An explanation of the 709 gravestone: in Austin (home of Sam Hurt) in the 1970s there was a group of cooks and artists who noticed that whenever they happened to look at a clock where they worked, it would be 7:09. With so much consistency they adopted the number for themselves, creating a kind of “709 Club.” The artists would incorporate the number into artwork – poster and flyer art especially. I worked at an Austin diner in 1990 that was built from the ground up in which 709 was incorporated throughout the structure.
I learned about all this in 1980 when several of the group discovered I was living at 709 West 11th St. and told me how special that was.
Knowing many of this group myself, I noticed a pattern of misfortune connecting the number with different members of the group; I began to regard the number as a curse and wanted nothing to do with it. While I was living at 709 West 11th, I was threatened with a gun by a guy whose girlfriend I was “dating”; I left Austin for 4 months to escape, and returned to live at a different address. The whole building was torn down two years later. Other people who’d embraced the number developed serious health or relationship problems.
An explanation of the 709 gravestone: in Austin (home of Sam Hurt) in the 1970s there was a group of cooks and artists who noticed that whenever they happened to look at a clock where they worked, it would be 7:09. With so much consistency they adopted the number for themselves, creating a kind of “709 Club.” The artists would incorporate the number into artwork – poster and flyer art especially. I worked at an Austin diner in 1990 that was built from the ground up in which 709 was incorporated throughout the structure.
I learned about all this in 1980 when several of the group discovered I was living at 709 West 11th St. and told me how special that was.
Knowing many of this group myself, I noticed a pattern of misfortune connecting the number with different members of the group; I began to regard the number as a curse and wanted nothing to do with it. While I was living at 709 West 11th, I was threatened with a gun by a guy whose girlfriend I was “dating”; I left Austin for 4 months to escape, and returned to live at a different address. The whole building was torn down two years later. Other people who’d embraced the number developed serious health or relationship problems.
Glad to see 709 is officially dead.