Why, Yes

I am 39 with my wife
Entering the GM Steak
House on the Drag across
From UT at 12:30 pm to share
A meal together then go back
To our jobs, the old GM now
Offers heaping portions of
Abusive language as a joke
To entice the university crowd.
We enter to get our chopped
Steak and fries when the
Waiter asks me if I am the
Lady’s bodyguard?
I reply why yes, sort of.
He seats us and asks why
I look so super straight, do I work
At the Highway Department?
I reply why, yes.
I do work at the Highway Department. He flushes
Apologizing saying he did not
Mean to embarrass me and it was
Only the new gimmick for sales
But my wife and I are laughing
So he realizes we think it was funny.
Austin in 1985 was still weird way
Beyond belief with interesting
People and ideas strange attire
And what can only be described
As the typical UT odds and sods.
No place for a good hard-shelled
Baptist or Presbyterian though
The Methodists seemed to thrive.
I miss the old Austin where
No matter what craziness
You picked others were
Tolerant and accepting
Of you as you were of them.
An island of weirdness
In the heart of Texas.
A&M had the Chicken
Ranch, UT had Austin.