Posted: May 8th, 2009 | Author: Mark | Filed under: Childhood Memories, Ohio | Tags: goldie, Homer | No Comments »
Here’s an 8mm home movie still showing my grandparents (on dad’s side), Homer and Goldie Stevens. The movie in question was taken on one of our vacations to Columbus, Ohio, probably around 1955 or ‘56, which would explain my absence in the footage. (that’s our shiny new ‘55 Chevrolet in the background) My only memories of my grandfather are from these 8mm films, which have been viewed many times over the years. It’s really a miracle that the film has held together so long, but they’ve now been transferred to DVD, so they won’t be subjected to further wear.
I was too young to remember Homer, but I remember Grandma Goldie well. Goldie was a good person, and clearly the source of my dad’s sense of humor. I was a big fan of the Peanuts cartoons as a child, but our local paper didn’t run the Peanuts comics in those days, so Goldie would mail them to me each week. Neat lady.
I’ve thought of creating an area here at stevensfamilytree.com to house the home movie collection, to make them viewable to visitors online. I would have to transfer the DVDs to MP4 files, and then either put them on YouTube (which would make it easy to embed them here), or embed them directly to a page where they could be viewed with a QuickTime player. I’ll do a little research and see what I can do.
Posted: January 29th, 2009 | Author: Mark | Filed under: Childhood Memories, Miscellaneous | Tags: Tom Mix | 2 Comments »
Dad told me long ago that Tom Mix had been one of his favorite movie cowboys, which inspired me to argue, jokingly, that there was no such person. For my generation, John Wayne was the movie cowboy, and in all honesty I had never heard of Tom Mix until Dad shared his reminiscences with me. Yes Virginia, there was a Tom Mix, and he was the most popular western star of his era. I was anxious to learn more about him, and I soon discovered that there’s information a-plenty.
It must be said that research into the life of Tom Mix is difficult at best, as the road is paved with tall tales. The movie studios themselves were known to release blatant fabrications, spinning all sorts of biographical nonsense to enhance his hero status. Among the falsehoods that are circulated is his being born in El Paso, Texas, being a Texas Ranger (where he single-handedly captured the notorious Shonts Brothers), having served as sheriff of several towns, and his being a hunting guide for Theodore Roosevelt. It’s even been said that his voice wasn’t suited for talking pictures because his wife had shot him in the neck. All that is certainly entertaining, but looking beyond the hype reveals the real story. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: January 27th, 2009 | Author: Mark | Filed under: Childhood Memories, Fort Worth | Tags: leonards | No Comments »
Leonards was legendary, and their M&O Subway is perhaps my favorite memory of the store. I had to share this advertisement that appeared in a Casa Manana program from the mid-60s. What immediately caught my eye was the conductor. Is it me, or does he look remarkably like the work of Charles Schultz? The head has a certain Charlie Brown shape, and those sure look like Linus’ eyes. I really doubt that Schultz was the artist, but it’s clear that his style was being emulated. The subway graphic was a frequently used symbol of Leonards, and I clearly remember it from the paper covers that we had to wrap our school textbooks with. (remember those?!)
Posted: January 18th, 2009 | Author: Mark | Filed under: Childhood Memories, Fort Worth | 1 Comment »
[Note: I originally wrote this for one of my other sites, ClassicRotaryPhones.com, but felt that the Fort Worth subject-matter made it ideal for inclusion here.]
I get ideas for posts from a number of different sources, but often as not they’re based on something that’s been on my mind, maybe a project I’ve been working on. The inspiration for this post however, came to me after reading an unusual article about the “beep-beep line” on Dennis Markham’s VintageRotaryPhones.com. Something I was previously unaware of, the post describes a quirk of the telephone network that used to permit something akin to the chat capability of a party line. Initiated by calling ones own number, kids would talk over the busy signal to others who were likewise engaged… harmless childhood hijinks at their finest. (for a full description, read: The Beep-Beep Line) This apparently was very popular with those “in the know”, and wish I had been one of the privileged few who enjoyed partaking in that bit of silliness.
I may have missed out on the beep-beep line, but the story reminded me of my own childhood in Fort Worth, and a strange, secretive activity that was popular in my Bruce Shulkey Elementary School days: calling making phone calls to “The Man in the Moon”.
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Posted: January 16th, 2009 | Author: Mark | Filed under: Childhood Memories, Tiptonville, Tennessee, Vintage Postcards | Tags: reelfoot | No Comments »
This postcard, which was postmarked in 1949, is a beauty! The back of the card has been stamped, Morris Camp, Reelfoot Lake, Tiptonville Tenn. It’s funny, but in all the trips our family made to Tiptonville over the years, I don’t believe we ever went fishing. It’s the fisherman’s paradise, for goodness sake! You know, my eight year old son loves to fish…maybe this could be the catalyst for a return trip to Tiptonville. Given that I haven’t seen the town in over twenty-five years, that sounds like a pretty fair idea.
Posted: January 13th, 2009 | Author: Mark | Filed under: Childhood Memories, Fort Worth, Vintage Postcards | Tags: leonards | 4 Comments »
Whereas mom favored shopping at department stores like Striplings, Cox’s or Monnigs, my father preferred Leonard’s or “Monkey Wards”. This made those two stores frequent destinations for father-and-son Saturday outings, particularly Leonard’s. To a boy age 7 or so, there was simply no comparison between going with mom to Striplings and with dad to Leonard’s. What made Leonard’s special? For one, it had a subway that shuttled customers to and from their remote parking lot. That would be the only selling point a kid would need, but there’s more: the store was great, with a dizzying array of merchandise. Things were presented in a much more cluttered fashion than was seen elsewhere. It wasn’t that you couldn’t find what you were after, but rather that you’d find things you didn’t expect, which was undoubtedly the plan. Shopping at Leonard’s was an adventure.
