Gonzales, TX

I spent this last weekend in Gonzales, TX. My Mother and Grandparents live on the Gulf Coast of Texas so when the evacuation orders came in to flee hurricane Ike, the first place to go is Gonzales. For many of us in the family, it’s ‘Home Sweet Home’. I decided to seize the moment and flip it into a family get-together. It worked out all right and we seemed to have a good time, though the visit just wasn’t long enough. Obviously, at short notice there were no hotels available so I decided to try my luck with Bed and Breakfasts and Inns. After a few phone calls, I was able to reserve a couple of nights at the John Fauth Cottage on St. Peter Street. All of the old homes and mansions in Gonzales are named after the original owners. The homes carry on their legacies long after they’re gone. It adds so much life to this town and the stories are really quite endearing. Gonzales is a quaint town, much like Andy Griffith’s Mayberry, only it is so much richer in history and my family’s roots. Five generations, to be exact. There is something so magical and enchanting about this place. For some at first glance, it probably just looks like a small town with nothing going on; Population 7,000 and a downtown square that is in desperate need of revitalization. But I spent a few summers and Thanksgivings here as a child and it made a lasting impression on me. And this past weekend, as I sat on the porch in the evenings with my mother at the John Fauth house, I recalled the butterflies, the horned frogs, hummingbirds, fragrant floral smells, fresh picked dewberries, sandy soil beneath my feet and rock dirt roads, climbing trees and making mud pies. My life in Gonzales as a child was a long list of make believe and magical moments. Plunkett’s was the icehouse just down the road where we’d walk and buy a cold Coke in the glass bottle; My Great Grandmother’s greenhouse was my hide-away and my sister and I climbed the pecan trees and sprawling oaks. It was an enchanting retreat for me to when I was a child and here it is again, 29 years later, the place I still love to call home.