2019 November Oak Cliff

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UP FRONT

8 Interview

Darwin Payne was there on Nov. 22, 1963.

12 Know a neighbor Because of course the first taco editor lives in Oak Cliff.

14 Food

The Local Oak is mostly Tex with a smidge of Mex.

FEATURES

24 Update on Booker T. cheaters

30 Come back, pony! The story behind “Wildfire”

TABLE OF CONTENTS PHOTO BY DANNY FULGENCIO

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ABOUT THE COVER

Detail of a two-story house in the 500 block of West Eighth Street. The house, along with the rest of the block, is slated for redevelopment.

(Photography by Danny Fulgencio)

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I SAW ELVIS ON JEFFERSON …

IT WAS OCT. 12, 1956, AND ELVIS PRESLEY HAD PERFORMED THE PREVIOUS NIGHT AT THE COTTON BOWL. He was heading to a show in Waco and stopped to have his pants pressed on Jefferson Boulevard. While he waited, he did some shopping and ate a bowl of chili with crackers at the Midway Cafe. WBAP TV reporter Jim Murray dispatched a camera crew after Elvis had left the Boulevard. But their reaction story from his visit is priceless. See the footage and read the script at oakcliff.advocatemag.com.

TOP STORIES

n This Winnetka Heights house took four years to renovate, and it is perfect

n Watch our neighbor’s ‘Haunted’ episode on Netflix, then take his ghost tour

Read more advice from Texas Monthly’s taco editor on page 12.

n Oak Cliff’s barbecue legacy lives on in Mesquite

n Vegan grocery coming to Bishop Arts

n Oak Cliff caterer dishes vegan food for Billie Eilish

To check if a place is actually making its own tortillas, I try to snoop around and see if I can smell the corn.”

– JOSE R. RALAT

Photo by Jimmy Hylton/The Oak Cliff Tribune

FOR YOUR EARS

DALLAS COUNTRY MUSIC,

192 7-2019

Ken Burns’ new documentary, “Country Music,” inspired us to create a playlist of country music by artists from Dallas and tracks that were recorded here. It starts with the Dallas String Band’s 1927 recording of “Hokum Blues” and ends with “Maybelle” off of Charley Crockett’s new album, The Valley. Find the full 29-song playlist at oakcliff. advocatemag.com.

“HOKUM BLUES,”

Dallas String Band

“BLUE YODEL NO. 10,”

Jimmie Rodgers

“SHINE, SHAVE, SHOWER (IT’S SATURDAY),”

Lefty Frizzell

“CRAZY ARMS,”

Ray Price

“YOU AND I ARE THROUGH,”

Buddy Holley and Bob Montgomery

“IF YOU’VE GOT THE MONEY I’VE GOT THE TIME,”

Willie Nelson

“MY MARIA,”

B.W. Stevenson

“WILDFIRE,”

Michael Martin Murphey (see page 30)

“TEXAS IS MY MOTHER,”

Alejandro Escovedo

“PAIN,”

The Texas Gentlemen

“MAYBELLE,”

Charley Crockett

3 THINGS TO DO

NOV. 9

DALLAS HONKY-TONK

Joshua Ray Walker returns from his break-neck European tour to headline a hometown show. Pedigo’s Magic Pilsner and Frankie Leonie also perform. $23

Where: The Kessler, 1230 W. Davis St.

More info: thekessler.org

Nov. 7

Rock ‘n’ roll classics

Spend an evening with surrealist singer/ songwriter Robyn Hitchcock. $25

Where: The Wild Detectives, 314 W. Eighth St. More info: thewilddetectives.com

SOUTH OF I-30 SOUNDS

n Oak Cliff produced an amazing number of guitar players in the ’60s and ’70s. In 2010, some of them got together to record an album, “THE CLIFFHANGER PROJECT.” Well, they’re at it again. “The Cliffhanger Project Vol. 2” was released in September. It includes tracks from Oak Cliff guitar greats including ROCKY ATHAS, DANNY SANCHES and JERRY DON BRANCH, with production from ROBERT WARE. A CD release party is at the Golf Club of Dallas, 2500 Red Bird Lane, on Sunday Nov. 10, and the $25 admission includes a CD.

Nov. 21

Concert film

Get in touch with your teenage goth self with a screening of “Spirits in the Forest,” a Depeche Mode film.

Where: The Texas Theatre, 231 W. Jefferson Blvd. More info: thetexastheatre.com

n Give us all the Oak Cliff psychedelic rock ‘n’ roll. ADAM AND THE FIGURINES released its second album, “Higher,” in October. Watch the band’s wild video for “Freak Beat.”

n THE BECKLEYS, also known as los beckleys, are a band composed of young guys from Oak Cliff. They released a self-titled EP with five songs in June.

