#TBT Back in the Day in Lake Travis: Piggly Wiggly, Horses & Mudding in Rough Hollow
“I remember when …” seems to be a common response when you tell someone you reside in the Lake Travis area. There are lots of folks who may not live here now, but fondly remember spending quality time here back in the day.
What’s funny is most of these stories revolve around Randalls. For example …
“I remember when The Chair King was Randalls …”
“I remember when the Randalls was the Lakeway Rodeo.”
Whaaa? There was a rodeo in Lakeway?
“I remember when Randalls was AppleTree.”
Okay, you win!
In order to paint an accurate picture of what the area truly looked like, we consulted with Lake Travis resident, real estate broker, and entrepreneur Cassie Ford. Her family moved to the Lakeway area in 1981 when she was a kid.
If you’re one of those people who likes to wax nostalgic about the glory days of Lake Travis, feel free to help us fill in the blanks with your own memories.
If you’re new to the Lake Travis area, sit back, grab a cup of coffee and take an entertaining journey with us on this Throwback Thursday!
Where was Randalls?
As we mentioned, a great way to test anyone’s knowledge of the area is to figure out where Randalls was located in their story. Yes, Randalls was originally located where The Chair King is now, as many of you may know.
Lakeway Rodeo
If someone remembers when the Randalls was Lakeway Rodeo Arena, they have a pretty firm understanding of what “back in the day” looked like in LT.
At that time the area was known as Schramm Ranch and the rodeo venue entertained the Lakeway community for eight years with professional rodeos, concerts, dances and BBQs.
Piggly Wiggly
What’s Cassie’s Randalls-esque memory?
She laughs, “Randalls was there, but it was called AppleTree,” a supermarket chain that preceded Safeway’s ‘Randalls.’
“Before that, there was only one grocery store in Lakeway and it was a Piggly Wiggly in the Lakeway Plaza shopping center where Achieve Physical Therapy and Jasper’s is now.”
Horses & muddin’
Cassie remembers when the City of Lakeway added their no livestock policy in the greenbelt because she used to ride her horses through that area (which is now Bella Montagna) to let them drink water from the lake.
She also remembers Steiner Ranch as a functioning cattle ranch with no homes in sight, just 5,200 acres of rolling green pastures with cattle and horses.
According to Cassie, a popular pastime back in the day was going mudding in what’s now Rough Hollow. (Yes, we giggled at that too.) She remembers, “the rope swing was in that lake cove and everyone parked their boats in there. It was so much fun!”
Football fail
We know Lake Travis High School has an amazing football program now, but it wasn’t always that way.
Cassie, who was a Cavalette at LTHS laughs, “Our football team was terrible! Our band just played on the track and never took the field. Back then, we would only win 1-2 games in an entire season.”
Want more #TBT fun factoids about life in Lake Travis? Here ya go:
- FM 620 was a 2-lane highway with no turn lanes or shoulders
- There were no stop lights in the Lake Travis area; the first stop light was at 620 and Lakeway Blvd.
- Whataburger used to be a Dairy Queen
- Sandy’s Hamburger Hut was the first and only fast food spot
- Everyone loved to party on Flagship Texas, a 250-person charter ship that was in Lakeway Marina
- Rosie’s Tamale House was the only Mexican restaurant in the area; it was located at the corner of FM 620 and Hwy 71 (formerly Springhill) and the wait for a table was hours long
- After LTHS football games, everyone went to Jim’s in Oak Hill for greasy comfort food
- One of the best restaurants in the Lake Travis area was called Barbara Ellen’s featuring country cooking and delicious homemade rolls
- If you wanted to go shopping, you drove to Barton Creek Square
Over to you — do you have a #TBT memory to share with us? Let us know in the comments on Facebook.
