Friends

I can only remember having one male friend while growing up.  It could have been the norm or maybe it was my perception.  I thought friends were with you no matter what and only one person ever fit that bill.  Even when my friend's parents split our church apart we remained true to each other.  And yes I did grow up in a church!   Jim McLemore and I were always together. We became friends in the second grade and were seldom apart except to sleep until our first semester in college.  I don't know what happened that semester, but we haven't spoken since.  Jim got married, graduated, and moved to Dallas all within four years. He joined Sanger-Harris when he moved and I lost track of him. I assume that it was my ill controlled temper that caused us to part ways but I'll always wonder.

Gardens are finally back!

I grew up during the depression and WWII so I can vividly remember having a garden.  During the depression, people who wouldn't otherwise have enough to eat, canned vegetables from their garden. During WWII many of us helped the war effort by growing our own vegetables in a "Victory Garden". Sadly, the gardening craze didn't last  into the fifties before most people quit raising their own vegetables.  Gardening by then was considered as "country" or just for "poor" folks. We didn't live in the county and we weren't poor, but we still planted vegetables for a long time after we were supposed to quit if we kept up with the "Jone's".
Lately we've become organic so it's okay once again to grow our own. We are also going "green" on more than just St Patrick's Day.  It's long over due as far as I'm concerned. Why we are still dependent on foreign or domestic oil falls directly at the door step of your "not so" favorite oil company.

My Grandfather

My grandfather died of a stroke on December 4, 1948 in Oklahoma City.  He was taken to St Anthony's Hospital then buried two days later in the Walters (English) Cemetery in Walters, Okla.  I stayed with Hoyt and Atha lee Moore, who were members of my dad's church. The Moore's lived in West Nichols Hills and had a daughter named Iva lee. She dated my brother for a while, then married someone else who worked for the Sherman Funeral Home. His son Dwayne was my age. 
During the last few years of my grandfather's life, he was a security guard at the Tradesman's National Bank (Uncle Joe Figg managed the building). His wife, Louise Campbell Ferguson,  died several years later on August 12, 1956.  My mother didn't like either one of my grandparents very much so we seldom visited unless mother had no choice.
They lived on NW 39th Street at the top of a hill and across the street from a mini mart.  Their house was several blocks from the Classen trolley which traveled up & down Classen Blvd. A trolley also traveled NW39th street along the side of Lake Overholser all the way to the turn around in Yukon, Okla.. The house had a grape arbor and an old carriage house that once held harness, teams, and wagons.  The kitchen had been added to the main house after the cook house was torn down and a bathroom was added when they added plumbing.
My father kept a worthless oil company stock that once belonged to my grandfather until he died in 1985.

Mother-in-laws & their "Other half"

Both of the women I've had the pleasure of calling my Mother-in-law were not cut from the typical cloth.  First of all they never acted like what has become typical.  I met the first long before I met what would become my first wife. She shopped at the Humpty Dumpty Super Market where I worked until she died shorty after my 22nd Birthday. I can't remember her ever intimating me or inter fearing with anything.  Instead she introduced me to her daughter and encouraged us every step of the way. I can't say the same for TH George.  I'll just say that we never managed more than a few moments when we agreed on anything.
My second effort is still going on. At 88 plus (what some say is a life time) she is still going strong!  She's beginning to slow down (but don't tell her).  In 35 plus years of marriage, she has never even raised her voice.  I can't say the same for Doc.  Until his death we were always trying, but never quite succeeding.  He eventually did manage to tolerate me and I tried to accommodate him.

Cigarettes, whiskey,and not so wild women!

I started smoking when I was thirteen or fourteen (It was the coolest back then)!.  It lasted until I was nearly 70. I can't undo the effects or the consequences, but that doesn't keep me from wishing I had never started.  I liked scotch on the rocks of all things, a drink I still enjoy at least twice a year!  Linda and I have been married for thirty six years(I Think?) so the not so "wild women" faded a long time ago, if they ever existed..

It was just a date

 Carol Butler was the only friend of my sisters I ever dated and then only once.  Depending on who and when they commented on the affair , it was perfect or a perfect disaster.  As I recall it was a disaster.  We had dinner downtown at the Hotel Black, then danced the evening away.  It must have been well after "10" before I  brought her home (she insisted). She did kiss me on the cheek before politely saying good night! I never dated another "friend" of my sister! By then a date was always on a Friday night and lasted until a least midnight if not later.

Ft Worth

Ft Worth, Texas was very good to me for a very long time.  After renting for less than 6 months, we bought a three bedroom brick house on Wales.  Where Wales ended at Trail Lake, we had a shopping center anchored by a Kroger Super Market. From then until the end of an era, we shopped in that center.  Everything you needed could be found somewhere in that center.  7-11, a meat market, a cleaners, a dry goods store, a bar, a restaurant, a drug store, a Good Year Store, and of course Bernie's Burgers.(short for Bernstein).

Before some guy named McDonald came along, Texas was king of the burger franchise. There were at least three guys who worked in that business who lived within a mile. Blood (the type you give) was my only bond with Bernie.  I gave blood when Bernie was in the hospital and never paid for a burger after that without a fight.  I remember trying to dance at his daughters wedding (Jewish). I can only say that Bernie had to have liked me because I never could dance.  

I became a member of the Jewish Community Center, bought a 17 foot boat, coached flag football, basket ball, swam every weekend during the summer, played racket ball, won the state championship in paddle ball while partnered with an agent from the FBI, and met Charlie Hillard a Ford Dealer. My second job by then was in advertising.  After one of many ads, he became King Charlie Hillard.  I bought one or two company cars from Charlie, but nothing personal.. The only other advertising clients I remember were Tandy Corp.and an FM radio station. For a while, I raced outboard boats on Lake Dallas then later on a lake near Denton. I also drove my very first hydroplane. 
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I taught all three of our children how to swim, then to water ski on Benbrook Lake and we camped by the lake almost every weekend during the summer.  Someone who worked for Sinclair Oil gave us a canoe so both boats went with us to the lake.  I learned to sail on Lake Worth and in the process met Buddy Champlain who owned Champlain Oil & Refining Co in Enid, Okla. I can't recall the person who actually taught me to sail but he worked for Buddy.

The Leonard Brothers owned a Department Store in downtown Ft Worth. They also started Shady Oaks Country Club because the "establishment" wouldn't let Jews belong to a "traditional" country club. As you might guess, Ben Hogan was the pro. I joined Colonial Golf & Country Club (a traditional club) and followed Arnold Palmer around the golf course every spring from then on as a part of Arnie's Army.  Don Leonard became a judge and Lon Evans was elected Tarrant County Sheriff with my help. Unlike today, both men remembered who brought them to the dance. My favorite steak house was "The Farmer's Daughter" my favorite Tex-Mex Restaurant was called El Chico's.  My children went almost every place I did.  They were well behaved so it was a pleasure to take them anywhere. They also managed to go to the Zoo which I think was in Forest Park and ride the trains.