2009 November Oak Cliff

SHOTS FROM THE PLAZA

An annual trip to Dealey Plaza becomes an unexpected tradition for two Oak Cliff photographers

PhoTo by PATRiciA RichARdS

BACK TALK

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FRIDAY PRODUCTIVY-KILLER

Help pass the time by ensuring your weekend begins with a mindless, yet amusing, diversion. You can find that workweek escape on Back Talk Blog every Friday at 2 p.m.

this month on

CENTURY 21 Judge Fite - Dallas

“We’re prolonging the life of the written word.”

NO Pl AcE lIKE HOME

Think growing up means getting out? Time to rethink things.

It has been years since I officially left, driving down the long gravel road that led away from where I grew up.

As I left for college, that drive — my last as a permanent resident of “home” — didn’t seem momentous, but it was.

And I have been back, sometimes for weeks while I was in college and sometimes for days just to visit. But home is never the same after you’ve left.

Two of my sisters still live nearby, one a few miles away and another a few hours. They see each other frequently. Their kids play together. They talk. They get along. They watch out for each other and for my parents.

My parents still live in the home, which today is remarkably like it was back then,

with lots of rolling green lawn and shade trees and places to sit and think.

Way back when I left for college, I didn’t look back. I had big plans, and like so many things that are overly familiar, leaving home wasn’t traumatic or cataclysmic. It was, I thought then, just inevitable.

began seemed to have passed.

I thought about all of this as I read our magazine’s story this month about multigenerational families living next door and down the street from each other. Having grandma living nearby to see the grandkids, and having dad next door to help repair the leaking toilet aren’t sexy aspects of a successful neighborhood or a family. But more than rising home prices and expensive strollers, those family bonds create a value for the families we talked with that can’t be duplicated.

The very idea of having family members scattered a few minutes away, something that at one time we may have laughed off, offers a certain charm and quaintness and priceless peace that’s hard to describe.

6301 Gaston, Suite 820, Dallas 75214; FAX to 214.823.8866; or e-mail to rwamre@advocatemag.com.

And as I moved first to Chicago and then to Dallas, with a stopover in Florida for a few months, I didn’t look back, either. My mom and dad would, from time to time, point out that sometimes people decide, as life rolls on, that where you started is a good place to wind up.

But by then, I had married a Texas girl, and we had a couple of Texas kids, and I was working at a Texas business, so the time for a permanent return to where it all

EDITORIA l PH/469.916.7860 publisher: RI c K WAMRE /214.560.4212 rwamre@advocatemag.com

Had I known, as I drove down that dusty gravel road, what I know today about the importance of family, I might have thought twice about turning the key in the ignition. Life would have been different, but it wouldn’t automatically have been worse, as I no doubt would have told you back then.

As this month’s stories tell us, home and family — somewhat abstract terms to many of us — don’t have to be.

managing editor: KERI MIT c HE ll /214.292.0487 kmitchell@advocatemag.com

senior art director: JYNNETTE NEA l /214.560.4206 jneal@advocatemag.com assistant art director: Jul IANNE RI c E /214.292.0493 jrice@advocatemag.com

editors: MAR l ENA c HAVIRA-MEDFORD /214.292.2053 mchavira-medford@advocatemag.com c HRISTINA H u GHES b A bb /214.560.4204 chughes@advocatemag.com

designers: J EANINE M I c HNA -b A l ES , lARRY Ol IVER , KRIS S c OTT contributing editors: JEFF SIEGE l , SA llY WAMRE contributors: SEAN c HAFFIN , SANDY GREYSON , bI ll K EFFER , G AY l A K OKE l, E RIN M OYER , GEORGE MASON , bl AIR MONIE , E ll EN RAFF, RA c HE l STONE web editor: cO ll EEN YAN c Y /469.916.7860 cyancy@advocatemag.com photo editor: c AN TüRKYIlMAZ /214.560.4200 cturkyilmaz@advocatemag.com photographers: RObERT buNcH, MARK DAVIS, MOllY DIcKSON, cHRISTOPHER lEE , SEAN McGINTY interns: AlEX KNESNIK, lAcEY TEER

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bRANDI S TRINGER /469.916.7864 bstringer@advocatemag.com

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Rick Wamre is publisher of Advocate publishing. Let him know how we are doing by writing to

My mom and dad would, from time to time, point out that sometimes people decide, as life rolls on, that where you started is a good place to wind up.

blog& Back Talk

TOP TEN RECORDS

Wonderful article [“Still Spinning After all These Years”, October Advocate]. Oak Cliff in the ’50s and ’60s was like our own little precious space in a big world, a place where you could be free to do all of the things that our children and grandchildren will never experience. Thank you for refreshing our memories.

—NaNCy CaRSON VIa aDVOCaTEMaG.COM

Terrific article. I introduced my youngest daughter, who is 21, to “vinyl” a few weekends ago, and we enjoyed spinning some of the oldies — quaint, albeit a bit scratchy!

