Ephemera – Dallas Morning News 11/23/63

Cleaning out a garage can be a treasure hunt. I came across a copy of the 11/23/63 Dallas Morning News which was all about Kennedy. It might suprisee you that it wasn’t the items about that fateful day that interested me, it was the details of everyday life that caught my eye.

In the entertainment section was a list of all the drive-ins. They were everywhere. I even grew up next door to the HI Vue which was on S Beckley in those days, now I35.

There must have been 15 ads for television sets as we were at the tail end of TV’s golden age and everyone was glued to the set every night. Car prices were also a hoot.

The civil rights act was in the future and in ’63 you could specify that a “colored” person was wanted for a job and there was a separate section for “colored’ in the real estate ads.

Cemetaries – Oakland Cemetary November 2013

I returned to Oakland Cemetery today in hopes there would be fall color and I wasn’t disappointed. Every visit reveals another layer of Dallas history. Today I found a row of veterans including a woman from the army corp in WWII and a fellow who had served in an early version of the air force in WWI. I also found a section were several nuns were buried.

Cemetaries – Oakland Cemetary Dallas

For years I’ve wanted to check out Oakland Cemetary. To be honest the reason I haven’t is the location which is in a very poor black neighborhood. I have a nice camera, so I get nervous alot of time when I ( a woman) am alone in questionable parts of town. This afternoon was bright and crisp and I was out that way & finally stopped by. Once I saw the place, I had to get out & walk around a bit. I was in awe of the monuments which are large and ornate.  It’s obvious that wealthy people were buried here. I saw names of the town’s influential leaders, Miller, Zang, Thornton, White. It’s a large place (60 acres) and it heavily overgrown in places which creates a spooky atmosphere. I’m attaching an article from the Dallas Observer that has alot of the nitty gritty about the place.

The stone for Mary Bender and Babe is poignant. A woman and her child die during the birth makes my heart cry for her and thankful that todays healthcare makes this a rare occurrence today.

I wonder who Little Louise was & what took the life of a 7 year old child.

What brought Andrea Matranca, obviously Italian to reside in Dallas & be buried here.

I will return soon & often I know. So much history, so many stories & a great place for a photo shoot, so I hope my models don’t get scared easily.

http://www.dallasobserver.com/2001-07-12/news/grave-matters/
 

 

 

 

Backroads – Beckley Avenue from Overton Rd to Zang Blvd

Low funds have prevented me from hitting the country backroads lately, so I’m continuing to document the fading history of the backroads of Dallas.

When I was born & up til I was about 6 years old I lived at the intersection of Hammerking Rd & South Beckley Avenue. By the time I was 6, Beckley was gone & I35 was in it’s place. Before the interstate highway system, businesses flourished along the main roadways.

I love the red brick architecture along Beckley which has been repurposed into restaraunts & tire shops. Small frame houses that have become churches and advertising “ghosts” are everywhere. I’ve put in some shots of the Halloween display that 2 homeowners put up every year. I’m relieved I got a photo of the $19 a couple motel sign before it was demolished and I had to include the Lee Harvey Oswald boarding house.

There’s alot to see at night too, I have included a picture from about a year ago  of an elaborate shrine inside a residence window, but more will have to wait until I have the time to get out in the evening.

North Oak Cliff Music Festival

Last Saturday, November 3rd was the 1st annual North Oak Cliff Music Festival. I love the enthusiasm and faith in the future when folks name their festival the first annual – because they are certain there will be many more. In this instance I trust that’s right because it was a splendid day all around.

First the choice of the time of year to hold the thing was perfect. I remember back in the 70’s sweltering at the Cotton Bowl for 12 hours at the Texas Jam in 100 degree heat so a day with highs in the low 80’s made listening to music so much more pleasant.

Second, I didn’t get felt up or wanded when entering the site. Nobody got in a fistfight & an ambulance didn’t get called to the scene. I didn’t even notice a policeman. This was an event by & for grownups. It was a day for hearing music & dancing & no violence was anywhere in sight.

Third, the lineup was perfect for the audience. This was a showcase of Texas musicians, several from Oak Cliff that performed in all genres.

First up was Jacob Metcalf. He is a singer songwriter and also teaches guitar lessons at The Kessler. He wasn’t really my taste but he and his partner gaves us some sweet songs.

Yells At Eels was up next and if you’ve never heard this father/sons trio RUN to their next show. Dennis is the father & he plays trumpet and various percussion toys. Son Stefan looks like he ought to be in a heavy metal band like Metallica instead of a jazz band but it’s Aaron on stand up bass that I can’t take my eyes off of. Watching Aaron make me want to attend a Santeria orgy & sacrifice chicken. When he plays, it’s like he’s channelling a primal god.

