Page 4
THE BATTALION
TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 1980
The last picnic show
by DEBBIE NELSON
Battalion Staff
“Willie Nelson invites you to his
iast eighth annual Fourth of July pic
nic at his own Pedemales Country
Club near Lake Travis in Austin.... ”
A canned speech on a picnic infor
mation line in Austin repeats the
message over and over while canned
Willie Nelson songs wind through
the background.
The “picnics” started in 1973, in a
cow pasture filled with 50,000 prog
ressive country fans, country singers
like Waylon Jennings and Kris Kris-
tofferson and of course, Willie
Nelson.
Following years took Willie and
his picnic from the cow pasture in
Dripping Springs to the Cotton Bowl
in Dallas, with cold beer, excessive
heat and unruly crowds all part of the
tradition.
So why is this the last picnic?
“He accomplished what he set out
to, bringing together rednecks and
hippies with the mutual understand
ing of music,” said David Anderson,
public relations man for Nelson in
Austin.
“He also did it to promote the
artists at the picnic, which it did.
Besides, it takes six months out of the
year to set up the picnic and another
six months to revive from it.”
This year s picnic features, besides
the 47-year-old Nelson, such coun
try music names as the Charlie
Daniels Band, Ray Price, Merle
Haggard, Ernest Tubb, Leon Rus
sell and Asleep at the Wheel.
Picnic tickets at $13 each are avail
able at Rainbow Ticket Master loca
tions throughout Texas, Louisiana
and Oklahoma. Also, tickets will be
available at the entrance for $15.
Locally, the only place to buy tick
ets is Hastings Books and Records in
Culpepper Plaza, which has sold
300 tickets.
Anderson said mail orders for tick
ets were accepted for the first time
this year, with over 1,000 tickets
Willie Nelson
being sold for a special $10 price.
“We got mail orders from London,
Mexico, every state of the Union,”
Anderson said. As for this year s pic
nic, he predicted, “I know it’ll be the
best. I don’t know about the big
gest.”
Anderson does expect a bigger
crowd than the 25,000-30,000 who
attended last year’s picnic, which
was on a Wednesday, in the middle
of the gasoline crisis.
The Pedernales country club, 30
miles west of Austin off state High
way 71, is the scene of this year’s
picnic. Nelson bought the aban
doned golf course, country club
building and two homes for $250,000
as a site for last year’s picnic. Pre
viously, he had trouble leasing land,
plus trouble providing adequate
sanitation facilities and security
guards.
Nelson also had trouble convinc
ing some residents of the Briarcliff
subdivision, which surrounds the
country club, that they would not
suffer “irreparable harm” from the
anticipated crowds.
Not until July 3, when the Texas
Supreme Court refused to hear the
case, was the fate of the picnic se
cure.
The picnic went on as planned,
evidently to the benefit of some
Briarcliff residents. The Houston
Post reported residents were selling
lemonade, beer and tacos to the
crowds packing the area roads.
The concept of outdoor concerts
has changed since Nelson’s first pic
nic, Anderson continued. “We
might wait a few years and come back
and do some indoor concert dates,
some stadium dates, but this is defi
nitely the last one (picnic) here at
Briarcliff. ”
This year there are no lawsuits
trying to keep Nelson and his friends
from their picnic. Anderson said
when Nelson bought the country
club he told area residents the picnic
would be an annual event, but some
residents still objected.
Anderson explained the picnic
uses no tax money, because the
county is reimbursed for any ex
penses. Besides Department of Pub
lic Safety and medical attendants,
about 500-600 private security
guards will be hired this year.
Expenses for the annual picnics
have cost Nelson about $250,000 a
year, Anderson said, but he claimed
the picnic tradition is not being
broken because of the money.
Instead, Nelson may be going out
of the picnic business and into the
movie business.
Nelson’s film “Honeysuckle Rose”
premieres July 3, Anderson said.
The soundtrack contains some of the
first original songs Nelson has
recorded in quite some time.
And although rumors have floated
since 1978 about a movie based on
Nelson’s “Redheaded Stranger”
album, Anderson said work on the
film is scheduled to begin next year.
Sounds like Willie is changing his
tune.
Five who scaled Alamo walls
scheduled for court today
United Press International
SAN ANTONIO — Five members
of the Maoist Revolutionary Com
munist Party were scheduled to go to
court today to defend themselves
against disorderly conduct charges
filed as a result of their symbolic
“takeover” of the Alamo on March
20.
On that date, three members of
the group scaled the walls of the his
toric shrine, which they termed “a
symbol of oppression of Chicano
people,” took down the Texas flag,
ran up a red banner and shouted re
volutionary slogans through a bul
lhorn as an angry crowd yelled for
police to remove them.
Scheduled to appear before Muni
cipal Judge Benjamin Samples were
James Callahan, Gary Clements,
William Chavez, Hayden Steele
Fisher and Abigail Bayer.
Fisher, Bayer and Damian Garcia
were arrested on top of the Alamo
and were originally charged with de
secration of a venerated object, a
charge that later was dropped for
lack of evidence. The other three
were arrested on the ground near the
shrine.
Garcia, whom the Maoists termed
a “martyr,” was stabbed to death
April 23 in Los Angeles, Calif., and
Fisher was wounded in a knife attack
during a communist demonstration
in a barrio housing project.
Monday a half dozen members of
the Maoist group talked to reporters
in Alamo Plaza and charged that Gar
cia was killed in “notorious coin-
telpro fashion” by government
agents who they claimed vowed to
hunt down those who participated
the Alamo demonstration.
Neta Reynolds, 30, of Houston,
spokesman for the group, said the
Maoists had applied for a parade per
mit to stage a rally at noon today in
front of the Alamo to protest Garcia’s
death and to support the five com
munists to be tried on the misde
meanor disorderly conduct charge.
“The Alamo takeover and the Ala
mo itself are going to be on trial, ” she
said.
“The Alamo itself is offensive, not
only to Chicano people but to people
all over the world. It’s a decrepit old
monument. It is a symbol of oppres
sion, not freedom; slavery, not liber
ation. I think the thing is an insult.”
The Alamo, a mission established
by the Spanish in 1718, was the site
of an 1836 battle during Texas’ war
for independence from Mexico.
Surgery today first step for Pryor
United Press International
LOS ANGELES Comedian
Richard Pryor, suffering from
pneumonia and in critical condition,
today faced the first of what may be
years of operations for severe
burning.
Pryor’s physician Dr. Jack Gross-
man said Monday that some mislead
ing news reports had given the im
pression Pryor was out of danger.
“He’s in very critical condition,”
Grossman told a news conference.
“He’s about as sick as you can get and
still be alive.”
Pryor has developed a form of
pneumonia that afflicts some burn
victims, but Grossman said it was
“one of the anticipated complica
tions.”
The comedian, who received
third-degree bums on his chest, up-
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per arms, armpits and face, was sche
duled for surgery today to remove
the burned flesh.
After surgeons remove the dam
aged tissue, skin grafts can begin.
Grossman would not comment on
the course of treatment, but medical
experts have said that burn cases as
severe as Pryor’s usually require two
or three skingrafting operations.
Rehabilitation to increase elastic
ity of the grafted skin can take years,
leading up to plastic surgery to re
duce scarring, especially on the face.
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