—JOhN ByER VIa aDVOCaTEMaG.COM

How I miss Oak Cliff and all the lasting memories — thanks for taking the time to keep us “reminded.”

haRRIETT REED VIa aDVOCaTEMaG.COM

COFFEE CONNECTION

Cafe Brazil is the neighborhood cafe. That’s it. It’s the polished version of Metro Diner. Take it for what it is and enjoy.

—JakE VIa aDVOCaTEMaG.COM

LAUNCH

Promise House celebrates its 25-year anniversary this year.

The Oak Cliff-based charity is the city’s only shelter for homeless and at-risk teenagers. Besides that, Promise House has eight other programs that help kids get off the streets and transition into adulthood. Promise House started as an adult Sunday school project at Lover’s Lane United Methodist Church, and now it serves thousands of kids — and sometimes, their kids — every year. We sat down with Promise House vice president of external affairs JUDY WRIGHT to talk about what Promise House does.

How is the 25-year anniversary campaign going, in light of the economy?

The economy has caused us to serve about 750 more clients than the year before with less money. You really have to hone your message for what you need and not panic. I’m really proud of my staff. They’ve put in extra work and extra time, and we were able to end the [budget] year in the black. We’ve had expensecutting all across the agency. If you’re raising money, people don’t necessarily want to fund you at a great level the next year if you have a huge deficit. So we attacked it head-on.

What was your fund-raising strategy?

We had funders who were not able to give at the same level this year. So we had to come up with a way to get more funders to give what they could. You have to let them know what their money is doing, how many kids were you able to feed and give a bed to that you wouldn’t have been able to help before. And if you communicate with them, they oftentimes want to give you more, and we had a record-breaking number of new funders this year.

Tell us a little about what Promise House does.

We give shelter to homeless, run-away and at-risk teens. About 78 percent of our clients are over 13, but we serve ages 0 to 24 through nine major programs. There’s a lot of movement within our programs, and I think that gives teens a lot of options. We focus a lot on education. We have two DISD classrooms for our shelter kids. We have other programs that focus on getting a GED or going to Dallas C.A.N. Academy, and we

more on JUDY WRIGHT

have the Blake Davis Scholarship, which anyone in our program can access for help with higher education. Our goal is to make them self-sufficient and successful members of society.

WHYDO YOU THINK PROMISEHOUSE ISSO IMPORTANT FOR DALLAS?

Our city wants to end homelessness by 2014. That’s almost an impossible feat if we don’t help teens because they’re most likely to become the next generation of homeless adults. So that’s our main, core mission — to end teen homelessness.

YOU HELPEDOVER 700 MORE KIDS THAN LAST YEAR?

Yes. There were 207 who stayed with us in the shelter last year. And overall, we served 5,095 clients, which is an increase of 730. We had the greatest increase in our Street Outreach Program. We brought in 190 teens and young people from the street.

TELL ME MORE ABOUT THAT PROGRAM.

The Street Outreach Program is where employees and volunteers go out on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings and look for kids who are out on the street. They take hygiene kits, jackets, socks and anything that they might need. And they tell them we’re here. They’re turned away from adult shelters. So we want them to know that we’re here. If you can get to them early, before they’re hardened to the street, then they might want to come in. Some only come for a meal and a shower, but then at least you get to talk to them and try to get them with their families, or in the shelter, or in transitional living.

WHAT CAN OUR READERS DO TO HELP?

They can go to our website, promisehouse. org. There’s usually a wish list posted. Right now there’s a school supply list, and later, there will be a holiday wish list. People can adopt a child or a family or a program to help with holiday needs. We have a lot of grants that are matching grants, so we always need monies. No donation is too small. They can volunteer and get involved at Promise House as an individual, or get your company to do a drive. We always need volunteers, which could be anything from working in our office to working back in our programs. They can plan activities, whether it’s an exercise class, painting fingernails, doing homework, giving cooking lessons or any kind of fun project.

—RACHEL STONE

grab-bagLAUNCH

WHATGIVES?

neighborhood nonprofits

THISMONTH, BUYACANDLE ... from Shambala in the Bishop Arts District. The shop is donating 10 percent of its sales of any home fragrance item to Turner House. The Oak Cliff Society of Fine Arts is raising money for long overdue renovations to the Winnetka Heights mansion that is its clubhouse. Shambala is at 415 S. Bishop, turnerhouse.org.

BABY BLISS

Adorable Doll Pram by Haba. Includes pram, pillow and blanket. Made of solid beech wood in Germany. 1y+. Snider Plaza. 6721 Snider Plaza 469.232.9420 shopbabybliss.com

OR DONATE

to the Texas Theater renovation efforts. Last month’s Cyclesomatic bike festival brought several movies to the Texas Theater, which was a lot of fun. But the historic theater on Jefferson, the famous site where law enforcers got Lee Harvey Oswald, needs lots of work, and no donation is too small. oakclifffoundation.org.

KNOWOFWAYS that neighbors can spend time, attend an event, or purchase or donate something to benefit a neighborhood nonprofit? Email your suggestion to launch@advocatemag.com.

