All’s fA ir

Tradition is the gravity that pulls us to the State Fair

If you’ve ever attended the State Fair of Texas, even once in the event’s 126-year history, you know the talking points.

There’s the landmark spectre of Big Tex calling out “HOW-dee” to passersby while talking up fair activities and, in general, just being a super-huge mascot.

There’s the acreage-eating car show, which doesn’t feature every car and truck made for passengers, but it certainly feels like it walking through the two auto buildings.

There’s the livestock, which city folks treat as curiosities even as the people who know animals marvel at the specimens in their stalls and cages.

There’s the Midway, with row after row after row of fun-looking games that can be tough to win and scream-inducing rides that can be tough to stomach.

And there’s the fried food, which by reputation spreads Texas’ name farther and wider each fall as vendors scramble over each other to come up with new things to fry that are even more over-the-top than cactus, Coke, beer and cookies.

But when you talk with people about the fair, all of that stuff isn’t really what they remember, particularly if they’re longtime attendees who make the trek annually to the country’s most attended fair.

Sure, they talk about the fried food they ate or the stuff they heard Big Tex say, but that’s not what brings them back. Instead, they’re wandering the fairgrounds year after year because it’s a tradition, one maybe that was started by a grandparent or a parent, maybe begun in high school or college, or maybe kicked off themselves when they were married or had kids of their own.

Most people don’t attend the State Fair of Texas because it’s the sexiest, coolest thing going. They show up at the fair because it’s a part of their lives, something they can’t miss any more than they can miss birthdays or anniversaries or first days of school.

Our story in this month’s magazines chronicles some of our neighborhood’s biggest fair-lovers, people who spend the fair’s entire off-season thinking of ways to cook or sew or build their way to glory in Creative Arts contests. But it’s the rare person who sits in a darkened room working on his or her fair plans alone; most of these people, as you’ll note from the story, make this a family affair, with daughters joining mothers and sons helping fathers, and

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It doesn’t really make any difference to these people if the weather is hot, if the grease has been around awhile, if the corny dog line is too long, or even if they win a coveted ribbon for their efforts.

They’re not coming to the fair for something to do; they’re coming to the fair because it’s what they do.

And I’ll be there, too.

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When editor Rachel Stone posted a rendering of developer and Kings Highway resident Rick Garza’s Davis Street Market at facebook.com/oakcliffadvocate, reactions were mixed:

“It looks like Uptown to me. Not at all like Oak Cliff. Very disappointing.”

—Robbie Dawson Christopher

“I really like how he’s placed consideration on public space, parking and a host of mixed commercial and rental.”

—Jonathan Braddick

Coffee roasted on-site

That’s one of the things I appreciate most about our area (“Oak Cliff Coffee Roasters to open café, showroom on Davis at Tyler,” Sept. 6). As rough as that place looks now, people around here tend to look at the possibilities/potential of that space. Elsewhere, that place would be demolished, no question. I look forward to seeing this place once it’s up and running!

—David Hand

The streetcar to nowhere?

If I am correct, it will be a beautiful little jaunt from Union Station to the intersection near Methodist hospital (“Oak Cliff street car due in 2014,” Sept. 11). I am sure Union Station is just teeming with folks who are anxious to hang out down near Methodist hospital. What a waste of money. —AG

You are being just a wee bit short sighted. People in the 1950s said, “There’s nothing but cow pastures north of Lovers Lane,” and designed the original Central Expressway accordingly, much to our dismay before (and after) it was rebuilt.

Rent problems

—RobertB

What’s with all these expensive 800-plus rent on these places (“Alta West Davis now leasing, opens in November,” Sept. 12)! First Zang Triangle and now this one? You can get a $500, one-bedroom duplex down the street.

—Emily

The rent is too high for this property. Zang Triangle is asking for $1,000-plus a month for a one-bedroom! Apartments Downtown are now cheaper than Oak Cliff. I lived at Grand Estates at Founders Park on Zang in 2004-2007 and paid $542 when I moved in and was up to $688 when I moved out. Way more reasonable than Zang Triangle and the new complex.

—Ally

I think these rents are really, really high, and the place looks to be horribly constructed (unlike the Zang Triangle property). Still, I haven’t seen a duplex for $500 in OC in the last four years or so that I’ve been looking — but perhaps not in the same places, or no one leaves those little gems. Rents for duplexes are around $650-$750.

—Adriane

October 13-14, 2012

Q&A: Mike Rhyner

radio host Mike Rhyner is a 1968 graduate of Kimball High School, born and raised in Oak cliff. He’s been on the air with KtcK since its debut in 1993, a fixture on the afternoon drive-time show the Hardline. He’s also a musician who plays in the tom Petty cover band Petty theft and a byrds cover band, the Nyrds.

What neighborhood did you grow up in Oak Cliff?

I lived in Southwest Oak Cliff, not too far from Duncanville. We lived in two places over there. One was near Polk Terrace and one was close to Kimball, between Lancaster and Kiest. It was about an idyllic a place to grow up as you can possibly imagine. It was all families. There wasn’t a whole lot that happened out there. It was like the Cleavers’ neighborhood, almost. It was really a great place to grow up, and that sounds kind of weird to some people nowadays. But back then it was something completely different.

Were you in a band back then, and if so, where did you play?

I started playing in bands in my early ’teens. You played anything you could get. Parties that your friends would have, a lot of churches would have dances on the weekends. There was a place out there called Candy’s Flare at the National Guard armory on Red Bird Lane that people used to play.

Where did you hang out?

Kids rode around back then. There wasn’t any place to hang out, really. I had some friends who went to South Oak Cliff, and they would hang out at the Glendale Shopping Center. Sometimes people would hang out at Polk and Camp Wisdom. Kiest Park was always a big place, but that’s a place people used to go to make out more than anything. And Hampton-Illinois, let’s not forget it.

I know you live Downtown now. Do you ever come over here to hang out now?

I sometimes go over to The Foundry or Bishop Arts. What I like to do more than anything is drive around the old neighborhood and see what’s shaking there.

Were you always a Rangers fan?

I was into baseball long before they got here, and when they got here, they became my team. I’ve been with them from the start.

What team did you follow before the Rangers?

Anybody who was playing the Yankees.

I’m a Yankee hater from way back, and I still do.

I appreciate that, but why did you hate the Yankees?

They just had more of everything than anyone. And they won all the time, too. I guess I thought there should have been equanimity in the game. I didn’t really understand how things worked. I understand it now, though, and I understand the greatness that was before me, which I didn’t latch onto then.

Do you think the Rangers will make the series this year (asked the first week of September)?

Do I think the Rangers will make it to the World Series? I’m not looking that far ahead. Getting into the tournament is job one. In any sport, all you want to do, and I learned this from the great Bill Parcels, is get to the tournament and then you take your chances. Anytime you get into the tournament, it’s not a failed season.

Rangers fans will probably perceive it that way since we’ve been to the series twice now.

I fear that it will be perceived that way, with fans being the way they are, especially fans around here. I think they would be really let down if things don’t work out.

Do people always want to talk to you about sports? Are you OK with that?

I try to be as accommodating to people as I can be. If people are nice to me, I am nice to them. I don’t like being asked Cowboys questions when baseball season is on. All that just comes with the job, though, and I know that.

How long have you been on the radio in Dallas?

Since 1979, I’ve been into it and out of it and here and there. These days it’s pretty hard to stay in one place very long, and I’ve been really, really fortunate at the Ticket. We’re now coming up on 19 years. If I can get 20 years with the Ticket, especially the way the business is nowadays, if I can get 20 years in, whatever happens after that, I will be able to walk away from it and say, “You did something there.”