Does your Oak Cliff band have a recent album or video to promote?

Email rstone@ advocatemag.com

Photo by Danny Fulgencio

UP FRONT

HE WAS THERE:

Professor Darwin Payne reported on the JFK assassination 

Interview by CAROL TOLER | Photography by DANNY FULGENCIO

DARWIN PAYNE WAS A 26-YEAR-OLD REPORTER for the Dallas Times Herald the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. Assigned to the rewrite desk, Payne dashed to Dealey Plaza and wound up being one of the first to speak to Abraham Zapruder about the home video that vividly froze the assassination in time.

Now professor emeritus of communications at SMU, Payne is author of several books, including the university’s recently published history, “One Hundred Years on the Hilltop: The Centennial History of Southern Methodist University” and “Big D: Triumphs and Troubles of an American Supercity in the 20th Century.” He was one of the researchers who helped create the Old Red Museum of Dallas, and he occasionally speaks about the assassination at the Sixth Floor Museum and the Dallas Historical Society.

His recollections of Nov. 22, 1963 actually begin in October.

THE STEVENSON INCIDENT

“We expected something might happen, because we’d had all these right-wing extremists for more than a decade making trouble in the city. One month before Kennedy came to Dallas, [then-U.N. Ambassador] Adlai Stevenson came, and I went to hear him. A lot of the right-wingers were there, members of the National Indignation Convention. I’d seen in the paper the

night before that leaflets had been distributed announcing Kennedy’s visit, and I told my wife, ‘Something’s going to happen. We’ve got to go down there tonight.’

“There was a huge crowd of people who took command, and they wouldn’t let Stevenson speak when he was introduced by [Neiman Marcus legend] Stanley Marcus. The leader of the group had a bullhorn and shouted, ‘Mr. Ambassador, we demand answers to these questions.’ About half the people supported the protestors and half supported Stevenson. The police had to come drag the organizers away. They had upside down flags and would cough incessantly while he spoke.

“After the speech, he went out a side door to Stanley Marcus’ car, and there was a gang of protestors waiting outside with signs, who started rocking the car, trying to turn it over. Stevenson got out of the car and was hit with a sign. He asked, ‘What kind of animals are these?’”

The attack made national news, and Stevenson reportedly warned Kennedy the atmosphere in Dallas was too dangerous for his upcoming trip.

“City officials were terribly worried,” Payne recalls, “and passed a new ordinance regulating how many people could gather. The city tried to make everything safe in the month before he came, and the right wingers didn’t really show up. I admired Kennedy and had voted for him,” says Payne. “He was the first president I had voted for.”

“Zapruder said, ‘No, he’s dead. I was watching through my viewfinder. I saw his head explode like a firecracker.’”

NOV. 22, 1963

Payne wasn’t at Dealey Plaza but was taking reports on the rewrite desk at the Times Herald.

“I was going to do a color story based on what two women reporters were going to tell me. One at Love Field was going to tell me about Jackie — what she was wearing and how she interacted with the crowd. We were past deadline — the Times Herald was Dallas’ afternoon newspaper, and the president’s arrival time at Love Field was about 11:30, so we were holding up the presses. I had taken notes from Val Imm, the society editor who described Jackie’s pink suit, and I was waiting for Connie Watson at Dealey Plaza to tell me what happened there. I was having trouble coming up with a [lead sentence].

“Our city editor and our city reporter were closely monitoring the police radio. They said, ‘Code 3 Dealey Plaza’ which indicated sending police with lights and sirens. When I heard, ‘The president’s been hit,’ I wondered ‘What with?’ I thought of Adlai Stevenson being hit with that sign.”

Payne and Paul Rosenfield, editor of the Herald’s Sunday Magazine ran four blocks to Dealey Plaza.

“It was terrific bedlam there — people not knowing what had happened,

and many who saw him hit, of course. I started interviewing eyewitnesses and found several women who said, ‘Our boss took pictures, he was filming. We’ll lead you to him. He’s in the next building.’”

The women took Payne next door to the Dal-Tex Building, where Abraham Zapruder owned and operated Jennifer Juniors, a clothing manufacturing firm.

“Zapruder was frequently in tears. His camera was sitting on top of a filing cabinet in his outer office, and he had the TV set going. I talked to him and tried to get him to go to the Times Herald office to get it developed. I had no idea how good it would be.

“We were watching TV and we heard Walter Cronkite say, ‘The president has been shot, perhaps fatally.’ Zapruder said, ‘No, he’s dead. I was watching through my viewfinder. I saw his head explode like a firecracker.’”