BOWMAN HOT GLASS

Working glassblowing studio and galleryoffering unique art glass for any budget or occasion. Sign up for glassblowing classes. Architectual commissions available. 1419 Griffin St. E. (Cedars District close to downtown Dallas) Tues.-Sat., 11-5 or by appt. 214.426.4777 bowmanglass.com

Small ways that you can make a big difference for

here’s the most important thing to remember when you want to repair a sidewalk: the city of dallas will help you fix it, but it will not foot the entire bill. (unless you live in a low-income area or the city is repairing the utilities beneath your sidewalk or curb.) But knowing that, if you still want your sidewalk to be walkable, here’s how it works:

1. the city gives residents two options: the fast-fix program and the costshare program.

2. the fast-fix program, as the title suggests, gets the job done more quickly. citizens pay $4.60 per square foot of sidewalk, plus additional charges for any curb repairs and grass replacements. city staff and contractors will inspect the sidewalk and provide cost estimates, and repairs must be made within two months of the request to protect the price. the payment is made to contractors, who work through dallas Water and utilities, and work should be completed within two weeks of payment.

3. in the cost-share program, citizens pay for half the costs — $2.80 per square foot of sidewalk — and the city pays for the other half. the costshare program usually involves an entire street, block or neighborhood

and typically takes one or two years. the city determines an area that needs sidewalk repairs, sends out letters to residents living in that area to find out if they want to go ahead with repairs; if so, residents have 30 days to pay their half of the cost. After the letters have been sent and money collected, it takes eight to 12 months to get a contract set up.

4. even though the city mostly relies on residents to take the initiative in sidewalk repairs, residents can still be cited by the city and possibly fined for having damaged sidewalks, because of the risk of someone becoming hurt and both the city and homeowner facing a civil suit.

5. for information about either program, contact James dowdy with the city’s public works and transportation department at 214.948.4287.

—Katie Collins

&CLIFF FEST: MORE THAN JUST A TASTE

FREE Oak Cliff residents already know our neighborhood is the keenest thing since HDTV. This Bishop Arts District street festival is designed to make that clear for the rest of Dallas. “Cliff Fest: More than Just a Taste” will showcase Oak Cliff-based artists, businesses and nonprofits. Neighborhood restaurants will give away small plates of food, or sell them for a few dollars. And there will be two stages with performers all day, including Oak Cliff-based bands, spoken word poets, the Sunset High School drill team and dancers from Studios on the Edge. The vendors and performers are locals only — an Oak Cliff address was the lone stipulation for businesses and artists to participate. The event is free, but a $1 per person donation to the North Texas Food Bank is requested. “We found out that with a dollar, the North Texas Food Bank can provide four meals,” says organizer Amy Wallace Cowan. The party is from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and the last band goes on at 7 p.m. More information is available at clifffest.org.

THE CEDARS OPEN STUDIO TOUR

BAREFOOT AT THE BELMONT

$20 November is the last month of the season to see one of the Belmont Hotel’s outdoor concerts. Ari Heist plays Nov. 5, David Garza plays Nov. 12, and Will Sexton plays Nov. 19. Tickets are available at swankpresents.com. 901 Fort Worth, 214.393.2300, belmontdallas.com.

FREE Artists living and working in the Cedars neighborhood are opening their doors and asking you to come look around. “It’s just a neighborhood party with an emphasis on art,” says organizer David Terry. Start the free tour at any of the studios listed at cedarsopenstudios.com, or at Dallas Heritage Village, which has free admission that day. The tour is from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

DALLAS YMCA TURKEY TROT $28

There is nothing like running 8 miles before eating a huge, carbohydrate-filled meal. The Turkey Trot is in its 42nd year, and walking it is also an option. Everyone also is invited to run or walk the 5k, or just watch the race, which goes through Oak Cliff. Registration information is available at thetrot.org.

ONDER KIVANC

SALVADORAN SIGNATURES

GLORIA R U bIO AND J OSE F UENTES introduced much of Dallas to Salvadoran food in 1987 when they opened their first restaurant in Oak Cliff. As Gloria’s expanded to Oak Lawn, Greenville Avenue and Addison, many Dallas diners for the first time tried handmade Salvadoran tamales and pupusas stuffed with spicy pork. Now there are 10 Gloria’s restaurants in the Dallas area, and one is under construction in Austin. Although Gloria’s serves Tex-Mex food such as enchiladas and tacos, it is Rubio’s recipes for Salvadoran specialties and her commitment to fresh cooking that sets the Dallas restaurant chain apart. “She loves to cook, and she cooks very, very well,” says Gloria’s business manager, Ricardo Moore. Gloria’s restaurants cook everything fresh every day, he says. “The best thing about Gloria’s is that everything is fresh,” he says. “Everything is cooked daily, and nothing is frozen.” Gloria’s recently has added some new menu items, including “tropical” entree salads with fruit, vegetables and beef, chicken, shrimp or salmon. Also new to the menu is salmon costeña, which comes smothered in a sweet and spicy chipotle sauce.

—RACHEL

STONE

DAVIS & CEDAR HILL 214.948.3672

GLORIASRESTAURANTS CO m

Pictured: Mar y Tierra, a Latin take on “surf and turf’”

Three more spots to try something new

1 TiLLman’s Roadhouse

With menu items like venison Frito pie, fried pickle cup and breakfast salad, Tillman’s knows how to put an unexpected twist on the usual.

