Culture Club Lunch and Cop Banquet
04/23/2003
The political lunch went fabulous and I went to a cop dinner last night. We ended up with about 60 people for the lunch and most of the mayor candidates. Headed to the Inn last night for a bigger than expected gala.
I love Lesli, our homeless cross dressing candidate for mayor. He showed up early to the function and helped us set the place up and tear down the event. Will Wynn , Mark Katz, Max Nofziger Brad Meltzer, Lesli Cochran and his Honor, the Mayor Gus Garcia gave us a nice talk. Each candidate was allotted 3 minuets to do a speech to tell us how they intended to keep South Austin too cool to bulldoze. Will was very creative and funny, Lesli was entertaining and informative. He said he was the correct candidate in this budget crunch, he knows how to stretch a dollar and still arrive nicely attired. I think Lesli will get a lot more votes than people expect. Brad and Will just seem to be the professional political types. Mark won’t get my vote, he has a terrible record on showing up to the polls. Max, I like him, but I don’t think he will get my vote this year.
Gus Garcia gave a talk after the speeches on the history of South Texas and the lack of correct history of the Tejano or Mexican influence on the state of Texas. He told us the history books don’t portray the Mexican influence very well. I didn’t take Texas history so I don’t have a clue. I didn’t realize Gus was such a history buff. I was a great talk and I hope the girl that was filming it will make it public. I found out that the Hispanic population is expected to become the majority in the next 10-20 years. I find this rather exciting. I think they will do a great job once they get into the power positions. They have strong family ties, generally stick together to get the job done and I can’t recall a transplanted Mexican that I don’t like. I am sure there are a few but I can’t recall at the moment. Gus stressed that education was the main issue he was concerned with. He wants to make sure the children have the tools to succeed. I agree fully with this. If we do not educate our children, we will have major problems down the road.
I dropped the CAT toys back off at the Holt after the lunch and will send the gentleman that lent them to us a nice thank you note with some photos.
I headed up to grab Kramer to take to the Police Banquet after work. I told him casual attire was fine. I picked him up at work, he was in shorts, t-shirt and Teva’s. We pulled into the parking lot of the hotel and I realized I made a big mistake. The men were all dressed in business attire and the woman were in dresses. The cops were in full dress uniforms. UGH I made a mistake. I felt horrible.
We sat next to the Austin Firearms specialist and his wife. We had a great conversation and were talking a lot about firearm manufactures. I did a bit of name dropping, I knew Mrs. Ruger when I lived in CT and used to take care of her dog Lucy on occasion. I used to run into her walking Lucy quite frequently down at the Southport harbor. I also have a nice little belt buckle from Colt firearms that I received after helping them out with there tradeshow booths. It was nice to share this with someone who knows there firearms. On the other side of me was a nice man that was in his 80’ and his wife of 60 years. He is a volunteer like my self and he received a nice award from the chief. It was a fun evening and I got to see some of the officers I like in a social setting for a change.
