Rambling Boy

Lonn takes us through the stories of two very different Texas governors' baptisms in the same small creek.

On this week's Rambling Boy, Lonn Taylor talks about another historic site along the Webberville Road. Just 6 miles East of Austin City Limits was a sign that resembled the outline of a greyhound above the words "Coasting Park." A dirt path lead to a pasture, where on Sunday afternoons, greyhound racing took place.

A few weeks ago, Rambling Boy's Lonn Taylor was in San Antonio at his favorite meeting -- the Texas State Historical Association. 600 or so historians spend 3 days of trading stories about Texas history. This year, Lonn read a paper about Ima Hogg's contribution to the Texas Historical Preservation Movement. Due to the constraints of academia it was pretty dry, but on this week's Rambling Boy, Lonn Taylor takes the opportunity to give Ima Hogg's story some justice.

Texas has numerous historic roads that started as an indian path and were later widened and paved into a highway. Lonn's favorite historic Texas road is a little known backroad that runs at the bottom of the Colorado river between Austin and Bastrop.

This week, Lonn Taylor talks about one of his great pleasures in life -- browsing in used bookstores. His father also loved to go to used bookstores and took Lonn with him for the first time when he was five. The first used book store Lonn remembers going to is Lowdermilk in Washington D.C. when he went with his father in 1945.

This week’s edition of Rambling Boy delves into the history of the Langhorne Punitive Expedition, launched in response to a 1916 Mexican raid on the Texas towns of Glenn Springs and Boquillas.

Ever heard of Jeff Davis Pie? Osgood Pie? Listen to this week's edition of Rambling Boy with historian Lonn Taylor for a delicious history of our one of our favorite holiday treats.

"Most of us are familiar with the story of George Washington’s Continental Army freezing and starving at Valley Forge during Christmas of 1777. In this episode of Rambling Boy, historian Lonn Taylor contemplates some other historic American Christmases. Rum rations, fire cake and Christmas fines!"

Historian Lonn Taylor brings an old tradition into the new year. In this episode of Rambling Boy, Taylor talks about how newspapers editors used to publish a New Years address until the trend died in the 1920's. Nearly a century later, Lonn Taylor brings this tradition back to life by reading an excerpt from The New Years Address from 1822 written by the poet president of the republic of Texas Mirabeau B. Lamar.

In this episode of Rambling Boy, our host Lonn Taylor investigates various mysteries he encountered while on vacation in Paris: hordes of well-dressed Parisians lounging in the Luxembourg Gardens during work hours, highly specialized retail items, strange police horns, and the pervasiveness of wheeled luggage.