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PARTNERS IN WINE

Ampelos Wines, opening in Bishop

Arts early this summer, will bring natural wines to Oak Cliff

Story by EMMA RUBY

Weaver and

Martinez, who have been in a long distance relationship since 2019, discussed many of their ideas for Ampelos Wines during FaceTime dates.

Photography by KATHY TRAN

Genvieve

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Genvieve Weaver and Jessica Martinez met while polishing wine glasses.

They were working at an event promoting natural wine that was being hosted at The Wild Detectives. Both women were new to Dallas. Both women had an appreciation for natural wines.

Weaver thought the idea for the event was a great one. Martinez was the brain behind it.

The two have “been together ever since,” partners romantically and in their shared love for the wine industry. And starting this summer, they will be business partners as well.

Ampelos Wines, a shop opening just down the street from where the duo first met in 2019, is the endeavor of Weaver and Martinez and will feature natural wines from all over the world.

Natural wines are made in smaller batches than mass-produced wines and the flavor can vary from year to year depending on the conditions grapes are grown in and how they

develop. Natural wine makers tend not to add chemicals or intervene with the flavor profile, and they pick, press and mix wines using human labor.

This is unlike mass-produced wine, which tastes consistent from year to year, and Martinez says it has given natural wine an unfair reputation.

“Up until recently, natural wine caught a bad rap. There’s this idea that like, it’s funky, there’s something odd to it,” Martinez says.

Martinez is a harvest worker, splitting her time between Dallas and Oregon. She harvests wine for Portland Wine Company, which natural wine fans may know of by the boutique name Love and Squalor.

As a veteran harvester, Martinez is also in the process of making her own wine, a gamay noir. The red variety is a genetic cousin to pinot noir, and “a little more punk rock” than the more well-known wine.

Whereas pinot noir has a “finesse and elegance,” gamay noirs are dry,

juicy and fruity. Martinez says the grapes that make a gamay noir are her favorite to work with.

As someone who has had their own toes in the grapes, she says she values wine that is made ethically from “the vine all the way down to the bottle.”

“It’s definitely hard to define natural, there’s no official term for it,” Martinez says. “For us, it means sustainability. Aside from sustainability, and minimal intervention for the juice, we care about things like are the harvest workers being compensated fairly?”

The shop’s name, Ampelos, comes from Weaver and Martinez’s shared love for Greek culture. According to Greek mythology, the god of wine, Dionysus, made the first vine from the body of a satyr he loved named Ampelos.

Martinez says the name merges the couple’s shared love for mythology while also “subtly nodding” to an LGBT story.

Weaver, who will run the Bishop

Ampelos Wines is one of four businesses opening this spring and summer in the white bungalows located in Bishop Arts on West 8th Street.

AJ Ramler sits above the sanctuary of the former Oak Cliff United Methodist Church.

A SECOND LIFE

After eight years, the Oak Cliff United Methodist Church will sit abandoned no more

Story by EMMA RUBY | Photography by VICTORIA GOMEZ

The black gash of fire damage has replaced the prominent organ that once towered over the congregation of the Oak Cliff United Methodist Church.

Large graffiti murals decorate the walls throughout the abandoned building, and the floor is covered with glass shards, debris and dirt.

Built in 1915, the church once stood as a symbol of Oak Cliff’s endearing piety. The building was designed by the prominent architecture firm Sanguinet and Staats, and the main sanctuary is a classical revival style.

The church has state historic registry status and is recognized as a landmark property by the city of Dallas, but when its doors shut in 2015, the building quickly fell into a state of disrepair.

For the past eight years, it has become a hotbed for homeless encampments, been the site of multiple fires, struggled to find a consistent and engaged owner, and was evaluated for demolitionby-neglect by the Dallas Landmark Commission.

It’s exactly the sort of property AJ Ramler looks for.

