Sweet memorie S

Every

I’m going to tell you a secret, but you need to promise you won’t tell my wife and sons: I ate something in my car.

OK, I wasn’t actually “eating,” unless you call drinking a milkshake “eating,” but I still broke one of my self-imposed family rules: You shalt not eat in the car.

My wife says I have a lot of arbitrary, unwritten rules. I don’t agree, but she says she’s better at keeping track of stuff like that. And stuff like that tends to accumulate over the years, doesn’t it?

It’s not like I set out to break the rule. There was just something about the hot summer day that made it happen.

I went to Sonic to get a gallon of unsweetened iced tea for the office refrigerator, and when I pulled into the shady, breezy parking spot and crackled my order through the intercom, I decided I deserved a strawberry cheesecake shake to drink at home, too.

When the shake arrived at the precise moment a song from the rock group Boston’s only decent album began playing on the car radio, I decided instead to sit there and slurp on the shake and listen to the song.

And then the next good song came on, and the next one, and the next one.

As the breeze blew through the open car windows, the procession of songs took me back to when I was young and seemingly without responsibility and could sit in my car and listen to the radio for as long as I wanted, and no one would notice or miss me.

There were no dependents at home. There was no mortgage. My old AMC Javelin two-door was paid for, and the money I earned working part-time at a grocery store sacking groceries and stocking shelves in a red apron and white shirt and clip-on bowtie paid for everything else. Golf. Bowling. Cinnamon rolls. Pizza. Mountain Dew.

Back then, I wouldn’t have said I had it made. Looking back now, I could certainly make that case.

The poet John Donne wrote that “no man is an island, entire of itself; each is a piece of the continent, a part of the main each man’s death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

This was one of those days when I wished I wasn’t connected to everyone, or anyone. This was one of those days I wished I could just be the island.

That day won’t be today, though.

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My shake is gone, except for some whipped cream that has more cholesterol than I’m supposed to eat. It’s time to head back to real life.

“Where were you?” my wife asked a few seconds after I walked back in the door at home. She wasn’t scolding or worried, just making conversation.

She knew where I had gone. She didn’t know where I had been, though, or why.

No matter. I’m back now. And I won’t be eating in the car again anytime soon.

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Comments And Letters

“There is a time and place for them. It isn’t along roads and in parks. That is the issue, really. Canvas and re-usable bags have been shown to often be bacteria-laden. What will small businesses use to replace them? It isn’t an easy problem to solve.”

—mt Dreaming, commenting on “Banning plastic bags in Dallas: good or bad idea?” at prestonhollow.advocatemag.com

“Biking for recreation on most of the neighborhood streets I feel is safe with caution. But biking to actually get someplace, like most of the businesses in Preston Hollow, which are almost 100 percent on heavily busy street corners/intersections, no, I would not feel safe at all, just being a casual biker with a helmet. I would love to be able to bike to a Tom Thumb, but there’s no way for me to get to any of them without going through one of those intersections. It’s a bummer, but I like being alive.”—Elle, commenting on “is our neighborhood bikeable? ‘Somewhat,’” at prestonhollow.advocatemag.com

“Meso Mayo in Preston Forest serves the best margaritas, especially the watermelon margaritas. Best hot sauce ever.”

— g ab, commenting on “Preston Hollow restaurant serves the best margaritas in Dallas,” at prestonhollow.advocatemag.com

“Ahh!! Dirk!!!! That’s amazing! Proud of you!”— a nna Trotzuk Temple, commenting on “Preston Hollow resident Dirk Ebel makes waves,” at facebook.com/prestonhollow.advocate Visit prestonhollow.advocatemag.com for more.

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Visit prestonhollow.advocatemag.com to read and comment on this month’s stories and daily blog updates. Comments may be printed in the magazine.

Email EDiTOR mOnica S. nagy mnagy@advocatemag.com

Q&A: Jennifer Staubach Gates

On June 24, Jennifer Staubach Gates was sworn into office as our new District 13 Councilwoman representing Preston Hollow. She says she’ll always be a nurse at heart and believes her experience will help her nurse the city. Advocate sat down with her to talk about her future as our leader.

What is your vision for Preston Hollow?

I plan to focus my attention and time on basic services. Attention on needed repairs for the streets and the roads. District 13 has the lowest satisfactory rating regarding the roads. I want to work on enhancing and maintaining parks and recreation centers. Work with DISD trustees regarding schools in our area and public safety, because we can’t have a city that’s too safe.

What do you see as the main issues you need to tackle in the neighborhood?

It’s the streets and the roads, and crime, particularly in the Vickery Meadow or Five Points area, which is a top crime hotspot. I want to work in the Vickery Meadow area to reduce crime and work with the nonprofits in the area that provide social services for the refugees who live there.

What do you plan to do from a police standpoint and a social-service standpoint? Work not only with the Dallas Police Department, but also Safer Dallas Better Dallas, which provides funds for cameras and technology to fight crime. It’s also working not only in Vickery Meadow, but also with crime watch groups and neighborhood associations on how to not become victims and keep their neighborhoods secure. Working with nonprofits to provide technology and the equipment necessary to fight crime.