Payne may have been a cub reporter, but he was a dogged negotiator. He stayed at Zapruder’s office for 45 minutes trying to secure the video, but Zapruder wanted to give it to the FBI or the Secret Service instead.

“I called the Times Herald office and said, ‘Get me Chambers, this man has film.’ James F. Chambers Jr., publisher of the Herald came to the telephone –

I’d never met him, I’d only been there a few months. I suggested he send a car with Dallas Times Herald on the side so Zapruder would feel comfortable and also offer to pay him, but Chambers was noncommittal.

COMPETING FOR ZAPRUDER FILM

Soon, three or four men from the FBI and Secret Service showed up with veteran Dallas Morning News reporter Harry McCormick.

“Harry was legendary. He’d covered Bonnie and Clyde, and when he had a secret lead on their location, he didn’t think anyone would believe him, so he got Clyde to put his hands on the windshield to collect fingerprints to prove it.”

When the men all began walking into a private room, they blocked Payne from entering.

“I said, ‘There’s Harry McCormick of the Dallas Morning News, and I’m with the Times Herald. If he’s in there, I’ve got to be in there, so they kicked McCormick out. Then they took Zapruder down to Kodak to have his film developed.”

Payne went back to the Texas School Book Depository and interviewed more people. Amazingly by today’s crime investigation standards, he was allowed to walk through the building and tour the sniper’s nest on the sixth floor.

J.D. TIPPIT AND ‘O.H. LEE’

“[Reporters] John Schoellkopf and Joe Sherman were saying they heard a policeman had been shot in Oak Cliff, but I didn’t want to go out there. I wanted to stay where the action was. I didn’t connect the police shooting with the assassination.”

Later in the day, Times Herald city editor Ken Smart got a lead on the killer’s address and sent Payne to 1026 N. Beckley to gather information on the assassin, known to his neighbors as O.H. Lee.

“It was a rooming house, and I spoke to roomers staying there and to the manager and the owner and her husband. They described him as a standoffish sort of person who got on the telephone and spoke in a foreign language — they thought it was German or Russian. They didn’t know who he was talking to, but it must have been Marina [his Russian-born wife.] They said he didn’t mix and mingle with the rest of them in the evening when they

Darwin Payne’s notebook from the day of the JFK assassination has Lee Harvey Oswald’s Oak Cliff address, 1026 N. Beckley, written at the top of one page. Payne later interviewed residents who knew him.

watched TV in the living room during the six weeks he was there. On the radio, I later heard he’d been identified as Lee Harvey Oswald, and he’d spent time in Russia.”

BACK IN THE NEWSROOM

By the time Payne returned to the Times Herald offices, it was dark and reporters were busy working on the Saturday edition.

“Dick Hitt was a prized columnist at the time, and he was going to do the main story on Oswald, but they gave it to me because of all the info I had. I worked until very late and expected to see my byline, but when the first editions came off the press, my story on page one didn’t have a byline. When Ken Smart saw that, he put my byline in, so later editions have it, but microfilm copies do not.”

Saturday was Payne’s regular day to cover the police station, and he was there with a gaggle of journalists when Oswald was brought in for questioning. Only two reporters were still there at midnight when they heard police might have an eyewitness who could identify Oswald as the assassin.

“We needed to confirm it, but [Dallas Police Chief Jesse] Curry had already gone home for the night. It was 1 a.m., and I hated to call him at home after all he had been through, but it was getting close to our deadline. His wife answered the phone, and she was obviously sound asleep. She handed him the phone and he was too asleep to comprehend what I was saying. I tried to take notes, but they made no sense.”

In the end, rumors of an eyewitness turned out to be untrue.

Payne went on to earn a master’s degree from SMU and a PhD in American Civilization from the University of Texas, to write biographies and histories about people and subjects in Texas and to teach journalism for 30 years at SMU. Many of his students never knew about his close connection to the assassination of JFK because he rarely mentions it if he isn’t asked. But he still remembers after 56 years.

“I recall, as I stood in Zapruder’s office looking out onto Dealey Plaza, feeling depressed. I really liked Kennedy. It was painful. I knew it was a huge moment in history I was participating in.”

THE GOSPEL OF TACOS

José R. Ralat made the New York Times, the Today Show and news around the world when Texas Monthly hired him in September as its first taco editor. The job came six years after the magazine hired its first barbecue editor, Dallas resident Daniel Vaughn. “Tacos are important to every Texan, which I think is why Texas Monthly made this position,” Ralat says. “They’re essential not only to the Texas diet but also to the Texas identity, and that’s just growing.” Ralat first started writing about tacos for the Dallas Observer about 10 years ago, shortly after he and wife, Jessica Salcedo Ralat, moved to Oak Cliff from Brooklyn. He started his own website, The Taco Trail, and contributed freelance work to publications including Eater while working as the fulltime food and beverage editor for Dallas-based Cowboys & Indians magazine.

