Austin Capitol Building Staircase
Austin, Texas. I don’t know whether we lived in Austin or Waco, but this took place in Austin.
Dad took all of the family to the Capitol Building. We saw the Twin Sisters (cannons by the front steps to the building) that had been used in the Texas battle for independence. Inside we saw paintings. Pictures of former governors graced the walls in the rotunda on several different floors. On the center of the rotunda floor was a circle with a star in it, and other things.
We went up to the second floor, to the third, and up and up and up. It seems to me we went up stairs rather than riding an elevator from floor to floor. To look down from the bannisters made me dizzy and sick to my stomach. We went up as far as we could go. I don’t remember who all went up that far except for Dad and me. It seems that Mother was still with us up there, and maybe Jimmy and Bobby. Way up high was a circular metal staircase that went up to just below the red light at the top of the dome. That winding staircase was painted white. Dad carried me up that staircase to the very top. I was very frightened, but fascinated at what I saw below. I have chills on the back of my neck and a lurch in my stomach just thinking of it as I write this. The light was eerie, and was visible outside from a long way off.
When this was can be verified, for we were among the last people allowed to go up that circular staircase. Not long after that a man fell or jumped from up there, landing inside the circle on the rotunda floor that housed that inlaid star. His landing cracked the floor. I think I was not two years old yet, just one.