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Posted: January 5th, 2009 | Author: Mark | Filed under: Childhood Memories, Fort Worth, Vintage Postcards | Tags: christmas | No Comments »
I know, it’s a little late to be talking about Christmas, but I’ve just acquired this swell postcard and had to share it. The card, postmarked 1964, caught my attention because of the illuminated Santa, an image that sparked a long-dormant memory. It had been decades since I had thought of those Santas floating majestically over the downtown streets, and I was reminded of our annual pilgrimage to see the department store window displays.
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Posted: December 27th, 2008 | Author: Mark | Filed under: Childhood Memories, Fort Worth, Vintage Postcards | No Comments »
This postcard shows the sign that served as a beacon for the Fort Worth Zoo for decades. Located just off University Drive, the sign greeted southbound traffic as they crossed the Trinity River, just in time for them to take the next left on Colonial Parkway. I don’t know when the sign was first erected, but it was certainly in place prior to 1960. I’m also unclear as to when it was taken down. I want to say it was just removed only ten or fifteen years ago, but I can’t find a definitive answer. One thing I do know is that the sign was an important Fort Worth landmark, one of many that have disappeared over the past 25 years. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: December 18th, 2008 | Author: Mark | Filed under: Childhood Memories, Vintage Postcards | Tags: amusement park | 3 Comments »
I’ve already mentioned Aquarena Springs in San Marcos, Texas, but there was another great amusement park we patronized, one much closer to home: Six Flags Over Texas. Six Flags was a key factor in establishing the city of Arlington the playground of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex that it is today.
Six Flags opened in 1961 and was conceived as a Disneyland-like theme park, but with a regional market instead of a national one. The late ’50s and early ’60s saw the opening of a number of similar parks, slow-paced family oriented theme parks that showed no sign of the thrill-ride emphasis that would gain favor years later.
My memories of the park are primarily from the 1960s, and until this past summer I hadn’t visited the park since “Senior Night”, 1976. As I expected, a lot had changed in 32 years. I missed the old rides, many having undergone major transformation or complete replacement. Two personal favorites, the La Salle Riverboat Ride (see postcard) and the Spee-Llunker Cave were both lazy water rides that have been replaced by the Roaring Rapids and the shamelessly commercial Yosemite Sam and the Gold River Adventure, respectively. I’ll cover The Cave and other attractions in future posts, but this time I’m going to focus on the Riverboat Ride. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: December 14th, 2008 | Author: Mark | Filed under: Childhood Memories | Tags: christmas, cordone | No Comments »
Besides contributing photographs of my great-grandparents Henry and Emily Parker, my aunt Dorothy Jean also came up with this surprising shot, surprising because I hadn’t seen it before! Dad seems to have been more interested in 8mm home movies during this period, so not many photos exist. It’s odd that mom and dad didn’t have this one in their archive of family snapshots, and it makes me wonder if there’s a yet to be discovered stash somewhere.
This photograph, obviously taken by my dad, shows my mom, my sisters Carol and Gail, and myself at the age of 7 months. Yep, this was 1957, my first Christmas. This house, on Cordone St. in Fort Worth, had a perfect window for displaying a Christmas tree, angled ninety degrees. My memory of the entire family celebrating Christmas together like this is dim at best, as my sisters were out of the house and starting families of their own just a few years later. But over the years we’ve always tried to reunite at Christmas time, a tradition that continues today, even now that it’s just us kids.
Posted: December 10th, 2008 | Author: Mark | Filed under: Childhood Memories, Tiptonville, Tennessee, Vintage Postcards | Tags: edgewater, reelfoot | No Comments »
Here it is, Edgewater Beach, where we always stayed on our vacations to Tiptonville, Tennessee, at least until the Airpark Inn opened. This postcard probably dates from the late ’50s, and shows the beach much as it was during our stays. What isn’t shown here are the cabins, which faced the beach and are off to the right in this photograph. It’s probably been 40 years since our family stayed there, which could account for the nostalgia it invokes.
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Posted: December 3rd, 2008 | Author: Mark | Filed under: Childhood Memories, Tiptonville, Tennessee, Vintage Postcards | Tags: edgewater, reelfoot, vacation | 1 Comment »
Among my earliest recollections of Tiptonville, Tennessee is Edgewater Beach. We always stayed at one of the cabins there when on vacation, and got in some swimming when we weren’t at my grandmother’s farm. But that all changed with the opening of the Airpark Inn, ten miles north of Tiptonville. Located at Reelfoot Lake State Park, the 20-room Inn immediately became our new place to stay during our visits. Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s an 8mm home movie still showing my grandparents (on dad’s side), Homer and Goldie Stevens. The movie in question was taken on one of our vacations to Columbus, Ohio, probably around 1955 or ‘56, which would explain my absence in the footage. (that’s our shiny new ‘55 Chevrolet in the background) My only memories of my grandfather are from these 8mm films, which have been viewed many times over the years. It’s really a miracle that the film has held together so long, but they’ve now been transferred to DVD, so they won’t be subjected to further wear.
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