Culture: San Angelo Style

The city of San Angelo was a much bigger town than Commerce and still is, of course. It was a central town for many miles around. There were two movie houses there (at right: The Texas Theatre, which opened in 1928). I remember the musical movies particularly—Dick Powell (first clip below from 1935's "Broadway Gondolier" ), Ruby Keeler (second clip below, from 1935's "Go Into Your Dance"), June Allyson . . .






We enjoyed “Mexican” food in San Angelo. (“Tex-Mex” is a very recent expression.) We had tamales and chili, and that’s about all I think. Once a Mexican woman came to our house and made tamales for us. She made so many that we ate them for weeks, but they were delicious.

I don’t remember going to rodeos in San Angelo. Surely they were going on, but not for me. My first rodeo was in Fort Worth.

If West Texas was rowdy and such, I didn’t ever see it. What I saw was a friendly, culture-loving town. Guess it depended on how you looked at it.

The San Angelo Bobcats had a wonderful football season that first year (see commentary section for details about the 1933 and 1935 football playoffs). I was in the Pep Squad—wore a blue wool skirt, blue sweater trimmed in orange, white socks and oxfords. We also had a Rooting Regiment—boys—and a good band.

We won that season and went to El Paso for a regional game. They had a special train with Pullman cars. I had no special friend going, so I slept in an upper berth with a girl I didn’t know.
But it was fun anyway, and I think our team won. There was a box-car that served as a sort of concession stand with drinks and candies, etc.

In subsequent years, I also went to Big Spring and Abilene for football games.