You know it's been a rough week when you see an American flag at half-mast and you can think of several reasons why it might be that way.
Such was the case as I left West around noon today and noticed the flag at Greg May Chevrolet at half-mast. After last night's horrific explosion and subsequent fires, I wanted to check on the Czech Stop and Little Czech Bakery along with other West establishments. I admit I didn't know what to expect — people rallying together; people worn out and stranded; stores open and going out of their way to serve people; stores closed; heck, I seriously doubted whether I would even be able to get to West.
I was able to drive to West without any traffic issues and found the Czech Stop and Little Czech Bakery to be open. Also open were Bush's Chicken, Gerik's Old Czech Smokehouse and Bakery and various other West establishments. In fact, things seemed pretty normal on the surface. A Round Rock ISD school bus was parked at the Czech Stop and students were loading up on all the goodies that the bakery had to offer. If you were totally oblivious to current events of the last 18 hours, then you could have come and gone from the Czech Stop without noticing anything out of the ordinary.
But if you had a clue, it was easy to see that both customers and staff at the Little Czech Bakery were doing their best to soldier through a difficult day. While I was in line, a group of policemen and emergency workers came in behind me. They were obviously tired but determined to see the town through a crisis.
The servers at the Little Czech Bakery especially evoked my sympathy. The store stayed open all night and the two ladies waiting on customers had clearly been on their feet for many, many hours. I overheard word that their reinforcements were apparently not on the way. When I asked one of them if they stayed open all night, she simply nodded while looking at me with the most tired eyes I may have ever seen.
The other server had shifted into "nothing is going to bother me" mode. She churned out customers' orders on the cash register. What she lacked in bubbliness she made up for in efficiency. When I asked if they were doing all right she said, "Yes, just fine." She was lying, you could tell, but you had to love her for it.
I drove through West to get a feel for how the town was getting along. A couple of blocks off the Interstate, it was apparent people were trying to stabilize the situation and mostly succeeding it seemed. A dry-erase board outside the Czech American Restaurant read "Closed!" which I took to mean that many people had inquired during the previous few hours. Police cars and emergency workers were everywhere, so I took my leave from downtown West pretty quickly.
About a month ago, the website Eater.com gave props to the Czech Stop as one of the state's best bets for passers-through. On Thursday, West's restaurants were doing an admirable job of taking care of their own and those called in to assist in this time of need.