When your constituents speak about you, what is one issue that you want to be known as being on top of?

That I’m available. A good communicator. That I’m able to listen to their needs and get things done on their behalf. Hopefully be described as a consensus builder.

You previously said you support the expansion of Northaven Trail into District 13, while nodding to cities like Austin, Portland, Boulder and Seattle. What made you think of those cities in relation to Preston Hollow, and what will you do to facilitate the trail’s expansion?

I mention those cities because they have the quality-of-life amenities I would like to see brought to Dallas. For expanding the trails, money has been set aside by the county and Ann Margolin in the past. I’ve been communicating with [District 11 Councilman] Lee Kleinman, and plan to work with the Friends of Northaven Trail. I need to do more investigative work to find out how we can move it forward and get it done.

In a previous candidate forum you said one of the problems with drilling on park land is that there isn’t an ordinance to protect neighborhoods and park land. What will you do as a councilwoman to address this issue?

There is a drilling ordinance in place in the

City of Dallas, but there was a committee formed to look at the current ordinance and make recommendations, which was headed by [former Councilwoman] Lois Finkelman. Their recommendations were not adopted by the City of Dallas. I believe the city could adopt stricter ordinances to protect neighborhoods and park land.

Can you give me an example of one of the recommendations?

Like the distance that drilling can take place from neighborhoods.

You got some grief about using your full name in the elections. Some said that gave you an edge. Do you plan to show others they may have misspoken?

Simply put, I used my full legal name that I’ve used civically, and on all the boards that I’ve been a part of. I’m very proud of my family’s legacy to the City of Dallas. I’m not going to comment any more regarding that issue. It’s my name.

Can you describe your leadership style in a few words? Servant leader.

What about when you’re not focused on city matters? What is your favorite hobby? Really?

Exercising. I run outdoors in the neighborhood. I used to have hobbies until I ran for city council. I used to read, go ranching and golfing, but in the last five months my hobby has been campaigning. The only thing that lasted during the campaign was my exercising and prayer time.

What music do you listen to when you exercise? What’s on your iPod right now?

My favorite band is Journey — it’s my ring tone. I like classic rock and country. Zac Brown and Pat Green kind of country.

Is there anything you wish I would have asked you?

You didn’t ask me about my nursing career.

OK. Tell me about your nursing career.

I still keep my license. I haven’t worked full time for 20 years. I substitute. I was a substitute school nurse, and even as of last year I was a camp nurse at my nephew’s camp. I always did pediatric nursing. Hospital pediatric nursing and school nursing.

For how long?

I worked for about five years full-time. But I’m proud of my license. I do the continuing education to maintain it. I thought I might go back to nursing as a recent empty nester. I thought that until I decided to do this. I still practice as a family nurse and a neighborhood nurse. My education and nursing experience trained me to pay attention to detail and make informed decisions, which is good training for a councilmember. I think it’s good for the council to have people of different backgrounds.

Drama on the ‘Division’

Far from her Preston Hollow home, Miki Bone and her husband walked the streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where she became fascinated with what she saw before her. Hasidic Jews and hipsters walked parallel to each other, and that impression evolved into a painting and ultimately her play, “Division Avenue.” The play is about Ephraim, a young Satmar Jew who, recently widowed, decides to leave his strict Hasidic life behind and step into the secular world. Add hipsters, cell phone tracking and bicycles to the mix, and you’ve got a poignant and funny piece. Bone says Satmars, who are the strictest of Hasidic Jews, see it as their express mission to repopulate the world for every Jewish person killed in the Holocaust. She set out to explore the Satmar community, who, much like the Amish, are shunned from their community once they leave. After visiting the Tenement Museum in New York, hiring a personal tour guide, reading and watching countless books on Hasidism, and spending most of her time living in two “homes” the past three years, Bone felt she had ample background information — well, almost. The former Ursuline Academy acting teacher struck up a relationship with Footsteps, a social work group that acts as a safe house for people who decide to leave. “Reaching out to someone who feels displaced is very important to me,” Bone says. As a mom to two adopted children, Bone decided to leave the teaching world when she realized she was spending more time at work than with her three children. Now Bone will bring her 14-year-old daughter along with her to New York this summer, where she’s subleased a place since June 15 and will remain until Aug. 5 to help out with her play, which will be featured in the 14th annual Midtown International Theatre Festival July 17-Aug. 3. Her husband, who is a lawyer, and two older sons will visit on the weekends. One of Bone’s former Preston Hollow students, Jojo Nwoko, a Jesuit College Preparatory alumnus, has a role in the play. “Every actor, I’m excited to say, has a Yale, Juilliard or NYU background,” Bone says. She adds that she could not have turned her original impression into a piece if it weren’t for the help of her UTD graduate class and professor Fred Curchack, or “the artist whisperer.” She’s also grateful to the people at Footsteps, her Jewish friends in Dallas, and the people who have gone through the transition themselves. “I hope the play will open up different ways for dialogue to occur within the community that left,” Bone says. “The play doesn’t pose any solutions, but hopefully it’ll pose some questions.”

—Monica S. Nagy