HOME SWEET HOME

It’s where your heart is

My father and mother have lived in the same house for almost 60 years.

The house has changed over the years they’ve added a bedroom, a bathroom, an office and a den. They’ve painted, repainted, painted yet again and finally gave up and added metal siding to the outside of the place. They’ve mowed and tended the acreage so lovingly, I swear they know most of the blades of grass and even the weeds by heart.

They’ve fixed water leaks, solved electrical problems, dealt with foundation cracking, repaired broken windows (at least two caused by my childhood baseball game simulations throwing a ball against the wall), and dealt with all kinds of happy times and personal calamities there, too.

There are far more memories than problems in a house that has become a home, but the good times of the past still can’t change the realities of the present.

Today, the house and grounds are far larger than two jokingly self-described “old” people need, even as the house and storage buildings are jammed with just about everything anyone in the family ever acquired over the years — including what appears to be every school project my sisters and I completed from kindergarten through college.

They are not hoarders, at least in the current reality-TV vernacular. But like many of us, since they have room to save stuff, lots of stuff has been saved.

So I asked my dad what it would take to get them to move to a smaller home that would be easier to care for and would demand less from them as they continue try- ing to defy the aging process.

He paused, thoughtfully I presumed rather than for that “give-the-kid-the-ideaI’m-actually-considering-this” effect, and said words that ring true regardless of age and status.

“I don’t know,” he told me. “It just seems a lot easier to stay put here where we’ve always been.”

It is easy for my sisters and me to express our concerns and offer our opinions, because of course we know what’s best for people other than ourselves. But only my mom and dad can determine what’s best for them, and if they choose to ignore us, should we blame them? They’ve done just fine over the years despite all of the things we’ve dragged them into, through and over.

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My parents have earned the right to live their lives how they see fit, not that they need my permission to do so anyway, and if health-permitting they want to ride off into the sunset in this house they’ve called home for so long, I guess that is their call. It certainly isn’t mine.

That point was clear as I left their home after a recent pilgrimage, driving off into the sunset myself.

There they were, arm in arm and waving goodbye while standing in the front door of the only home they’ve known together — just as they have so many times over so many years and under so many circumstances.

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Thanks to Curiosities in Lakewood Shopping Center and McShan Florist in East Dallas for lending props to “The Real World” cover story.

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Rock, Paper, Scissors

How an Oak Cliff pop-up shop became an asset to the Dallas arts community

The idea came from a weekend-long popup shop called Rock, Paper, Scissors that offered art classes to children, during the first Better Block in 2011.

It was so successful that Kayli House Cusick and Shannon Driscoll pooled $5,000 and opened a fulltime business of the same vein, Oil and Cotton.

The shop, which offers art, music and crafts classes, plus art supplies and gifts, is now 5 years old; its legacy as a shepherd of the arts continues to blossom.

It has a magnetic quality. Many early Oil and Cotton volunteers and students have returned as teachers and interns.

The first scholarship student, Madeline Dean, was a student at Rosemont Elementa- ry School back then. Now she is a freshman at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

The shop’s first volunteer, Rachel Rushing, has since completed a master of fine arts degree and now teaches at Mountain View College as well as Oil and Cotton.

“It was amazing to see two women who were bosses in every sense of the word,” Rushing says. “And they’re so passionate.”

The shop gives art school students a place to land when they graduate. They may not make their rent by teaching workshops there, but it’s a place among like-minded people where they can take a moment to find the next step in their artistic careers.

That happened to Emily Riggert. As an undergraduate in 2011, she wandered into Oil and Cotton. Cusick needed an on-site babysitter for her daughter who was about 2 years old at the time, so that’s where Riggert started. Cusick and Driscoll encouraged her to teach toddler classes, always in high demand at O and C. She balked at first but then she got into it, co-writing curriculum with Cusick.

Riggert recently moved back to Dallas after finishing her degree in Austin. She took a job in the education department at the Crow Collection of Asian Art, and she also teaches toddler and kindergarten-first grade classes at Oil and Cotton.

Aside from that, Oil and Cotton presents art to the community in a way that is unpre- tentious and approachable.

When they had a workshop inside the Dallas Museum of Art a couple of years ago, every security guard came over to participate.

“Here they are constantly surrounded by all of this amazing art,” Cusick says. “But this caught their attention in a different way.”

The shop also offers classes once a month at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, the Latino Cultural Center and the Kessler School. They would like to expand that part of their business, offering workshops to schools, clubs and museums as well as birthday parties, corporate events and the like.

Oil and Cotton moved into a space next door to Davis Street Espresso near West Davis and Tyler this summer. The new space is nearly half the size of the old shop on Tyler at Seventh, but it is just right, they say.

Starting from the back door, tables and chairs graduate in size based on whom they serve: toddlers, 4 and 5 year olds, elementary age and then big kids and adults.

A music room with a piano and comfy sofa is between the classroom and the shop counter.

In the old space, they took advantage of an old-timey department store window to showcase art installations. Here, they’re using the front patio. That adds the challenge of creating public art that will stand up to the weather.

Oil and Cotton has never taken out a loan, and the owners still don’t have a business credit card.

“We live within our means,” Driscoll says.

Early on, they tried to pay themselves at least a little something. They had a landlord who let them do whatever they wanted to the space. They’ve adapted to demand, and they stay relevant by allowing volunteers, interns and employees to take a sense of ownership.

Cusick and Driscoll are still their own janitors. It’s all do-it-yourself, but after five years, they’ve hit a stride.

“We just took this little thing and kept it growing,” Cusick says. “Now we have payroll.”

—RachelStone

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