WEST SEVENTH & NORTH bISHOp 214.942.0988

TILLmANSROADHOUSE CO m

2 KavaLa

This Mediterranean restaurant’s menu has lots of interesting entrees, but we can’t get past the brick-oven pizza, including a bacon, egg and arugula pie.

WEST DAVIS & NORTH WINDOmERE 214.942.8100

k AVALAGRILL .COm

3 don Panza Argentine pizza and empanadas come in several varieties. There is a blue cheese and ham empanada, and a pizza with artichoke hearts, egg and crab.

WEST CLARENDON & SOUTH RAVINIA 214.337.9900

DONpANz A COm

The BE S T E AT S in our neighborhood

YOUR GUIDE TO DINING OUT

CINDI’S NYDELI, RESTAURANT & BAKERY $ A little of everything for everyone!

Cindi’s has the best bagels, blintzes, latkes, matzo ball soups and quiches in town. Fantastic breakfast served all day. Excellent home-style lunch and dinner specials. Extensive dessert selections including cakes, pastries, pies and bread pudding. 11111 North Central Exprsswy. 214.739.0918; 7522 Campbell Rd. 972.248.0608; 3565 Forest Ln. 972.241.9204; And now our newest location: 2001 Midway Rd. 972.458.7740.

CIRCLE GRILL RESTAURANT $

New Whole Wheat Bran Pancakes the perfect addition to any breakfast. Don’t forget we are also here for dinner three days a week. Pop in and try some of our amazing dinner specials like our Prime Rib or Grilled Salmon. Coming this December, our “MONSTER MENU”. Come Home to the Circle Grill. Sun-Wed 6am-4pm ThursSat 6am-9pm. Banquet Facilities Available. Breakfast served all day. 3701 N. Buckner 214-327-4140

TILLMAN’S ROADHOUSE $$ OD WB

Tillman’s is a place for really good food, drinks, and music in a fun, casual, come-as-you-are environment. An update on the classic Texas roadhouse with regional menu favorites, familiar tunes and no-one is a stranger hospitality — all energized with a modern take. A combination of both rustic and lush in everything from the menu to the décor make Tillman’s a good-time anytime destination. Bishop Arts District 324 West 7th St. 214.942.0988. www.tillmansroadhouse.com

$ MOST ENTREES UNDER $10 / $$ BETWEEN $10-$20 / $$$ ABOVE $20 /

GOATS DO ROAM ROSÉ 2008 ($10) SOUTH AFRICA>

Wine writers always agonize over Thanksgiving, which understood. They get so hung up on food pairings that the point of the holiday, which is that we’re darn lucky do this. Who cares if cabernet sauvignon doesn’t go with that chardonnay and cranberry sauce isn’t proper? Thanksgiving about sharing and having fun, and the wine that you drink be part of that. It’s not about scores and oaky and toasty.

In other words, drink what’s fun and what you like. Dorothy likes white zinfandel, who are you to tell her can’t drink it at Thanksgiving? One option, especially you’re having a lot of people over for dinner, is to go with jug or box wines. There are some quite decent examples of each, like the 1.5-liter bottles of Glen Ellen andMeridian, and the BotBox cabernet. Another is sparkling wine, given the quality and variety of the various Spanish bubblies that cost $10 or less.

Whatever you do, though, think variety — some white, some red and even some pink. The Wine Police will not arrest you for trying to make your guests happy. These three wines would work nicely:

Rosé is actually a terrific Thanksgiving wine, since it’s dry enough for people who don’t like sweet wines and pink enough for people who do. This South African wine surprised me; I didn’t remember it tasting as fresh and lively as it does with this vintage. Serve it chilled, and pass the cornbread dressing.

This red wine comes in a 1-liter juice box and is made with organic grapes, and it’s probably the best cheap malbec on the market. As such, it’s dark and fruity and not very tannic, and this is the turkey wine for everyone who is still worried about pairings.

As much as I appreciate sauvignon blanc, I didn’t expect to like this wine much. It’s as high in alcohol as some red wines, and it has been aged in oak. Usually, these are not good signs for a wine that should be crisp and refreshing. But it works, and those techniques produced a subtle and sophisticated sauvignon blanc. Don’t expect any New Zealandstyle grapefruit, though; this is more melons and minerals.

—JEFF SIEGEL

WEEKLY WINE REVIEWS appear every Wednesday on the Advocate Back Talk blog, advocatemag.com/oak-cliff/ blog.

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WITH YOUR WINE

Turkey Reubenstyle sandwiches

Thanksgiving leftovers always seem to drive people crazy. What are we supposed to do with all that turkey? This is a variation on a theme that I have been eating with Thanksgiving leftovers since I was a boy growing up in Chicago. These days, I drink rosé with this on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and it’s always a fine match.

One note: You can use bottled salad dressing, but it tastes better (and isn’t especially difficult) to make your own. Just combine mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, relish, lime juice and ketchup, keeping in mind to use more mayonnaise than ketchup and just enough of the rest of the ingredients to get the taste you want.

