- Are we making all this up?
Are we just throwing out dates arbitrary?
- Maybe.
- Should I look and not lie to you guys?
What do you think?
- No, it's 1840 something.
(laughing)
Look, we're not history buffs.
(laughing)
(upbeat music)
(soft country music)
- Alright, let's go in.
- Thank you!
- Thank you.
(somber military music)
So, Mr. Harvey, at age 17,
you went to your mother,
and you did not ask her
if you could join the Marine Corps,
you TOLD her you were going to join the Marine Corps.
Tell the audience how that worked out for you that day.
- Well, she was hanging up clothes on the clothesline.
She had to take in washing
to support seven girls
and two boys.
And when I threw out my chest
and demanded her to
sign those papers, I said,
she walked down to the end of that clothesline
and took some of that spare wire that she had
and walked back toward me,
and she switched me with the thing.
And she wore that thing out on my behind.
(laughter)
- What'd she do with those papers?
- The papers I handed, shoved at her,
told her to sign them,
she took those papers
and made confetti out of them.
(laughter)
And threw them in my face.
And then she really wore me out.
And then she cried.
That's the first time I'd ever seen my mother cry.
My mother was a Comanche Indian,
and that Indian side showed up
in the way she took care of me and seven sisters.
I had seven sisters,
and when I fight the Japanese, they were easy.
(laughter)
- And she wore you out with that piece of clothesline wire,
but then she brought a new set of papers to you
and she'd signed them.
Is that correct?
- That's right. That's right.
- Share with the audience what it was like
when you returned home
for about those 30 minutes before heading out to California.
- When that train stopped,
we got- there was three of us.
We got off,
and I was getting hugs and kisses
by girls that wouldn't even look at me
before I joined the Marine Corps.
(laughter)
And I made the most of it and so forth.
(laughing and cheering)
- Oh, oh, here. Take these.
Take those.
- They're supposed to hold her up.
- Come on, come on, get it.
Come on, come on. Yeah!
- Oooh! So close!
(country music)
- That's all we needed was one.
- You know what we gotta do?
- It's the same, to be honest.
- Let's get all this stuff outta here.
- You know what we gotta do?
- I'll throw it away then.
- You're not giving me lashes.
- We're singing.
- Aye, no, we're doing it right. Get over the knees, sailor.
- Aaah!
- You know, I haven't heard that in a long time.
(laughing)
Last time I heard that it cost me money.
- Hey, hey, hey.
- One, two, three...
(Happy Birthday Song)
(cheering)
- First off, I would like thank God for being here today.
- That's right, there you go.
- I would like to thank my wonderful wife
and my family for making this special.
- Hurry up before I puke. (laughter)
- You know, right? Right?
- It's my acceptance speech.
- There we go.
- Oh, so you're accepting the age,
is that what you're saying?
- I have to. I have no choice, Stacy.
- It's okay, I'm just asking.
- What would that mean?
- I'm okay to be 38.
(laughter)
- So, I heard the only way to eat these
is one bite and down the hatch.
- I mean, if you enjoy them.
(laughter)
- What?
- Down the cupcake.
- Right, let's give this a whirl.
(laughter)
- Is he gonna? He did it!
- Yay!
(clapping)
- Boom!
- Sir, happy birthday.
- Oh, how cool!
- Look at that!
- Thank you so much, sir. I appreciate that.
- Thank you.
- Appreciate you coming out today
and spending the day with us.
- Thank you. Appreciate it.
- Show us that good hat.
- Yeah, show the hat.
- That's nice. Alamo Springs Cafe.
- Nice.
- Woo woo, what what!
- Nice trucker hat. I like it.
(upbeat music)
- We have a special guest for you today.
This is our very first meetup with Insiders.
- Yes.
- Yep.
- So, Denise is one of our Insiders.
She's been hanging out with us over on Patreon,
and she's been in Discord,
and Discord really has been amazing.
- It's pretty awesome.
It's a constant conversation.
- Yes, it is.
- The community is rollin',
and everybody's gettin' to know each other,
and it is really awesome.
- So, this is our first
out-in-the-wild encounter
with an actual Insider,
so we're pretty excited.
- Yes.
- So, she's number one.
- No, I haven't.
- No, you are number one.
- Oh, I'm number one.
- She said, "Number one, me first."
We don't ever win either.
(laughing)
- But she is our first Insider,
and it was so nice to meet up with her,
and, you know, we're hanging out,
we're getting to know her a little bit better,
and we're just having a great time.
- That's right. And she actually brought us here
to this super cool place,
which is kind of like a roadside attraction.
- Yes.
- So, if you're in Fredericksburg,
you have to swing down and check it out.
- Yeah. It's between Luckenbach and Comfort.
- And it's called the Cartoon Saloon.
- Yeah.
- It's pretty neat.
- So they do have some beer in the fridge here,
and it is, what do they call it?
- Donation tips.
- Donations.
- Yeah, so pick your beer, drop your tip,
and go chill outside under the trees.
- Yep.
(upbeat music)
- Welcome to Luckenbach, Texas.
- Yeah. We have not seen Willie, Waylon, nor the boys.
- I don't know why they're not here to greet us.
- Well, there are some boys,
but we haven't seen the other two.
- This is a pretty cool spot.
It is a dot on the map, for sure.
