MY HOMETOWN PROJECT
"Every man's memory is his private literature." - Aldous Huxley
What do you remember about the Dallas neighborhood in which you grew up? We want to hear your story.
The Dallas Historical Society invites you to participate in our new project called "My Home Town". Our goal is to piece together a Dallas encyclopedia one ice cream stand at a time. Record your home town memories in a 250 - 600 word essay.
or mail to: Dallas Historical Society
My Home Town
P. O. Box 150038
Dallas, TX 75315-0038
Pending approval (our criteria are few), your essay will later be published on the web.
We are moving toward the next generation of web services, a generation marked by user collaboration and sharing. Ultimately, much of our writing and activity on Facebook will be incorporated into a new Dallas Historical Website - a website built in part by its visitors, a website that allows virtual access to significant parts of DHS archives and museum collections. Let's get started!
The MY HOMETOWN project has it’s origins in the DHS message board. Since the board was created over 10 years ago, almost 70,000 messages have been posted to the site. Unfortunately, the site is currently in a state of crashing in on itself. The free internet software used to create it is out-dated and no one has been able to help DHS locate where the scripts are being stored or how to archive the messages currently posted.
Therefore, DHS started trying to move the message board (or at least it’s users) into the 21st century. We have made “test sites” using Blogger, MySpace and Facebook. Although, none have been as successful as our original message board, these new mediums have allowed us to reach new audiences. With new audiences, however, comes new “problems”. For example, our group membership on Facebook is very young (18-35) compared with the typical user of the original message board (55+). While some message board users have made the switch to Facebook, many are still choosing to post to the old board (despite its dying state) instead of the new Facebook page. The “younger” members are posting little if at all.
Many responses to our MY HOMETOWN requests have been received via email or in hardcopy. In the fall of 2007, DHS was choosing one or two responses to highlight in our biweekly newsletter. Several more were posted to the DHS Blog and/or Facebook to try to elicit more participation for the project.
While DHS has tried prompting responses, the real beauty of the project is when people sit down and tell us – in their own words – their memories of Dallas (what part of the city they grew up in, where they went to high school, what restaurants they visited, where they went to see movies, parades they saw/participated in, etc.). This is what has been going on for over a decade on the original message board, and our hope is that we can capture even more of these stories by encouraging such dialogue specifically about Dallas and Dallas neighborhoods. Facebook is still in its “testing” phase, and we are now considering creating a new message board (like the original, but updated with projects like MY HOMETOWN in mind) when we revamp our website in the near future.
TO ACCESS:
- The DHS Facebook Group
- The DHS Blog
- The DHS MySpace page
- The DHS Message Board (original). To access the messages go to SET PERFERENCES list messages posted within the last 10 years.
Or send your stories via EMAIL to Dealey Campbell.
Thank you for your participation!
Labels: Oral History
posted by DHS at 12:08 PM
5 Comments:
Being a resident of the Dallas area for the last 27 years (30 years of age to date) and at the same time living in many different areas of Dallas and the surrounding areas, there is a lot that I could go over about what I myself have seen come and go in those years.
In the early 1980s, living on both the east and west side of dallas during that time, and then comparing those same areas today to the way they were then would bring about some very different changes. Though some of the following isnt near as amusing or as interesting as some of the things those who have been in and around Dallas have seen or remember, I myself find them intriguing to say the least.
The field just to the South of present day Chenault Street between Buckner Boulevard and Dilido Road. Today, in this location lies a middle school on one moderately busy street and on the side of another moderately busy street. Back in the 1980s, this land where the school presently lies was nothing but that. (Land - An Empty Field of sparse trees)
The Intersection of Buckner & John West, East Dallas: This area in itself has been through drastic changes in the last 20+ years. Though not as noticeable to those who reside and know the area as it is today, but rewind to the early 80s and the area was a bit busier in those days than it is today, with a lot more businesses and interests located at the intersection itself, compared to the way it looks today. (Old Kroger at the NW Corner, diagonally behind what used to be an Exxon at one time. Across the street from the old Kroger, a Drug Emporium took the place of what (at one time) was a Bingo hall facing directly toward the old Kroger itself. The land where the now defunct Tom Thumb and surrounding shopping center (as well as the housing development behind it, was once nothing but land owned by the estate of what ive known as the land of Buckner, with trees and otherwise grass/weeds throughout. (the only thing that resided on the SE Corner of Buckner and John West was a Shell station and the Jack In The Box that still stands to this date) The Big D Bazaar, which the building itself still stands, was always busy every weekend, to where now, the building just seems to sit empty and vacant for most of the year Everything else on that side of Buckner, Including the RaceTrac and the Car wash, was all land owned by Buckner. John West Rd itself, heading toward La Prada/Big Town Boulevard, at the time was very different to what it is today. (Unsure if it was a 1 lane in each direction or two lanes in each direction) but nothing like the 3 lanes in each direction as those who live nearby know it today. Nearby Samuell Road, from buckner to Town East Boulevard was itself a much smaller road than what it is today, basically a carbon copy of John West, but on the other side of I 30/US 80. The Two Tone Brown/Tan Apartments between Senate Square (which was the name of those apartments at the time (at the corner of Senate and Dilido Road) and Chenault street (which was a much thinner, rougher two lane road in the early 1980s between Dilido and Buckner Boulevard) used to have the residents of the apartments that lined Dilido to park on either side of said street until an accident changed all that. Then they created enough parking spaces inside the complex to park the cars off of the street so that such an event would not happen again,... shortly thereafter also adding the gated fencing all the way around the complex as well. I would go on about the Intersection of Garland Road and Buckner Boulevard but i am sure there have already been at least 20 people who have expressed their dissatisfaction with the decision of removing the oldest gas station in dallas (Mobil - NE Corner of Buckner & Garland Road) and turning said location into a badly placed BANK. (Trying to appease to the locals in the area by designing it to fit in with the Casa Linda Motif and Decor doesnt bring back the Mobil Station.) So I will leave that intersection alone except to say this: Like there arent enough banks in that one intersection before they added Wachovia.