Here are Ralat’s tips on how to sniff out what sets taquerías apart:

• First thing I would say is “packed parking lot.” If there’s a packed parking lot, and there’s a line out the door, I definitely want to go check out that place.

• T he next thing is the name and whether it reflects a regional specialty. There are a lot of Mexican restaurants named “Jalisco” something. That is because Jalisco is at the center of what we often think of as Mexico. It’s where mariachi comes from, for example. If it’s legit Jaliscienses, then for example, I want to see birria, things like tortas ahogadas, specific regional dishes that signify that, yes, this is really a place that serves the type of food that is advertised by this restaurant’s name.

• You’ll see menus often hand-written on windows and facades, so that’s another clue. Taquerías and Mexican restaurants like to advertise when they make their own tortillas. So if you’re interested in that, you’re going to look for things that say “handmade tortillas,” tortillas hechas a mano, or recién hecho, freshly made. But you’re going to pay a higher price for that, and your meal will take longer.

• If the taquería or the restaurant makes one tortilla in-house but not the other, get the one that’s made in house. Sometimes you have to

ask because I’ve been in restaurants where they won’t tell you that they make their own tortillas. They just give you tortillas out of the bag.

• To check if a place is actually making its own tortillas, I try to snoop around and see if I can smell the corn from either outside or near the kitchen. Do they make them from maseca, which is masa harina dehydrated, or is it made from nixtamal? One is full of preservatives, and they’re not the same.

• Another thing is the sauces: Do they have just your average red and green salsa? Is there a third salsa? Is there a special salsa like Tejas, which to my knowledge is the only restaurant in Texas so far that serves soy sauce-based salsa negra, which is out of Sonora and southern Arizona. It has a saguaro cactus as a marquee, but it also has something else indicative of Arizona. I don’t know, but it’s a special sauce, and it’s very good.

• Always ask about extra salsas. If the menu lists salsas, ask questions about them.

• L ook at other tables. What is everyone else eating? If they’re not eating tacos, my gosh, do not order the tacos. Order what everyone else is eating.

Interview by RACHEL STONE | Photography by DANNY FULGENCIO at Trompo Tacos

DEEP ROOTS

THE LOCAL OAK served pineapple cider during a Bishop Arts District-wide promotional event this past summer, and the kitchen came up with the perfect pairing.

Two cereal-crusted fried chicken tenders with a ramekin of honey mustard and a can of Austin East Cider for $6.

They served hundreds of them that day, and while that deal is now off, the Cap’n Crunch tenders are all the way on — the owners added them to the menu.

This is the kind of kitschy dish that sets the tone of The Local Oak.

When they opened six years ago, it was the

The Local Oak 409 N. Zang Blvd.

Hours:

Sunday: 11a.m.-9 p.m.

Monday: 4p.m.-9 p.m.

Tuesday-Thursday: 11 a.m-10 p.m.

Friday-Saturday: 11 a.m.-11 p.m. thelocaloak.com

“bucket of love,” candied bacon served in a little pail, and Texas surfers, Spam-and-pineapple sliders, that got the attention of food critics.

“It’s exactly what we wanted it to be,” owner Alycen Cuellar says. “It’s Texas, but it’s a little Tex-Mex.”

Cuellar is Tex-Mex royalty on her father’s side — her grandfather Frank X. Cuellar Sr. was a founder of El Chico restaurants. On her mom’s side, she has Oak Cliff cred and Texas history. Marcia Styles Cuellar grew up on Tenth Street and is a descendant of the Old Three Hundred Texas families who settled Stephen F. Austin’s colony on the Brazos. Some of

Story by RACHEL STONE | Photography by KATHY TRAN

Cap’n Crunch-crusted chicken tenders were such a hit during a special event this past summer that they’re now on the menu.

the Local Oak’s recipes come from Cuellar’s maternal grandmother.

Cuellar opened the Local Oak with partners in 2013, renovating a 1920s building. She says it was like peeling an onion. As they dug into construction, they found original brick and uncovered windows.

“Everything is original,” she says. “These are the original floors.”

Her grandfather’s blue glass swag lamp hangs in the restaurant, and on the patio are plumerias grown from cuttings of his plants.

The menu contains a solid selection of sandwiches, salads, burgers and fish tacos.

