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Anybody remember the house on the south side of W.6th toward the dead end of MoPac at (at the time) Town Lake. it was known as the house with the “Lid-o-matic”? I heard about it and went by more than once in the mid to late 70s. I never met the owners/renters but knew there was an old coke machine on the front porch that was always open and usually would have lids of pot inside stacked in the slots where the old coke bottles would normally be found. It was on the honor system: take a lid, leave money. Yup, The Lid-O-Matic!

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This is one of my absolute favorite stories. So many yards, so much fun.

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Does anyone remember the “Old Fred” on W.23 1/2 near Rio Grande. Named after the skipper of the Yellow Submarine. The house featured a yellow submarine logo I think.

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Love how you're keep Austin history alive.

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Thank you for writing this. I've been wanting to write about my time at Chico State and KCSC, which was on FM Cable at the time ('90-'91). This gave me plenty of new flashbacks (non acid version).

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The big difference between Dallas and Austin back then (1970s) was that Dallas was a big CITY while Austin was still a small, college TOWN.

College towns have cheap rent and old houses.

In Dallas, the scene was at the clubs, particularly Mother Blues. Interestingly enough, Mother Blues was in an old house. It was the hangout for the music scene people because it stayed open until 5 am on weekends, so no one went home.

Most of us in Dallas in the 70s lived in cheap apartments, not houses, and there were PLENTY of cheap apartments back then.

The pics in this story remind me of my time at Baylor from 1970-74. There were a lot of cheap houses in Waco, and we inhabited them and threw big parties. But that just wasn't the scene in Dallas, the big city.

Great piece. I was in Austin as a visitor back then and recall it well.

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