The Bastrop Rod and Gun Club

The Bastrop Rod and Gun club is not a proper Rod and Gun Club such as those that exist all across the nation. I've been to a few Rod and Gun Clubs in my time, in several states, and they range from basic organizations to near Country Club like outfits. Most of the Rod and Gun Clubs I've visited over the years have a headquarters with a meeting hall or building, usually air conditioned, where members can gather *and drink alcohol* and talk about hunting and fishing. Several of the ones I've visited had small ponds or lakes and skeet shooting ranges on their property.

In the olden days, before the issue of lead contamination and the EPA became business concerns, lots of these Rod and Gun Clubs had shooting ranges, for everything from pistol shooting to long range hunting rifle sight-in ranges. But the advent of our understanding of how large lead concentrations can damage certain types of groundwater basins and sources led to the demise of many a public and private shooting range in this nation.

I even visited one hoity-toity Rod and Gun Club where they had a restaurant and big swimming pool and clubhouse for the members and their families to enjoy, and certainly those memberships cost near as much as country club or yacht club memberships.

The Bastrop Rod and Gun Club is none of those things. It really only exists in my mind, and is about the trials and trails of my friends and neighbors in Bastrop. They're a good bunch, and a funny bunch as well. As a good friend of mine, Dr. MacReady often says, there's "blogging gold" in the stories I tell him of my friends and the townfolk in and around Bastrop.

Bastropians: Those who live in the Bastropian paradise.

And the friends of mine that I run with here in town are indeed blogging fodder. The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty alike. Some of the folks I write about are combinations of folks, but most of my friends are so individualistic as to defy combining characters.

These friends of mine that I plan to write about are the "members" of my club. Most of them hunt and/or fish for recreational pursuits, and those that don't hunt and fish often golf. Some who hunt and fish also golf as well, so golfing and fishing and hunting seem run like a common thread through my friendship circle. To a certain extent, quilting is quite common among some of the females in my group of friends, but I'm not aware of any of the male members willing to admit that they quilt.

So anyway, the stories are *mostly* real and the names are *mostly* changed. The opinions expressed are sometimes mine and sometimes parody.

Bastrop Texas Fourth of July Patriotic Festival at Fisherman's Park July 3rd, 2009

Yes friends, tonight is the annual Fourth of July celebration that our small town puts on every year. And every year, a good time is had by all. The festivities begin at about 6 p.m. at Fisherman's Park, in Bastrop proper, on the banks of the Mighty Colorado River, with fireworks starting right at dark.

If you've ever been to our wonderful Patriotic Festival before, you know the drill. Chairs, cold bottled water and get there early to get a good spot.

The marvelous Austin Symphonic Band makes yet another return appearance to Fisherman's Park, where it will skillfully and delightfully regale the crowd with renditions of patriotic musical favorites. As the website for the Austin Symphonic Band says..."The band makes its annual appearance at this slice of Americana, along the banks of the Colorado River in Bastrop." http://www.asband.org/

July 3 – Friday – 6:00 – 9:30 pm – Patriotic Festival in Fisherman’s Park. Annual celebration with food, kid’s games and activities, and fireworks at dark. Live music from the Hwy 304 Band and patriotic music by the Austin Symphonic Band for the fireworks display. Call 303-0558. From the http://www.visitbastrop.org/events.aspx website.

After the normal patriotic celebration is over and we get the kiddies in bed, we'll be holding an unofficial meeting of the Bastrop Rod and Gun Club at Cindy's Downtown bar. I don't know if we'll have a quorum tonight, but it really doesn't matter. Slated for a panel discussion is a lively discourse on what the favorite intoxicating alcohol of the founding fathers (and mothers) was.

There may be a satellite celebration at Leon's in Rockne, depending on whether certain wives and girlfriends are feeling patriotic enough to stay home with the kids while dad goes and attends the Bastrop Rod and Gun Club meetings. Sometimes, some of our earnest membership has to wait until momma goes to sleep before they can slink out of the house for our meetings. Such is life.

We're a very patriotic community. After all, Bastrop bills itself as "The most historic small town in Texas". You can see it yourself on signs as you enter Bastrop proper. I'm not sure who awarded this accolade to our community. Member JimBob thinks it was a group of folks at a now defunct Bastrop called "The Western Pleasure Club" that got drunk one night twenty or thirty years ago and declared that their town was more historic than other small towns. I'm sure places like Nacogdoches, who consider themselves mighty historic over there in deep East Texas (behind the pine curtain) take offense at our declaration, but so be it.

We'll be making history tonight folks, in our own historic way. If we have too good of a time at Cindy's Gone Hog Wild Downtown, we may end up ambling across Main Street to the Mighty Colorado River and doing some late night catfishing. That is, if JimBob remembers to stop and get some chicken livers at the butcher shop on his way into town tonight.

Although many people may in fact be too drunk to fish tonight after the celebration, the motto of our Bastrop Rod and Gun Club in fact is "NEVER TOO DRUNK TO FISH".

Happy Fourth of July, fellow Bastropians.