depot be without trains?! Myrna turned on the electric train diorama for us and let Jed get inside the turrets to watch the trains up close.

He loved it.

The museum also had a bunch of little wooden and plastic trains that magnetized together. Myrna let Jed play with them and he had a lot of fun crashing them together. I think he would have been content for us to stay there all day.

Jed loved driving this old fire truck that was one of the first the Crockett Fire Department had.

He loved "driving" and tried to move the shifters too.

Jed loves things that turn and had a blast playing around the old fire truck.

Houston County has had residents serve in every war including the present one and the museum had turned the old ticket-masters office into a war-memorabilia room. Jed loved playing with the propellers on these models.

After saying good-bye to Myrna, we went to another Crockett landmark, the Moosehead cafe, for lunch. I have heard many good things about the Moosehead but we'd never tried it before.

The Moosehead serves traditional Southern food like fried cornbread, purple-hull peas and chicken fried steak. They also serve any type of burger or sandwich, lots of amazing desserts and, a Texas favorite, Blue-Bell Ice Cream. YUM.

Dave got a cheeseburger, I got a chicken sandwich and Jed got chicken strips. How cute is it that Jed's lunch came in a dog dish?

Our lunch was so good and we loved the ambiance of the Moosehead. The owner is a staunch republican and she has many political signs, buttons, bumper stickers and banners, many of which are antique. They also have an ecletic collection of moose, deer and elk mounts, old farm implements, mounted fish, funny signs... we stayed forever just looking. It was such a comfortable place to eat and talk and the food--mmmmm, good.

What would a tour of Crockett be without some mention of Davy Crockett? Crockett is, of course, named after him. It's also assumed he stopped here on his way to the Alamo because the old El Camino Real runs through here on the way to San Antonio and it's the most likely route he would have taken.

This little park is across from the depot/museum. I love the bright colors of this mural.

I didn't taste this water but supposedly it's pretty good.

This mural is on the side of an out-of-business grocery store. Dave and I always laugh--"Davy slept right here? In this brick building?" I know, we're being too literal. I also love how Davy's legs are about 10 feet long.

Thanks for coming with me on our little tour of Crockett. I love our town and I'm so glad I could show it off!