Mike Chapman’s post on Jake Pickle bought back several memories of Austin’s US Representative from 1963-1995.
Mr. Pickle changed Austin’s landscape. He steered money to the University of Texas, and today the University’s J.J. Pickle Research Campus is named in his honor. He pused for relocating Austin’s main airport from Robert Mueller Municipal Airport to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. He helped bring SEMATECH and the MCC consortiums to Austin.
My memories are more personal. I arrived in Austin to attend the University of Texas in the summer of 1984. After my first meal at Conan’s Pizza on the drag I walked across the quad and in the middle of numerous student organizations signing up and preachers haranguing new students, free pizza, coupons for various restaraunts and bars there was a high-energy, well-dressed man handing out pickles. Hmmm….seemed a bit old to be selling pickles for the Heinz company…what the heck? Took me a few days to realize that was a U.S. Congressman. In Indiana, US Congressman stood on podiums and gave speeches…and definitely did not hang out glad-handing teenagers on a hot summer day.
We did a lot of work for Brown McCarroll, a Texas law firm in the 90’s. One day I came down a stairway and heard a pipe organ booming. A pipe organ at a downtown law firm? I peeked around the corner, it was Mr. Pickle banging away at the keyboard with a smile on his face.
The last memory of Mr. Pickle, was stories told by his friend (and my wife’s godfather), Representative Hungate (D-MO) about their times in Congress around the time of his funeral. Seems like campaigning was more fun when they were in Congress.
What a great story. The part about the organ really struck an emotional chord. In his Washington office, the address was 242 Cannon – an address I’ll probably never forget, Mr. Pickle had an old, red organ signed by many, many famous people. The most notable signature, to me and many others, was from Sam Rayburn. Speaking of Jake Pickle and music, I came to learn that he was an expert harmonica player, and an expert on the contents of the Methodist Church hymnal, and just about any other organized denomination. During Congressional prayer meetings, Mr. Pickle was regularly called upon to choose the music where he would also proceed to explain the history behind the hymn. He didn’t tell me all of this, even though I asked. I heard about many of his attributes from his colleagues, even after he retired. He definitely made a mark and left us with many, many great memories.