Nothing on the menu costs more than $12. Entrees include Hatch green chile chicken enchiladas with rice and beans, chicken fried steak, meatloaf and huevos verdes served with thick strips of bacon. They recently added a simple mac-andcheese that’s out of this world. At brunch, there are migas, French toast, and brisket biscuits and gravy, plus a $5 mason-jar mimosa that contains a half-bottle of bubbles.

Cuellar’s business partner, Paul Delgado, runs the kitchen and has his own Tex-Mex legacy. He worked for Chuy’s for 25 years, starting as a dishwasher at the Barton Springs location and making his way up the corporate ladder.

Cuellar calls him a “famously cantankerous rock star,” and says she couldn’t do it without Delgado and cook David Ortiz, who worked for 10 years at the old Tejano and El Corazon de Tejas restaurants, which Cuellar’s family owned.

Both of Cuellar’s parents died within a year of The Local Oak’s opening. Delgado and opening partner Felix Garcia kept the place running during that time, Cuellar says.

“They’re the reason we are here,” she says. “I’ve never been so thankful to two hard-headed men.”

DINING SPOTLIGHT

Shayna’s Place

Now open daily from 7am - 9pm Come enjoy delicious sandwiches, salads, smoothies and pastries, as well as a local selection of coffees and sodas. BYOB. Mentionthisadandreceive afreedripcoffee.

The wild orchid cocktail, left, has citrus-flavored vodka, elderflower liqueur and sparkling wine. The “carnivore bloody Mary” comes with a garnish of bacon and grilled Spam.

Working the tools of preservation

HOW PARKING CAN HELP RETAIN OAK CLIFF’S CHARACTER

Story by RACHEL STONE

Photography

by DANNY FULGENCIO

imm and Meshea Matthews wanted to create a small, unique hotel like the ones where they stay when they travel.

“Like a hotel that used to be a schoolhouse or a library or something,” Timm Matthews says. “We love those places, and Dallas doesn’t do a lot of that.”

They found a business partner and decided to buy a two-story building in Oak Cliff.

The 1920s building, on North Beckley at East Seventh, has a roof deck with views of Downtown and just the kind of old urban charm they were looking for. They also bought a former mechanic’s garage adjacent to the building with plans for a restaurant.

They started planning to turn it into a boutique hotel with 12-15 rooms and a restaurant named after Matthews’ grandmother, Mabel’s.

But their dream was almost crushed by the City of Dallas parking code.

City code requires one parking space for every 100 square feet of a restaurant, and one space per hotel room.

The Matthews’ project fell 16 spaces short of parking for the hotel and restaurant, even with allowances for a legacy building.

They still needed more than 8,000 square feet of parking for a hotel comprising just 5,160 square feet.

City Plan Commission members at first leaned toward denying the Matthews’ request for a parking variance, which required the creation of a planned development district with its own parking rules specifically for the two properties.

Consultant Rob Baldwin argued that it was a choice between creating a new use for an old building and creating a parking lot. Easing parking requirements

The Kovandovich house at 523 Eads was built in 1914 and is an example of poured-in-place concrete construction. It is protected from demolition as a Dallas historic landmark (see page 21).

The owner of the Mayor’s House on Zang at Canty considered moving the 1910 building to Waxahachie before winning a parking variance for a restaurant. It is expected to open by the end of the year.

facilitates preserving the character of the block.

"Think about the last city you went on vacation to, you actually traveled to go to on purpose," Baldwin told the City Plan Commission. "Did you go there because there was ample parking?"

Besides that, the planned hotel is near the Bishop Arts stop of the streetcar line, and renting a car is not as common as it once was for travelers.

The parking code, “assumes that no one is taking Lyft or Uber or public transit, which isn’t true for a hotel anymore,” City Councilman Chad West says.

The Matthews won their case. They are planning to start work soon on the restaurant, and once that is up and running, start on the hotel.

The case inspired West to request for an overhaul of the Dallas parking code.

“We can save old buildings if you give up a little bit of parking,” he says.

West is asking for a review of the parking code, especially the requirements for hotel parking, restaurants, apartments and condos and buildings near transit-oriented development.

West found that while hotel and restaurant uses are allowed for the building, the city’s parking code wouldn’t allow it because it doesn’t have enough parking spaces.

“Uptown and Downtown would be impacted the most,” West says. “It could be useful in areas of opportunity to take a parking diet in some areas. You might see new uses coming into old buildings.”

“We can save old buildings if you give up a little bit of parking.”

