OLD PARK, NEW LIFE

The New Buckner Park Could Reopen This Year

It took about 10 years and $2 million, but Old East Dallas neighbors will get the park they want.

When Buckner Park reopens this winter, it will resemble an early city planner’s original vision from 1914.

Work is underway at the park, adjacent to Ignacio Zaragosa Elementary School on Worth Street at Carroll Avenue, and could be finished by December. Renovations to the 7.5-acre park include a new playground, a circular walking path, an improved tennis court, a picnic pavilion, new trees, a sign and lights made to look like they’re as old as the park. The renovation also adds a pick-up and drop-off lane for the school along with 44 parking spaces; Dallas ISD paid for that portion.

The park, constructed in 1917, has been married to Zaragosa since about 1951. David Crockett Elementary School was across Carroll from the park. And when it closed, DISD traded the Dallas Park and Recreation Department the old school building for 1.8 acres of Buckner Park.

The school never had its own parking lot, and parents drop off students on two-lane Worth Street.

“It’s going to be safer for students at Zaragosa,” says Elizabeth Nelson of the Friends of Buckner Park.

Buckner and Garrett Park on Munger Boulevard at Garrett Avenue were built around the same time and are the oldest in Old East Dallas. Buckner was built for $68,153.40 out of a $500,000 city bond. It had a playground and ornamental lighting, and in 1920, a wading pool was added. It closed in 1997. In the mid-1920s, there were free outdoor movies on the lawn.

Peak’s Suburban Addition neighbors began plotting for renovations to Buckner more than 10 years ago, and they raised the money for a conceptual plan.

When City Councilman Adam Medrano asked neighbor Jesse Moreno to serve on the park board, he agreed on the condition that Medrano would help him complete the park renovations, which were funded in the 2006 bond election.

“It’s a park that has been long overdue, and Old East Dallas doesn’t really have another community park,” Moreno says. “Munger Place is a great park, but it’s really a playground and there’s not really a park for the historic neighborhoods.” —RACHEL STONE

You do not want to go against Betty McKnight in any cooking competition at the State Fair of Texas. Be it pizza or Spam, she’s a formidable opponent whose flair for unusual flavors is backed up by an overflowing box of blue ribbons.

“Once you get bit by that blue-ribbon bug, you want more,” she laughs.

It was jellies and jams where she shined brightest. From sweet to savory, she has won awards for most of her gooey creations. But it all began with whiskey-orange marmalade.

“My husband just loved it,” she remembers. “We couldn’t find it anywhere. This was before all these specialty food stores. When we did find it, it was obscenely expensive.”

So she whipped up a batch. It proved so popular, on a whim she decided to enter it in the 1998 State Fair of Texas creative arts competition, which includes everything from quilts and paintings to baked goods and chili.

“It was the first time I ever entered anything, and I won the blue ribbon,” the White Rock Hills resident says.

Then, the floodgates opened. She couldn’t stop herself. Sitting in her Jacuzzi, Mai Tai in hand, she let her mind wander and creative concoctions came to her.

“It’s only when you relax that the ideas start flowing,” she says.

And the blue ribbons kept coming, 10 in total for jams and jellies. Judges loved her blends of savory and sweet, like the three-pepper jelly and pineapple-ginger jam. Eventually, it became clear that she was on to something. Her friends and family encouraged her to turn her awardwinning hobby into a business, and Betty’s Blue Ribbon Fare was born.

She used to sell her products at the Dallas Farmers Market, but now the jams are sold online only. It’s a homegrown business that’s all about personal touch. She selects and cuts all the fruit herself, making small batches of 12 to 14 jars at a time during the summer months.

When canning became her profession, she became ineligible for the amateur-only jam and jelly contest at that annual exposition. But that’s no matter, for there are dozens of cooking competitions at the Fair, many of which McKnight already has won.

In 2006, she received a blue ribbon in the Spam contest with her Spam-stuffed mushrooms wrapped in phyllo dough. Last year, she took top prize in the pizza cook-off for an Oktoberfest pizza with a beer-soaked crust and mustard sauce topped with bratwurst and sauerkraut.

She’s not taking part in this year’s contest, but she says it’s the friends, not the ribbons, that she’ll miss.

“My favorite thing about the Fair is the camaraderie,” she says.

—EMILY CHARRIER