Hunter Hendrickson is a young local guitar god – he’s already got the “O” face going on ala Jimmy Page.

Jim Shuler is a blues/rock singer and his band reminded of those club going days in the late 70’s. He’s just like the bar bands from that time.

Bobby Patterson is an old style showman. He heads up a funk band & is still kicking out the music at age 68. He’s very gracious to photographers as well, making sure all of us got good shots. He has a rhyming patter between songs that is out of date by today’s standards but was so nostalgic to hear.

Between acts Eric Nadel, the voice of the Texas Rangers; was making announcements and bringing up the next act. I was suprised when a guitarist came on stage & just started shredding that guitar up.  He was tall & bald looking like Shemar Moore’s white cousin. This guy has a hip swivel while playing that makes a girls wanna roll around in a tub of jello with him. His name is Sean Kellerman & I thought he was the main act, but after a couple of songs he introduced Lucky Peterson. Lucky is another old school blues/funk musician. He brought on a girl singer who looked like she was in her 20’s & Lucky must be in his 60’s. He introduced her as his beautiful wife. I shook my head never understanding why men do that – marry women young enough to be their daughters. She really was a talented singer, but I didn’t get any good photos of her.

Next on the bill was Carolyn Wonderland. Having never heard her before, I was wondering “why’d they put a girl singer on after all these funk & blues band?” Then she sound checked her dulcimer???  Well I understood when this little redheaded dulcimer player opened her mouth & channeled Janis Joplin. She has an enormous voice & rocked out with the best of them.

I’ve heard Alejandro (I wear my pants so tight all the women know I hang to the right) Escovedo twice before. The 1st time was an acoustic set with violin & cello. The 2nd time was an electric set but still had a singer songwriter feel to it so I was pleased and suprised when he came out & tore the roof off the stage…who knew?

The star of the show was Joe Ely – Texas legend. He had a gaggle of groupies hanging out with posters OC Hearts Joe, lol

The concert was sponsored by the Kessler Theater which is the best music venue in Dallas in my opinion. Jeff Liles is the artistic director & he was a Deep Ellum legend from the 90’s.

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Latino Arts Festival – Oak Cliff Texas

Today I attended the first annual Latino Arts Festival in the Bishop Arts District in Oak Cliff. It was a juried art exhibit and also a competition. The jurors included; Benito Huerta –  Director of the Gallery at UTA as well as an artist and curator, Celia Munoz –   a conceptual multi-media artist and Charles D. Mitchell –  a freelance writer based in Dallas who has contributed to the Dallas Observer and the Dallas Morning News.

The show incuded fine arts as well as arts and crafts. There were hispanic musicians of all genres and spoken word performances by poets either from Oak Cliff or with ties to the area. No announcement yet on who the winners were.

Back Roads – Illinois Ave – I35 to I45

On my way to Joppa last week, I started noticing all the cool stuff along Illinois Ave. Slapping my forehead & say “doh” – I realized that you don’t always need to drive 2 hours to find the texture of time.

Things I miss from my youth is Pennie’s Kut & Kurl. This was a bright pink ( pepto bismal pink) building where my mother got her hair done on Saturday mornings. That building is long gone. I also miss Henderson’s Honey Fried Chicken which was torn down for a Wiiliam’s Chicken. On the plus side, in the old Dunkin Donuts location is Katy Mae’s Soul Food restaraunt. They aren’t open for breakfast, but I’m going back for lunch very soon.

 

 

Back Roads – Joppa Community – Dallas

I first heard about Joppa back in the 80’s from an article in the Dallas Times Herald. It was described as a “good place to dump a body.”   The neighborhood is bordered by the Great Trinity Forest on one side and the Southern Pacific Railroad on the other. Back then the only access was Linfield Road across the tracks, so the people were insulated from the outside world for many years. My love of the history of forgotten communities kept Joppa in the back of my mind, so today I went.

Settled in 1872 by the people previously enslaved by William Miller. The stately Millermore plantation house in Old City Park (now called Heritage Village) was built by William Miller’s slaves.

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From The Habitat For Humanity Website:

The historic Joppa (pronounced Joppy) neighborhood of Dallas is tucked away near the banks of the Trinity River and at the edge of the Great Trinity Forest in southeast Dallas.  It is believed that the community’s name originates from a biblical reference and translates to “beautiful” or “the beginning” in Hebrew.  The community was settled in the late 1860s by freed slaves of the nearby Miller plantation, and is one of the three remaining Freedman communities in Texas.  It is still considered one of the best preserved Freedman communities in the United States.  Joppa hosted the first Juneteenth festivities in Dallas, celebrating the day the Emancipation Proclamation came into effect, June 19,1865

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Information from the Wikimapia webite:

