When I left off, I had us in San Antonio and we’d just had a long, lovely walk in the rain. The next morning, I got up early and left Martha to sleep in a bit. I went downstairs, figuring I’d have coffee at the hotel’s service desk and maybe read for a while.
I was completely alone when I got to the lobby. There was a pleasant woman who was getting the breakfast and coffee bar set up. I wished her good morning. She smiled back, hesitantly, and I realized she spoke little if any English. So I did as you do in such situations and made do with smiles and nods and gestures. It worked well enough. (1)
I took my coffee to a seat in the lobby and read a bit of the book I’d bought. But, about halfway through my current chapter, who should appear but the unpleasant young man from the day before. He looked at me with obvious amazement. What was I doing here so early in the morning? I said hello and did my best to be cheery. He mumbled something, went to the check-in desk, and opened his laptop. He then began to play and watch some Hindi-language action movie. There was much yelling and gunfire. He had it on loud and it echoed from one end of the little lobby to the other.
After a bit, I gave up, got coffee for Martha, and headed upstairs.(2)
About the photos: Three today. First, a shot of the exterior of Schilo’s. Second, an interior of the same restaurant. BTW, if you visit, be sure to check out the cool old-fashioned tin ceiling.
Third, Martha contemplating the menu of The Esquire Tavern along the River Walk in San Antonio. This was from our 2022 visit. Sadly, The Esquire was one of our favs in the city, but the past few times we’ve been there it was distinctly unpleasant. The menu was limited, the food wasn’t great, and we had the feeling that the staff just barely tolerated us. So, we haven’t been back. Still, it was terrific once. Maybe we’ll go again in future and see what’s it’s like.
When we’d gotten ourselves together, we headed out for local restaurant, Schilo's Delicatessen.(3) It’s supposed to be the oldest restaurant in San Antonio, and it features German-American food, which is less surprising than you might think. Large numbers of German-speaking immigrants have been coming to Central Texas since the 1830s--particularly after the failed revolutions of 1848, when German-speaking liberals did not dare stay at home.(4)
Oh, and here’s an interesting little factoid. The Texas Germans were on very good terms with Black Texans. The two groups viewed each other as somehow kindred, and supported one another. It was for that reason that when the second Ku Klux Klan arrived in Texas after the 1920s, it persecuted Black Texans and German Texans with just about the same fervor.(5)
Anyway, even though Schilo's is a sort of tourist venue, it is also a very good restaurant and we had an excellent breakfast. I had fried eggs (over medium). Martha had an enormous avocado toast and an egg.
After that, we drifted over to La Villita, the shopping and historical district I’ve written about several times before.(6) We had our tour of the shops, and then it was time to head back to the hotel.
Okay, I’m going to compress a bit from here on out. Briefly, we rested, had dinner, and then started to get ready to go to the theater and Ismo’s performance.
This, of course, meant the usual sitcom situation that shows up in most marriages at some point along the way. I put on the suit coat and string tie that I’d brought...and that was it. I was done. Including the shave, it took me about fifteen minutes. Maybe closer to ten. That’s what guys born in Kansas, raised in the West, who have zero comprehension of sartorial elegance, do when it comes to clothes. Sorry. That’s just the facts.
With Martha, however...first there was the ironing, then there was the first outfit, then there was the decision that the first outfit didn’t work, then there was more ironing, then there was the second outfit, then there was the decision that the second outfit didn’t work either...
Well... you know the story from there.
We were just working on rejecting outfit number three and panicking about a lack of outfit number four when...
Martha got a text message.
She looked at her phone. “Oh, my God.” she said.
She showed it to me. You’ve seen me write about her friend-qua-sister, Judy, who lives in Kansas, miles and miles away. The message was from Judy’s landlord, who is also Judy’s close friend.
Judy, he told us, had taken a very serious fall. She’d been on her porch, which is elevated by several feet, when she’d fallen. Apparently, she went over the railing, down to the ground, and finally impacted a parked car.
They had taken her by ambulance to the closest city which had the necessary MRI and CT scan equipment. The concern, he noted, was that she might have bleeding in the brain.
“Oh, my God,” Martha said again.
I nodded and passed her the phone. This, I knew, was terrifying.
And there was nothing we could do about it. No way we could help. All we could do was wait...
And hope.
More to come.
Footnotes:
1. I’ve told this story before, but here goes anyway. Many years ago we went to the wedding of a friend in China. We were in a group of Americans and English-speaking Indians, and we’d gone to visit the bride’s parents in one of those enormous tower flats of which the Chinese government is so inordinately fond. Anyway, our group got split up at the elevators. My particular subgroup found itself in an elevator, not quite sure how to work the controls, and not entirely sure we were going to the right floor.
Fortunately, there was an older woman with us -- one of the building’s residents -- and while she spoke no English, and I spoke no Mandarin -- she was able to explain to me how to work the lift controls and we successfully made it to the floor wanted, and I thanked her profusely. She smiled and laughed and I took that as a “you’re welcome.”
I hadn’t noticed, but my companions had been watching all this with considerable interest. Finally, one of them said, “It’s a good thing Michael speaks English in Chinese.”
2. I think the term I’m looking for is “Jerk.” But I’m sure there are other words that would function equally well. Words with more color, and warmth, and pith. Particularly the pith.
3. Schilo's has its own webpage here: https://schilos.com/. But, as a local institution, and a tourist destination, it rates its own Wikipedia page here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schilo%27s_Delicatessen
4. For more on Texas Germans, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Germans
5. See “Black Texas Germans,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Germans#Black_Texas_Germans
6. You can see La Villita’s webpage here: https://www.lavillitasanantonio.com/
Copyright©2025 Michael Jay Tucker
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