But it has a long history and it is super cool.
- Yeah. Right behind Stacy,
you see the general store-slash-post office-slash-bar.
- All in one. It was actually built in what, 1849?
- Forty-eight, I think.
- Forty-eight.
1848 is when it was actually established
as a trading post.
Are we making all this up?
Are we just throwing out dates arbitrary?
- Maybe.
- Should I look and not lie to you guys?
- No, I'd say 1840 something.
(laughing)
But we're not history buffs.
We read it online.
- You all know Phil hates history anyway,
but it actually started as a trading post,
here in Luckenbach,
between the pioneers and the Comanche Indians.
So, that's actually how this was established.
(upbeat music)
- Fun fact about the general store is
in order for it to be a general store,
it had to sell caskets.
Above me, is one of two caskets
they have in the rafters here.
And one of them was actually a prop
in the "Pony Express Rider" movie back in the day.
And it was gifted to Hondo Crouch,
who was the town owner
who played a preacher in the movie.
Oh yeah, and the other casket is an antique.
(upbeat music)
- Behind me is the post office
which, as you can see by the sign here,
okay, you can't see 'cause you can't read it,
it actually opened in 1886.
And because they were being proper,
you can see this little white line here.
You couldn't bring alcohol from the bar
across this line into the post office
'cause it was an official building.
The general store is actually the original trading post
that was built in 1849.
That is so cool.
And check out these hardwood floors.
They are old and worn and so cool.
(upbeat music)
Phil's favorite part of this store slash
post-office slash bar, of course.
- Right in there.
- Right back there.
That's where the brew is found.
(upbeat music)
- Behind Stacy's head is the remnants
of an old cotton gin that burned down in 2002
along with the blacksmith's shop, I guess.
- Yeah, it's pretty cool.
I mean, think about it.
A cotton gin, and it's steam-powered.
That's what you're looking at,
is the actual steam engine behind us.
That's all that's left.
So it's pretty cool.
- It is pretty crazy.
And you know, when you look at the nuts and bolts,
literally, the nuts and bolts of this thing,
they're still intact.
They look like they would still work or hold
and do what it's supposed to do today.
- Well, minus the rust and the holes.
- They're still tight and they look intact.
(laughing)
(upbeat music)
They say the population of Luckenbach is three,
but if you come here on the weekend,
it is going to explode.
You can have upwards of 1,400 people here
checking out all of these stages.
If you like country music and you like live music,
this is the place to be.
They have all kind of Texas musicians, bands, you name it,
come here every weekend and sometimes throughout the week.
So, if you're going to be close to here,
make sure you look up their schedule.
(upbeat music)
Oh, I forgot to tell ya,
if you really want to come here for a party,
Willie Nelson throws a Fourth of July bash every year.
Well, unless Covid's going on.
And they have upwards of 80,000 people for that party.
So, if you want to hang out, have a good time,
apparently, that's the day to come.
(upbeat music)
This place is literally a speck on the map of Texas.
So, do you guys search out these kind of places
or do you avoid them?
- I definitely don't search 'em out.
I'd go where she tells me to go. (laughter)
- I search them out.
This is actually really cool
if you walk around and get the feel of the place.
I really love it.
- Yeah, there's a lot of history here.
You could see, if you go into the bar area-
- Hold on, bikers leaving.
- At least they're quiet. They're BMWs.
They're pretty quiet.
But if you go into the back of the bar,
there's a lot of old pictures of, you know,
popular musicians from, you know, years gone past.
- Back in the 70s, yeah.
- Yeah. It's pretty cool to see that.
And then just know the vibe of the place come this weekend.
- And it's kind of funny because, like, I said,
this is a small town,
population three at some point,
but almost everybody, I should say,
almost everybody knows about this place because of the song.
("Luckenbach, Texas" by Waylon Jennings)
- But it's actually known worldwide,
because of that song recorded by
Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson.
- Yeah, I thought it was a much bigger town.
You know, when they put a town in a song,
I'm thinking, man, there's gotta be something about it.
You know, we gotta check it out,
but a blink, and you'll drive right past it.
- Well, obviously, if you've heard the song,
you'll realize that Phil does not actually pay attention
to words in the song,
because the whole song is about getting away from it all,
and going out in the middle of nowhere,
and getting away from the rat race.
So-
- True, she's got me there.
(laughing)
- But, I've got another fun fact.
Waylon Jennings hadn't been here when he recorded the song.
In fact, it was twenty years after the song went out,
that he actually showed up here to check the place out.
- That's true.
The song was actually written by two other folks,
not by Willon -
Willie or Waylon.
I'm putting them together.
- Combining their names. Yeah.
- So, he came here for a Fourth of July celebration
with Willie Nelson.
That was the first time that he ever stood foot here.
- Twenty years after the song was released.
That's amazing.
- So, if you decide to head to Fredericksburg, Texas,
there is a lot to do there.
It's a beautiful place.
This is only thirteen miles down the road.
So, make sure you come down, pop in.
If you come in the evening,
you can get a really cool concert.
- Yeah. I would say if you're in Fredericksburg,
you have to come swing out this way.
But if you're just driving through,
I don't know that I would make it
a destination off the beaten path.
Unless you kind of like old history
and the music and all of that, that goes with it,
then it might be your spot.
(laughing)
Or her spot.
(upbeat music)