Above: Timm and Meshea Matthews won approval to convert a 1920s apartment building near Bishop Arts into a boutique hotel. They’re planning to reuse an adjacent mechanic’s garage for a restaurant and bar. Top: A developer earlier this year gained approval to “replat” the block of Eighth Street between Adams and Llewellyn, which means he can replace the mid-20th century apartment buildings with a four-story apartment complex.

Oak Cliff

historic landmarks:

A Old Adamson High School, 201 E. Ninth St.

B Albert A. Anderson House, 300 Centre St.

C Betterton House, 705 N. Marsalis Ave.

D Bishop Arts Building, 408 W. Eighth St.

E Cedar Crest House, 2223 W. Jefferson Blvd.

F Christ Episcopal Church, 534 W. Tenth St.

G Eagle Ford School, 1601 Chalk Hill Road

H Kings Court Apartment, 1234 Kings Highway

I Kovandovich House, 523 Eads Ave.

J Mallory Drug Store, 900 W. Jefferson Blvd.

K McAdams Cemetery, 409 Guthrie St.

L Oak Cliff United Methodist Church, 541549 Jefferson Blvd.

M Sharrock/Niblo

Farmstead, 6900 Grady

Niblo Road

N Sunset High School, 2120 W. Jefferson Blvd.

O The Texas Theatre, 231 W. Jefferson Blvd.

P Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church, 909 Morrell Ave.

Initiated landmarks:

Q Mountain Creek Interurban Bridge, 4577 W. Jefferson Blvd.

R Struck House, 1923 N. Edgefield Ave.

Lost landmark:

S Elizabeth Chapel, 1026 E. Tenth St.

Dallas preservationists have a few tools for combating demolition and encouraging reuse of old buildings. Here are some others that Oak Cliffers have used.

The preservation toolbox

Landmark designation

Oak Cliff has 16 buildings that are designated historic landmarks (see map) and cannot be torn down. Anyone can initiate landmark designation for a building with nominations that include the history of the building and compelling reasons for preservation, usually age or cultural history. The review process typically takes three years. Two places in Oak Cliff and West Dallas are currently under review, the Struck House and the Mountain Creek Interurban Bridge.

Create a historic district

This is one of the most difficult and painful ways of preserving buildings. It requires bringing your neighbors to agreement on fine points of building preservation, but it has worked for the Winnetka Heights Historic District, which is chock full of examples of early 19th century homes.

PD 830 legacy amendment

The Bishop/Davis zoning, known as PD 830, contains an amendment aimed at preserving old buildings that front Bishop Avenue and Davis Street, also using parking as a tool. Certain old buildings — those predating 1957 on Davis and 1945 on Bishop — automatically receive a 25 percent reduction in required parking for residences, and it throws out the parking code entirely for retail/restaurant and office uses. So a developer could tear down an old building to construct something new, but they would have to find all of the required parking. A similar ordinance exempts old buildings from the parking code on Jefferson Boulevard.

Demolition delay

Former City Councilman Scott Griggs spearheaded Dallas’ “demolition delay overlay districts” in reaction to the time The Headington Cos. shocked the city by demolishing historic buildings Downtown on Elm Street in 2014. The first

ones were in Oak Cliff and Downtown, and they’ve since been added to neighborhoods in Old East Dallas and Uptown. Anyone who files a demolition permit in those areas triggers a 45-day wait period and is required to meet with stakeholders, such as neighbors, preservationists and city officials. It’s a chance for the property owner to take a second consideration for preserving their building rather than destroying it. The delay has resulted in old houses being moved to other sites, and it encouraged one developer to renovate a Bishop Arts duplex they wanted to tear down in 2018.

Public trust

If you care about historic preservation so much, why didn’t you buy the building yourself? Sometimes that happens. Besides the for-profit real estate companies who value old buildings and have put them to good use, there are a couple of cases in Oak Cliff where the public took over. The Oak Cliff Foundation, originally founded in 1973 as the nonprofit arm of the Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce, bought the Texas Theatre in 2001, shoring it up and protecting it from vandalism and squatters in the decade before Aviation Cinemas took over. After the dilapidated Twelve Hills apartments were demolished in the ’90s, neighbors formed a nonprofit that rezoned part of the vacant land for a park. In 2005, the nonprofit managed to raise funds to buy the 4.5 acres that is now Twelve Hills Nature Center.

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DISD CHEATING CUTS DEEP

HOW BOOKER T. REJECTIONS DAMAGED MORALE

THE PROFESSIONAL VOCALISTS from Verdigris choral ensemble weren’t sure what they would encounter at W.E. Greiner Exploratory Arts Academy when they signed on to give four weeks of private voice lessons last spring.