Ramler uses a drill gun to remove one of the large sheets of plywood that block off the entryway to the church sanctuary. As he ducks under a 2-by-4 into the building, he yells out a quick “Hello,” to warn anyone who may be inside.

Things like the potential for squatters or a floor covered in tile shards don’t

phase Ramler. The co-founder of the real estate firm Proxy Properties, Ramler’s bread and butter is restoring old, dilapidated buildings.

“Once you start restoring old properties, you get the knack for it,” Ramler says. “You just keep on trying to find bigger and cooler projects.”

The Methodist church is the biggest project Proxy has taken on yet.

Clocking in at 45,000 square feet spread between two buildings, Ramler says the process of preserving and rebuilding the church is likely to take years.

The first step will be to patch up the leaky roof and inadequate fencing to prevent further damage to the property.

Then, the architecture firm ArchiTexas will be tasked with sketching the space — a process that Ramler says could take around eight months to complete.

ArchiTexas specializes in historic preservation, especially when the building being preserved is going to be reworked into a new purpose. (In 2003, the firm played a “significant role” in the Fair Park Comprehensive Development Plan.)

According to principal architect John Allender, the first step for any project is to find original drawings of the existing building.

When dealing with historic buildings, however, those drawings often don’t exist.

If that is the case, the architects then have to make their own drawings — measuring every square inch of the building, charting

every incline and making note of every quirk — before creating a computer model of their findings.

Conditions assessments for structural systems, electrical and plumbing systems, windows and roofing also bring everyone up to speed on the building’s state.

“For the most part, it’s really a process of discovery and getting in there and understanding what we’re working with,” Allender says.

Right now, Ramler says he wants to turn the property into a mixed-use development, but the planning process can’t solidify until those drawings and assessments are completed.

If all goes according to plan, the school building, which sits on the west side of the main church building, will be turned into studio apartments; the church sanctuary could be retail or work space.

“You have to figure out how to take a space that was originally designed for something else and make it work for a purpose that makes more sense in the neighborhood today,” Ramler says. “It’s not an easy project. It’ll probably take all of three years to get the first person moved in. But it’ll be a fun three years.”

Ramler says the Methodist church’s disrepair is a story he has seen before.

He has previously seen churches with a diminishing congregation continue to squeeze their budget until one massive cost forces the doors to close.

White boards in the classrooms of the church are still covered in writing, frozen in time. One board is covered in Gmail passwords and bulleted notes scrawled in orange marker, and another announces summer break with a colorful illustration of a beach scene.

Many of the properties that Proxy manages come to the firm when “no one else wants to mess with them anymore.”

Properties like the church are

A large graffiti mural covers the sanctuary’s stained glass windows.

“ We certainly could restore everything back to the original period of significance. But a lot of times, those artifacts, that kind of evolution of the building, it’s important to the overall story. ”

“really unappealing” to banks, so Proxy paid for the building in cash. Eventually, once architectural plans are in and zoning changes have been made, a construction loan will be utilized for improvements. At that point, the property should qualify for state and federal tax credits, as well, he says.

ArchiTexas will assist Proxy in getting the property on the federal registry for historic buildings. Registry designation will allow developers to recoup tax credits for approved construction costs. The state covers 25% of approved costs, and the federal credit is 20%.

“The economics of these types of projects are the most challenging from the get-go, which is why we need to get those credits to make progress,” Ramler says.

On one wall of the sanctuary is an impressive mural of a woman, painted by a renegade artist that snuck onto the property at one point.

Ramler likes her, and wants to keep her in the final design.

Striking a balance between the true historical structure and the lived history of the building is something that can be done creatively, Allender says.

“We certainly could restore

everything back to the original period of significance. But a lot of times, those artifacts, that kind of evolution of the building, it’s important to the overall story,” Allender says.

Ramler steps with certainty through a building that most would balk at. Peeling walls and saggy roofs seem to disappear when he looks at them, imagining what is to come.

He has a relationship with the property, he says, that consists of fighting with it and dreaming about it.