Serves four, about 15 minutes

3-4 c leftover turkey, sliced or cut into pieces

¼ to ½ c best-quality Swiss-style cheese, sliced

1 c Russian or Thousand Island dressing

1-2 c sauerkraut, drained and rinsed

Eight slices best-quality bread

1. Butter each slice of bread. Then make a sandwich, with the buttered side of the bread on the outside, with the turkey, sauerkraut, cheese and dressing. Make sure the cheese is on the bottom and top of the sandwich.

2. Grill each sandwich in a skillet over medium heat for 2 ½ to 3 minutes a side, until golden brown.

ask the WINE GUY?

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AWINE COOLER AND WINE?AREN’T THEY THE SAME THING?

Not really. A wine cooler is wine (and usually poorquality wine) that has had flavors and sugar added to it to make it taste a certain way. Wine, on the other hand, is mostly natural, and tastes like the grapes it was made from.

—JEFF SIEGEL

taste@advocatemag.com

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Patricia Richards and Rick Barton pay a visit every year to the grassy knoll on the anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, listening and silently snapping photos as people tell their stories of the fateful day in history.

STORY BY KERI MITCHELL

Patricia Richards had no idea she was creating a tradition.

The longtime photography teacher was leading a class at El Centro Community College downtown and glanced at her calendar to notice that Nov. 22, the day President John F. Kennedy was shot, fell on a Saturday.

“I told my students, ‘OK, have I got a deal for you,’” Richards says. “‘Let’s meet on Saturday at the school; we’ll walk over to Dealey Plaza, and let’s see who remembers and who comes and why they came.’”

One of her students was Hunky’s owner and neighborhood resident Rick Barton, who remembers that once he took in the scene at the infamous grassy knoll, he was “hooked”.

“I hesitate to call it a freak show, but that’s kind of what it is — the interesting people who frequent the place on the 22nd of November,” Barton says.

“We ran back to the school and

developed the film, and it just was so exciting.”

That was in 1997. The next year, as Nov. 22 approached, Richards calledBarton to invite him to return to the spot. This November marks the 13th year the pair has spent the day at Dealey Plaza acting as “amateur detectives — sleuths with our cameras in the full sense of the romance of photojournalism,” Richards says.

Rain, unseasonable November heat and even a couple of Thanksgiving holidays haven’t kept them away; each of them has missed only one year.

It’s the circus of it all, Barton says, that draws them year after year. The anniversary always attracts newcomers, including people who say they witnessed the fateful shooting or whose family members watched the presidential motorcade. But Barton and Richards also run into the same cast of characters year after year — the JKF Lancers, who hold conferences each year on the assassination;

A 2008: “This man was in law enforcement at the time, and he said to me, ‘Do you want to know what really happened on this day? One gun, three bullets and an idiot — and I know that because that’s me,” Richards says, explaining that the man then showed her a copy of a newspaper photo in which the man was standing behind Police Chief Carl Day as he showed the rifle used in the assassination to a crowd.

B 2003: Richards’ listening ear led her to this photo. “I heard him say, ‘Doesn’t anybody want to know about the guy who always makes the signs?’ So I moved in closer. There’s always a sign on the curb, and apparently he had been making them for some time.”

C 1997: Years ago, people could pay to ride in this limo, an exact replica of the vehicle in which Kennedy was shot.

Where Were Nov. 22? You

D 2007: The Coalition on Political Assassinations always makes an appearance on the anniversary. Plus, Richards and Barton say, the media is always there to do a little blurb about what was going on.

E 2007: After visiting the grassy knoll in the morning, Barton attended a showing that evening of “Oswald’s Ghost” in the Texas Theatre, where Lee Harvey Oswald was apprehended by law enforcement.

F 2003: “Sometimes you hit on something that is even more poignant,” Richards says, such as the photo of this woman paying her respects to the late president. (Sign says “Thank you for the gift of you, President Kennedy. We Love You.)

G 1998: Richards caught this dog rest-

ing on the stone structure where Abraham Zapruder stood to shoot his home movie footage of the motorcade. “We didn’t treat his coming here like events are covered now,” Richards says. “The press was eight cars behind. They were not stationed along the route. No one was filming ahead of the car; no one was even filming the car. Here was Zapruder up on this little stone — and now there’s a dog.”

H 2003: Beverly Oliver was dancer for a club near Jack Ruby’s and was across the street Nov. 22, 1963. “She had borrowed a camera and took some pictures, and a few days afterward, there was a knock on her door and people who presented themselves as government officials asked for her film, which she never saw again,” Richards says. “She does not believe one person did it.” Oliver wrote a book called “Nightmare in Dallas”, and every year at the time of the assassination, she sings “The StarSpangled Banner” and “Amazing Grace”.

the longtime Dallasites who were present at the shooting and return to tell their stories; the conspiracy theorists seeking new converts; and the vendors hawking JFK gear.

“It’s just surreal,” Barton says of the circus-like atmosphere. “It’s comical on one hand, and then some people are just as serious as they can be. We’ve seen people crying and devastated to this day over the whole thing.”