They expected to find talent, as Greiner is the only Dallas ISD fine arts magnet for sixth- seventh- and eighth-graders. They didn’t necessarily anticipate finding it “in spades,” as vocalist Erinn Sensinig notes, considering that most Greiner students “lack the financial resources that would allow for private vocal study and the standing private voice faculty that many other DFW choral programs benefit from having.”

“Once they realized other people were coming in and giving them attention, the sky was the limit with them,” says Verdigris artistic director Sam Brukhman.

Brukhman knows the reputation of DISD’s nationally renowned arts magnet high school, Booker T. Washington, and he asked choir director Bethany Ring how many of her talented students

would be enrolled there next fall. Only one, Ring told him. Only two had even auditioned.

DISD began taking steps this fall to ensure that students being admitted to Booker T. actually live in the district, after the Advocate exposed the chronic problem of suburban students cheating their way in with false residency documents.

Seventeen students are walking the halls of Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts this fall who weren’t among those who received a “golden ticket” last spring. A total of 30 freshmen, sophomores and juniors either didn’t show up when the school year began or withdrew in August, says Tiffany Huitt, executive director of Dallas ISD’s magnet schools. The vacancies were left in the wake of Huitt and the magnet department’s new efforts to enforce DISD board policy that requires magnet families to prove that they live within district boundaries. The perpetual problem, though, has created residual effects for in-district students.

Story by KERI MITCHELL

Photo by Dickie Hill

By SCOTT SHIRLEY

The truth about death

Succumbing to the reality of powerlessness

My 50th birthday is drawing near, and I’m thinking about death. That’s not unusual since my birthday is Halloween. Skeletons and ghosts my whole life. I expect those soon will join a bad back and a cough that just won’t go away. But this year I’ve been around death more, accompanying people as they, or loved ones, narrowly escape or succumb, so it feels particularly acute.

One way of thinking about Christianity is as the rehearsal of the process of birth, death and rebirth. We do this through sacraments and liturgy, through song and prayer. As with all the great contemplative traditions, we are practicing dying. As we face life’s losses, we find that there is life on the other side, so we are also practicing resurrection. I believe — and it has been the experience of hospice chaplains I know — that the better we are at practicing resurrection throughout our lives, the more we are able to face our actual death at the end. This has been my working theory and what I teach. However, this constant contact with death has shaken me. As a friend recently remarked: “From my hospital bed, death is not a metaphor.”

Perhaps my friend did not expect to be facing this at so young an age. Maybe she just didn’t have enough time to practice.

But isn’t that always the case? Even if you’re 90, won’t you wish you had more time? Isn’t there always some imagined future to which you would like to bear witness? The reality is that, whenever it comes, actual death is fundamentally different than anything we have faced before.

Typically, religion gives some answer to this. For Christians, it is eternal life in heaven. For Hindus, it is reincarnation. But if anyone tells you what death is like or what happens after, they are lying. I would be, too. I haven’t done it yet and will be condemned to silence once I have just like everyone else.

So I’ll stumble along and keep prac-

ticing. I think it will help. I hope it will. Richard Rohr, from whom I take some direction on these matters, suggests that this practice of dying is a practice of learning to give things away: our life, our love, and ultimately our death. It is the letting go of power, control, delusion, and separation so that we come to understand that we are eternally connected to all things.

Even if you’re 90, won’t you wish you had more time?

The day after my birthday each year, the Church celebrates All Saints Day, a veneration of the dead. We talk about who they were and what they meant to us and what they might say to us today. They continue to speak, not about what it is like for them after death, but what life should be for us here and now. Each one is an icon that points from the particulars of this life to some great, incomprehensible mystery of which we will always be a part.

Perhaps that is what our practice yields: becoming the kind of person people can imagine speaking into their lives forever. Whatever we faced in our lives, including death, and how we faced it continues to resonate through the ages. Maybe that doesn’t seem like much, but it’s all I’ve got. It will have to be enough for now.

Scott Shirley is the pastor of Church in the Cliff. The Worship section is underwritten by Advocate Publishing and the neighborhood businesses and churches listed here. For information about helping support the Worship section, call 214.560.4202.

WORSHIP

BAPTIST

CLIFF TEMPLE BAPTIST CHURCH / 125 Sunset Ave. / 214.942.8601

Serving Oak Cliff since 1898 / CliffTemple.org / English and Spanish

9 am Contemporary Worship / 10 am Sunday School / 11 am Traditional

GRACE TEMPLE BAPTIST Come to a Place of Grace!