“It’s addictive, I can’t get away from it,” he says. “The question is, is it a good dream or a nightmare?”

“GODS ONLY” has been spray painted across chairs in the upper level seating of the church.

THE HEART OF ELMWOOD

With a small menu and a variety of goods, Olmo Market strives to bring people together

Story by EMMA RUBY | Photography by KATHY TRAN

AS THE FRONT DOOR of Olmo Market opens, a bell rings.

“What is this?” asks a man entering the store.

Armando Puente stands behind a blue counter with a smile, and says: “This is Olmo. We are a locally sourced grocery store that my wife and I started.”

Puente’s wife, Cindy Pedraza, started dreaming about the groceraunt years ago. She imagined a shop that sold supplemental groceries, home goods and grab-and-go meal

options with a small food menu to boot, right in the heart of Elmwood.

Pedraza has had visions of opening a business before: In 2009, she started talking about opening a chocolate shop in Oak Cliff. Puente says that at the time, he just knew “what Oak Cliff used to be,” and he told Pedraza “good luck with that.”

That chocolate shop turned out to be CocoAndré Chocolatier, which is regarded as one of the best chocolate shops in North

Texas 14 years later.

“Now I just go with whatever she says,” Puente says.

And that is how Puente became the front man of Olmo Market, managing the day-today operations and welcoming customers into the store.

Olmo stocks items you would see in a regular store — cheeses, cured meats, dish soap — but seating at the front of the store invites customers to stick around for a meal in addition to their shopping experience.

Left: House-made fries topped with soy-based chicken tinga, beans, pickled onions, queso fresco and chili oil is one of executive chef Paul Hernandez’s favorite dishes on Olmo’s menu.

Executive chef Paul Hernandez is responsible for Olmo’s ever-changing menu. He calls himself a self-taught chef who “learned to cook out of necessity.”

“It’s just always been one of those things, if you knew me you knew I know how to cook,” Hernandez says.

Hernandez used to work in the music industry, but during the pandemic he traveled between Austin, San Antonio, Fort Worth and Dallas hosting street taco pop ups. Street tacos — a staple of the Olmo menu — are Hernandez’s flagship dish.

Fresh salsas, queso fresco, chili sauces and guacamole make the dishes on Olmo’s menu sing. Hernandez makes it all from scratch, assessing what is needed for the day each morning.

Hernandez’s dishes reflect traditional Mexican flavors and foundations, but what Hernandez has become known for is his plant-based options. He has bounced between vegan and vegetarian status for years, and Olmo’s menu is packed with plant-based proteins.

Seitan asada — a gluten-based

protein that Hernandez makes from scratch over a two-day process — and soy-based chicken tinga are the backbone of the tacos, burritos, tostadas and smothered fries sold at Olmo.

“I’m trying to create something new, and plant-based just happens to be where I landed with it,” Hernandez says.

“For the most part,” the menu stays plant-based, but some dishes are vegetarian and utilize eggs or cheese.

Ironically, when asked about the early days of his cooking career,

Cindy Pedraza and Armando Puente stand behind the food counter at Olmo Market while their daughter and niece visit the store after school.

Hernandez says he was “raised in a barbecue restaurant.”

Hernandez reevaluates the menu at Olmo on a weekly basis, depending on what produce and special ingredients he is able to get his hands on. When a vendor dropped off 400 pounds of Brussels sprouts several weeks ago, Hernandez turned them into tacos.

“I get weird with my stuff, too. It’s not always straightforward street tacos,” Hernandez says.

Hernandez was introduced

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Fresh salsas, queso fresco, chili sauces and guacamole make the dishes on Olmo’s menu sing. Hernandez makes it all from scratch, assessing what is needed for the day each morning.

to Pedraza through a mutual friend. That friend had listened to Hernandez’s dream of opening a small menu shop and had also listened to Pedraza’s goal of finding a chef to fill out her space.

When the two finally got together, they realized their idea for a community-driven, fresh-ingredient-based food concept was nearly identical.

