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A Saturday in San Marcos

Well, earlier this week we saw an ad in the SM Daily Record for a church bar-b-que lunch for today, this Saturday.  So we decided to check it out, because, heck, we always liked church lunches from our experience in the Painted Churches area. 
Remembering that the address for this Wesleyan church was on Fredericksburg Street, we headed for the church called Wesleyan up on the hill that the elephant calls home-(TSU).  Got there, no line, no shortage of spaces to park in the church lot within stones throw of the University.  What luck, got out and asked the group selling drinks at the sidewalk if this was the place for the bar-b-que lunch.  This took them totally by surprise, as well as us, so Dee asked if this was Fredericksburg (street).  They said, no, ma'am, this is San Marcos, Fredrickburg is 75 miles north of here.  No, no, the street.
Well, after some frustration they acknowledged that the Wesleyan Church we were looking for was the historical Wesleyan Church on MLK Blvd, down by the old Tuttle Lumber Company.  So off to that part of the town, behind the old lumber company.
Looked and looked for lines of people to be fed, and cars parked hither and yon, nothing to be seen.  Finally again out of frustration, we went to a door in a building associated with the Church, and there it was, the bar-b-que all set up and ready for sale.
Its a church in the black neighborhood, the bar-b-que is the whole effort of an older black man and woman of the church, with a few young ones to help out.
Got our lunch, sat down at one of the long tables, and as we were the only ones there, we had our pick of spots to dine.  Lots and lots of people of all sorts came in for takeout, none stayed and sat down to enjoy their lunch.  It would appear that the takeout customers were  all local people, many who walked to the church to get their feed.
The food was excellent, brisket, beans, potato salad, and water to drink.
Then, the young ladies, ages 10 through 13, all who were helping with the lunch line,  approached us with a placard advertising their fund raising game of bidding on a sucker, and depending on the one chosen, the bottom end of the sucker stick (hidden from view) would tell us the price, ranging from $.25 though $1.25. Being good at their craft of extracting money from guests, the smallest girl said that if we did not want a sucker, we could just donate the money to their church.  We opted for the sucker. Must have been rigged as we blindly picked the most expensive.
When departing, we learned that this church sponsors a turkey dinner with all the trimmings every first Saturday of the month as well as these sporadic brisket lunches. Will have to put it on the calendar for The 5th of September if we are not totally tied up with planning for NM.
Now off to the Calaboose African American Museum just across the park.  Here we met Linda KJ, the curator, and the head of the board, Mr.xxx.  Really a great museum of old times.  One of the notables of San Marcos was the jazz musician Eddie Durham, famous for his "Kansas City Jazz".  Will have to look  for it in archive.net.
Then back to the car and on to look for Mr. Reveille's place near the Dunbar Center, but it was not apparent, so saved that for another day.
Now on to City Bakery (good Mexican baked goods, but no bread) a few blocks away, but it was closed for the day, as most bakeries are in the afternoon.
On to the coffee shop where we had our afternoon coffee.  Many (of what appears to be families) of students and parents walking the streets, getting the feel for new life at TSU.
Now to the grocery store where we looked for and found Mayocorba beans---the bean for making barrocho.  We will give making boraccho a try, since the beans of note were told to us by a fellow customer in the grocery store as the bean for making this tasty bean side.
Having enough frivolity for the day, we headed home.






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