In one of Richards’ advanced photography classes, she required her students to join Barton and her in the annual ritual.

“It’s a perfect place for them to hone their skills because these people want to tell their stories, they want to be listened to, they want to be photographed and want the truth to be known,” she says.

“For those people who were actually on the curb on the day, what really was the worst day of their lives has just become the best day because they are dedicated to the memory and they must come on the 22nd.

To many of them, it’s the reason to keep going because that truth must come out, whatever that truth is.”

All that they have seen and

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heard has influenced their opinions on what actually happened that day.

“That’s a great American mystery,” Richards says.

“My belief changes every time — it changes with the weather in Dallas,” Barton says. “When you hear some people, you’re just convinced that there was more than one person, then you hear someone else and you think, OK, we’re all crazy. There was just one crazy person.”

Barton and Richards invite Oak Cliff neighbors to judge for themselves this month at their third photography exhibit at Hunky’s featuring photos they’ve snapped over the years, including some in this month’s magazine. An opening reception is Nov. 7 from 7-9 p.m.

And, of course, they’ll be in the midst of all the action again Nov. 22, “our ears open and our finger on the trigger,” Richards says.

“I lived in Seattle, I remember my mother leaving the table quietly to go lock the front door. I had said to her, ‘They’re in Dallas; we’re here,’ but I guess that that gave her power. It was first time the news went live, and newspapers, no matter how fast they printed the next special, couldn’t keep up with the news. I didn’t expect to live in Dallas, and then when we ended up living here, that was the first place I wanted to go. In the news coverage, the grassy knoll looked large, but in person, it looks small.”

—Patricia Richards

“I would have been nine years old and in the fourth grade at an elementary school in Waco. The teachers announced that school was being let out, probably at noon or 12:30ish, and with no explanation, no nothing, the kids left. We walked to school, back and forth. I had no idea what was going on. It was bizarre, obviously. I remember we had no school the next day, and what TV there was was just saturated with JFK in black and white.”

—Rick Barton

I 2008: A group of performers always presents a program right around the time Kennedy was shot. “Here, they were guarding this box, and then at the moment of its unveiling this is what was what was inside,” Richards says. Barton remembers that those gathered were speechless. “They were more quiet than I was,” he says. “I was going, ‘Huh uh, no way, unbelievable.’”

J 2007: Dallasite Ernest Brandt returns to the scene every year, always wearing the hat that he donned the day of the assassination. “He was standing on the curb with his buddy, and he knows for sure that there were only three bullets because he was there in that hat. In all of our pictures of him — and we have many — he’s pointing.” Richards says. “Once he finishes his spiel, it starts all over again because there’s a new crowd of people,” Barton says.

K 2007: One of the many vendors hawks his gear. “They’ve got different magazines, different pamphlets, which is even more carnival-ish,” Barton says.

ON THE COVER 1999: This photo was taken early in the morning, when just a few people had gathered. Usually a few hundred show up over the course of the day, Richards and Barton say.

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FOR THESE FAMILIES, THE GIRL NEXT DOOR IS GRANDMA — WELCOME TO ...

NEXT THE GENERATION

DOOR

STORY BY ASHA GWIN PHOTOGRAPHS BY CAN TÜRKYILMAZ

It’s a small-town phenomenon: Parents raising kids on the same block where they grew up — with grandma, aunts, siblings and cousins all right around the corner. And it has been that way in small towns just about as long as anyone can recall.

But it’s also common here, with some families three or four generations deep, making our neighborhood feel more like a village and less like a big city.

Here’s a look at what’s bringing neighbors back home generation after generation, and a candid discussion about what it’s like having your inlaws living across the street.

The Hilburn family greets you like an old family friend The family’s oak Cliff roots run deep. Tom and Cheryl Hilburn built their home on Alco Drive three years ago, but they’ve lived in oak Cliff most of their lives. Tom was the son of a Dallas police officer, and would later make that his profession as well. His mother worked at A. Harris, a predecessor of Sanger-Harris department store, for over 30 years. Cheryl grew up in oak Cliff and worked at her cousin’s business, Lone Star Donuts, as a

teenager. Her father, Glenn Smith, owned majestic Paint & body.

Although they’ve moved around a bit, the Hilburns make their homes and memories in oak Cliff.

The Hilburns moved to Duncanville when Steve was in ninth grade, but they came back to o ak Cliff when he was in college. And after college, Steve and his wife, Stacey, moved just around the corner from his mom and dad. They don’t have children, but Steve and Stacey can count on Cheryl to take care of their

Tom and Cheryl Hillburn live right around the corner from their son, Steve, and his wife, Stacey.

dogs, and their lawn. o nce, Cheryl walked over just to water the grass, while Stacey and Steve were inside watching from the window. Things like that — and free meals, Steve says — are the perks of living so close to his parents.

The family members think o ak Cliff is getting better and better. And they like to see their neighbors building houses and fixing up old stores. The Hilburn family is much like o ak Cliff itself: deep-rooted, close-knit and friendly.