Additionally, Hernandez’s cooking directly mirrored the flavors and concepts Pedraza had initially been inspired by when she had begun thinking about what the store would be.

“I just really loved the way that he was cooking. It reminded me a lot of Mexico City,” Pedraza says.

While Olmo has only been open for a few months, Pedraza says she has quickly figured out “what works and what doesn’t.”

Highlighting goods from local- or women-owned businesses is a priority, she says.

“It took me seven or eight years to get (my chocolate) into Whole Foods or Central Market, so to be able to give somebody that feeling of them dropping off the order and seeing the order on the shelves, I think it’s a great feeling,” Pedraza says.

Pedraza says she hopes Olmo will become a “shared space” for the community and that the wide range of products and food mean there is something for everyone.

“If you see the sign on the door, it says ‘We belong together,’” Pedraza says. “For me, that’s just what this space is supposed to be.”

Olmo Market, 2111 S. Edgefield Ave., 469.520.9842

Resting in Pieces

The Western Heights Cemetery may be home to some of Oak Cliff’s most historic graves, but for years it has sat abandoned and overgrown. Now, a group of volunteers is working to restore what could be a ‘crown jewel’ for our community, and a major tourist destination for the city.

Story by EMMA RUBY | Photography by LAUREN ALLEN

It is a windy Friday afternoon when a family from Colorado pulls up to the empty Western Heights Cemetery on Fort Worth Avenue and piles out of their car.

As they make their way through the cemetery’s tall grass, a second car full of women from Tennessee pulls up. The women follow a similar path to the family, who now stand huddled around a grave on the far side of the land.

The grave in question belongs to Clyde Barrow. (His brother, Marvin, is buried beside him and the two share a headstone.)

Red carnations, empty liquor bottles, a joint and a bullet have been placed at the gangster’s gravesite by previous visitors, creating a shrine.

“We just came from Bonnie’s grave,” the father of the family from Colorado mentions.

Bonnie Parker, the other half of the infamous gangster duo that

was reared in Oak Cliff, is buried at Crown Hill Memorial Park, around 10 miles north of Western Heights.

“That’s where we’re going next!” says one of the women from Tennessee.

Within half an hour, both groups have made their ways back to their cars, and the cemetery stands empty once again.

At the bottom of Barrow’s grave is the inscription “Gone but not forgotten.”

Looking at the broken fencing, unmarked graves and overgrown grass around the small stretch of land, “forgotten” is exactly how the small group of volunteers who have dedicated themselves to restoring the cemetery would describe it.

The orphan cemetery

Graves in the Western Heights Cemetery date back as far as the 1850s.

Veterans from the Civil War and both world wars are buried there.

One gravestone claims to be the resting place of the “first white girl born and died in Dallas County.”

Several marble gravestones are carved into wooden tree trunks, designating a member of the Woodman of the World life insurance organization which provided members with the unique grave markers until the 1920s.

In the northeastern corner, the founders of the cemetery are buried beneath tall, white stones.

Louise Herfel, a longtime Oak Cliff resident and member of the Fort Worth Avenue Development Group, has been one of the leading volunteers in restoring and preserving the cemetery.

She became interested in cemeteries years ago, when she and her husband, Tim, toured several in the city. Louise realized that the spaces were historical portals that deserved to be preserved.

“Seeing how long ago the graves are dated and then seeing who these

An empty bottle of liquor, flowers and a bullet have been left on Clyde Barrow’s gravestone by cemetery visitors. It is not uncommon to find evidence of partying surrounding the grave, volunteers say.

people were? Seeing the two founders of the cemetery buried here…” Louise says. “(Dallas) wasn’t always like this. This was prairie land and they came through here and decided to build. To me, it’s crazy.”

Cemeteries are not usually managed by cities or counties. I nstead, a church or a specific founder will oversee the logistics and finances. If that founder dies, or the church closes, the graveyard often becomes abandoned.

