Some good books and explorations are simply worth the wait — to be experienced in good time without rush. I recall volunteering years ago to plant native grasses in the fledgling Hardberger Park, never to return until this past weekend. I also vividly recall attending a book signing at The Twig Book Shop, snapping a photo of my friends with our former mayor, and buying this book, which I didn’t finish reading until today. That book signing was obviously November 16, 2010, based on the inscription by my friend Gayle.
Now, each time I return to the Voelcker’s former dairy farm, I’ll think of Max and Minnie’s grandparents who received shares of this new territory from the hard-won Republic of Texas in 1836. And I’ll think of the dairy cows that graced this land, providing milk, cream and butter for San Antonians for decades.
Theirs is the story of Texas pioneers who saw the future, living long enough to find flying contraptions crashed in their fields, and an ever-encroaching city, eager to devour their old way of life with new cul de sacs and shopping malls.
Philosopher and poet George Santayana famously said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” By documenting the history of this last, historic dairy farm, Gayle Brennan Spencer has given us a record of the past, along with a future vision we can visit with our own eyes.
Resources
Review of Last Farm Standing on Buttermilk Hill by Ed Conroy.
Purchase the book here (or at your local bookseller).
About the author, Gayle Brennan Spencer via Postcards from Barton Springs (formerly of San Antonio)
Finally, make time in your week to hike Hardberger Park and visit the land bridge that connects the Voelcker property across Wurzbach Parkway:
Phil Hardberger Park Conservancy
