One of my sons (he was about 11 or 12 at the time) and I visited Furr’s Cafeteria on South I-35 at St. Elmo Road in South Austin. This would have been in about 1989.

We got our trays and found a table up close to the front door.

Within the next few minutes an elderly fellow came in, with someone helping him to carry his tray. He saw me and told the young gal that he’d sit with us. I was delighted to have him. I had known him casually in my younger days and we had even done business with him. I’m sure he didn’t remember me from then, as 25 or more years had passed. But the reason he knew me was I had met with him a few times in resent months. My construction company was working adjacent to land he owned along Onion Creek, south of the current airport. I had rented a yard area for this old fellow, which lead into a relationship with him.

He was always very interesting to talk to. He could talk to you about any subject that was brought up. He knew just about every person in Austin.

As the old fellow set down he tasted his glass of ice tea he determined it wasn’t nearly as sweet as he perferred. He took several packages of sugar and dumped them in his glass. Then a few more.

My son, Mike, gave me a glance calling my attention to a tea glass that was almost half full of sugar with tea on up to the top. Throughout his meal the gal with the cart passed by to fill our tea glasses a few times.

As we finished with our meals, the old gentleman summoned a young lady worker over to ask her to get him his usual. Which turned out to be 2 slices of pecan pie. We gathered that he was a regular visitor to Furrs.

We continued to sit and visit while he consumed both pieces of pie and washed it down with more sweet tea.

It was a great meal that we enjoyed that evening with the Famous Austinite, TC “Buck” Steiner. He would have been about 90 years old. He lived for another 11 years, dying in 2001 at the age of 101.