After nearly 200 years of changing ownership, the Western Heights Cemetery is now an “orphan.”

Louise says she and Tim both felt compelled to help out at the cemetery after Deborah Carpenter, who was a member of the FWADG board before serving as the District 6 city plan commissioner, brought the cemetery to the attention of the board.

Tim, treasurer of the FWADG, felt “somebody needed to take ownership” of the cemetery.

When Tim walks through the cemetery, he sees a list of tasks that need to be addressed.

“There is a lot of catchup to do,” Tim says. “Right now we are getting the troops organized.”

He makes mental notes of where tree branches are dipping dangerously low, railings that are broken, sections of fencing that are missing, and, of course, the grass that seems to grow

as fast as anyone can mow.

Keeping the grass cut is one of the biggest costs associated with cemetery upkeep, totaling thousands of dollars a year. Louise says that “keeping the grass cut” is the equivalent of a business “keeping the lights on.”

“When we started seeing how the cemetery is in such disrepair that’s when it was like let’s do a fundraiser, this is ridiculous,” Louise says. “It’s kind of mushroomed into we’re gonna go ahead and try to take care of it

as much as we can and bring it to a level of glory that I don’t think it’s ever seen.”

The treasure hunt

The beginnings of a new life for the cemetery are currently underway. A master landscape plan has been put together by Bryce Arrington, imagining what the cemetery could look like.

Last October, the development group hosted a fundraiser selling bricks to pave a path.

But still, there is a laundry list of things that need to be done to whip the cemetery into shape.

One major challenge is that no one is quite sure exactly where there are people buried. Louise says that when people could not afford a gravemarker they were simply buried without one, so imaging will need to be done to ensure that construction is not done over any grave sites.

That imaging will cost thousands of dollars, and Louise says that the rocky terrain might keep the cameras from working. A specialist will have to come and test a sample of the site to make sure that the expensive process will be worthwhile.

From gravesites of Confederate soldiers to those of Dallas pioneers, Katherine Homan — a retired U.S. history teacher and president of the FWADG — describes the cemetery as “a backdoor way of learning history.”

Several grave markers are dated as

A small gravestone shows a unique carving of a hand pointing upward.

recently as 2015 and 2017, but the volunteers have not been able to figure out how those people came to be buried in the cemetery. There is not a manager or funeral home associated with the yard; it is as if the graves appeared out of thin air.

Louise, who feels a special connection with graves that designate veterans and graves that were hand carved by family members who couldn’t afford a traditional inscription, says she has worked to find descendants who may otherwise have no idea a family member is buried in the cemetery.

“Somebody needs to be responsible for these headstones. Somebody needs to be responsible for these folks,” Louise says. “It’d be great to get the family members involved with helping us out but regardless, this is in my backyard.”

Homan says the process of trying to track down gravesites and records pertaining to the cemetery has been similar to a “treasure hunt.”

“We don’t even know what treasures there are that we want to take care of, and that we want to preserve,” Homan says. “When people come here, they know they’re coming for (Clyde), but there’s so much more.”

Eventually, Louise hopes to see the cemetery look like the “crown jewel” she feels it is. New landscaping, new lighting and safer and updated paving will eventually bring the space into the modern world.

And, the group plans to install cameras.

The gangster’s grave

Vandalism has been a problem at the cemetery in the past, as has dealing with intruders, who are often just rowdy party-goers who feel emboldened while visiting Clyde Barrow’s gravesite.

It is not uncommon to find empty alcohol containers and other

evidence of partying littering the area around his grave.

Despite that, it is clear that there is tourist appeal at the cemetery.

When people visit Dallas, they first want to see the landmarks surrounding the JFK assassination, but the landmarks associated with Bonnie and Clyde are often the second stop, Homan says.

“This, to me, is an untapped resource and something that the city is completely ignoring and missing out on capitalizing on,” Homan says. “It’s amazing how the city has just been blind to what we have here.”