Walking into the home of Carla and Butch Boss, you would think that you entered a museum chandeliers, a grand piano, crystal decorations everywhere. but right upstairs, grandchildren are jumping on beds, running around and playfully tackling each other. Carla and her three children, Lisa, Wendy and Jeremy, burst into fits of laughter at the sound of children ransacking the second floor of the house. This is just a peek into the jolly boss family.

Just as Carla and butch are the rock of the family, so is their house. Daughter Lisa lives three houses away with her family. Wendy lives two streets over with her husband and children. And Jeremy lives about six blocks away with his wife. The three boss siblings, after spending years at college or trying out different cities, moved back to oak Cliff for the unique sense of community,

and of course, the family. “If it wasn’t for oak Cliff, I wouldn’t be in Dallas,” Jeremy says.

Lisa and Wendy wanted their children to grow up with their extended family right down the street, just as they grew up. At a moment’s notice, a grandparent, aunt or uncle can be there to babysit or check on a sick child.

Wendy and Lisa love living close to their parents, and they want to carry on the tradition when their children grow up. “I’m not thinking about them moving away ever,” Wendy says. And Lisa is fixed on buying three other houses on the block for her kids.

Lisa brings a gallon of blue bell ice cream from her mother’s freezer and sets it in the middle of the table. She hands everyone a spoon, and they all dig in. Wendy says, “People don’t know how lucky they are.”

Three generations of the Boss family live in one Oak Cliff neighborhood, and they hope to keep the tradition going through generation four.

THENEXTDOORGENERATION

the lockes

Jacob and Joyce Locke first moved to Oak Cliff when they started having children 52 years ago, because they wanted to settle down in a nice neighborhood. When their daughter, Jerri, moved out and started a family, she didn’t go far for long. She moved in next door to her parents on montclair Avenue.

Jerri says she likes having her parents as next-door neighbors because she gets to be with them in the “fun years,” instead of just coming around for special occasions, or when they’re sick or have a problem.

Although Joyce and Jacob are close to 80, they seem much younger.

“Grandpa gets on the floor and plays with the girls, while grandma’s in the kitchen cooking dinner for the family,” she says. Jerri’s daughters, Grace and Annabel, who she adopted from China, love to watch grandma cook, and help every chance that they get. “If the girls are helping grandma cut vegetables, she’s right there and patient,” Jerri says.

Jacob walks to rosemont elementary School every school day to pick up his grandchildren, just as he walked to get his daughters years ago, stopping to say “hello” or chat with neighbors along the way. Joyce has been a volunteer at edgefield Church of Christ for many years, and the couple also volunteers at methodist Dallas medical Center, where Jerri works.

everything in this family is done with humor, so it’s no surprise that Jerri couldn’t think of one negative aspect of living next to the house where she grew up. Although, her own house is part of the family’s history as well. Jerri says that when she and her sisters were growing up, “a mean old woman” lived in the house where she lives now. It’s hard to believe that the house, which was such a source of anxiety for them, has now turned into a house of immense love, she says.

“Grandpa gets on the floor and plays with the girls, while grandma’s in the kitchen cooking dinner for the family.”

Jacob and Joyce Locke live next door to their daughter, Jerri, and their granddaughters, Grace and Annabel.

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ADVOCATE PUBLISHING does not pre-screen, recommend or investigate the advertisements and/or Advertisers published in our magazines. As a result, Advocate Publishing is not responsible for your dealings with any Advertiser. Please ask each Advertiser that you contact to show you the necessary licenses and/or permits required to perform the work you are requesting. Advocate Publishing takes comments and/or complaints about Advertisers seriously, and we do not publish advertisements that we know are inaccurate, misleading and/or do not live up to the standards set by our publications. If you have a legitimate complaint or positive comment about an Advertiser, please contact us at 214-5604203. Advocate Publishing recommends that you ask for and check references from each Advertiser that you contact, and we recommend that you obtain a written statement of work to be completed, and the price to be charged, prior to approving any work or providing an Advertiser with any deposit for work to be completed.

THE INTRUDER GRIPPED HER THROAT AND TOLD HER TO STOP SCREAMING.

Michele Cox took out the trash and went back in her Kessler Park home. Entering her bedroom, she heard her door open again. Thinking the wind blew it open, she went back to close it.

“I got to the hallway, and I had this young man standing in my hallway,” she says. “I asked him who he was and what he was doing and what did he want.”

Cox kept yelling.

“He slammed me down on the ground and got on top of me and put one hand on my throat and one hand over my mouth and covered my face. And he said, ‘If you do not quit screaming or talking, I’m going to kill you.’ I thought he was going to kill me.”

Cox kept kicking, and he finally got off her, but didn’t leave.

“He held me hostage in my house for two hours,” she says. “I finally said, ‘Take my car and get out of my house.’”

He had been trying to break into houses in the neighborhood and was hiding from the police. He locked her in the bathroom, rummaged through the house and put on some of her clothes. He then stole her purse and a rented 2009 Chrysler PT Cruiser.

VOLUNTEERS HELPED PAINT OVER GRAFFITI AND PICK UP TRASH AS PART OF CITY COUNCIL MEMBER DELIA JASSO’S GRAFFITI WIPE OUT

The robber escaped with her credit cards, cash and car.

