Aunt Nonnie worked; and to movies at the Knox Theater. The original Dickeys Barbecue was located nearby and Mom liked to take us there occasionally. On Sundays they liked to take us in their 1936 Chevie to watch the planes land at old Love Field or to visit the pond and evergreens and white geese at Restland Cemetery.  Bubba and I would find geese eggs and try to take them home with us. Also on Sundays we would take drives out to Northwest Hwy and into the ‘country.’  Miles and miles  of farms, trees and fields. These days there’s nothing but miles and miles of homes, buildings and shopping centers out there.

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Dad and his Free Passes

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Sometime in the mid 1940’s Dad took a job as a linotype operator at the Dallas Morning News. The linotype is a big metal machine with a keyboard. There’s a pot of melted lead in the machine. The machine makes led slugs. Ink is applied and this ultimately becomes the print of a newspaper. Dad was a Union Leader at the News too. He was given free passes to just about every kind of event and performance in Dallas and he took Mom and us kids to all of these. We went to Cotton Bowl games, SMU football games, wrestling matches at the Sportatorium, baseball games at Rebel Field, symphonies, operas, traveling Broadway Shows, Starlight Operettas at the State Fair, movies, hockey games, the Big D Jamboree, college basketball games, stock car and midget car races, the demolition derby, horse races, state fairs, and on and on and on. We also had discounts at some Dallas restaurants and cafes. 

 

Doris, my Beautiful, Gentle Mother

 

They say she was the most beautiful girl in DeLeon, the town where she was born and bred. Her mother was Lela Weaver Ayers. Her father was Bert Ayers. They were my grandparents but I always called the Aunt Lela and Uncle Bert. Momma was the oldest of five children. She had three younger sisters:  Christine, Ruth, and Mary Bert. Mary Bert died at age 4 from food poisoning. She also had a little brother who died as an infant.         . 

Momma had long, thick, curly, beautiful dark brown(almost black) hair. Her mom would wash it outside at the rainwater tank and rinse it with a touch of vinegar. Momma would then sit with her head half in the oven until her hair dried. Aunt Lela  would then brush it out. It was a long involved task for both mother and daughter, from start to finish at least three hours. 

One time this is what happened.

A barn-stormer had been flying over DeLeon one day in his bi-plane announcing in a loud speaker that he would be landing in a local field that afternoon and be taking up people for rides for $3.00. My mom and a couple of her friends heard the barn-stormer and decided they would cut classes and go to the place the plane would be landing. They sneaked out of school and made their way to the field to join the others who were waiting. The open air bi-plane circled over and then landed. Mom wanted to go up in the plane badly but had no money. And there was another problem. Her mom had just gone through the ordeal of washing and combing out her thick curly hair. Then my mom’s heart sank. Uncle Bert was at the field too and was making his way toward her. When he approached she began to say she was sorry for skipping school but before she could continue he interrupted her and said:  “Do you  want to go up Honey?” My mom couldn’t believe it and excitedly said: “Yes Daddy.” Uncle Bert paid the barn-stormer who then got Mom settled and seat belted in the back seat of the bi-plane. Then he took off and Mom got the ride of her life circling and dipping and diving and doing rolls over DeLeon. The plane finally landed and came to a rest. Mom had the time of her life, but her hair had been destroyed, blown and tangled to kingdom come. 

When Momma and Uncle Bert walked into the house later they knew they were in real trouble. Aunt Lela took an unbelieving look at Momma’s badly tangled hair. She wouldn’t talk to Uncle Bert. She told my Momma that it was the last time she was going to do her hair. She sent Momma to school the nest day with a scarf over her head. But when Momma got home from school Aunt Lela said: “Ok, go on out to the water tank. I’ll be out in a minute with the shampoo.” But she still wouldn’t talk to Uncle Bert.

 

Other Indelible Boyhood Memories

 

I’ll never forget when Momma would take Bubba and me shopping in downtown Dallas at Sanger Bros and Bonds. While in town we would also visit Neiman Marcus(just to look), ride the escalator at the Mercantile Bank and watch the rotating Flying Red Horse on the Magnolia Blgd. We might have lunch at the Blue Front Delicatessen, a wonderful place Dad would usually take me to. Their open faces roast beef sandwiches au jus with potato salad were unforgettable.   

Ringling Bros Circus pitched their Big Top in the big field just across from my grade school Ben Milam. After school we would go over to the circus and fool around as the roustabouts did their work. Mom and Dad would always take Bubba and me to the performances two or three times the week or two they were there. (Dad’s free passes).

When I was around 9 or 10 Momma would allow me to go downtown with my buddies Monty Boren, William Hoeble, and Gene Weed to the Dallas YMCA. We would ride the old Street Car on Cole Ave and spend the entire day in town. We would go to the Y and swim naked in the swimming pool, eat hamburgers at Rockyfellers, shop at Magic Land and on some days go to a movie at the Majestic, Melba, Rialto or Capital theaters. 

A Mr. Tucker who lived in a garage apartment on Travis St. was very friendly with us neighborhood kids. In the summers he would fill up his car with us kids and take us to Dallas Rebel baseball games. (later Dallas Eagles). Night or day Mr. Tucker always wore a felt hat. I’ll never forget him. 

One of the greatest treats was when we would go to visit grandparents in DeLeon TX, 130 miles west of Dallas in Comanche County. Aunt Lela would make us unforgettable meals;  Uncle Bert would take Bubba and me and Tommy and John Mack Weaver fishing and hunting for arrow heads, hunting and other adventures. Uncle John and Aunt Eula would take us to his farm in a vintage ancient pickup truck in the days when you could still ride open air in the back of the truck. My Mom and Dad were raised in DeLeon. Dad’s dad Luther was an Engineer on the MKT RR which came through that area. He drove an old Choo Choo.

In 1948, Dad bought a dark blue1948 Ford Sedan and took the family on an amazing one month cross country trip to a Printer’s convention in San Francisco CA. We traveled through the Southwestern US, up the CA coast line, through the Northwestern US, down to Salt Lake City, through the Rockies and on home through the TX panhandle. Vivid memories of Carlsbad Caverns and millions of bats, the Painted Desert, the Meteor Crater, the Pacific Ocean, Ken Murray’s 

Blackouts with Herb Shriner performing in LA, Joe Dimaggio’s 

restaurant and the cable car in San Francisco, tidal caves at Depoe Bay Oregon, in Washington eating smoked salmon at a lumberjack camp with loggers logrolling in the river,  Indians fishing with nets on the Columbia River, swimming in the Great Salt Lake and riding a roller coaster there. driving by Pikes Peak and getting back to home sweet home.

 

Summary

 

Were there ever two boys who were given more that Bubba and me? Ever two boys who were handed more fascinating experiences? Was  there ever a mother and father who were better to their kids than Lewis and Doris Easterling?