Oak Hill was quite a place in its day. I suppose it’s lost most of it’s charm with all the building and a freeway running through the middle of it. I think of the place it was in the 60s and 70s. That’s when I spent most of my time there.

Oak Hill was where Madeline and I moved after we left Burnet County in 1972. Several of my prior stories involve the time we were there and in the days working in and around the area. There were many years that it was our hub of commerce, when we lived in Dripping Spring in the 80s. There wasn’t much out Drippin way back then.

My teenage memories take me back to going there to the old drag strip. It seems like it was a multipurpose place. Maybe car racing drag strip and horse racing all mixed together.

For me the most recognizable establishment in Oak Hill was the Big Wheel Truck Stop. I’ll have another post about the Big Wheel soon.

Below was a post from June 2015

I was coming through Round Mountain last Friday and looked over and saw Alford Hill pulling up to his old car lot. I had only found out the day before about the loss of his daughter that he and his wife had suffered a few weeks ago. I turned around to say a few words to him. The words are usually hard to come by when you talk to someone about the loss of a loved one. But it’s just letting them know you are grieve right along with them. It’s like he said “we shouldn’t have to bury our kids”. It made me realize how fortunate that Madeline and I have been.

After seeing him and then driving on to Corpus Christi a flood of memories came to me, about Oak Hill and Dripping Spring. We both lived there at the same time. I have hardly seen Alford since those days. Our paths seldom cross, but they should.

I thought back to a time when we were a struggling little contractor trying to keep our guys busy. Alford’s dad, Cecil had sold the feed store and arena property right in the middle of Oak Hill and was moving his car and truck sales lot across the highway. They hired us to put in an elaborate septic system. The City of Austin even maintained a stranglehold on things way back then, probably about 1978 or 1979. I think that was when I first got to know Alford and Cecil. They were such down to earth people. Of course I had been around them sometimes earlier on, but being there and doing business with them gave me a real taste of what fine people they were.

It’s just a reminder to me, to stop a visit more people. A lot of the good ones have left us and none of us are getting any younger.

Running across the article below about Oak Hill brought back so many memories.

(Written – 02/22/2014) It does a far better job of describing the Old Oak Hill, than I ever could.

Oak Hill’s old-timers tell tales about ‘good ‘ol days’