“It was more than what I would want anybody in their life to ever have to go through,” she says. “It was unreal.”

The Victim: Michele Cox

The Crime: Home invasion robbery

Date: Monday, Sept. 21

Time: Between 10:30 a.m. and 12:50 p.m.

Location: 100 block of South Plymouth

The robber was caught two days later driving her rental car in Irving. Police later found that, as a prisoner in Huntsville for aggravated assault and burglary, he received a broken jaw from a fight. After being transferred to a medical unit in Galveston, he escaped and stole a car before heading north.

Dallas Police Deputy Chief Rick Watson of the Southwest Patrol Division advises residents who find themselves in a similar situation to comply with the criminal’s demands.

“You don’t know what this individual will do or not do,” he says.

If someone enters your home while you are there, Watson recommends exiting immediately if possible, hiding, or calling police if you can get to a phone.

The experience was frightening, but Cox says she is recovering.

“I’m doing OK, but I’m still a little scared at night,” she says. “It’s getting better each day.” —SEAN CHAFFIN

$2,000

OF THE VOLUNTEERS WERE STUDENTS AND PARENTS FROM A.W. BROWN FELLOWSHIP CHARTER SCHOOL IN OAK CLIFF

IS THE MAXIMUM FINE, UNDER STATE LAW, FOR WRITING GRAFFITI

SOURCE:THE CITY OF DALLAS

GIVING THANKS TO THOSE WHO SACRIFICED

DURING WORLD WAR II, OAK CLIFF NEIGHBORS MADE SOLDIERS FEEL AT HOME

Writing the November column, my theme for the month could naturally have centered on either Veteran’s Day or Thanksgiving. It makes sense. However, in the process I once again learned it’s a small world.

During an interview with local fun person Paula Craig (Sunset ’56), she shared her terrific memories about armed services personnel in Oak Cliff. The Craigs were one of the many American families who “adopted” soldiers, sailors, and Marines during World War II, providing comfort, emotional support and a homecooked dinner. According to Ms. Paula (her Montessori “teacher name” for two generations of Oak Cliff folks), those on the homefront would drive to Commerce Street in downtown Dallas, approaching servicemen to extend an invitation for dinner and possibly some entertainment — listening to the radio or playing croquet in the back yard.

During the war, because the Brits were being hammered so brutally by the Germans, the Royal Air Force sent many of its student pilots and trainers to the States for training. The first of these facilities, the No. 1 British Flying Training School, was in Terrell. But on the weekends the flyboys often rode the train or bus to Big D, looking for fun. A fortunate group of these guys found a homeaway-from-home with the Craigs.

“Many times we’d be around the house,” Craig says, “and suddenly, from the front door we’d hear, ‘Anybody wanna go to the zoo?’ That was the code phrase.”

The Brits were in town.

The boys were so fond of little Paula that they gifted her with a RAF patch, one Mrs. Craig sewed on the sleeve of Paula’s dance costume — a miniature U.S. Army uniform. Between the ages of 4 and 7, the little dancer wore the costume when she performed at war bond rallies. Sadly, of the 55 pilots hosted by the Craigs, only two survived the war: one Brit and one Scotsman, Jimmie Dunn, who corresponded with the family and even came to Martha and Paul Craig’s 60th wedding anniversary celebration.

Sifting through her vintage photo album, one of the images caught my eye: a photograph showing the Craigs’ Elmwood home at 1420 Brunner.

“Did you sell your house to the Couches?” I asked.

They had.

Bill (Sunset ’33) and Elizabeth Couch married and then raised their family in Oak Cliff, celebrating Thanksgiving each year at the home until Elizabeth sold it in 1993. My high school boyfriend attended Sunset, and one of the Couch sons, Jim (’65), was his friend. I spent many hours

at this house, playing games and hanging out, sometimes using it as a meeting place before venturing out to other destinations. Jim was in my wedding, as were his twin sisters, Betty and Nancy (’67). I even had a date with older brother, Don (’62).

Like I said, it’s a small world.

As a historian and writer, and in my daily life as well, I continually find this adage to be true. Now, with modern transportation and communication, along with 24-hour cable news, the world does seem to be getting smaller.

Thanksgiving follows Veteran’s Day. It’s fitting. We owe such a significant debt of gratitude to all those who’ve served our country in the United States military — our life of freedom, a gift granted by the sacrifices of others. We should be thankful.

Now, as I frequently drive by the I-35 E giraffe stature, I think about those British pilots arriving in town with their “zoo” announcement. If the flyboys were still with us, perhaps they would have seen the story of that statue — designed to be the tallest in Texas — on 24-hour cable news.

Gayla Brooks Kokel can date her neighborhood heritage back to 1918, when her father was born in what was then called eagle Ford. She was born at methodist Hospital and graduated from Kimball High School. Kokel is one of three co-authors of the recently published book, “Images of America: oak Cliff”, and writes a monthly history column for the oak Cliff Advocate. Send her feedback and ideas to

Davis, June Ash (Paula Craig’s aunt) and Jimmie Dunn at 1420 Brunner LEFT/ Little Paula in her USO uniform