Eastwoods Lore

Howdy neighbor!

Well I see that you have made it to what we hope will be the most interesting page on our website. It will be even more interesting if you are inspired to dust off your creative juices, search in the far reaches of your brain and contribute something to this page.

If you have a personal story to tell, some history to share - anything that you think would be of interest to your neighbors, sent it in! We'll make every effort to find space on this page for your musings. We'll probably leave it on this page for a month or so, then archive it in the neighborhood's Yahoo Group and if this page gets too crowded we'll move more things to the Yahoo Group and include a link on this page.

For inspiration, take a look at some suggested topics below and if you have something for us, send it in! Supporting photos can be included.

Click here to email your contributions to us.

I live at the end of one of the many Eastwoods neighborhood streets that dead-end into Waller Creek. Years ago, the barricades at the end of all our streets were not as visible and sturdy as what we have today and I used to worry (and still do) that some night a driver will not see the barricade in time and crash through it and into the creek.

Well, it did happen one time at the end of Sparks Ave. and fortunately no one was injured. It was a week-night in the late 70's about 4:00 am and I was awakened by a crash. I looked out the window to see that a Ford Bronco had apparently tried to stop in time but still had just enough momentum to knock down the flimsy barricade and roll a short distance down the embankment, nudge against the exposed 10" natural gas main pipe spanning the creek, and roll onto its side. It was resting on the bank of the creek with it's front in the creek (shallow water) and rear end back up the bank about where the barricade used to be.

In the few minutes it took me to call the police, get dressed and go to the Bronco, the occupant(s?) had left so I went home and back to sleep. About an hour later, I was awakened by the revving engines of two wrecker trucks trying to pull the Bronco out of the creek. All of a sudden, I heard a very loud hissing sound. You're getting ahead of me now but yes, it was pressurized natural gas coming out of the pipe. As the Bronco was being extracted from the creek, it had rubbed against a fitting on the side of the natural gas pipe and sheared it off, letting the pressurized natural gas escape at a very high rate.

I remained in my house and in less than 10 minutes, a fireman was knocking on my door! I was told to quickly close all windows in my house and proceed 1 block up the street. I will always admire the Austin Fire Department's quick response to this emergency because within 15 minutes of the gas rupture, they had contacted all my neighbors and ushered us to a safe place up the street where we proceeded to have an impromptu "block party".

There were about 30 of us, some with lawn chairs and many in their pajamas. We remained there for about an hour while the gas company repaired the break and the two wreckers removed the Bronco. At our "party", we got to catch up on current events and some folks got to meet their neighbors for the first time.

In spite of the fun we had under less than ideal conditions, think an easier way to meet your neighbors is to just attend an Eastwoods Neighborhood Association meeting.

 Jim Schwobel