Smoking Diaries #7: Lost Austin

Sarah at 18 turns out to be a lot like Sarah at 48. This shot was taken by my dear friend Bryan Christian in 1993 and wound up on the back cover of my hardback memoir. Check out those dangly earrings, by the way. Still had a little Dallas in me.

by Sarah Hepola

It’s 6:08am, and your narrator is visiting Austin, TX, fabled land of cool and/or weird. While sitting at Lady Bird Lake (nee Town Lake), she recalls her twenties in this slacker Valhalla: Chain-smoking waitresses, frozen margaritas with salt, dressing like a lumberjack. A recent New Yorker story described the astonishing transformation of Austin, now one of the most traffic-clogged and chi-chi cities in the country, but this is a more personal tale: Five years at the University of Texas, followed by a dream gig at the Austin Chronicle, and lessons learned from binge drinkers, pop culture junkies, and stoner philosophers. It’s an odyssey that takes us through Reality Bites, Slacker, REM, and at least one Taco Cabana. Austin is different, no doubt, but your narrator will always love this place.