The FWADG has also been instrumental in supporting the beginning steps of relocating Bonnie’s grave.

When the couple was first killed, Bonnie’s mother refused to let Bonnie be buried next to Clyde. Descendants of Bonnie, however, are now in support of reuniting the lovers, and efforts to bring Bonnie to Western Heights are underway.

“There’s a plot over there for her that Clyde’s father purchased way back when they died, so one day she’ll be there,” Louise says.

There has been some pushback about the relocation from the cemetery Bonnie is currently buried in, Louise says, because they do not want to miss out on the tourism her grave brings.

While Clyde Barrow’s grave brings tourist attention to the cemetery, the volunteers see each headstone as one worthy of care and attention.

Tim says the group would “take care of (the cemetery) no matter who is buried there.”

The FWADG has not officially taken ownership of the cemetery.

As far as documentation goes, it is still an orphan, and still technically abandoned. Louise, Tim, Homan and their fleet of volunteers are simply trying to show it hasn’t been forgotten.

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Thread carefully

THRIFTING MIGHT MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE, SO HERE’S HOW TO DO IT IN OAK CLIFF

Story by CHRISTINA HUGHES BABB

Items someone once loved — a sequinbodice ball gown, bronze sgraffito Buddha bookends or a ’70s-era rattan chaise lounge, for example — are washed and polished, staged with care and awaiting a second chance at Rose Garden ReMake, an expansive, low-ceilinged affair at the ground level of a repurposed Oak Cliff factory.

For more than 20 years, Kelly Wiley has owned the eclectic thrift store, which originated on Davis Street and relocated to Tyler Station. A preferred destination of Oak Cliff’s savviest art, home-decor and vintage-clothing hunters, Rose Garden includes a sewing shop where Wiley and employees make aprons and pillows and reupholster furniture using fabric (mostly denim, because it lasts forever) from unsold merchandise.

Secondhand shopping has been a sport in Oak Cliff forever, but the re-commerce ecosystem has flourished markedly in the past couple years.

A W magazine headline last fall read, “The Future of Fashion is in the Past.” CNBC broadcast a prime-time package about the “Thrifting Craze.”

According to a 2022 study by researchers at Lawn Love, Dallas (based on the number of stores and related Google searches) ranks No. 12 for second-hand shopping on their list of 200.

June Park, a professor at Oklahoma State University’s Department of Design and Housing, commenting on the study, explains the environmental and social benefits of shopping used.

“You are closing the loop by reusing

material goods, and it’s a good way to support your community, because many thrift stores are locally based small businesses, and a sizable portion of their earnings goes to charity,” Park says.

Case in point, Wiley created Rose Garden ReMake to support the 2000 Roses Foundation, a nonprofit she co-founded in 1999 to assist formerly incarcerated women, especially victims of abuse and addiction.

Not only do shop profits fund a transitional living center and supportive services, but Rose Garden also employs the women, who learn retail sales, entrepreneurship, sewing and the importance of recycling and sustainability, Wiley says.

A study by the upscale online vintage furniture reseller Chairish showed home furnishings is the largest sector of the entire resale market. Sales hit $15 billion in 2021 and are expected to accelerate to $22 billion by 2027.

Chairish CEO Gregg Brockway points out that supply chain issues associated with the pandemic also had shoppers turning to preowned furniture.

“Vintage items aren’t subject to rising prices or material and production delays,” Brockway says. “They already exist and are ready to be shipped or picked up.”

Rose Garden checks all the feel-good boxes, but it’s not the only place in the neighborhood to buy pre-owned.

We asked Oak Cliff residents about their favorites. Several named Rose Garden, describing Wiley as “creative” and “amazing.” What follows are a few more recommendations from locals.

Dolly Python is a big brand on the Dallas vintage scene. Neighborhood resident Gretchen Bell opened the original in East Dallas in 2005. It has blossomed into a 3,800-squarefoot emporium featuring 30 dealers and consignors who, according to Bell, “restock and edit their booths almost daily.”

