THE PRINCESS
She was a fixture,
one of those people you pass on the street
so often you stop noticing.
They called her The Princess,
rumored to be an Indian Princess or descended
from one, it was never quite clear.
She rode her bicycle around town
peddling a one page paper, cheaply printed,
about twenty years old.
They called her Bicycle Annie too
but to me she was always The Princess.
Wizened, sundark, hostile,
she'd cuss you out at the drop of a hat.
She was something out of ancient mythology,
the crone, the hag; serenely vituperative,
she went her way from one end of town to the other
dealing out recriminations with an evenhanded malice.
I noticed her first in the 60s
but they say she'd been around much longer
and continued through the 70s, 80s, 90s.
Gradually, her mobility failed.
She pushed her bicycle instead of riding it,
then walked haltingly, feet bandaged.
Finally, she went to crutches but kept moving;
and, at the last she was relegated to a wheelchair,
rode cabs to the grocery, cussing the cabdrivers.
And then one day she was gone.
She'd been there so long I didn't notice
for a long time. There must have been a day
when she stopped, could go no longer
but I don't know when it was.
Now, today in a new century, I evoke her
as I walk on my cane to the grocery.
There's a kind of dark beauty in her memory.
And that's all I can say.
I wish I could say more.
She deserves more just for enduring,
for her constancy,
for the mark she left on us all
whether we know it or not.
Albert Huffstickler
Posted over on Nerve Cowboy
6 comments:
You have perfectly described Bicycle Annie, the Princess, as I recall her. I did have some small personal interaction with her once but always wanted to know her and was far too respectful of her to go any further. I recall when she went through the pushing of the bicycle, the bandages and wanting to offer to help her and knowing better than to do so. Thank you so much for this magnificent tribute to her.
Wow...what an amazing tribute! I remember her so well. Sometimes it's the people you DON'T know who can truly leave their mark. She's one of those.
This is a wonderful picture of her and how I remembered her face. As a young girl in the 60's I remember her riding her bike all over town, and my mom always referred to her as Bicycle Annie, and told me she was Indian. Then years went by and I saw her pushing it, then I remember the crutches also later and she moved very slow, but always kept moving. I remember my mother told me a car had hit her. I always used to try to look at her face at the corners when we passed. I was always a little scared to really look into her eyes for fear she would think I was staring too closely at her. I remember her looking exactly like this picture. This is a great tribute and am glad her memory lives on for all the people that remember her in Austin.
I recently visited Austin for the first time in 23 years and my friends there brought up the subject of Bicycle Annie. In 1971 I was a sophomore at UT and lived in a small efficiency apt in the West University area near Les Amis Cafe and Inner Sanctum Records. To the best of my recollection, I met Bicycle Annie on The Drag in the summer of 1972. I can't remember if she had a flat tire,or what,but I do remember she had an old beatup bike that needed replacing and I gave her my AMF one speed with chrome fenders. We took the front basket off of her bike and attached it to my old AMF and off she went. I remember seeing her riding around town, but never again actually spoke with her. I am really glad to learn her real name and her background. I am also Chickasaw, Choctaw and Irish and live about twenty miles from Durant, OK where she is buried. Thanks for creating this website and telling the story of The Indian Princess. She was a very special woman I am grateful to have met over 40 years ago when I was 21.
The Indian Princess's history is way richer than most will ever know. My father told me stories of seeing her around the University of Texas campus in the 1940's. She claimed to be a "for real" Indian Princess and regularly petitioned the state legislature to return lands illegally taken from the Indians. She also sold subscriptions to a newsletter that everyone knew didn't ever exsist - "Fund Raising"??? I remember seeing her around campus first riding her bike, then later pushing it.
Yes I remember her well. Growing up in Austin in the early sixties at 707 West 24th...I saw her pass by towards the Campus. She would push her bike down the sidewalk and as a little boy I still remember she wore a big hat and she stopped by one day pushing her bike and used our trash can as a table and brought a jar of maonaise and lunch meat and bread out of her purse and made a sandwich and ate it standing up. After a while my mother ran her off and felt bad about it later. Bicycle Annie would indeed snap at people. I left Austin in 1965 and was surprised to see her walking around on crutches when I moved back in 1973 . I lived near the Drag and saw her a lot . One day I talked to her and told her I remembered her from when I was a little boy. She did smile and said "okay." Could'nt believe my ears! The next time I spoke to her she said to leave her alone.
I saw a young woman try to help her across the street one time and I warned her to leave her alone and this woman was reduced to tears when Annie told her to get lost.
I cant believe how many people remember this person.Dan Clark
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