Sunday Worship: English Service 9:30am / Spanish Service 11:00am

831 W. Tenth St. / 214.948.7587 / gracetempledallas.org

DISCIPLES OF CHRIST

EAST DALLAS CHRISTIAN CHURCH / 629 N. Peak Street / 214.824.8185

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10:50 am - Sanctuary / Rev. Deborah Morgan-Stokes / edcc.org

EPISCOPAL

CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH / ChristChurchDallas.org

Sunday School: 11:15am /Mass: 9am & 10am English, 12:30pm

Español

Wednesday Mass: 6pm English, 8pm Español / 534 W. Tenth Street

METHODIST

KESSLER PARK UMC / 1215 Turner Ave./ 214.942.0098 I kpumc.org

10:30am Sunday School/11:00 Worship /All welcome regardless of r eed, creed, color, culture, gender or sexual identity.

NON-DENOMINATIONAL

KESSLER COMMUNITY CHURCH / 2100 Leander Dr. at Hampton Rd. “Your Hometown Church Near the Heart of the City.”

10:30 am Contemporary Service / kesslercommunitychurch.com

TRINITY CHURCH OAK CLIFF / Love God. Love Others. Make Disciples.

Sundays 10:00 am / Worship & children’s Sunday School 1139 Turner Ave. / trinitychurchoakcliff.org

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BACK STORY

By RACHEL STONE

Ghost pony

‘Wildfire’ broke our 1970s hearts

When the Grand Ole Opry interviewed Ray Wylie Hubbard before his debut there this past summer, he gave a shout-out to fellow Adamson High School alumnus Michael Martin Murphey.

Murphey, who was a year ahead of Hubbard, performed a song he wrote himself during a school assembly, and Hubbard says it struck him that he could try writing songs too.

“We didn’t have that great of a football team, but we had some really great assemblies. It was a good time,” Hubbard told the Advocate in 2012.

Murphey was an early part of Dallas’ folk music scene, which also included another Adamson alumnus, B.W. Stevenson.

Murphey’s early success was not as a performer but as a songwriter. He wrote a song for the Monkees, “What Am I Doing Haning ’Round,” as well as country songs recorded by big names including Bobby Gentry and Kenny Rogers.

In the early ’70s, you could’ve caught him at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, where he was hanging

with Willie and Waylon and the boys. By 1973, he’d released three albums. The one that made him famous came after he signed with Epic Records, his fourth album, “Blue Sky — Night Thunder,” in 1975.

The album had two hit singles, “Carolina in the Pines” and “Wildfire.” He composed the latter with fellow Texan and University of North Texas alumnus Larry Cansler.

It starts with Murphey’s unmistakable piano riff, which drops off into easylistening drums and strumming guitar, plus a high-pitched electric guitar riff over the top, and the opening lyrics, “She comes down from Yellow Mountain …”

It hit No. 1 on the easylistening charts, and if you grew up in the ’70s, you know this song. It was ubiquitous on AM radio as atmospheric static.

The story of the song is heartbreaking. “Wildfire” is a horse that breaks out of its pen in the Nebraska winter. And then his owner, “She ran calling Wildfire,” and she freezes to death trying to find her horse.

Murphey and Cansler were living in California and working night and day on songs for Kenny Rogers’ 1972 album “The Ballad of Calico” when the song came to Murphey.

He told The Boot in 2016 that he crashed in a sleeping bag on the floor one night, and he dreamed the entire song.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

“I can’t tell you that I understand what the song means, but I think it’s about getting above the hard times.”

“I woke up and pounded on Larry’s door and said, ‘Can you come down and help me with this song?’ His wife got up and made us coffee, and we finished it in two or three hours,” he told the website.

The idea for the song comes from a story Murphey’s grandfather had told him, a native-American legend about a ghost horse.

“I can’t tell you that I understand what the song means, but I think it’s about getting above the hard times,” Murphey told The Boot. “I’ve had people tell me they wish they could ride that mystical horse and get away from their hard times, whatever they are.”

The album was a hit. It went gold, eventually selling more than 800,000 copies in the United States. Its profitability allowed Murphey to move back to Texas, where he still lives. He also had country hits in the 1980s, including “What’s Forever For.” But his overall career is much greater than a couple of radio hits. Murphey has recorded more than 25 studio albums, including several albums of cowboy songs, bluegrass albums and Christmas albums.

“Wildfire” continues to grab the imagination, and it occasionally re-enters pop culture.

In 2007, David Letterman began sharing his obsession with the song with viewers of “The Late Show,” riffing with bandleader Paul Schaffer about the song for weeks. Letterman described the song as “haunting and disturbingly mysterious, but always lovely.”

Murphey performed “Wildfire” on the show on May 22, 2007.

oakcliff.advocatemag.com

Relive the ‘70s with Murphey’s performance of “Wildfire” on The Late Show in 2007.

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Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

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