A smaller version, Dolly on Bishop , opened in 2019. A window display there involves an

Photography by LAUREN ALLEN

Stephané Boston Principal Designer and Founder

androgynous mannequin in a New Wave-y blonde wig wearing a western-style gingham shirt and backlit by a 4-foot Lifesaver candy sign. Leather cowboy boots and a light-up electric guitar flank the model. Signs in the window advertise “Tarot readings $25” and “Please don’t say dammn when you hear the price.”

“That window tells you all you need to know,” says Melissa Knox, a fan. “If you love retro, vintage, preservation, history, this is a must-visit in Oak Cliff.”

7__8 (7 space 8) is a designdistrict-style furniture reseller new to the TYPO shopping area. Jackson Robertson, a photographer by trade, and his girlfriend Lexee LaRue, recently opened a storefront on Tyler for the rare, high-end pieces they have collected during their travels. Robertson is passionate about finding valuable old products with great potential.

“Furniture from the past, for the future. That’s our motto,” he says.

The shop is bigger than the loft

apartment in East Dallas where they’ve been storing their finds, but much smaller than, say, Lula B’s, which just means it’s more painstakingly curated, he says.

About a chair in which one can imagine Andy Warhol sitting, Robertson says: “It’s so futuristic, yet it’s many decades old.” He says he and LaRue became obsessed with finding these beautiful pieces, bringing them back to life and sharing them.

“Some of this stuff holds way more value than many of the things you find new, and it will hold its value,” he says.

Because inventory is so unique, he also sometimes lends it out to other photographers or filmmakers as set pieces.

“To not only keep stuff from going to the dumps, but also getting to repurpose it and give it a new life in people’s houses or wherever, it feels great.”

Retired interior designer Judy Carpenter has a booth at Lula B’s , a bazaar boasting all manner of antiques, clothing and

furniture from past eras. She and several others highly recommend the Fort Worth Avenue warehouse for a variety of vintage finds. She says she has moved from Oak Cliff but still returns to shop at our variety of thrift stores.

“Oak Cliff has my heart,” she says. “This is a great place to find treasures. So much history here.”

Sarah Marguccio is an interior designer who uses all thrifted and repurposed items in her work.

“I’m looking around these Oak Cliff (vicinity) thrift stores daily,” she says.

Her “go-tos” are Delia’s Place (915 Jefferson), PB&J Thrift (912 Jefferson), Habitat for Humanity (2800 North Hampton), Orr Reed (1903 Rock Island) and Thrift Mart (2819 Illinois).

She says she also scours the bulk trash. Oak Cliff people dispose of some “great vintage items and architecture.”

She’s not alone in these recommendations. When it comes to treasure hunting with a high chance of reward, Jefferson

Boulevard is the place to go, say several Oak Cliff thrifters. Seconding Delia’s, shopper Van Gie says, “[Delia] always has great furniture pieces, including patio furniture.”

Park near Delia’s on a weekday, and shop until sundown at a number of highly recommended resale shops including Yesi Thrift Store, Urban Thrift, Mini Bazaar, Brianna’s Home Decor Thrift Shop and, for used books, Lucky Dog Books.

Relocate to the opposite end of Jefferson, past Zang, for garage-sale-style shops. These not-formally named spaces are bursting at corners with furniture and other finds, and the proprietors are poised to bargain (haggling is not necessary, but acceptable, regulars advise).

“If you haven’t toured the thrift shops of Jefferson, it’s a must. You will find anything,” says shopper Marci Garrott,

who also suggests Thrift Town on Westmoreland and — her preferred method — shopping and selling among neighbors on Nextdoor.com.

was unable to relocate from Mexico. Now, she says,

“thanks to all the donations given to me by the Oak Cliff people, I have been able to provide for my family.”

Look her up on Facebook or email maciasgigi79@ gmail.com if you have items to sell or wish to see her inventory.