West Dallas - The original Restaurant Row, which at the time, for the longest time, ran along 35 between Walnut Hill and the break at Loop 12. Don Carters All Star Lanes West, on the opposite side of Restaurant Row from I 35, for a long time, up until the 90s (though it was already declining by that time) was still around and kicking. Harry Hines Boulevard in the 1980s was hardly the Wide Laned Highway Like street those who frequent it today are accustomed and or used to. (If you want an idea of what Harry Hines was like in the early 80s, drive down Denton Drive today between Forest and Walnut Hill Lane and that should give you a pretty good idea of what Harry Hines was like back then. The location of the present day Restaurant Row in the intersection of 35, Northwest Highway and Loop 12 during that time was like a lot of places in dallas in those days... wide open fields of nothing. Only things that were perhaps in that particular location at the time was a couple gas stations on the South side of Loop 12... Other than that, there wasnt much on NW Hwy in that area until you got on the other side of I 35. (To put it in perspective, the CONCEPT of a 24 Screen Theater in the early 1980s was to say the least anything if not laughable)
Not that this is considered anything Historical I figured it would be somewhat Relative to the History of Dallas: I am currently in the process of filming a Video Documentary. I just describe it simply as how one would view the City of Dallas and its surrounding cities during any given ride (from start to finish, in both directions, on all three currently running rail lines (TRE, Blue & Red DART Rail) It may not be history now but how many videos of Dallas and the surrounding areas exist from the perspective of a DART Rail/TRE Passenger? Let alone any type of video that gives any sort of "Point In Time" reference to how things are/were at the time of filming. Im not trying to sell it or anything, just stating my interest in finding a way to give those who may one day see this in the near or distant future an idea of what things looked like in and around the Dallas area at the time, Early to Mid 2008.
Thank you for your time and i realize this may be quite longer than the 900 words
Sincerely
W Thomas Hawman, Jr
Mesquite, Texas
21/3/08 12:19 PM
Subject: My Hometown – Dallas
I was born June 8, 1946 at St. Paul Hospital. My family lived on the corner of Almazan Dr. and Marsh Lane, just north of Northwest Hwy. Back then Marsh was not paved. We had rural mail delivery meaning all the mailboxes for the people on our street were lined up along Marsh. Later they delivered to our doors, a walking route. In the 1950’s lots of things were delivered. Milk, Bread and even the Dry Cleaners had a regular route.
Walnut Hill shopping center was behind our house where there had been a Walnut Hill Country Club. The center had a Skillerns Drug Store, Ashburn’s Ice Cream, Tom Thumb and A&P grocery stores. Safeway was just down Northwest Hwy. a short distance. My brother later worked at Ashburn’s. Skillerns had a luncheonette counter and gave kids a FREE MILKSHAKE when you bought your school supplies there each fall.
Living in this area was carefree, safe and fun. Everyone knew your neighbors and we all looked out for each other.
I went to Stephen C. Foster Elementary, Cary Junior High and Thomas Jefferson High School. After our sophomore year W. T. White High School opened and about half of our class went there for their last two years. Marsh Jr. High also opened around that time. In those days school started the day after Labor Day because the schools weren’t air conditioned. Of course we had fewer and shorter breaks. Our “spring break” consisted of Good Friday and Easter Monday. I remember the day J. F. K. came to Dallas. It was a regular school day. The announcement came over the PA system. We were all shocked.
Our family enjoyed picnics at Bachman Lake Park. I remember my grandparents lived in the Maple Lawn area and came over on Easter morning for sunrise services and then we went to Bachman Park for a picnic breakfast. This became a family tradition.
Back in the 50’s you could go to a movie for 25 cents. Mother took us to the Circle Theater on Harry Hines or to the Inwood Theater. We went to the dedication of the Millermore house at Old City Park. We also saw the old school house there.
Shopping in Dallas has always been fun. Big Town was the first mall and then Northpark came along and was even more impressive.
The scariest thing I remember was the tornado in 1957. Ironically that morning the school had a Fire drill, a Bomb drill (remember them?) and a Tornado Drill. When the news broke, mother came and got my brother and me out and took us home. We crowded into the bathtub and held a mattress over us. It missed us and went up Harry Hines.
In 1960 the city bought 4 houses on our street for the public library that stands there today. We moved about a mile north to Inglrside Dr. where we lived just a block off of Marsh Lane. It was nice to get a little farther from Love Field and the noise of the jet planes.
Now I live with my husband in Grapevine just a few minutes from DFW airport, where all the planes went to from Love Field.
Mary Mitchell Bloomberg
24/3/08 2:00 PM
There's some mighty interestin' U. S. history at my lill' blog.
Stay on groovin' safari,
Tor
4/5/08 2:00 PM
I'm compiling a bibliography of "Texas Historical and Literary Blogs," 75 so far, and yours is one of them. The list'll be published as the August issue of my e-journal "Will's Texana Monthly." With whom can I email about the matter. Thanks. Will Howard
22/7/08 5:36 PM
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11/4/09 2:46 AM
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