An important crossing such as this needed the best men to run it. With high unemployment after the war and relative stagnation of the economy, William Miller could have chosen one of a thousand capable men to oversee his ferry operation. The man Miller handpicked was Henry Critz Hines. Really it was more of a business agreement among men who viewed each other as equals. As a result, Hines became one of the first African American entepreneurs after the Civil War. Not just in Dallas or Texas or even in the South. In the whole of the United States. In addition, you will find very few freed slaves who so soon after the war were able to make a living from a customer base that was largely anglo. Henry Critz Hines also founded Joppa, one of the best preserved, if not the best preserved Freedmen’s communities left in the United States. Joppa was founded in 1872 by Hines and freed slaves from the Miller Plantation. Here they carved trees out of the forest for cabins at first, replaced by shotgun houses, some of which are still standing today. Many of the original Joppa residents were freedmen who immigrated from East Texas plantations. The attraction of Joppa was the safety of living near a large town like Dallas while maintaining the agrarian lifestyle they knew from earlier times. Other freedmen communities in Dallas such as Deep Ellum and State-Thomas had residents more comfortable with city life. More info: http://dallastrinitytrails.blogspot.com/2011/12/millers-ferry-3000-years-of-human.html

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Me again:

Joppa is about 10 blocks square and I saw at least 15 churches. Abandoned shotgun houses are on every block. People here still live close to the ground with chickens and horses. Once interest heightened around the Great Trinity Forest there was talk in the media about the area becoming gentrified as alot of places do. One of the residents had for many years been running a pig farm & was adamant that he wasn’t selling out to developers. I looked for the pigs but couldn’t find them.

Nowadays, you don’t have to negotiate the tracks – there’s a new “bridge to nowhere” spanning them. I wanted to stay longer, but I was being stared at. I can’t blame them – a white woman with a camera probably makes them feel like they are being treated like a curiousity. I have to admit that’s exactly what I was doing. I’m very curious about them, especially the geneolgy. Unfortunately, Henry Louis Gates Jr only does your family tree if you’re famous.

Here’s a link for photographs taken by Zachary Canepari who got some great faces.

http://www.panos.co.uk/stories/2-13-1225-1731/Zack-Canepari/What-is-Joppa/

And here are mine – I’ll be back because I missed so many shots.

Oak Cliff – Humble Station

I read the article below this morning and decided to drop by. I have a passion for forgotten and abandoned places. Usually that requires at least 2 hours drive to get out of the metroplitan area, but today it just took 5 minutes to reach the Humble station on Beckley and Zang.

I understand that old buildings are expensive and dangerous to renovate. Lead paint and asbestos create huge problems. But, the beautiful blue ceramic tile and and parking lot are great assets for this property. I imagine a drive through coffee shop (dare I say Starbucks). The space would make a great sandwich shop. Visitors to Lake Cliff park would have a place to get a bite to eat or something to drink.   How about a bicycle rental place for rides around the lake?

If developers think outside the box and appreciate the uniqueness of the neighborhood, maybe Oak Cliff won’t turn into another cookie cutter neighborhood.

http://ooccl.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=533%3A2012-architecture-at-risk-list&catid=1%3Alatest-news&Itemid=50

 

 

Nightlife – Yells At Eels – Kessler Theater 4/26/12

I hate jazz. That’s what I usually say when the subject comes up. Of course, that’s me lumping several styles of jazz under one umbrella. I dislike free jazz – for me it’s a cacophony of disjointed noise. And I dislike smooth jazz – just because  zzzzzzzzzzzzz it’s dull.

I recently heard the trio of Dennis Gonzales and his sons, Aaron and Stefan (Yells at Eels) at a small bar called the Common Table. I was blown away by the music. I wasn’t able to see the band, so I was delighted to hear them again last night at The Kessler Theater. The Gonzales’ brought a larger band and the additional visual experience of the show kept me on the edge of my seat. Aaron Gonzales on stand up bass mesmerized me. He is a very artistic Salvador Dali type fellow and when he’s playing it looks like he’s channeling a voodoo god. His brother Stefan looks like he should be a member of a heavy metal band. When he working the drum kit, I imagined fireworks and smoke rolling off the stage like a Metallica concert.

Yells at Eels is an instrumental band for the most part, but last night Dennis charmed us with a ballad sung in Spanish. We got lots of solos by the band. I can’t remember their names and apparently they aren’t official full time members since they aren’t listed on the band’s Myspace page. UPDATE: Dennis was kind enough to message me with the other band members names: Gaika James: trombone / Aakash Mittal: alto sax / Karl Poetschke: trumpet /  Gregg Prickett: acoustic guitar. He also mentioned that they don’t used Myspace much anymore, so look for them at….

http://yellsateels.blogspot.com/

After hearing Yells At Eels – I’m changing my standard “I hate jazz” to “I love Yells at Eels”