By EMMA RUBY

Remembering Bitsey Hinkle

Over the course of her life, Bitsey Hinkle proved to be an Oak Cliff girl through and through.

When Bitsey Yarbrough stepped onto the farm run by Benny Hinkle’s father in 1951, it was love at first sight, Benny says. She was 12 years old, and he was a 15-year-old “country boy.” Bitsey was visiting her aunt, who lived on Benny’s father’s farm.

It was the start of a 71-year-long romance where the two were rarely apart from the other.

Over the course of their lives, Benny and Bitsey drove to Oklahoma in the middle of the night to get married, bought a house north of Bishop Arts, managed the snack bar at the Bronco Bowl and raised two children, four grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

Bitsey Hinkle died peacefully in the company of Benny on March 6.

“She is deeply missed,” Benny says.

An Oak Cliff girl born and raised, Bitsey attended Grace Temple Baptist Church for the majority of her life.

Benny was impressed by Bitsey, who was social and a “very smart lady who loved to dance.”

She modeled clothing for Neiman Marcus and was in the first class to graduate from L.V. Stockard Middle School. She was a majorette at Sunset High School and was voted homecoming queen.

They would go on chaperoned dates to the movies, and Bitsey would come to Benny’s football games. When Bitsey’s stepfather received a work

transfer to Lubbock, Bitsey refused to move away from her sweetheart.

“I said, ‘Look, you need to go to Lubbock. Just go ahead. I’ll get a scholarship, I’ll go to Texas Tech. I don’t want to, but I will,’” Benny says. “This happened a week before we got married.”

On New Year’s Eve 1954, Bitsey and Benny hatched a plan to drive to Durant, Oklahoma, to get married. Six days later, they did just that.

They took Bitsey’s ’53 Dodge Ram convertible and set off to Oklahoma after Benny had finished playing in a basketball tournament. They were married at 11:06 p.m. in front of two witnesses, and Benny spent his last $20 on the officiant.

In addition to playing the piano, Bitsey also played the accordion. Photography courtesy of Hinkle family.

Driving back to Dallas, the newlyweds “didn’t have money to stop and get a Coke or nothing,” he says.

They were married in secret for five months, until it was time for Bitsey’s family to move to Lubbock. When her mother found out about the marriage she tried to have it annulled, but a judge said too much time had passed. After that, Benny and Bitsey moved around once or twice as they settled into married life.

In 1957, with a $1,500 down payment loaned to the couple by a woman who had helped raise Bitsey, Benny bought the home at 623 North Winnetka where the couple raised children, grandchildren and great

grandchildren. The total cost at the time was $8,750.

Both Benny and Bitsey bowled in multiple leagues at the Bronco Bowl. Bitsey was a secretary at the Bowl, and she and Benny eventually invested as partners in the snack bar.

In 1969, they bought the snack bar completely, and Bitsey managed it for the next 17 years.

“They used to call her the Hamburger Queen, because she could cook a mean hamburger,” Benny says.

Benny says that he and Bitsey essentially “lived at the Bronco Bowl,” and that even their two children were known for spending time and working at the Bowl.

Between her Bronco Bowl leagues, her snack serving and her church involvement, “everyone knew” Bitsey, he says.

In 2017, the Hinkles sold their North Winnetka home after 60 years.

In the final years of her life, Bitsey suffered from dementia. But Benny says she always remembered the house they’d spent their lives in.

“It broke her heart to sell the house,” Benny says. “Before she died, she said, ‘I wish I was back home.’”

Always an inseparable pair, Bitsey died in Benny’s arms just two weeks before her 83rd birthday. He says she “eased off” peacefully, like falling asleep.

Above: Bitsey was in the first class to graduate from L.V. Stockard Middle School.

Left: Bitsey and Benny Hinkle dressed up for a dance.

Far Left: Benny Hinkle says he and Bitsey “lived at the Bronco Bowl” through much of their life.

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to