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:

1. The DHS Facebook Group


2. The DHS Blog


3. The DHS MySpace page


4. 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!