The Tarrant County Historical
Journal | |||||||
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The following is just a sample the pictures and articles in the 20 pages of issue #8. EDITION #EIGHT |
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Editor and
photographer , Les Crocker; General manager, Neva Crocker 1011 Samuels Avenue, built 1898, Heaton-Simmons-Strol House - Built for W. S. Heaton, a notary public. Simmons was a mule dealer. | ||||||
From the Editor Saturday morning, sometime in the 1950's, the Tivoli Theater on Magnolia Ave. near the south side of Fort Worth…. Mom would drive us (us being my brother and I) to the Tivoli Theater for an all day movie marathon. We would pay admission of 9 cents to get in. As we gave the ticket lady our dime and she gave us our ticket and 1 cent back, there was always one guy standing by the window wanting your penny change. When he got 9 cents in pennies, he got in free, and he did get your penny. Inside we bought popcorn and a drink for a nickel each. We saw two full movies, a newsreel, and about 4 or 5 cartoons and a serial. The one I remember best was "Superman and the Mole Men". I wonder if you can still see that one anywhere? |
After all the movies were over and we left the theater, the drug store up the street gave each kid a Fudgecycle free. After eating the Fudgecycle, we went next door to the Rockyfeller. In the '50's if you ate a hamburger anywhere in Ft. Worth, most likely it was a Rockyfeller. We sat down at the counter, ordered a hamburger that cost around 15 or 20 cents, a pack of chips about 5 cents and a soda for 5 cents. After all that I would order a slice of Boston Creme Pie. If I remember right, they only baked and served that kind of pie during the winter months. I have looked, but I can't find anyplace that makes the kind of Boston Creme Pie that I remember. As my brother and I stood on the curb waiting for Mom to pick us up, we were thinking about next Saturday, wondering if Superman would survive his encounter with Kryptonite. The 50's were good. |
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The Tivoli Theater was located in the 800 block of West Magnolia Ave. built and owned by I. B. Adelman, Theater Tycoon. It opened on Christmas night in 1929. The first film was "They Had To See Paris" starring Will Rogers and Fifi D;Orsay. | |||||||
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Next door to the Tivoli was Rockyfeller Hamburger Stand #15, opened in 1939. |
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Many early Fort Worth settlers, including 75 Civil War Veterans are buried here. Buried here also are Major Arnold and General Edward H. Tarrant for whom Tarrant County was named. Pioneers Rest Cemetery Pavilion Street At the corner of Samuels and Pavilion St. was the Pavilion. It was a recreation facility, meeting hall and saloon. It was closed in 1905. Mr. P. C. Grunewald, owner of the Pavilion, tore it down and used the lumber to build him a house at 1106 Samuels. While he was at it, he built six other smaller houses on Pavilion St. that he used for rental property. | |||||||
I just talked to my grandmother, Bonnie Walter, and she told me quite a bit more about Bessie Kelley. Bessie was widowed early in life and never remarried. She had one daughter, Mary. Bessie was of Indian lineage, and my grandmother admired her tenacity in making a living for herself and her daughter all on her own. We know she was a barber when "ladies" didn't barber, and for state/county payment, she would board out her garage apartment to a couple of men at a time. In her later years, she peddled anything and everything at the First Monday Flea Market in Weatherford. She raisedpuppies and sold them along with anything else she could get her hands on to sell. She took her nephew out of a state run home. My grandparents ran a dairy, and Bessie would come by every week or so for fresh milk. My grandmother was a friend to Bessie. On several occasions when she was sick, my grandmother would buy groceries and medicine and take it to her at home. My grandmother lost touch with Bessie when old age forced her into a nursing home in Ft. Worth, but we know she lived to be in her 80's. Kelly McIlveene
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THE TEXAS ROADSIDE JOURNAL | |||||||
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Sometime in the
1870's, probably summertime, a wagon train snakes it's way down a dirt
trail heading west. Mother and father in the front driving the team,
children playing in the back, as all children would, when the sun would
get unbearably hot. It is hot and dusty and sweat everywhere. Wagon wheels creaking from lack of grease, horses and mules braying under the load, constantly on the lookout for danger and always under the eye of buzzards looking for an easy meal. Anticipation of getting out West and this journey being over. Home to the Promise Land. Suddenly the wagon wheel hits a rock or a hole. The wagon lurches sideways. A little girl, just 3 years old, loses her balance and falls out of the wagon. A scream is heard from the other children and from the wagon behind. The mother and father rush to her side. But to no avail. The fall has killed her. So, with the Wagon Master wanting to push on as soon as possible, the decision was made to bury her there almost where she fell. As the wagon train pulled off into the west, mother and father were the last wagon to leave, lagging far behind, reluctant to let the grave of their beloved child out of their sight, for they knew that they would never see the grave again. That tragic day would follow them on their journey out West and live with them for the rest of their lives. Who are you little girl? 1998, 128 years later, Neva and I drive through what now is the community of Sipe Springs. We come to County Road 105 heading east. It is a dirt road. It's a Sunday. It is hot and dusty. About a mile and a half from the paved road we see it. It is on the left side just barely off the road. The grave of the little girl is out in the middle of nowhere. All by itself. No houses. Probably looks like it did in 1870. |
We stop and get out of the truck. It is
evident that the grave is looked after. There are three markers. The
original one long ago gone. One marker says, "Who is the little girl? Age
3, 1870's". Another says, "Little Girl, Age 3, name unknown, died 1870,
Moving West". Nickels, dimes, pennies, toy cars, bead necklace, toy rocking chair, baseball cap, baseball, old lock, plastic horse, teddy bears, plastic flowers/vase, Lion King toy, picture of Jesus, pencils, comb, Duracell battery, sun glasses, keys, cassette tape, lost of angels, Bugs Bunny, and lots of other stuff.
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"On The Road With Neva and Les" - About once a year we head on down to Dublin to the Dr
Pepper plant to buy three cases of Dr Pepper. The reason we drive all the
way to Dublin is because this bottling plant still uses pure cane sugar in
their drinks. Just like we would buy them when we were kids. In the "Old Days" soda bottles had a cork or stopper. When you removed the cork, it made a loud "Pop". That's why they were called "Soda Pops". In the fifties, we always called them "Soda Pop" or "Soda Waters". | |||||||
One of the things I love about
America is no matter where you go (no pun intended), the restrooms all
have toilet paper in them, unless they have run out and that's why the
rule is "Always check for toilet paper before you sit down." You can stop
at McDonalds, K-Mart, Target, convenient stores, gas stations and on the
whole (no pun intended) there is toilet paper. Neva and I were in Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula and we had stopped at some ruins. We visited the necessary rooms and just outside the door there was a man and woman sitting at a card table. They were busy tearing toilet paper off a roll by single squares and putting them in a little stack to be sold. Yes, sold. No toilet paper in the restrooms. You had to buy a small pile of toilet paper. Yep, it's good to be in America. |
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