A Neighborly Surprise

On Saturday, while we were in San Antonio, I received a phone call from our Rapid City next-door neighbors, Gary and Deanna Vollmer. They were in Austin visiting Gary's sister Julie and her family, and they invited us over to have dinner with them at Julie's house on Sunday evening. Now we have known the Vollmers since we moved onto West Boulevard in 1990, and we knew of Julie but had never met her. On Sunday afternoon we picked up a bottle of wine and headed down the road to what turned out to be a very surprising evening.

Julie and Rick live in the Barton Creek area, a neighborhood of extensive green belts and stately brick homes. We were "barked" in by their adored long-haired dachshunds (and guest Pomeranian) and made our way to to outside seating area by the pool to take in the warmth and talk about how we missed the cold air that is now settling into the Dakotas (NOT!). Jim had walked to the back of the yard with Rick and was talking there when suddenly Rick burst into our area of conversation and said, " YOU are Brad Authier's sister???!!!!!! That guy is an ANIMAL!!" Of course it was apparent immediately that he knew Brad well. Yes, that was the first BIG surprise of the evening. Julie and Rick know Brad and Erin well from many years ago and had a few tales to tell of running into them in Hawaii and renting mopeds to cruise around the island (Erin took a memorable spill). They keep up with them via Brad's Christmas letters. We sent a photo up to Brad and of course he was happily surprised also and wondered how we had met up in Austin. Well, you see, we have these neighbors that we have known for 23 years and. . .

Julie and Rick have an extensive collection of Coke memorabilia and gasoline pumps/collectibles. We had a little tour of the Coke room and then the second small surprise of the evening surfaced. On Saturday, the day after we were there, Rick, Julie, Gary and Deanna had also visited Gruene for lunch and shopping. Rick had made a purchase--a movie poster! It was the one and same Roy Rogers poster that I had admired. Now I know that I have good taste.

Talk about gracious hosts! After a lovely dinner, Julie loaded up a care package of leftovers complete with a bottle of wine and a piece of prune pie (which by the way makes a delicious breakfast) to send to our microwave trailer world. She had to have one more photo of us by her wooden Indian. I think we are looking towards Florida, where we plan to meet the Vollmers at Gulf Shores on the Florida Panhandle next month.

Julie and Rick Gross

A collection of rare items that were sold in the early days in tins.